Summerset Abbey: A Bloom in Winter

by Brown, T. J.

  Rowena shifted in her seat. She wasn’t even sure she was going to accept Sebastian’s proposal that they make their engagement real.

  “I’d like to think my brother would be happy as well.” He looked at the rose garden, a small smile playing over his lips. “I remember telling you once that your father and I frequently butted heads. Over almost everything, actually, even in how he brought up his children. But I have come to realize that he wasn’t bringing you up to fit into our world; he was educating you to fit into the modern world. I’ve watched the past few months as both you and Victoria have bashed about, trying to fit into a world that you were never meant to inhabit.”

  Tears filled Rowena’s eyes. Her uncle understood far more than she had ever imagined.

  “So I spoke to your intended to get an idea of what you might like for an engagement gift, what might make you even just a bit like the happy, cheerful girl who used to spend every summer here. What he told me, young lady, shocked me to my very soul, but in my eagerness to become a part of the new century, I followed his advice.”

  She frowned, glancing at Sebastian, who was trying to hide a smile.

  “You didn’t have to get us anything, Uncle,” she said uncomfortably.

  “Not get my own niece an engagement present? I think not.”

  Rowena watched him suspiciously. She’d never seen her uncle show this kind of suppressed emotion before, as if he had a secret he was dying to share.

  Uncle Conrad pulled a couple of slender cigars out of his pocket and handed one to Sebastian. After he lit his, he handed his lighter to Sebastian, who did the same.

  “Besides, it’s too late. Your very own Vickers biplane will be delivered to Brooklands Aero Club in Surrey in about a month. They have an aeronautic school there that actually admits women. In fact, Hilda Hewlett was one of the founders, as well as becoming the first woman to be granted a pilot’s license.”

  Rowena put a hand over her mouth. “How did you know? Why would you do that for me?”

  Her uncle picked up her hand and gave her fingers a squeeze. “After talking with Sebastian, I contacted Mr. Dirkes and he told me that you had been spending a great deal of time at the airfield and that you wished to get your pilot’s license. Then he gave me a ten-minute lecture on how the times are changing. I don’t truly subscribe to his motto of adapt or die, but I think I am adapting just a bit.” Her uncle looked smug at his own growth.

  “I still can’t believe you’re doing this for me,” she said. She wanted to accept. God knew she wanted to accept. She would be one of how many civilians to own her own aeroplane? One hundred in all of Britain? And surely the only woman!

  But though her uncle didn’t know it, accepting the aeroplane meant accepting Sebastian’s suggestion that they make their engagement real, and she wasn’t sure she could do that. Wouldn’t that be the same as admitting that things with Jon were truly finished forever?

  She drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair. But in reality, wasn’t that the truth? Could she ever forgive him for walking away from her? For refusing to fight for their love?

  She turned to him suddenly, a smile lighting up her face. “Uncle, I thank you so much for your kindness. I can’t even imagine what it must have taken for you to allow your niece to become a pilot.”

  “I’m not nearly as backward as you think I am. Mr. Dirkes was doing his best to talk me into it and then I thought about your father and how proud of you he would have been.”

  Her throat tightened. “Do you really think so?”

  He nodded. “Yes, I think he would have been.”

  Her chest tightened with too many emotions too express. Excitement, regret, anticipation, and loss fought for supremacy in her heart. “Thank you, Uncle Conrad.” A tear slipped down her cheek and she leaned forward and threw her arms around her uncle’s neck.

  He patted her shoulder in that awkward way he had before moving away from her.

  “No tears, Rowena. The time for tears is over. Look how lovely the weather is. Spring has come and it’s time for things to begin anew.”

  * * *

  Victoria leaned on Kit’s arm far more than a stroll through the gardens would necessitate. But then, her confinement, poor prison food, and lack of exercise had weakened her already frail body. Cook had taken to whipping up new culinary creations for her to try and Nanny Iris brought a new kind of tea or medicine almost every day. Everyone, it seemed, was concerned about getting some “flesh on her bones.”

  Victoria had spent the recent weeks of her freedom thinking about what she had done that led to her downfall. For it was a downfall. She wasn’t proud of her prison sentence as so many other suffragettes were. She knew the truth. She was only there because she had been so easily duped. Instead of seeing a serious woman with valuable skills, Martha, Lottie, and Mary had seen a child so eager to prove herself that she wouldn’t stop to think about what she was doing. Her uncle had done some checking and was fairly certain Martha and Lottie hadn’t disappeared for nefarious purposes, but rather had simply been fearful of being implicated in the Rokeby Venus scandal and had closed down the London offices and opened up shop in Liverpool. Victoria hoped that, if nothing else, the money she raised was doing some good for women who needed it.

  Her pace slowed and Kit bent his head, concern in his keen blue eyes. “Are you all right? Would you like to go in?”

  “Oh, stop fussing so. You’re getting to be such an old woman. Just find me a bench, would you?”

  Without warning, he picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder. His long legs meandered this way and that while she pounded on his back, laughing. Lord, she had missed him. But after her release, she immediately noticed that the tenor of their relationship had changed. Now she proceeded carefully, hoping that he wouldn’t be so bold as to put voice to the feelings she read on his face.

  Didn’t he know that would ruin everything?

  He settled her down onto a bench and sat next to her. She turned her face up to the last rays of the sun. She’d missed the sun while she’d been in her cell. She’d missed so much.

  “Are you sure you feel all right?” he asked.

  She detected the worry in his voice. “I’ll tell you when I don’t.”

  “So I’ve been wondering about something,” he said, his tone so casual that she immediately put her guard up. “Could you explain to me exactly what your problem with marriage is? It’s an institution that has survived thousands of years.”

  “And it will go on to survive a thousand more without my help. Honestly, did you never listen when I told you I didn’t want to get married?”

  He snorted. “Trust me. I am well aware. I just want to know why.”

  She sighed. Obviously, she was going to have to explain herself over and over until he understood. “I am only nineteen, for one thing. I want to live my life the way I want to without worrying about what my husband will or won’t let me do. Why is marriage supposed to be the height of my ambition when clearly it isn’t yours, considering you’ve reached the ripe old age of twenty-five without succumbing? Besides, I have everything figured out.”

  “Of course you do,” he said drily. “When have you not?”

  “No, listen. I’ve been talking to my uncle and he has given me some very good ideas. I am going to move to London and work. Real work, like teaching impoverished women to read and write. I’ve never dedicated myself to such a fulfilling pursuit as when I taught in . . . in prison.”

  “Your uncle would never agree to that,” Kit scoffed.

  “That shows how much you know! He’s the one who suggested it. I plan on spending the rest of the summer here to recuperate and then move in with Eleanor. He’s fond of Eleanor, and she is a nurse, so I will be well looked after.”

  “You promised me you were going to look after your health. How are you going to do that living and working in the bowels of London?”

  “I won’t be living in the bowels of London. I will get a flat in a fashion
able part of London, perhaps Kensington or St. James. Uncle will probably insist on giving me a car and driver, so I won’t even be out in the cold. Now stop being such a grump.”

  Kit sighed, and she could see that there was still more he wanted to say. But she was grateful that, for now, he was leaving it unsaid.

  She smiled, looking out at the beautiful rose garden her father had designed. Then she quoted:

  “They are not long, the days of wine and roses,

  Out of a misty dream

  Our path emerges for a while, then closes

  Within a dream.”

  “I always thought Dowson was a rather lonely chap,” Kit mused.

  “Mm-hmm.” Victoria stood and held out her hand. “Come, my dearest friend. Let’s walk through the roses and watch them bloom.”

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  As an author, I have always dreamed of living in a foreign country to write and do research. I can envision myself wandering the streets of Rome, Paris, or London, taking pictures, making notes and breathing in the atmosphere to help create the perfect setting within my books. But I realized something as I began doing research for the Summerset series—1914 London does not exist.

  Even if I were to hop on a plane and wing my way across the Atlantic, the London I lived and breathed for months would not be waiting for me. So authors of historical novels have a unique disadvantage when compared with our contemporaries who write more modern fare—the worlds we are writing about have passed away and can only be discovered in photographs, paintings and drawings, literature, history books, and newspapers.

  In truth, historical authors are much like detectives trying to put together the pieces to make a coherent whole. Most of the time we accomplish this beautifully. We wouldn’t be writing historical fiction if we didn’t love and appreciate history. Historical authors think research is fun and many of us would give an eyetooth to be able to go back and experience the time period we’re writing about firsthand.

  The following are just a few of the many Internet resources I used in assembling the world of Summerset Abbey. As always, any inaccuracies in the book are mine and not the fault of the resources I used, nor of my fabulous research assistant and Edwardian expert, Evangeline Holland: www.edwardianpromenade.com

  WEBSITES

  The British Newspaper Archive: www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

  David Cohen Fine Art (Art of World War I): www.davidcohenfineart.com

  BBC Learning Zone (A sound recording of a suffragette): http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/a-suffragette-describes-her-actions/9877.html

  Manor House: http://www.pbs.org/manorhouse/edwardianlife/introduction.html

  BOOKS

  The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Before the War, by Juliet Nicolson

  Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Mother and Daughter in the Gilded Age, by Amanda Mackenzie Stewart

  READERS GROUP GUIDE

  SUMMERSET ABBEY: A BLOOM IN WINTER

  T. J. BROWN

  After Prudence’s desperate marriage and move to London, sisters Rowena and Victoria fear they have lost their beloved friend forever. Guilt-ridden and remorseful, Rowena seeks comfort from a daring flyboy and suddenly finds herself embracing the most dangerous activity the world has ever seen. Her younger sister Victoria, in a desperate attempt to prove herself, defies her family and her illness to make her own dream occupation as a botanist come true . . . but she instead finds herself lured into a dangerous and controversial society dedicated to the fight for women’s suffrage.

  As England and the world step closer to conflict, the three young women flout their family, their upbringing and their heritage to seize a modern future of their own making.

  QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

  1. Summerset Abbey: A Bloom in Winter picks up a few months after the final scene of Summerset Abbey. In the opening chapters, we are swiftly updated on the lives of our three heroines: Victoria is more determined than ever to prove that she’s no longer a child as she follows in her father’s footsteps to pursue a career as a botanist; Rowena seems as gloomy and listless as the gray winter skies, given that she hasn’t seen Jon since they shared a passionate kiss at the end of Summerset Abbey; and Prudence is living in squalor, trying to find a way to love her husband as much as he loves her. How does each of the circumstances illustrated in the early pages of the novel correspond to your expectations for how these women’s lives would be impacted by the surprising turn of events at the end of Summerset Abbey?

  2. Victoria claims that she signed her article for The Botanist’s Quarterly as “V. Buxton” rather than “Victoria” because she wants to be known for her own merits rather than those of her father, and because it sounds more “impressive” (p. 11). Were you surprised that Victoria never actually intended to mask her gender behind her pseudonym? Is Victoria too optimistic about the state of gender equality—perhaps due to her liberal upbringing—or is she just too naïve?

  3. Aunt Charlotte can be considered the villain of Summerset Abbey, and yet she’s a much softer character in this second novel in the series now that Prudence has been cast out of Summerset. Did you anticipate this change in Lady Summerset, or did you expect her to be just as conniving in Summerset Abbey: A Bloom in Winter? Or do you feel that she’s just as manipulative as she was in Summerset Abbey, but in a subtler way?

  4. Did you expect Prudence’s life with Andrew to be so squalid, especially following the letter that Susie describes in the opening chapter, or did you see through her Prudence’s lies from the outset? Can you relate to Prudence’s desire to paint a completely different picture of her life to her friends rather than revealing the truth?

  5. Consider Mr. Herbert’s argument as to why he refuses to hire a woman to write for The Botanist’s Quarterly. Each of his arguments represents a widespread belief held by many at the time. Which of these arguments would most enrage you were it used against you or someone you know today?

  6. Rowena’s family history proves a major obstacle in her quest for happiness with Jon. Considering George’s position in the Wells family in the wake of his father’s death, as well as the rigid division of social classes at the time, do you find George’s unwavering resentment of Rowena due to the actions of her uncle extreme, or do you understand his reasons for wanting to keep her away from Jon?

  7. Victoria’s illness clearly affects the way others view and treat her. Consider how both Victoria’s asthma and her position as the youngest sister in her family motivate her decisions in this novel. When she can’t help but shed tears following her rejection by the editor of The Botanist’s Quarterly, she wonders how she can expect anyone to “take her seriously” if she keeps “acting like a child” (p. 67). Do you see her illness and her role in her family as main motivations behind her desire to become involved in the women’s suffrage movement, given her pressing desire to prove that she’s an independent adult?

  8. Muriel calls the housekeeping lessons that she gives Prudence “lessons in slavery and servitude” (p. 69). Did this statement surprise you? Do you find it to be indicative of the changing attitudes toward women’s rights at the time, or do you think that this attitude is specific to the particularly sharp-tongued Muriel?

  9. Describe Martha as she’s reflected in Victoria’s awestruck and impressionable gaze, and then describe her objectively. Do you find her manipulative, or simply misguided by her overzealous passion for women’s rights? Do you think that Prudence’s desire to become involved in the movement is driven in some way by her desire to be more like Martha, who seems so bold, confident, and in control of her life?

  10. Consider Kit’s reaction to the announcement of the (faux) engagement between Sebastian and Rowena. “Shall I never see a bachelor of three score again?” he laments (p. 146). Were you surprised by his outrage, or, given Kit’s own muddled romantic status, does his anger at the prospect of losing one of his best friends to an institution he claims to despise ring true? Can you relate to Kit’s fea
r of losing a friendship over a relationship?

  11. Rowena’s affection for Jon seems inextricably intertwined with her passion for flying. Do you think that Rowena would have the same feelings for Jon if he wasn’t also her gateway to flying planes?

  12. Additionally, what is it about piloting airplanes that has Rowena so enamored, and how are those reasons different from or similar to Victoria’s own passion for the women’s suffrage movement? In what way are these women’s passions—and the reasons behind them—indicative of the limitations placed on them by their social statuses, and by society at large?

  13. Were you shocked by the severity of Victoria’s sentence given her role in Mary’s crime? How did Victoria evolve while serving her sentence? Do you see this experience as formative as it was traumatizing for Victoria? In what way?

  14. Additionally, how do you feel about Martha’s abandonment of Victoria in the wake of the crime? Did this color your impression of Martha, or is this in line with the type of behavior that you’d expect from her? Why?

  15. Given the tenor of Kit and Victoria’s friendship in Summerset Abbey, did you expect romantic feelings to ever develop between them? Are you excited for the possibility of a romantic rapport between the two of them, or would you prefer that their relationship remain platonic? Why?

  16. Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening is the third and final installment in the Summerset Abbey trilogy. Speculate on what the future holds for our three heroines, as well as the male leads. What do you anticipate will likely happen in the final tome? If you could write Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening, how would you conclude these women’s stories?