The Fledgling

by Jeanie P Johnson

  At least Vance and his sister lived on the other side of the city from where my house was. I wasn’t even sure if I could stay at my house, but I had to go there first to discover what had happened to it.

  I had to stop and rest a lot along the way, because I was so weak, and hungry. Now I was thirsty again too, but I had made the trip once on a muddy road, and I could make it back, I vowed. By the time it got dark, I curled up beside the wall, used my satchel as a pillow, put the hood of the cloak over my head, and tried to asleep.

  The sun woke me, but there was more dew on the grass, so I could wet my mouth again. My stomach growled, but I was used to not eating, by now, and I didn’t feel as hungry any longer. I was stiff, and cold and my legs ached from walking, but at least I didn’t have any blisters on my feet, like before, so I counted myself lucky.

  When the city could be seen in the distance, I started to cry. I had never felt so happy before, in my life. It looked familiar to me. It was welcoming me back, even though it had chased me out with the sickness. I knew where a vegetable garden patch was, that I had passed on the way out, so I veered in that direction, hoping to find something that had matured enough to eat during the time I had been gone. I pulled up some carrots, and started munching on them. I didn’t even mind they were gritty. They were the best carrots I had ever eaten.

  When I stumbled to my front porch, I collapsed onto the porch steps. The house had been boarded up. I wondered how I was going to get in. I sat with my head on my knees, feeling happy to finally be home, but frustrated that the house was boarded up, and there was no way inside. The sickness must have passed, because there were people on the streets now, and I didn’t see any wagons filled with dead people. There had been no one digging graves at the grave yard when I had passed, either.

  “What are you doing there?” Someone called out to me, and my head jerked up. “Get away from that house. You are trespassing!”

  I blinked at the man, dressed in a suit and derby hat, calling to me from the walk. He looked to be as old as my father, with a mustache and wire glasses. He looked at me sternly.

  “I’m not trespassing,” I told him. “I am Floriana Cunningham, and my parents owned this house, before they died.”

  “What?” the man asked, coming up through the gate and up the walk to the porch, where I was sitting. His pinstriped trousers were neatly creased, and I noticed how shinny his black and white spats were, compared to my dusty, scuffed up boots. “I have been looking all over for you. Where did you go?”

  My eyes traveled up his pinstriped trousers, to his vest beyond his tail coat, and then the tie at his throat, that bunched below his collar. Finally, my eyes reached the reflection of his glasses, that I could see my dirty face in. “I went to my Godfather at Heather Ridge house,” I told him.

  “It can’t be. I went there to find you, and I was told you had not come there.”

  I wonder if it was Aldridge or Sheldon that told him that. “Well, I did, and now I have come back. My Godfather was cruel, and didn’t even want me there. I had no other place to go.”

  “You need to come with me to my office,” the man said. “I am Lester Price. I am your parent’s solicitor.” I remembered Vance telling me to look my parent’s solicitor up, but instead, he had found me.

  “I can’t move,” I told him. I have been walking for three days, and haven’t eaten or had much water.”

  “My Lord!” Mr. Price, exclaimed. “Stay there, then, and I will bring my buggy and some food and water for you.”

  He hurried up the street, and I could hear his heels clicking against the walk in his rush, while I leaned against the porch support, waiting for him to return. When he finally came back, he lavished me with a tray of fruit, and meat, and muffins, along with a jug of water to drink. I could not eat much, but the water was the best. I started to guzzle it down, but he stayed my hand.

  “Whoa there,” he smiled. “Not so fast. You will make yourself sick if you drink too much after being so long without water… just a sip at a time, until your body gets accustomed to it first.”

  I kept taking small sips of water, even though I just wanted to pour it down my throat to wash the bad taste out of my mouth that I had left over from the memories of Heather Ridge House, and Sheldon.

  Eventually, I felt a lot better, even though I was still tired, but Mr. Price offered me his arm, and helped me to his buggy. It wasn’t very far to his office, where he helped me out of his buggy, and then placed me on a chair in his office.

  Mr. Price stood before me with his hands behind his back, rocking back and forth on his heels. “You are a very wealthy young lady,” Mr. Price informed me, with a satisfied smile, like it was all his doing. “Your parents left you everything, including the house. However, if I were you, I would stay at Highroad Inn and hire a crew to open the house back up, and clean it for you before you return.”

  “What about the sickness?” I asked.

  “All the bedding was burned, after your mother died. Once the residence is cleaned and disinfected, I am sure it will be safe to live in. You never came down with the sickness while you were staying there, and if you didn’t get it then, you probably can’t get it now.”

  “I didn’t know my parents had any money. I thought the bag of gold, my mother told me to take, when I left, was all the money they had, but that was stolen from me.”

  Mr. Price laughed, pushing his glasses up his nose, and giving me a pleasant look. “That was probably just cash your father kept on hand. He had much more in the bank. Everything is in trust for you, though, until you turn eighteen. However, the bank will release enough money to run the household, and support you, until that time, since your parents are no longer alive. Only, you will need a guardian, to take charge of things, since you are underage.”

  I stiffened. I didn’t think I could trust anyone to be my guardian, after the experience I had with my Godfather.

  “Don’t worry. I will find you a governess, and a guardian, and if you have a maid that is of age, that will be acceptable as a companion.”

  I would have to wait three years before I could actually be on my own, I thought. I was worried if Sheldon found out where I was, he may come and force me to come back, or insist I marry him, now that I have inherited my parent’s wealth, saying I have to because he compromised me.

  “Leave the house closed up,” I said suddenly. “I will merely get my personal belongings, and find a small house to live in until I am of age. That way, I won’t have to hire help to run the house, and a governess and maid, would be all I would need besides a cook,” I told him. I was hoping he would forget about finding me a guardian.

  “I could procure you a small townhouse, I suppose,” Mr. Price shrugged. “Perhaps that is a good idea. I will get you set up at the inn, and as soon as you feel up to it, you can go through your belongings at the house. By then I should have found something for you to move into.”

  I smiled. In two years, Sheldon would be married to Tamara, and I wouldn’t have to worry about him trying to find me, because she will have moved to Heather Ridge house with him. As long as my house stayed closed up, he would probably assume I had not inherited it, and I was probably working as a servant in someone’s house, or perhaps just a street woman, doing all those things he had forced me to do with him.

  Mr. Price, got me the best room in Highroad Inn, that money could buy, and I languished in luxury for three days, spending as much time as possible in the deep warm bath, in order to wash my body free of the stench of Heather Ridge House, and my memory of Sheldon along with it. Only I knew the latter was an impossibility.

  I thought of how I had looked forward to becoming Sheldon’s wife, but he had never planned to make me his wife. He had planned to have me as his kept servant from the very beginning. That was why he suggested to his father that I become a servant in order to remain there. He knew I had no family, and thought I had no money, and so I would have no other recourse but to remain his servant to use as h
e pleased, and perhaps to pass around in case he needed a little spending money.

  I thought about how he had used trickery from the beginning to get me to trust him, and love him, and when it worked so well with me, he figured he could take the same pleasures from Tamera, thinking I would never know. It was better than having to pay a street woman, I thought. He couldn’t afford a street woman, and that is why he had decided to keep me for his own use. It had all been a big act, to make me believe he truly wanted to marry me, and did everything out of love for me.

  When I first came back to the city, I had been frightened, and afraid for Sheldon to find me, but when I realized the extent of my wealth, I became braver, because now I had a solicitor who was there to protect my interest, and make sure I had a guardian, and people around me, to keep me safe from people like Sheldon. Now that I had money, Sheldon could not threaten me, and if he tried to force my hand, by saying he compromised me, I would expose him for the person he really was. I was starting to feel better about the guardian Mr. Price insisted he find for me.

  Now, suddenly, I wanted to get back at Sheldon for what he had put me through. My wealth, I felt, far out scored the Bronson’s capital, because Mr. Price had informed me that I was one of the wealthiest heiresses in the area. Sheldon was marrying Tamara for her money, and had used me like a gutter girl. I would find a way to ruin both Sheldon and his father, I decided, and having money was going to help me do it.

  Sheldon’s father was a gambler, and I believed that I could find a way to bring him to his knees, through gambling, and in doing so, bring Sheldon down with him, but I had to find a professional gambler to accomplish the plot that was starting to swirl around in my head, while I relaxed at the inn and pampered myself with the finest of food, working on gaining my weight back again, along with my dignity.

  Three days later, I was moving into my townhouse, with Miss Porter, my governess, Sally, my personal maid, Harriet, the cook, and our old groom, who had been caring for my parent’s horses, all this time. Mr. Price was still looking for a guardian for me.

  One of our many buggies was brought to the townhouse, and Mr. Price made sure all my clothes and personal belongs were already in residence when I arrived. He had hired men to transport some of the furniture from my parent’s house to the town house, so everything was all set up, and also familiar to me, once I moved in.

  As I sat at the piano playing, it made me recall how I had heard Tamara playing the piano, and the fact that Vance had invited me to her birthday party. A sly idea started to formulate in my head, and I reached up and fingered the worn card, Vance had given me, which I could not find a reason to throw out, and had absently placed on the piano. I had looked at it often, remembering how he had made me promise to contact him, if I ever needed his help.

  I wondered if he was still visiting Heather Ridge house, or whether he had returned home already? I decided to take a chance, and try to visit him. I wanted an excuse to go out anyway. I had Sally inform the groom that I wished to go out, and she would have to come with me, as my chaperone, since she was an older spinster, who had taken the job.

  I looked at her, with her dark hair pulled back to a bun at the back of her head, and her simple bonnet covering most of her hair, and I thought about me ending up being an old spinster, seeing as how Sheldon had compromised me, and even let Jim use me as well. I wasn’t fit to be anyone’s wife, after that, I decided.

  A few minutes later, the buggy was brought around to the front, and Sam, the groom, was in the driver’s seat. I gave him Vance’s address, and once Sally and I were helped up in the buggy, by Sam, since we did not have a footman, he climbed back up in the driver’s seat, and snapped his whip over the horses’ heads.

  We started out at a spanking trot, and the realization that I was my own person now, no longer the child I used to be, began to sink in. The only drawback was that Mr. Price insisted that I needed a male guardian, along with my governess, since he believed that a household needed the strong hand of a man to deal with major decisions, until I got married, or turned twenty one, which ever came first. Then I could run my own household on my own, if I wished.

  On one hand, I liked the idea of a guardian, because he could keep me safe from Sheldon and others like him. But the thought of a man regulating my life frightened me a little, because of the way Sheldon had taken advantage of my innocence. Would a guardian take advantage of me in other ways, because I knew nothing about running an estate, or handling money?

  Mr. Price told me he had a cousin that would be willing to take on the responsibility. He was a confirmed bachelor, who was the second son of a respectable family that had holdings on the seacoast. Since he didn’t have an estate of his own to manage, and had spent most of his time traveling abroad, he had nothing to tie him down. Because he was related to Mr. Price, he said he could trust his cousin to be fair with me.

  I trusted Mr. Price, but I wasn’t looking forward to having a guardian I knew nothing about, only Mr. Price insisted, I could not be on my own without a man in residence, who could take care of things I was too young to bother my head about. He felt, that Connor Price, along with my governess, would probably be acceptable, but I should really get a housekeeper to take up the responsibility of the rest of my servants. Once I had a guardian, I may wish to move back into my parent’s house, he suggested, and a housekeeper would be necessary, then, but that would be up to me.

  This meant that five other people would be living in my townhouse, not to mention the groom, who stayed above the carriage house, and maybe moving back in a bigger house would be preferable, but I would just wait and see, I decided. I sighed, and resigned myself to the fact that until I became twenty one, or got married, which I was sure would never happen, I would have to allow other people to make all the important decisions for me.

  Considering the mistake I had made with Sheldon, believing everything he told me, in my innocence, and not knowing a thing about what was acceptable, and what was not, I decided Mr. Price was just looking out for my best interest.

  The buggy began to slow, and then pulled up in front of a large house, that sat in the middle of an acre of spacious gardens, the long drive winding up to the front of the house. Footmen came out to greet our buggy, and hold the heads of the horses, one of them helping me down from the buggy.

  “Is Vance Bronson home at this time?” I asked one of the footmen.

  “He just arrived back yesterday. There was a big stir at Heather Ridge House, and he seemed rather upset. He is not taking visitors at the moment.”

  “Give him my card, and let him decide,” I said, handing him one of my new cards that Mr. Price had printed up for me, when he got the town house for me.

  “Then come into the parlor, and I will tell the butler to give him your card,” the footman, invited. I told Sally to wait in the buggy for me, because I did not plan to stay long.

  The butler escorted me to the parlor, and then took my card on a silver tray to present it to Vance, I suppose.

  A few moments later, the door burst open and Vance was rushing to my side, but he stopped half way across the room and merely stared at me. I knew I did not look like the girl he had met at Heather Ridge House any longer, and he was trying to adjust to the person who sat on his settee, who looked nothing like a servant now.

  “I do not understand!” he breathed, as he came closer. “I thought you were destitute, and that is why you were working for the Bogart house. But by the looks of your clothes, that does not seem to be the case.”

  “I thought I was destitute, as well, but I have learned differently,” I told him.

  Vance came to my side, sitting down and taking my hands. “You cannot imagine what had been going on at Heather Ridge House, after you left. We thought you must have thrown yourself into the ocean, because there was no sign of you. But I figured if you were going to do that, you would have just jumped from the tower, and not climbed down the rope you fashioned. When I saw that rope, I knew something was te
rribly wrong, because Sheldon had told us that you were ill, and had to stay to your bed. If you were so ill, you would not be climbing out of the window, risking your neck, and then disappearing into thin air! You must tell me what happened.”

  “I can’t tell you everything. I just wanted to warn you about Sheldon. He is not fit to marry your sister, regardless of what your father and my Godfather wishes about it.”

  “I don’t understand. What has Sheldon done? I always thought he and Tamara loved each other.”

  “I am not at liberty to say, but I had to escape him, because he threatened to put me on the streets to work as a lady of the night, if I did not obey everything he told me. Since I wouldn’t obey him, he locked me in the tower, and only brought me moldy bread to eat. He didn’t want me to have anything to do with you, or your sister. He wouldn’t have let me come to her birthday party. He was very angry at me for waving to you from the tower window.”

  “My word, you must explain, so I can inform my father, and he can reverse the betrothal.”

  “The only problem is I believe your sister has already been compromised. He may not be able to reverse it. He may want to expedite it.”

  “This can’t be true!” Vance stormed, slamming his fist into his hand.

  “I am sure that Sheldon wants to marry Tamara. He may even love her, but in my opinion, he does not deserve her. However, if he has compromised her, I don’t know what the law has to say about it,” I admitted.

  “Are you sure that he has compromised her?” he almost roared. “I will kill him, if I find out he did!”

  “It is not my place to say one way or the other. I certainly don’t want you killing Sheldon, because I have my own plans to get revenge for what he did to me.”

  “You seemed frightened that night I spoke to you. That was before you were shut in the tower. Something beyond locking you in the tower must have been happening, even before that.”