The Fledgling

by Jeanie P Johnson

  If he couldn’t love anyone else but me, how could he make Tamara keep taking the tests, unless it was an excuse just to do the tests and then tell her that she hadn’t passed them? Certainly he wasn’t trying to see if she was better at the tests than I was, and then choosing between us. Either way, I was beginning to see Sheldon in a whole new light.

  She had money, and I didn’t. Maybe he wasn’t using her. Maybe he was using me. And then because I wouldn’t let him do the fit test, he decided he wanted to try it with the person he was really going to marry, and at the end of two years, he would tell her she had passed the test after all, while in the meantime, he would get me to consent to the fit test as well, promising a marriage he never planned to honor. And what if she got a baby? Then he would have to marry her, whether he wanted to or not. But I hadn’t seen him doing the test missionary style, so I was hopeful that would never happen.

  I started to shake, as I thought about all the possibilities that would keep me from marrying Sheldon after all, no matter how much he said he loved me. I realized he had not told Tamara he loved her, and hadn’t even kissed her, so I started feeling a little better, until I remembered he had not told me he loved me for a very long time, and I could not remember the last time he had kissed me, either.

  In fact, the whole time since I came here, was all about taking the tests. He never spoke of our future marriage now, or his love for me. Suddenly, I doubted that tests were even necessary. He had tricked me into letting him do those things with me, and now he was tricking Tamara into it. The only difference was, his father wanted him to marry Tamara, and if he discovered she was going to Sheldon’s room, he would force them to marry before Sheldon’s eighteenth birthday. If Aldridge ever discovered our secret, I would be put out on the streets to work, and have to bring Aldridge the money. I realized I was doomed if that happened.

  Sheldon was sleeping, and I tiptoed out of his room, feeling rejected, and wondering what I was going to do? As soon as Tamara left, Sheldon would insist I start all over with the promises between us. A hand clamped down on my shoulder, and I thought that Aldridge had found me leaving Sheldon’s room, and would lock me in the tower, for being there while Tamara was in the house.

  “What are you doing?” a voice asked. I turned to see Tamara’s brother, Vance, looking down at me with his serious grey eyes. He wore a dressing gown, over his pajamas, that I could see, below the hem. Leather slippers were on his feet, and he didn’t look as proper as he had, when I had first seen him. His light brown hair was tousled, as though he had been in bed and then decided to get up for some reason.

  “Nothing,” I said.

  “Have you seen my sister? She wasn’t in her room.”

  I nodded. “I just saw her go up a while ago. You must have missed her,” I told him, even though it had been quite a while since she left Sheldon’s room. It hadn’t taken long for Sheldon to fall asleep though, and she may have gone someplace else before going back to her room, for all I knew.

  “I haven’t seen you here before,” he told me. “I thought Mr. Bogart let most of his servant’s go, so why hire a new one?”

  “I am not really a hired servant,” I told him. “I am actually Mr. Bogart’s Goddaughter, but since he couldn’t afford to care for me, I offered to work here for my keep.”

  “I have heard of you,” he said, his interest seeming to be peaked. “Your mother was the reason Mr. Bogart turned to drink, or so he says,” Vance laughed. “I heard she was beautiful, and if you are anything like her, she must have been.”

  I didn’t know what to say to his complement so I didn’t say anything. I just looked nervously away.

  “How did you end up here?” he asked. I began to tell him about the sickness, and how I was forced to leave the city, and had no place to go. “And your parents didn’t leave you any money when they died?” he questioned.

  “As far as I can tell, my mother told me about the bag of gold in my father’s dresser, but that got stolen from me. She didn’t say if there was any more money.”

  “They must have had a will, and what about the house? Wouldn’t that become yours after they died?”

  “I can’t go back to the house. The sickness was there.”

  “If you ever do go back, you should look for your parent’s solicitor.”

  “Even so, I have no guardian, except for Mr. Bogart. I could not live in my house on my own.”

  “Perhaps, when you are older,” he suggested. “The sickness would have passed by then.” I shrugged. “We are going to throw a birthday party for Tamara next month, and since you are really not a servant, you should come. You come from a socially accepted family and background, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t be invited.”

  “I don’t have anything to wear,” I said, hanging my head.

  “Are you telling me that Mr. Bogart only furnishes you with servant’s garb? That is appalling! I’ll talk to Tamara and see if she has any dresses she can do without, and have them sent over.” He was being so kind, but if Tamara ever discovered that Sheldon was giving me the same tests he was now giving her, she not only would never give me any of her dresses, but I wouldn’t even be invited to her party. However, considering she had agreed to Sheldon’s tests, I could tell her of my knowledge of it, if she ever turned her nose up at me, I decided.

  I realized, I could never let Sheldon talk me into any more tests, and I was wondering how I was going to stop him from insisting?

  I looked at Vance, and wondered if he was like Sheldon? Was it normal for men to use girls however they pleased, I wondered?

  “What is the matter?” Vance asked. “You are looking at me strangely.”

  “I need to ask you something,” I said quietly, trying to feel brave.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Do you know anything about the rules of being promised to someone?”

  “Oh, you mean like Tamara and Sheldon are promised.”

  I nodded my head, even though that wasn’t quite what I meant.

  “Parents usually decide things like that. Otherwise two people may choose each other and promise to get married.”

  “Are you promised to anyone?” I asked.

  He started to laugh. “Not that I know of, why?”

  I licked my lips, and then forged forward. “It’s just that I heard that there is a secret pact that only the husband knows about.”

  “If only the husband knows, how did you find out about it?” he grinned down at me.

  “Because I overheard someone talk about it once, and they didn’t know I was listening.”

  “Oh, so you were spying, then,” he winked.

  “Actually, yes,” I said. “But I didn’t know what they were going to talk about.”

  “So what about this secret pact?” he asked.

  “It is hard to explain. I just know that before a man will agree to marry a woman, he has to approve of what she looks like.”

  “You mean feel attracted to the woman,” he stated.

  “Sort of, but there are tests, and promises, and to make the promises work, the tests have to be done often. Then only the man decides if the woman passes the tests.”

  “What sort of tests?” Vance asked, looking closer at me, and smiling like I was entertaining him somehow.

  “I can’t tell you. I just wondered if you knew anything about if. If you did, you would know what kind of tests they were.”

  “Who were you overhearing?” he asked.

  “I can’t tell you that either.”

  He gave me a long stare. “They must have been joking with each other, or making it up,” Vance said. “I mean, I am sure there are ways men test women they think they love, to make sure she loves them too, and promises are involved, but unless you tell me what kind of tests you are talking about, I don’t know what to tell you.”

  “So you don’t know of any secret pact that only the husband knows about?” I asked. I was pretty sure Sheldon had made that part up, but the other part
about the promises and tests, and saying once he saw me that no one else could ever see me that way, I wasn’t quite sure about. After all he had also looked at Tamara, and before, he said that once he looked at me that way, he couldn’t touch anyone else the way he touched me, and yet I watched him touch someone else. So somehow our promise had been broken without me even knowing about it.

  I decided to take another approach. “What if, by accident, a man saw a woman with no clothes on, and he told her, that since he saw her, he had to marry her?”

  “That depends on the circumstances surrounding how he ended up seeing her,” Vance said.

  “If he saw her, and she knew he saw her, would that mean she had to look at him that way too?”

  Vance started to laugh. “Not that I know of, but it might be pleasant to test the theory,” he smiled.

  “So there are tests involved,” I reasoned.

  “That’s not what I meant. If he were a gentleman, he would beg her pardon, since it was an accident, and remove himself from her post haste. However, if he touched her, and he did it on purpose, he would be expected to marry her.”

  “What if he did it with two different women? Would he have to marry both of them?”

  “If he did it with two different women, he would be considered a cad, and a womanizer and no protective father would allow his daughter to have anything to do with such a character.”

  “What if the father didn’t know? What if no one knew?”

  “Then I pity the women he used,” Vance said.

  My cheeks started to get hot, and Vance reached out and touched my shoulder. “You’re trying to tell me something, aren’t you?” he mumbled.

  “No!” I cried, thinking that Sheldon would kill me, if I told on him, and if he didn’t his father certainly would. I was supposed to keep it a secret, or Aldridge would send me out on the streets to work.

  “You must tell me, if something is frightening you. I know Mr. Bogart drinks overly much, and he might do some underhanded things when he is in his cups.”

  “Yes, I have witnessed that,” I shivered, thinking of the way he had treated me, when I first arrived.

  “Perhaps you are not safe here,” Vance insisted. “Has Mr. Bogart mistreated you? If so, you must tell me at once, and I will inform my father.”

  “Will it interfere with Sheldon’s betrothal to Tamara?” I asked. “I don’t want to spoil anything. My Godfather would make me pay, if that happened.”

  “My father knows your Godfather has his bad days, but he is not fit to be your guardian, if he is mistreating you.” I was beginning to think that maybe it was Sheldon that had been mistreating me. Not his father.

  “I don’t want to talk about it. I shouldn’t have bothered you,” I murmured.

  “Now I am worried,” he stated.

  “I will be fine,” I assured him.

  “You have to promise me, that if anything happens which frightens you, that you will contact me. I will give you my card.” He took my hand and lead me upstairs, leaving me at the door of his room, while he went in to fetch his card, and then handed it to me. “You have to promise me,” he insisted.

  “I promise,” I told him.

  “Good. I will check on my sister before I retire,” he said, and he went and tapped on Tamara’s door, then stuck his head in. He looked back at me. “She seems to be sleeping. I must have just thought she wasn’t in her room.”

  “She must have gone down to get a drink of water. I think I forgot to put a picture in her room,” I explained.

  “That must have been it,” he replied. “Good night, Floriana,” he said, bowing his head.

  I headed back down the stairs, to go to the entrance to the tower room. “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “I sleep in the tower room,” I told him. He looked aghast.

  “Why would they ever put you there?” he asked.

  “I think my Godfather wanted to punish me because my mother left him, when he wanted to marry her. But I actually like it there.”

  “Then there are no ghosts?”

  “None that I have seen,” I told him, and then continued on down the stairs.

  CHAPTER SIX

  When I came downstairs the next morning, I met Sheldon at the breakfast buffet, as I was bringing the food in. I noticed he tried not to look in my eyes, and I figured I knew why. “I was in your room last night,” I whispered in his ear. “I was hiding in the wardrobe, so I could be with you, only you brought someone else there, didn’t you?” Sheldon looked shocked. “All those promises and tests, they weren’t real, were they Sheldon? Now you are making Tamara take the tests, and if you are not careful, I will inform her father!”

  Sheldon grabbed my arm. “If you did, it would only mean they would make me marry her sooner, before I turned eighteen,” he informed me. “And you would be put out on the streets.”

  “Well, I don’t care, because you have already broken the promise between us. If you were planning on marrying me, you wouldn’t have had to do any tests to see if you and Tamera fit good together, since you wouldn’t be marrying her anyway. You lied to me, and now you are lying to her, so for all I care, you are welcome to marry her. Just don’t ever insist I do any more tests with you, or I will tell her brother about what you have done to her, and to me, and he will call you out!”

  Sheldon squeezed my arm even tighter. “Don’t make any trouble, or I will tell my father to lock you in the tower, and if I feel like taking tests with you, you had better not be difficult.”

  “You are worse than your father,” I told him. “I would rather go back to my house in the city and risk the sickness, than do even one more test with you!” At that moment, Tamara and her brother came up to the side table, and Sheldon smiled at her. I wanted to warn her, and tell her not to do any more tests with Sheldon, but I decided he was probably going to marry her, since they had been betrothed all their lives, so what difference did it make? Only if she found out what Sheldon had done with me, it would not go good for Sheldon, and that was the threat I would use to keep Sheldon at a distance, from now on, I decided.

  I did not see Sheldon for the rest of the day, because he, Vance, and Tamara all went riding on the moor together. Besides, I had a lot more chores to do, since there were not only two visitors, but they had brought their help with them. That meant more dishes to wash, and more clothes to wash, rooms to clean, and beds to make.

  By the time dinner was over, I was anxious to go to bed. The others had gone into the parlor, and I could hear Tamara playing the piano. I knew how to play the piano, but I had never had the time to sit down at it. If I was not doing chores, Sheldon was putting me through tests.

  I came into the tower room, with my lit candle, and closed the door, and locked it. Suddenly, someone was grabbing the key from my hand, and then pushing me down on the bed. Sheldon was standing over me, and his eyes were angry. “You need to be punished for threatening me,” he told me. At that moment, he reminded me of his father, and I took in my breath. Perhaps my mother had not wanted to marry his father because he had treated her, the way Sheldon had been treating me, I thought.

  Up until now, he always acted like he wanted to protect me, but now I needed to be protected from him, I thought. “You are spoiling everything,” he told me. “I had to do all those things with Tamara, to make sure you were the one I loved.”

  “Couldn’t you know it without doing it?” I asked. “You just wanted to do the fit test with her, because I wouldn’t let you finish it with me,” I accused.

  “You were acting like you were losing interest in the tests. And maybe you are right. If you had let me finish the fit test, I wouldn’t have needed to do that test with her. It’s your fault, Floriana, because you weren’t letting me do the right kind of tests, when I asked for them. I decided to see if she was more obedient than you were.”

  “It is because you don’t care if I sigh, when you do the tests with me. It is all about whether you sigh or not. If you never sighe
d, you would lose interest too!” I accused. “But you were the one who told me you could never touch anyone else, once you had touched me, so I don’t believe you anymore.”

  “I told you, the man’s test was more important,” he hissed between his teeth.

  “Apparently, according to you, only the man should be pleased, not the woman. It is not a fair bargain, if that is the case.”

  “Women are mere chattel! Once they are married, the husband owns them completely. He doesn’t have to please them, if he doesn’t want to. You are my servant, so I own you already, and I don’t have to please you, if I choose not to.”

  “Which must mean you don’t even love me,” I accused.

  “It doesn’t matter. I still own you, until I marry. If I don’t marry you, I will still own you, because I plan to keep you with me, even if I do have to marry Tamara. You will be my kept servant, and do whatever I tell you to do, so just get used to it.”

  “I won’t stay with you!” I screamed.

  “It is not your choice,” he bellowed back. “I am going to lock you in the tower, and every day, I will come and give you the fit tests in the missionary position, until you get a baby. Then the baby will be mine, and if you want to be with your baby, you will have to be with me, as well. If you don’t cooperate, I will not feed you, and force you to take the tests anyway. You’re only way out would be to jump from the tower,” he sneered. “If you still refuse, after you have the baby, I will throw it from the tower, and make you have another one.”

  I stared at him in horror. He was not the Sheldon I had happily done the tests with. A demon seemed to have taken over him. He stepped towards me. “So take your clothes off. I need to get this over with so I can go back down stairs, in order to give Tamara more of her tests tonight.”