Netherby Halls

by Claudy Conn

  “How do you do?” Sassy said quietly, “I am Miss Winthrop, and I believe your headmistress is expecting me.”

  The girl’s brown eyes filled with surprise. “Gawks! You are too pretty to be a teacher. Gawd, when Mistress Sallstone claps eyes on you, she is likely to go into convulsions.”

  The girl’s remark startled Sassy, and she bit her bottom lip. Would the headmistress turn her away because of her appearance? Oh no. She gathered herself up and bolstered her fears with the hope this would not happen. After all, what difference would what she looked like make here at an all-girls boarding school? No husband would be lurking around ready to be tempted, as Lady Margate had explained would be her obstacle and keep her from being hired as a nanny or a governess.

  “Would you be so kind as to announce me to Mistress Sallstone?” Sassy said, stepping into the hallway and motioning for Jessie to set her things down there and wait.

  He whispered, “I’ll not leave till I get ye settled, Miss … mark me on it.”

  She returned the whisper. “Thank you.”

  “I’m Molly, cook’s daughter, ye see. We weren’t expecting ye till morning,” the girl said over her shoulder as she turned and led them down the wide corridor of oak flooring to an open doorway that gave way to what appeared to be a small chamber. Looking over her, Sassy could see wooden chairs lining one wall. No other furniture graced the dimly lit room. No doubt this was where students waited to be called inside Miss Sallstone’s office for some offense or other.

  Molly motioned for Sassy to enter. “If ye take a seat, I’ll let headmistress know ye be here.” Molly waited for them both to take a seat and went to yet another door. When her knock was met with an impatient response, Sassy and Jessie exchanged looks.

  Molly went inside and closed the door at her back. A moment later she re-entered the anteroom to say, “Headmistress says ye are to go in now.” So saying, Molly rushed out.

  Sassy turned to Jessie, who nodded encouragingly. “I’ll be here, I will. Don’t ye worry none.”

  With this, Sassy went to the open door and stood at the threshold, where she got her first look of the headmistress, Bianca Sallstone, according to the nameplate on the desk.

  A silence followed as each was taken aback by the other. Sassy had been expecting to meet Lady Edna Devine, Lady Margate’s friend, not this young, tall, well figured woman.

  Miss Sallstone was provocatively clothed in a gown of red velvet, not at all suited to a headmistress. Her hair of auburn was cropped short and curled around her lovely face. Her eyes were hazel and lightly painted, as were her cheeks. Nothing about her was anything like Sassy’s expectations!

  “You are not at all what I expected. Edna advised me that her ladyship had written you were too beautiful to place as a governess, but, my dear, you are perhaps even too exquisite even for here.”

  Sassy felt waves of irritation coming off the headmistress. Clearly, she wished to send her off. “I assure you,” Sassy said quietly. “I will do my job.”

  “At any rate, Edna owns Netherby Halls, though she rarely visits.” The headmistress paused and eyed Miss Winthrop speculatively before continuing, “She leaves it all to me, except in this instance, where she was insistent that we hire you.” Miss Sallstone sighed heavily. “You are well connected, on both your parents’ sides, but that won’t help you here. You must understand that to fit in here, you will have to do just that—fit in. Because you are young, you will have to work harder to prove your worth.”

  Sassy understood her all too clearly. “Yes.” She placed Lady Margate’s letter of introduction on the desk before her, noting to herself that the headmistress had not even asked her to sit.

  “No need to read this now. I am fully aware of your circumstances.” Miss Sallstone sighed again and now waved her to a nearby chair. “Do sit, and we will chat for a few moments.”

  She eyed Sassy in a manner that made her feel somehow violated. Something was off … wrong. However, she sat with her hands folded in her lap and waited.

  “It is past tea. However, dinner is always served promptly at six o’clock. I have instructed Molly to serve you dinner in your room, which I am certain you will appreciate after your long journey. The students would no doubt be tiresome to deal with during the dinner hour.”

  “Thank you,” was all Sassy could say. She struggled to keep her expression pleasant, fighting not to show that she was nearly overwhelmed with a horrible feeling something about Sallstone was off, something in her eyes.

  “Is there anything you would like to know?” the headmistress inquired politely but obviously hoping Sassy wouldn’t bother her with questions.

  “Yes, I think I need to know what the routine is … what I am expected to do first?”

  “Time enough for Miss Graves to explain all that to you tomorrow morning,” Miss Sallstone returned in clipped accents.

  “I see …” Sassy hesitated and then asked, “What age group will be in my charge?”

  “Lady Devine would like you in charge of girls aged ten to twelve. We don’t enter them younger than ten, you see.”

  A knock at the door brought Sassy’s head round, as it was still open. Miss Sallstone sighed and asked, “What is it now, Molly?”

  “Jane wanted me to let you know Miss’s room is ready, and I can serve her dinner there now if ye like?”

  “Yes,” Miss Sallstone said, obviously relieved to be done and not trying to hide that fact. “Excellent.”

  Sassy nodded, got to her feet, and followed Molly out to the waiting area, where Jessie fidgeted on his feet.

  “I can take up yer bags,” Molly said.

  “I’ll be doing that.” Jessie’s tone was uncompromising.

  “I don’t know if the headmistress—”

  “I don’t answer to her, and my lady told me I was to see Miss Winthrop situated, and so I mean to do,” Jessie answered.

  Molly beamed. “Then, off we go.”

  As Sassy climbed the stairs, a vibration seemed to pulse inside the walls adjacent to the stairs, as though reacting to her. What was this? You know what it is, her mother’s voice whispered in her head. You know very well—evil. Something evil resides here.

  ~ Seven ~

  SASSY THANKED JESSIE and sighed as she watched him leave. She had grown accustomed to his company and was sorry to see him go.

  She turned and inspected her room. Molly had said she was to have Miss Saunders’ room. The room was no larger than ten by eleven, with walls papered in faded pink and besprinkled with green leaves. Sassy frowned when she realized the surprisingly large rectangular window in the center of the wall facing the doorway had no covering.

  Next to the narrow bed, which was covered with a simple quilt of faded flowers on a pink background, stood a small, stark nightstand. She also spied a sturdy chest of drawers, a long mirror, and a tall, albeit narrow satinwood wardrobe.

  Well, well, she was at Netherby. She had her own room and no complaints. Things could be worse.

  Miss Sallstone was a bit of a mystery. Sassy was certain she was not what she wanted people to think—a simple headmistress. She was sure that the headmistress was much more than she presented, but what?

  Also, what was the awful sensation she got when she walked up the stairs? Evil? Her logic rejected this. At a school for young girls? Impossible … and yet her magic voice had clearly whispered the word evil. She had been accosted with it; the wickedness of lingering ill deeds always made her feel sick and set her on guard, and that was how she’d had felt.

  Briefly she wondered what had happened to Miss Saunders and made a mental note to inquire about her in the morning.

  She thought of her father and mother and then, with a soft ache, began the business of unpacking.

  * * *

  Light splattered with dust particles seared through Sassy’s undraped window the following morning and brought her eyes flickeringly to life.

  She had not slept well, and with a groan she gazed up at the brigh
t sun’s rays taunting her. Shading her eyes against the offending light, she groaned again. “Must get to town and purchase some fabric for that bare window,” she mumbled to herself.

  How odd, she thought, that a window in a room occupied by her predecessor should have gone without drapes. She shrugged this off as she pulled the covers over herself. It was so cold in her room.

  A few moments later, she dragged herself out of bed and washed with the water from the pitcher she had been given after dinner. That too was uncomfortably cold. She picked out a warm woolen shawl and draped it around herself before she went about the business of brushing her hair, taking out the Grecian curls it had been styled into by Lady Margate’s maid. Decidedly that would not do at the school. Instead, she divided her hair, braided both sections, and pinned them at the top of her head where wispy locks shaded her forehead.

  She donned one of her mourning gowns of gray silk, with a white lace fichu at the neck. The gown was long sleeved and banded at the waist with a darker shade of gray velvet. Finally, she pulled on her half-boots of black leather and then picked up the dark wool shawl. Throwing it over her shoulders, she made her way to the stairs to find Miss Graves.

  Once again, she felt the pulse of ‘something’ in the walls that hugged the wide staircase and tried to ignore it.

  She had to make this position work—she didn’t have a choice. Women of her class when left without parents, and without a home, had to find a way to make an acceptable living. Her trust fund would not buy her a home or even lease one and still have enough left over to pay for everything that went with maintaining one.

  She needed to work, to save … and …

  Molly almost ran into her. “Oh! There ye be!” Molly took her hand, saying, “Oh, Miss, ye be late!”

  “Late?” she repeated, surprised. The hour was quite early. “Well, no one told me what time I was to meet with Miss Graves,” she said, frowning, as she allowed Molly to pull her along a few steps before dropping the girl’s hand when they reached the L-shaped hall to a thick oak door.

  Molly whispered, “Miss Graves is waiting on ye in there, and the headmistress will be along any minute...”

  Sassy smiled. “Is this usual?”

  “No. I came to fetch ye so ye wouldn’t be late yer first morning.” She clucked her tongue. “Never saw Miss Sallstone leave her quarters before breakfast. She doesn’t dine with the teachers. Not she!” Molly shook her head. “But she be coming in this morning to make ye known to them, and in a right foul mood to boot.”

  “I see. I suppose she is more comfortable taking breakfast in her rooms,” Sassy remarked absently.

  “Aye, and never before ten! And,” Molly said with a strange look, “not always alone.”

  Curiosity aroused, Sassy raised a brow at the girl’s tone. “Oh?”

  Molly nodded. Evidently she had taken a liking to Sassy, for she put her hand on Sassy’s arm, eyed her conspiratorially, and as though imparting very serious information said, “Aye, that one entertains in her room, and if Lady Devine knew of it, heads would roll.”

  “And why is that?” Sassy’s brows arched.

  “Because ’tis a man she entertains,” Molly said with a low hiss. “The doc comes regular, he does. And from what I have noticed,” Molly said knowingly, “they are real good friends, they are.” She shrugged. “And there be others as well.”

  Sassy digested this but realized she shouldn’t encourage this sort of gossip so said softly, “Thank you, Molly, but I had better get inside before the headmistress arrives.”

  Molly squeezed her arm and flitted off. Watching her depart, Sassy marveled to herself for a moment. Molly was no more than a child really, and yet she spoke with the most knowing manner Sassy had ever encountered in one so young.

  The doors opened into a rectangular room some forty feet wide and sixty feet long. Windows reaching from ceiling to floor covered nearly the full length of the front wall overlooking the rose garden. The drapes of maroon velvet were pulled back, and a swag of gold-trimmed maroon velvet made up the valance.

  A huge fireplace took up a side wall, and one long rectangular table sat in the center, at the moment housing some sixty girls ranging in age from ten to sixteen.

  Sassy smiled at their upturned faces and made her way with as much poise as she could summon while all eyes were on her.

  She stopped at the round faculty table. As the headmistress had not yet appeared, she decided to introduce herself to the elderly women already seated there.

  “Good morning, ladies. I am Miss Winthrop, the new tutor.” She turned to the eldest woman and said, “You must be Miss Graves.”

  “I am,” said the small wiry woman, not getting up from her seat as she waved her hand towards the other ladies. “This is Miss Betty Tyler and her sister Wilma Tyler.”

  “I am very pleased to meet you,” Sassy said politely, noting that none of the three women had yet to offer a smile. Miss Graves wore her short gray hair bobbed and covered with an ivory lace cap, and her features were as steely as the shade of her hair. Her gown of puce was trimmed with the same ivory lace. Her eyes were a hard shade of gray and held no warmth.

  The Tyler sisters seemed at first glance complete opposites of one another. Betty, whom Sassy judged to be the elder of the two, was fair. The woman’s hair was streaked with gray and was tied in a single braid wound into a bun at the nape of her neck. She was plump and short, while her sister Wilma was dark-haired, tall, and bony. All three women were well past their fiftieth year.

  “She is far too young, Miss Graves,” Miss Betty said in a high, shrill voice as though Sassy were not standing there.

  “But sweet, don’t you think?” put in her sister.

  “Never mind that, ladies. Miss Winthrop is here, and as she has been appointed by Lady Devine herself, it is not our place to question her lack of years,” Miss Graves said, her eyes flickering over Sassy and then looking past her with an obvious change in her demeanor.

  Sassy looked around to find Miss Sallstone walking briskly towards them.

  “Up early, isn’t she?” Miss Wilma whispered within Sassy’s hearing.

  “Hush!” her sister cautioned.

  Miss Sallstone came up short before Sassy and inclined her head. “Ah, Miss Winthrop, I approve of your hair today. It is far more in keeping than the cluster of ringlets you wore yesterday. Perhaps later you might be able to do something about all those curls around your face?”

  Sassy’s temper tickled a few thoughts off in her mind, but she didn’t allow herself to voice them. Her immediate reaction was that her wispy curls were nothing compared to the low-cut bodice of Miss Sallstone’s lovely green velvet gown. However, for the moment, she maintained her composure and her tongue.

  “I see that you have already met your colleagues and shall detain you only another moment from your breakfast to make you known to our students.” She lifted her right hand for attention, stilling the quiet chatter. She then announced the new addition to the teaching team at Netherby.

  Morning introductions at an end, Sassy was invited to sit beside Miss Graves, as the headmistress excused herself and left them to one another.

  An odd feeling came over Sassy whenever Sallstone was about, and it was very difficult to set aside. Was it just her nerves? Was it the instant dislike she’d felt when she met the woman? Just what was it?

  During the meal, the women gave Sassy a thorough lesson as to location of school supplies, students who could be what they called ‘mischievous,’ and others who were downright ‘trouble-makers.’

  Miss Graves took over at one point and gave her the particulars of her job and what was expected of her.

  “Unfortunately, Miss Winthrop,” Miss Graves said, “the girls that will make up your class—twelve of them, I think—have been left to themselves since Miss Saunders’s regrettable departure. They will need some managing.”

  “I see,” Sassy replied, wondering how she was going to get organized.

 
“You have time off to yourself directly after their morning lessons, an entire hour and a half, while the girls take lunch and have free time. Saturday is only a half day, and of course, Sunday is your own,” Miss Graves added with a sigh.

  “Thank you, Miss Graves. You have been most kind,” Sassy, said thinking the woman had been as cold as she could be without being rude.

  Breakfast was porridge, toast, and an apple. The simple fare suited Sassy just fine, though the time seemed to drag until she saw Miss Graves prepare to rise.

  “Ah,” Miss Graves said, looking at the Tyler sisters, “we are off.” She turned to Sassy. “Come along, and you can follow me to your classroom.”

  Thus, it was, a few moments later, Sassy stood behind her desk looking out onto the faces of twelve girls. She could see some of them sneak quick peeks at her, while others looked downright fearful. One seemed to sneer at her. She went about the business of changing the mood.

  Sassy had been holding a large, leather-bound book. She allowed it to drop soundly on her desk, which got all their attention for that moment. A moment was all she needed for her first foray into their lives.

  These girls were orphans, from noble homes, but orphans all the same. At this stage of their lives, she knew that they lacked parental supervision. Did they also lack attention from the relatives they did have? What she knew was that they were orphans whose relatives had shipped them off to boarding school. Her heart already ached for them.

  Her heart already belonged to them on that score. She smiled warmly, and many of the younger ones responded in kind. Sassy’s gaze found one young girl, and for a minute they connected and the child smiled hopefully.

  “You have already been told that I am Miss Winthrop. With that knowledge, you are now quite ahead of me, and we cannot let such a situation continue. Therefore, if you will take out your paper and pens, and each write down your full names, I shall make a tour and gain an advantage. You see, I shall not only learn your name, but your style of hand as well.” Sassy hoped her smile would set them at ease.