by Rachel Burns
Nanny was waiting with my sweater next to the limo. “Thank you, Nanny.” I gladly slipped into it. Sir looked at her approvingly.
I fell asleep in the car on the way home. I woke on his shoulder as the limo parked. I apologized, but he didn’t look mad.
My father was waiting at the door. I involuntarily took a step back, but Sir had his hand on my elbow. He pushed me forward as he walked up the steps to the door. He must have felt the resistance, but he pretended not to.
“Brian, could I have another word with you alone.” He turned, assuming that Sir would follow.
“Nanny, bring her to bed. Make sure she has it warm.” With that he turned and went into my father’s office, as if he’d been the one who had called the meeting.
Nanny took me to the bathroom and watched me brush my teeth and wash my face. She brought me to bed after that. The blankets, which she’d gotten a couple of days ago, were still there. She didn’t sit down and tell me a story this time. That was too bad. She was good at telling stories.
Nanny quickly put away my new clothes, and then she shut off the light and stood in the door. She just watched me for a moment before she spoke. “The next time we see each other it will be forever. Good night, Amelia.”
I was moved by her words. I had a feeling that she was going to miss me. And that, she’d be happy once we were back together again. She liked me. I needed her approval so much.
“Thank you for everything. I had a very nice day, and my headache is gone too. Good night, Nanny.” I lay down on my pillow and pulled the covers tightly around me.
I had a warm feeling in my heart that even the cold basement couldn’t take away from me.
I fell back asleep in seconds.
Chapter 5 – A New Home For Amelia
Brian stood in Amelia’s room and looked around. He was pleased with how things had turned out, and he could hardly wait to show her everything.
He worried that she wouldn’t be there when he went to pick her up on Saturday. He had a bad feeling as if he was putting all of his eggs in one basket.
If she rejected him and his lifestyle – No, he couldn’t think that way. This had to work out. She needed him and as her husband, and he’d know what was best for her.
“I think everything turned out the way you wanted it to, sir.” Nanny walked in behind him, carrying several dresses that she’d clipped the tags off of. She hung them up in Amelia’s massive walk through closet.
“Nanny, in your experience, how do the wives react to this life style?” he carefully asked.
Nanny smiled at him, recognizing the worry in his voice. “Some get rebellious, terribly so. If that’s the case, life is a constant battle. Others never question this life, and some need exactly this. Personally, I believe that our little Amelia is starved for this kind of attention. She’ll thrive under the positive attention and love.”
Brian nodded and grinned. That had been just what he needed to hear. The last thing his family needed was another scandal. They’d managed to stay out of the tabloids for the past couple of generations, and he didn’t what to be the one to put them back in them.
He could see the headlines already. Brian … forces his wife to wear children’s clothing and locks her up in her room with her toys.
No, that wouldn’t do. This had to be a very well kept secret.
***
I avoided my father as best as I could, but he had me called into his office on Friday afternoon. I knocked and waited.
“Come in.”
I opened the door and stepped in. I noticed that we were alone. I closed the door behind me and stepped forward to his desk, stopping a couple of steps in front of it.
He looked at me for a while without saying anything. He’d never done that before. He shook his head and began, “Amelia, you’ll be marrying into one of the most influential families in America. You have a responsibility to behave as such. Brian wants you. Don’t end up embarrassing him.” He stopped and sighed. “If this doesn’t work out for you, for whatever reason, you can’t come back here. If he ends up hitting you, cheating on you, or ignoring you, don’t come crying to me. Do you understand?” He looked me in the eyes then, probably for the first time in my life.
I nodded and looked down at my feet.
“That isn’t good enough. I want to hear you say it.” He was so cold. My heart felt like he was freezing it over.
I raised my head and looked at him so I wouldn’t have to repeat the words that were hurting me again. “I may never come back, no matter what.”
“Go.” He motioned with his hand again.
I gladly left and went back to my room to cry.
I stayed there until the next day.
Nanny woke me. She was sitting on my bed smiling. “It’s time, child. Let’s go.”
She got me cleaned up quickly and dressed in a white blouse with lace on the sleeves and white buttons that looked like flowers. A light blue dress went over the top. I looked somehow German in that dress. It would have just needed a cute white apron. It had matching light blue shoes. Or maybe I looked more like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I thought I looked very nice. Nanny looked very pleased. “Light blue is a very good color for you. It brings out your blue eyes.”
I was so nervous as we went up the stairs. Nanny had packed a couple of things for me. I was shaking before I reached the last step.
Brian was waiting by the front door with my father, who had a file in his hands. He thrust the file at Brian before he took off. “Sick, so very sick.” He went into his office and closed the door behind him.
Brian rolled his eyes then he smiled at me and walked forward and took me from Nanny and brought me out to the limo.
I sat in the middle of them. Nanny rubbed my arm a little. She knew that I needed a bit of moral support.
I wondered about Brian again. Why didn’t he want me to call him by his name? Brian was a good sound name. Maybe he’d been named after someone who he didn’t like.
He was looking through the file. I could see it on his lap. It was all about me, my birth certificate, all of my report cards, and medical and dental records.
“No tonsils,” he called out and Nanny nodded.
They’d been removed when I got to school, like five days later. I was constantly sick as a child. It got a lot better at school. I figured it was because my room in the basement was just too cold, especially in winter.
He looked at my report cards again and then at me surprised. I got straight A’s from day one.
He handed the file over to Nanny who looked over it even more carefully then he had.
“You said you didn’t like Math and Science?” he questioned me.
“I don’t.” I looked him in the eyes.
He looked confused. “But you did so well?”
“I figured my dislike would only get worse if I didn’t understand it.”
He snorted but smiled at the same time. He looked like he didn’t know what to make of me.
Nanny looked somehow worried. I was just confused. I couldn’t have done better.
Were they disappointed in me?
Maybe it was because my father didn’t let me join any clubs or sports?
“Amelia, did lots of girls get straight A’s like you did?” She asked very sweetly.
I shook my head. “I was the best.” I turned very red.
“Did you think about going on to college?” she asked.
“My father wouldn’t have paid for that.” I was embarrassed, having to admit that.
“A scholarship could have solved that problem?” she asked even more confused.
I shrugged my shoulders. A scholarship wouldn’t have put food in my stomach or kept me clothed.
“Didn’t your school recommend that you apply for one?” She just wasn’t dropping this topic. Her forehead was even wrinkled up.
I shook my head. They knew my family situation. They used to write to my father all the time, demanding that he sent money for my uniform
when my skirts got to short.
In the end I had to wear donated things from the older girls until I was old enough to work in the kitchens to earn the money that I needed to buy those things.
I hung my head and hoped that they’d drop the topic.
“I know of a school especially for young ladies like you. All the girls who attend the school are married.” She was talking to him not to me. “I’ll arrange a visit if you’d like, sir. All the ladies there have nannies who bring them to school in the morning and pick them up afterwards. All the teachers are also ladies.”
“I’ll research it and think about it.” His word was the final one.
Nanny said no more.
We pulled up to a mansion similar to the one I’d just left but a little smaller. This must be what my father had meant by an influential family.
Sir took my hand and guided me up to the house. He smiled at me the whole way. He opened the door for me. The floors were all wooden in here. It was a lot warmer than what I was used to. He took me from room to room and told me about the rooms that we were in.
He showed me Nanny’s room. They both insisted that if I ever needed anything, no matter the time that I could call on Nanny.
We went through a door in her room that led to my bathroom. “A bathroom? Just for me?”
“Yes, all the fine ladies have them,” he teased me. His good mood was contagious. I smiled right along.
We moved on with the tour. Then came my closet. It was already full of the things that Nanny and I’d bought. One dress was hung up to the side in a dark grey garment bag. I guessed it was my wedding dress. It had fit perfectly. There had been no need for alterations. I longed to pet it, as I walked by.
“This is your bedroom.” He opened the sliding door to my room. That was when I noticed that there was a matching door on the other side of my closet. It had just been open.
He stepped into the bedroom, pulling me behind him. My mouth fell open. It was so bright and cheerful but still very cool. The walls were painted in vertical pink and white stripes. The furniture was all white wood. Shelves full of books just waiting for me to read them. There was a huge window, which had a window seat.
I could already picture myself relaxing against the pillows and reading. It even had heavy thick curtains. I could hide in there when I didn’t want to be bothered, I laughed to myself. No draft would come through that window this winter.
The bed was all white, and the comforter looked so soft and warm. The floor was wood that had been painted white.
I turned to see what was behind us. There was a study corner. It was done up in dark wood and raised higher than the rest of the floor. I had to take a step up to get to the desk. I touched it lovingly. “I’ve never had my own desk before. Thank you. Is it antique?”
“Yes, it was hard to find but apparently worth the trouble.” He smiled at me.
I smiled back shyly then turned to look at the shelves behind me. They were full of schoolbooks. He’d been serious about letting me continue my education. There were learning games in there too.
“Didn’t you have a desk at school?” he asked me.
“No, we had tables in the lounges.” I stepped back down from the platform and looked at them and then to the door.
He followed my gaze and moved to it. “This is the door to my bedroom. I’ll show it to you next Saturday. Until then it will remain locked,” he assured me.
I smiled again, blushing when I thought about Saturday.
“I think the best thing would be to give you a moment to look around all by yourself. Nanny will collect you for lunch in about an hour.”
They both left still smiling at me.
I waited for them to close the bathroom door to Nanny’s room then I sat down on the bed. It was even softer than I’d imagined it would be.
I stood and went to the window and looked out. It overlooked the garden, which reached as far as I could see. I could already see Nanny and I taking brisk walks out there.
I laughed to myself again. Could this all truly be just for me? This was so unreal.
I got up again and went to my mini schoolroom. I grabbed the wooden learning game that had caught my eye earlier. I sat down with it at my desk and went to work figuring it out.
I’d just solved it when I noticed Nanny watching me. She smiled, “Are you hungry? You must be you haven’t had breakfast yet.”
I nodded and cleaned up the game very quickly.
She looked so pleased with me. “If you’re that good at concentrating, then we can often use independent learning. Do you like the learning material I picked out for you?”
“Yes, it took me the whole time to figure out how it works, but I got it now.” We chatted about the game until we got to the dining room.
Brian jumped up and pulled out a chair for me. He was really good at that. It honestly did make me feel like the lady of the house. He sat at the head of the table. I sat to his left and Nanny to his right.
“She was at her desk playing with one of her learning games. It will surprise you to hear that it was one about math.” Nanny smiled as she told him.
“Nothing surprises me anymore. Did you like the game?”
I nodded.
“Nanny, tell us more about these Montessori learning materials.”
She did. Brian, as I thought of him in my head, told her to feel free to order more, as needed.
We looked like a happy family. I even opened up and talked a little. Brian hung on every word I said.
The week had been moving along quickly. The Wedding inched closer every day. It was now only two days away.
Nanny had me reading a couple of different books but with no pressure before the wedding. She’d said she didn’t want to make me any more nervous.
My period was over now. Nanny had been keeping close tabs on that. She worried that I wasn’t getting enough vitamins, iron and such things. I wasn’t used to this much worrying about me.
“Amelia?” she said to me that morning while we were in my bathroom. She was brushing my hair as she always did before I bathed. “We need to get you ready for your wedding night. We need to remove all the hair that’s unnecessary.”
I nodded.
“That means your legs and under your arms as well as between your legs.”
That surprised me. I didn’t know about things like that.
“It will hurt a bit, and you’ll be sore. I’d like to take care of it now, so you’ll be perfect for Saturday.” She was going to remove it?
I remained quiet.
“Amelia, are you going to give me trouble?”
I shook my head. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea, but if that was how things were done, then so be it.
“He doesn’t want you to ever have hair anywhere but on your head. This will become part of your upkeep.”
“He talked about – that?” I asked, disgusted.
“He’ll be your husband in two days. You’ll belong to him, and it’s better for a man to say what he prefers then to keep it for himself and be disappointed. And you don’t have anything to hide from Nanny either.” She sounded a little mad. I’d offended her.
I nodded, and she started to get things ready while I watched her wide-eyed.
“Amelia, you can undress now.” She had her back to me stirring the hot wax.
I nodded and started right in, knowing that she was watching me in the mirror.
She’d been so good to me. Her kind of care was easy to get used to. She picked out my clothes and helped me get dressed and took care of anything that needed to be done.
Nanny praised me a lot. She gave me the feeling that I was doing things right.
She read to me at night before I went to bed. I was getting plenty of sleep. I’d never felt healthier.
I trusted her. If she said this was how things were done, then it would be true. I was just a shy person by nature and having someone do something down there embarrassed me.
She started in with my undera
rms. It went quickly. She rubbed oil in after she finished. It was painful but bearable.
She moved to my legs after that. She ripped the hair that grew there out and rubbed in oil when she was finished with an area. That hurt even less than under my arms. She worked her way up having me turn this way and that. So she could reach everywhere without having to bend overly much.
The only thing left was my most private hair. She had me sit down on the vanity table chair and lean back.
I looked away in my embarrassment. She ripped, and I flew along with her. It hurt so terribly.
“Amelia, you have to sit still. Lean back again.”
Tears were pouring out of my eyes.
“Amelia, he was real clear about this. You don’t want to disgust him, do you?”
I shook my head and leaned back again. This time I grabbed onto the chair, trying to sit still.
“I need you to open your legs for me.”
I opened them slightly and looked away in my shame. I was already shaking.
“More.”
I moved them a little further apart.
“Much more. Amelia, please. Let’s get this over with.”
I opened them even wider while I cried.
She sighed and opened my legs the way she wanted them. “I hope you don’t act this way on your wedding night. He’s been so very generous with you. A man expects a wife to be dutiful in return. Do you understand?” she scolded.
“Yes, Nanny,” I sobbed. She ripped again and again. I couldn’t sit still.
“One last time, and then it’s over.”
I tried very hard to think about something else, but it was impossible to do with someone down there. She ripped away the last of the hair and then inspected me, making sure that everything was gone that should be. “Stay the way you are.” She put more oil on her hands.
“Nanny, no.”