Victoria Holt: Road to Paradise Island

I wish I were not so much younger than my brother Charles. It makes me feel so much alone. I have heard the servants say I was "an afterthought," which is not a very significant thing to be. I do not think Papa is very interested in me. He does his duty by me, of course, which has always meant delegating the care of me to others.

I walk a little, I ride a little; I visit people in the village and take what are called "comforts" to them. And that is my life. So what sense is there in keeping a journal?

June 20th

How strange that I should have decided to write in this book. Something has happened at last. It is nearly a month since I wrote that first bit and I thought I never would write in this book again. And now this has happened and I believe there is some comfort in writing down what one feels when one is distraught.

It is my dearest Miss Bray. This morning she came to me looking prettier than ever. I should be happy, of course, for she undoubtedly is. It seems ironical that the same event should have such a diverse effect on two people who are so fond of each other.

She said to me as we were grappling with a rather turgid paragraph in the Sterne novel we were reading, "I have some news, Ann Alice. And I want you to be the first to know."

I was eager to stop and ready for a cosy chat.

"James has asked me to marry him."

James Eggerton, the vicar's son, was on one of his periodical visits to his father. He had a living of his own in a parish some fifty miles away and was therefore in a position to marry.

"But you will go away, Miss Bray!" I cried.

"I'm afraid so," she said, dimpling. "Never mind, you'll have another governess... much cleverer than I. You'll enjoy it."

"Of course I shan't." I felt my face set into apprehensive lines.

Miss Bray put her arms about me and cuddled me in that endearing way she has.

"I have thought for some time that he was going to ask me," she explained, "and when he didn't I thought I was mistaken. And all the time he was trying to pluck up courage."

"You'll go right away."

"I'll ask your father if you can come and stay."

"It won't be the same."

"When there is change, nothing is ever the same. Life would be rather dull if it went on in the same old way forever, wouldn't it?"

I said: "I want it to be dull. I don't want you to go."

"Oh come," said Miss Bray. "This is really a very happy event."

I looked into her face and saw how truly happy she was, and I thought how selfish it was of me not to rejoice with her.

July 4th

How the days fly! I have tried to be pleased for Miss Bray because she is undoubtedly happy and James Eggerton goes about looking as though life is a perpetual joke and he is living in some seventh heaven.

I saw my father on the stairs that morning. He patted my head in his rather awkward way and said: "We shall have to find another Miss Bray, shan't we?"

"Papa," I said, "I am sixteen. Perhaps ..."

He shook his head. "Oh no... you need a governess for another year at least. Well find someone as nice as Miss Bray. Never fear."

Miss Bray is busy getting her trousseau together. She is a little absent-minded. I fancy she does not always see me when I'm there because she is looking into a blissful future with the Reverend James Eggerton.

I feel a little lost and lonely. I walk a great deal on my own and I ride, but I am always supposed to take someone with me and one of the grooms can't take the place of Miss Bray.

August 1st

Miss Bray is leaving at the end of the month. She is going to her home in the Midlands and will be married from there. I am thinking about her less now because I am concerned for my own future. The new governess is arriving tomorrow. Papa called me into his study to tell me about her. He has met her. He went up to London to see her. I was a little resentful because I felt he should have taken me. After all, I am the one who will have to spend so much time with her. I do not hope for another Miss Bray but I do want someone like her.

"Miss Lois Gilmour will be arriving tomorrow," said Papa. "She will come before Miss Bray goes so that Miss Bray can initiate her into her duties. I am sure you will like Miss Gilmour. She seems to be a very efficient young woman."

I do not want an efficient young woman. I want Miss Bray or someone exactly like her; and I do not think Miss Bray could have ever been called efficient. She has always been a little absent-minded and is especially so now and her learning has been inclined to lean in one direction. Books, music and the like, which has always suited me. She is hopeless at mathematics.

Miss Gilmour sounds formidable.

I am full of apprehension.

August 2nd

Today was the great day. That is, the arrival of Miss Lois Gilmour.

I was watching from an upper window when she arrived. Miss

Bray was with me. From the carriage stepped a tall slim young woman, quietly but very elegantly dressed.

"She does not look much like a governess," I said, and then I wondered whether I had hurt Miss Bray who for all her prettiness was scarcely elegant, being a little on the plump side and what is called "a little woman.' 1 She is cuddly, sweet and feminine—but never elegant.

The summons came very soon. I was wanted in the drawing room.

I went down in trepidation. Papa was there and with him the elegant young woman who I had seen alight from the carriage.

"This is Ann Alice," said Papa.

"How do you do, Ann Alice?"

As she took my hand I looked into her eyes which were large and deep blue. She was beautiful in a way. Her features were clear-cut, on classical lines; her nose was rather long but very straight; her lips inclined to be full. Warm lips and cold eyes, I thought.

But I am prejudiced against her for the unreasonable reason that she is not Miss Bray.

"And Ann Alice, this is Miss Gilmour who is so looking forward to teaching you."

"I am sure," said Miss Gilmour, "that you and I are going to get along very well."

I am not quite so sure.

"Miss Bray, as you know, has been with Ann Alice for ... for... " began Papa.

"Six years," I said.

"And now she is leaving to get married."

Miss Gilmour smiled.

"I think you might take Miss Gilmour to her room," said my father. "And when you are ready perhaps you will take tea with my daughter and me, Miss Gilmour. And after that Ann Alice can introduce you to Miss Bray."

"That seems to me very satisfactory," said Miss Gilmour.

It has been a strange afternoon. I snowed her her room. I felt she was assessing everything, the house, the furnishings and me. She has been too friendly too suddenly. She has said more than once that she is sure we are going to get along very well.

I fancied she was more at home taking tea with my father than with me alone. I wish I could rid myself of this uneasy feeling. I am sure it will be all right, for she seems eager to make it so, and if I am, too, how can we fail to be happy together?

Miss Gilmour talked a great deal over tea and I have been thinking how strange it was that my father, who was rarely at home at this hour, had gone to the trouble, not only of being here to receive her but of taking tea with her as well. In a way they had seemed to ignore me. Anyone would have thought she was coming to be governess to him instead of me, I remarked afterward to Miss Bray.

Miss Gilmour talked a great deal about herself. She came from Devonshire where her father had owned a small estate. He had been robbed by an unscrupulous agent who had escaped with the family's priceless possessions. Her father had never recovered from the shock and had had a stroke. She herself had been left almost penniless and forced to earn her living, and must do so in the only way open to a gentlewoman of some education.