I
could tell from the look in m'lady's doe brown eyes that she didn't believe the
rumors about Sir David's last wife. She
doted on him; blushing when he glanced her way, and acting like a school girl
with a crush rather than a woman on her second marriage.
I
saw no mistrust or fear in her.
"More
tea, Jane." Sir David tapped his china cup with a long, perfectly
manicured finger.
"Yes
sir." I poured, drizzled a hint of honey along the inside of the cup, and
stepped back.
"I
have made arrangements, my love," Sir David said. The ghost of old dread slip up around my
heart.
"Arrangements?"
m'lady asked softly, a hint of expectation in her heart shaped face.
"For
the Grand Tour, of course."
She
clapped her hands with delight and he laughed with pleasure. I remembered how he'd looked the same way at
Lady Sarah when she was pleased, even that evening she'd told him there would
be a child.
She
died the same night, falling into the Old Mill Pond. Lord David married again hardly six months
later. I hadn't expected it.
Lord
David wouldn't take me with them. I knew
that just by his look as m'lady stood, fairly dancing away from the table.
"If
you have accusations to make, Jane, I suggest you take them straight to the
village constabulary."
"I
wouldn't consider it, sir."
"Then
I suggest, missy, that you amend your attitude or start looking for a new
position. And you will not receive a
good recommendation from me."
I
wondered if he remembered that like him, I had been born in this house. I'd spent more time here than he ever had,
with his jaunts schooling and jaunts to other places
"Do
we understand each other?"
"Yes,
of course, Lord David."
He
stood, brushing down his fine jacket, and left me to clean the crumbs of their
breakfast. I went about my usual work,
drawing no attention. He watched and
measured my actions. I did everything
according to the proper hours for the next two days.
He
grew weary of watching me at my monotonous work. That evening, he and m'lady
went for a walk along the cottage path.
They
disappeared around the bramble bushes and past the wild roses. I saw Lord David bend and kiss m'lady on the
forehead and hand her a lovely white flower. Did he remember doing that on the
day his last wife died? Did he remember
coming back alone, and how they found her body in the pond hours later?
I
waited until I saw the pigeons start up from the old aviary. Knowing where the lord and lady went sent my
heart pounding.
I
dashed out of the manor and ran, though not along the cottage road. I took to the woods, darting along the old
wood cutter's trail, my skirt held indecently high, my shoes scuffing in the
dirt. Birds cried out and squirrels ran
screaming at me.
I
reached the pond before they did, the being in no hurry. She held a bouquet of flowers. He gently touched
the side of her face as they paused by the water.
"I
am afraid I shall have to let Jane go, my love," he said softly. My heart pounded. This was my home! I'd never been more than three or four miles
from the manor in all my life!
"Oh
will you, please?" the pretty little witch asked. "She glares so, David. She frightens me some days, the way she is
always there, watching."
"You
should have said so," David said and laughed. "I only kept her because I feared you
wouldn't want to train someone new. We'll
go on Tour -- perhaps we'll find you a pretty little French maid."
My
hand fell to a long stout limb. Was this
the one I had used when I found Lady Sarah alone, starring into the water? Perhaps.
But his Lordship had gone back that time. I was able to keep him safe from the outsider
who came to the manor.
But
he would only bring another woman to his bed.
Just as his father had, despite the pretty words he'd said to me when I
was a young, naive thing. Lord David
would do the same, no matter how many of them I killed.
And
he would send me away from home.
He
bent and kissed her.
She
saw me leap out of the brush and started to scream. I hit Lord David against the side of the head
and used my momentum to shove him down the bank and into the pond. He fell, his face in the water, blood
flowing. He didn't try to turn.
I
grabbed M'Lady and threw her as well.
She hit the water by her husband, turned him over and pulling towards
the shore.
That
would never do.
I
scrambled in after them, half-mired in muck and mud. Her face, covered in mud and muck, showed no
fear.
"Why?"
she said. She held Lord David, but I
could tell, with the mud caking his mouth and nose, that he didn't
breathe. Half the work done.
"You
won't take him away." I swung the limb.
Her head snapped back and she fell onto her husband. "No one will take him away again."
I
held her down in the water until she gave a little cough. I remembered the
feel. She went limp and I let go. They laid side-by-side, but I tore them
apart, dragging Lord David to the edge of the water lilies. He looked pretty there, even with the mud.
I
took the cottage road back to the manor. Oh, I knew the constabulary would come
for me, but they'd never take me from my home.
I set fire to Lord David's bedroom and the hall. I waited by the window
while the others screamed and ran.
But
no one would send me away.
992 words
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