Виктория Холт - Time of the Hunter's Moon

"I should hate to see you stultify in a country village after your education. No. I have never failed in my judgement yet, and I don't expect to now. Do you ride?"

"I did quite a lot at Grantley."

"Good. We have a riding master who comes in three times a week to teach the girls. They go out in parties, but I like to have a mistress with them. You can use the horses in your spare time, if you like. We are rather isolated and you would have to walk everywhere if you didn't ride. The town is three miles from here ... such as it is. The Hall is just beyond."

"I passed that on my way here."

"Oh yes. There's a funeral today. Poor Lady Verringer passed away. A happy release, some say. Fiona and Eugenie will have been at the funeral. I suppose we shall have to allow them to wear black instead of their school uniforms for some months. It's so tiresome. I wouldn't allow it for anyone else. But they being who they are .. . and so close to the school . . I don't see how I can do anything else."

"I suppose it was their mother who has died. I saw their father."

"No. Not the mother. Their aunt. And you saw Sir Jason?"

"Yes, in his carriage. We met it in the lane."

"He would have been coming from the funeral. He is the girls' uncle. He and Lady Verringer had no, children. A sadness for them, I knew. Fiona and Eugenie are Sir Jason's wards-his brother's children. They lost both their parents when they were quite young. Their home has always been the Hall ... even when their parents were alive. Their father was a younger brother of Sir Jason. It was not, of course, like having children of their own and there is no direct heir. The Verringers have been at the Hall since it was built in the mid 1500s. The whole of the Abbey lands came into their possession after the Dissolution of the Monasteries."

"I see. I quite thought the girls were his."

"They have been with me for three years. They came when Fiona was fourteen. She is the eider, though not by much. There is just about eighteen months between her and Eugenie. Yes, she must have been fourteen because she is seventeen now .. . but soon to be eighteen, so Eugenie will be turned sixteen."

"The girls are mostly round about that age, are they?"

"From fourteen to eighteen. Very much like Schaffenbrucken, I imagine."

"Yes, very much so."

"I aim to turn out girls who will be fit to mingle in the highest society. That, I think, is important. Now to get down to practical matters. You will be taking English. That will consist of literature, of course. The girls study the classics with you. And I want you to concentrate on their social education. Conversation ... debates on current affairs. We have a dancing master ... ballroom dancing, you know. He comes three times a week, but there will be dancing practice every day and you and perhaps one of the others will be in charge of that. Then there is music. Mr. Maurice Crowe gives lessons to the whole school once a week, but he teaches piano-forte and violin to those who want it. We concentrate on music and the arts generally. We have an art mistress in Eileen Eccles. She may be arriving tonight. I have had a word with her. You and she can arrange to put on a play for the school. We have done that before and it is a great success. Parents like to see their children act. Last time we were allowed to do it at the Hall. They have a very fine ball-room which is ideal for the purpose."

"It sounds very interesting."

"I am sure you will find it so. Now for sleeping arrangements. The rooms are necessarily small; they were once the sleeping quarters of the Lay Brothers and we are not allowed to tamper with anything structurally, though Sir Jason has allowed one or two concessions to fit in with the school. For instance, we have partitioned one room as it was twice as large as the others, and made two bedrooms of it. It is not easy to accommodate so many people. One large dormitory would have been more normal. As it is we have two girls in each room, and as they are more or less in sections, I have put one mistress in charge of four bedrooms, which means eight girls. Your room is next to your four. You make sure that they are in their rooms every night, that they rise when the bell rings, and that they conduct themselves in an orderly manner."

"A sort of house mistress."

"Exactly, except that we are all under one roof and the other sections are not far away. The girls you will have are on the whole pleasant malleable creatures. Gwendoline Grey shares with Jane Everton. Gwendoline is the daughter of a professor and Jane's father is a manufacturer in the Midlands. Not the same class as Gwendoline but plenty of money. I mix my girls carefully. Jane will learn from Gwendoline and perhaps Gwendoline a little from Jane. In the next room is the Honourable Charlotte Mackay. Her father is Lord Blandore, and she is with Patricia Cartwright, from a banking family. Caroline Sangton's father is a city importer and she is with Teresa Hurst. By the way Teresa spends most of her holidays at school. Her father grows something in Rhodesia ... tobacco, I think. Sometimes we can pack her off to her mother's cousins, but not always, and I fancy they get out of having the child when they can."

"Poor Teresa," I said.

"Yes, indeed. And I am also giving you the Verringer girls. They are in one of your rooms. So that is your little family as I call it. I am sure you will find everything goes smoothly. Now have you finished your tea? Then I will take you to your room myself. Your bags will be there and if you are not too tired and would like to look round I will show you. Perhaps you would like to freshen up alter your journey? If you will come now we'll go to your room and you can wash and change if you like and hang up your things. Then I will show you round the Abbey."

"Thank you. That will be very interesting."

"Come then."

I followed her over the stone-flagged floors, up staircases rather like the one I had seen-treacherously narrow where it reached the post and wider at the other end, with its rope banister.

At length we came to the bedrooms. Mine was small with thick stone walls which made it seem cold, and the window was long and narrow. There was a bed in it, a cupboard, a chair and a table.

"You are thinking it is a little spartan," said Daisy. "Mine is the same. Remember this is an abbey and I impress on the girls that we are privileged to be here. Now I will show you where we wash. I have been allowed to divide this into cubicles ... a great concession, I do assure you. The Lay Brothers would have washed in this trough which ran along the whole length of this section. However, you will find this more in keeping with modern times. I have put mirrors in too. Now you have seen your quarters and the rooms of the girls who will be in your charge. Shall I send for you in half an hour? One of the maids will bring you to my study and then we can go on our tour of exploration."

I washed, changed my travelling clothes and hung up my things in the cupboard. I was rather unsure of my feelings. I was excited by everything I had seen and I felt that I understood Daisy Hetherington, respected her and would get along moderately well with her. On the other hand, although I found my surroundings of immense interest there were moments when I was repelled by them. Perhaps it was because the past was too close; it intruded. What could one expect within the actual walls of an abbey!

I was ready and waiting when the summons came. I was imagining telling Aunt Patty all about it when we were together in the summer. That cheered me considerably.

I was conducted to the presence of my employer.

"Ah!" Her cool blue eyes surveyed me and I gathered she approved of my white blouse and navy blue skirt. "Here you are. Now I will take you first over our own establishment. If there is time I will give you some idea of the surroundings, but these you will discover in more detail later. I have a picture here of the Abbey as it was before the Dissolution. It wasn't drawn until the beginning of this century, but it is a good job of reconstruction and it wasn't so difficult with the outline there, as you might say. Only the slightest degree of imagination was necessary. Our monks were Cistercians and so the Abbey is built in that style. You see it is constructed on either side of a stream which runs into the fishponds. They in their turn go into the river. We are about eight miles from the sea. There are three fishponds, one flowing into another. There are some good fish in there too. Emmet and some of the others fish there frequently and much of our Friday fish comes from the ponds. I think it is a very important tradition. Here you can see the nave and the transept. That is the chapel of six altars. There is the Chapter House and the Gate House and the Great Hall ... the Abbot's House, the refectory, the store house and buttery. You'll find everything on the plan. And here we are. Now ... shall we go?"