by John Harding
Then I downstairsed to the library, where I picked up the book I had been reading there the day before, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, for I was back on Poe, even though he melancholied and frightened me, because somehow these days he suited my mood. Leaving the library, I made sure to slow past the mirror outside holding the book open before me and pretending to read from it. Seeing the book where before I had had none would, I hope, convince the watching fiend that I had merely libraried and not anywhere-else, so that she would not be driven to explore the tower.
As soon as I out-of-sighted the mirror, I hurried to the breakfast room. When I entered, Miss Taylor and Giles were already there, although from outside you might have thought not, for there was none of the usual chit-chat from Giles and none of Miss Taylor’s simpering replies. The sight which greeted me when I opened the door near made my knees give way. For opposite Miss Taylor, on the back of the chair that was always mine, was my cloak, stretched out like a big black crow, its wings resting on the neighbouring chairs on either side. It near breath stopped me, I was so shocked.
Giles looked up at me and opened his mouth, about to say something, but before he could speak, Miss Taylor laid a restraining hand upon his and he closed his lips and silenced. She challenged me a look, her snake eyes piercing mine. I lowered my eyes and meeked my way to my place, heart acrobatting about in its shell. Reaching my chair, I took hold of that impious bird of ill omen, my cloak, and lifted it off the backs of the chairs and then folded it and, sitting myself down in my seat, placed it on one of those next to me.
I looked up and defianted one straight at Miss Taylor, all but catching her unawares. She was quick to recover. ‘You left it in my room,’ she said, triumphing as one does who has caught someone out in a lie or some other despicable act.
I merely nodded. ‘Thank you,’ I said and picked up my knife and fork.
She continued to stare at me for the rest of the meal, the food being nothing to her, who ate not even enough to notice. I didn’t hunger at all, my stomach so churned with apprehension for what might be to come, but I determined to give her no satisfaction, so munched my way through everything in front of me, although every mouthful only served to sicken me more.
It was not long before Giles commenced to restlessing, he and the governess having, of course, been breakfasting for some considerable time before my arrival, and eventually he said, ‘Please, miss, may we go now? I’m sure I’ve eaten enough to last me all day and you never eat so much as would keep a bird alive anyway…’
She unfastened her stare from me and looked at him as though she’d quite forgot he was there. ‘Of course, my dear,’ she murmured, and pushed back her chair. Giles stood up and rushed to the door and she followed him, in that stately silent way she had of moving, gliding across the floor as though walking on air. Only when she was halfway out the door did she pause, turn back and throw me a threatening one. ‘I will speak to you later, girl,’ she hissed, and for once it was not the manner in which she spoke, but the insolence of that word, ‘girl’, to one who, after all, she was employed to serve, that dreaded me quite, for it seemed to signal that we had moved beyond the boundaries of social propriety, that the gloves were off and that she was ready for an almighty battle.
As soon as their footsteps faded, I rushed me to the WC and regurgitated all I had just consumed, though even after my stomach was quite, quite empty, so that I was only retching air, I could not stop my convulsions. It was as if my body desired to purge itself of everything that had polluted it for so long, all my guilt, all my fear of losing Giles, who was the one person I had to cling to in this cold hard world, all the poison the Whitaker witch both living and dead had put into my heart. I weaked and scarce abled to walk and began to cry, for I did not see how I could ever manage to go on.
Afterward I near cowarded and fled outside, where I should be safe from the dozens of pairs of eyes with which she followed my every movement and monitored my every expression and gesture from every wall of the house, so that it seemed as if at all times she could at will peer into my very soul, a thought that shuddered me quite.
But, as I neared the front door, meaning to make my exit, I caught sight of her in the mirror there, the one where I had first seen her, and the smirking arrogance of the simulacrum she had left there, which seemed to mock my very helplessness, altered my course. I had not let Whitaker drive me to despair when she’d been alive, when she did that dreadful thing, the thing that would hurt me most after losing Giles, that is, deprived me of books, and I would not crumple and give in to her now. If she wanted a fight she should have one, no matter what dark powers she had at her beck and call. I would wasp her picnic. I would spoil her plan. I would not give in. I am not made that way.
I turned and made my way back along the hall and upstairsed to the schoolroom, where I found Giles sitting beside her at her desk. ‘Seven sevens, come on, Giles,’ she said, not unkindly, ‘it’s not that hard.’
‘Thirty-nine?’ hopefulled Giles. Math was not his strongest subject; then again, it would be hard to say what was.
She shook her head.
‘Well, then, thirty-seven? Or thirty-five. It’s some number or other, I know.’
She began to chuckle, and then you could see her face change when it was half the way to a smile, and turn serious, and she looked up, stared a long moment at me, then abruptly stood, so suddenly that her chair tipped backward and fell over. She made no move to right it again. Giles looked up in surprise. ‘What’s the matter, miss? I don’t mean to be so slow-witted. I am trying, honest I am.’
‘It’s not that, Giles,’ she muttered, unconvincing him a smile. Before he could say any more she glared me a look, then turned and rushed from the room.
Giles puzzled me one. ‘What’s going on, Flo? What was all that business with your cloak at breakfast? What have you been up to now? I sometimes think –’
He got no further, for at that moment the door crashed open and the governess burst into the room and ran straight at us, eyes wild, hair unkempt and flowing as though she’d pulled all the pins out in a rage, her mouth contorted in a mad grimace. She was on me in a trice and had hold of my hair. I thought she would scratch out my eyes with her nails, for she was waving them like talons in my face.
‘Where are they?’ she screamed. ‘What have you done with them, you little bitch?’
I could not help screaming too, for my hair hurt so. I tugged my head away and felt my scalp tear and saw I was free, while she stood there with a clump of my hair in her hand. We faced one another, two beasts in a mortal combat, she one side of the desk, I the other. She made to go one way around it; I retreated the other. I sought then to escape back the way I had come; she blocked me off. It was like some wild dance of death as we each parried and thrust, but even as we were locked in this duel I knew that if nothing changed it was I who must be the loser, for as things were, I was trapped behind the desk and must eventually give in and be caught.
There was but one thing for it. The desk was only a light deal thing, no more than a table, really, with no drawers full of books to weigh it down. I set my fingers under the lips of the upper edge and with a mighty roar pushed it at her and tipped it at the same time, so that I overturned it and all but knocked her over too. Before she had chance to recover I acrossed the room and outed the open door.
I tore down the corridor with the ring of her boots on the floorboards behind me in hot pursuit. I took the back stairs three or four at a time and jumped the last six or seven in one go, near coming to grief as I stumbled at the bottom, but managing to steady myself at the last. All the while I could hear her screaming after me, ‘Where are they? Where are they, you little hussy?’
I came to a side door and wrenched it open and was out at last in the garden. I slammed the door shut and looked around hard. I considered the lake but then remembered her facility with water and that she would be able to shortcut across it, leaving me at a definite disadvantage. Then I thought of
the other direction and the woods, which I had often walked through to meet Theo when he came through them to visit me, and we had same routed when I sometimes accompanied him partway home. I knew them well and their hiding places too, for Giles and I had often hide-and-seeked there and, saving any special powers she might have of which I might yet be ignorant, I certained I would be her superior amongst the trees. At least she would have no spies watching me and I sured I could conceal me quite. I hitched up my skirts and started to run even as I heard the door open behind me. I didn’t, of course, think beyond getting away. I didn’t consider what would happen after all this, or how life could ever be normal again.
I had a good start on her and out in the open I moved faster, for my legs were younger. I heart-in-mouthed, though, even as I gained distance upon her, for I never forgot she was a spirit, not of this world, which made me fear all manner of things, especially that one of her witchy ways might be the ability to fly. Still, when I over-my-shouldered she was a good couple of hundred yards behind and I plunged into the woods. At first I kept to the trail, heading into the heart of the forest, but when the path forked I took the lesser of the two, and the same another hundred yards or so further on when it forked again. Now I was on something scarce recognisable as a path but that was in fact the route Theo and I had determined to be the shortest between his side of the woods and my own. It was not the quickest, though, for it went through thickets of dense bushes and shrubs, and places where the trees had dropped saplings, so that a body had to sideways to squeeze through the narrow gaps between them.
As the undergrowth thickened and the going became harder I began to tire and my progress slowed. At one point I disturbed some rooks and they took off from their tree with a great noise of cawing and flapping of wings, which made me curse to myself for I knew it must have alerted my pursuer as to my general location. In a panic I bad decisioned and went off the route I knew into some bushes and soon found myself amongst brambles which reached out cruelly, as though perhaps my pursuer had some control over them, tearing at my frock with their thorny tendrils. Soon I was quite caught, and had to stop, give myself a quiet talking-to to calm me, for struggling only made the situation worse, and patiently and carefully unpick the barbs that held me, as if they were some of my many bad stitches when Whitaker had made me sew.
At last I got myself free and staggered into a small clearing, but scarce had time to celebrate this when there was another sudden flight of rooks, the cause almost immediately apparenting in a great commotion in the direction whence I had come. It so louded I convinced it must be a deer crashing through the undergrowth, for I could hear branches snapping as whatever it was forced its way through. I stared at the trail it was making, for I could not see the thing itself, only the shaking of the saplings and shrubs it disturbed, and at first I did not afraid, for I knew it was not the time of year for deer to attack. But then, as I waited for the beast to arrive and pass, I caught a glimpse of something black amongst the shaking leaves and knew I was undone, for there are no black deer and it could be but one thing, the governess’s dress. I transfixed with fear, unable to think for a moment which way to turn and flee. There seemed to be no passage out of the clearing any better than the route that had brought me there, but as I prevaricated the bushes before me broke apart and there stood Miss Taylor, face livid, practically snorting with rage. She made to rush me but staggered back and I realised she was still held by the brambles, as I had been. I turned and, without thought, plunged into the bushes in front of me.
I crashed my way through them. When thorns grasped my dress, I snatched it from them, heedless of any rips or tears. No matter what the obstacle, I forced my way through. I could hear my pursuer close behind me and expected any moment to feel her hot breath on my neck. But then, at last, I burst out of the thicket and onto a footpath. I was free! Not only that but I had chanced upon the path I had first been on, the one that led to the Van Hoosier side of the woods, not that I could hope for any help there, for the house was all shut up with the family away. Not thinking beyond immediate escape, I took to my heels and ran for all I was worth and certained I was at last leaving my pursuer behind. Thinking I had put some distance between us, without breaking my stride I over-my-shouldered to check. She was nowhere in sight and I was just congratulating myself, laughing wildly as I ran, when my foot struck something hard – a tree root – and over I went, unable to stifle a cry of pain as my ankle turned and I went down on it with my full weight. I lay there, my face in the dust, knowing full well my ankle was quite useless. I could hear her panting breath behind me, coming ever closer. And then I heard a noise in front of me that sounded something like a human cough. I lifted my eyes and saw before me, no more than a few inches away, a pair of black brogues. I lifted my head to see further and found myself looking at a pair of long heron legs I knew well and had never thought to see again.
23
‘Theo,’ I gasped, ‘what in the name of tarnation are you doing here?’
‘Asthma,’ said Theo. In confirmation of this he commenced to coughing and drew from his pocket his flask with the rubber bulb that Dr Bradley had devised for him, opened his mouth and gave himself a good squirt. There was a noise behind me and I rolled over on my side to find Miss Taylor standing there, looking much as I imagined I myself must look, dress dusty and torn and covered in burrs, hair unkempt and betwigged, face sweating and flowering with tiny petals of red, courtesy of the thorns.
I sat up and waved a hand at Theo. ‘May I present Mr Van Hoosier, ma’am. Mr Van Hoosier, Miss Taylor, our new governess.’
She did not know how to react. After all, Theo was not only my friend but also her social superior. She smoothed down her dress and summoned up something like a smile.
‘What were you doing?’ said Theo. His expression was even more mystified than his general look.
‘Playing hide-and-seek,’ I replied.
He looked from one to the other of us. ‘Well then, ladies, I think you’re taking it a mite too seriously. It’s only a game.’
He bent to help me up, indicating with a shrug of his eyebrows that Miss Taylor should take my other side. ‘Florence was doing the hiding and I was doing the seeking,’ she said, digging her talons into my arm. ‘And I think I have won.’
‘Ow!’ I cried, and then added, ‘My ankle!’ for I did not want to give her the satisfaction of having made me cry out. ‘I think I have turned it.’
With one arm under my shoulder to support me, Theo bent down to examine it. ‘Well, it certainly does seem to be swelling up something grand. We shall have to help you back to the house.’
So they supported me, one either side, while I hopped along as best I could in the middle. No sooner had we set off than Theo began coughing and we had to stop while he gave himself another squirt of medicine.
‘It’s how come I’m here,’ he said as we set off again. ‘I went down with a bad attack of asthma the day before we were due to sail. My folks had to go off without me. I was in the hospital and then under the care of my aunt. Now they’ve sent me out here to recuperate in the better air.’
‘You don’t mind?’ I said.
‘Not at all. I’m master of the house. I have ice cream with every meal.’
‘I didn’t mean that, silly. I meant, not going to Europe.’
‘I guess not. After all, it was only to see a load of old ruins and paintings and such and I reckon I can go another time and they’ll still be there.’
As we neared the house Meg and John came running toward us, for Giles had alerted Mrs Grouse to my fleeing the house chased by Miss Taylor and they had all been looking for us. John took charge and lifted me into his arms as if I were no more than a feather, leaving Theo free to enjoy a good cough. Miss Taylor hurried off to change her dress while I was laid on a chaise in the drawing room.
Mrs Grouse mother-henned over me, wringing her hands. ‘Oh dear, whatever has happened? Why did you run off like that?’
I had n
o answer. My first thought was to tell her all that had occurred and to trust to her good sense that she would see Miss Taylor for what she was and inform my uncle. The trouble was, I anxioused about being believed. What if I told her about the steamship tickets but our new governess came up with some story to explain them away? I should then have to hand them back and thereby return to her the power to take Giles away. But keeping them and staying silent might not avail me anything either. I knew nothing about the way steamship companies conducted themselves. For all I knew, it might be but a simple matter for Miss Taylor to say she had lost the tickets and get them replaced. I looked up and saw her in the mirror over the fireplace, thoughtfulling down at me, as if trying to guess my next move.
I resolved not to tell Mrs Grouse about the tickets, at least not yet. The best plan I could hit upon was to show them to Hadleigh, for they represented the evidence that he would want before being able to act. The weakness with this plan was the difficulty in contacting the captain. Time was running out. I had already used one of my fourteen days. If I could not get to Hadleigh then there would be nothing for it but to throw myself upon the mercy of Mrs Grouse. But, whichever I did, first I would need to have the tickets in my possession. Even were I to tell Mrs Grouse about the tickets, I could not let her know about the tower room because I did not wish to surrender it as a possible bolthole, a storage place for secret things and a base. And yet because of my ankle, there was no way I would be able to make the difficult ascent there.
