The Gilded Cage - Accepting My Place

Ladies Who Lunch

"I am supposed to choose for you, really...but what would you like?" Annie asked, frowning at the familiar menu and then glancing up at Bella and me. She had duly collected us both from our respective houses and walked us into the village to eat in the café. It was a regular haunt for us all, before my transformation, and I could tell that she was trying to be nice. She might have teased me a bit before, and then paddled me, but we were all friends, her only friends in Meadvale really. I wondered if she was missing our company, because she was using up her time off to treat us. Annie was dressed in her smart civvies, because it was her afternoon off of course, in just a simple skirt, reaching below the knee, and a prim sweater, whilst Bella and I were wearing full gowns, obviously.

"Anything you think appropriate for us, Miss Stewart." Bella replied demurely. It was exactly the right thing to say for a dutiful maiden, of course. Annie was certainly in charge of us, and we had to do, and eat, what she said. But I could tell that Annie was not inclined to impose her authority for once. She scowled at Bella and then turned to me.

"You like the lasagna, don't you, Hermione?" Annie sighed, well aware that lasagna was my favourite winter comfort food, which I often chose at the café. I thought momentarily of all our other visits, over our four months together in Meadvale. Annie had been my confidante, and my best friend, ever since we first met in London, and we had been on the same strange journey within the Reformist community. She liked living and working in Meadvale well enough, but not in the same way as I did, and she was less inclined than me to accept the strange habits and customs dictated by the holy doctrine. Because she did not hate the modern world, like me, I suppose. She did not want to climb inside a gilded cage and hide away, and she had not fallen madly in love with her charges. But I had told her my reasons. She knew that I loved my sisters and felt at home with the Montague family. She knew I was happy there. I could understand why she was horrified by my false start to my maidenhood, but she did not realise that it really was all my own fault.

"Yes, Miss Stewart...thank you, Miss Stewart." I responded, quietly copying Bella, just as I was supposed to do. It was our duty to be polite to all adults, as I had been reminded of by both Miss Davenport and Helen, before I was formally handed over to Annie, and they had told me to let Bella lead by example. As maidens under discipline, we had no right to choose anything for ourselves. Annie was a responsible adult, and our families trusted her to look after us, so she was definitely in charge.

"You don't have to be so...submissive...I am off duty for once, and I wanted to take you out as a friend...I am not going to tell anyone if you speak out of turn, I promise? I want to talk to my friends, not two subservient little maidens?" Annie hissed, leaning right forwards so that none of the other customers could hear. "It is probably best that you still call me Miss Stewart in here, in case of eavesdroppers, but I mean it...just lighten up, please?"

"Yes, Miss Stewart...thank you, Miss Stewart," I repeated, raising my eyebrows to show her that I understood, with the slightest of smiles. She grinned and nodded, pleased that we were still able to understand each other, I suppose. But it did not last.

"Ok...so, one lasagna...what would you like, Bella?"

"May I have the chicken and pasta, Miss Stewart?"

"Yes, you may...honestly, I do think this is all going a bit far?" Annie murmured, glancing at the waitress to attract her attention, ready to place our order. She was older than me, of course. Twenty-six, and much more grown up, obviously. I was still a teenager, and maybe Karen Davenport was right, maybe I was a little immature in some ways. Annie was not, and she was not hiding from anything or anyone. I was fairly sure that she would work for another year or two and then do something else, so that she could meet someone and settle down to a normal life. Being a nanny was just a means to an end to her, a way to see something of the world with her employers and maybe grow her savings, so that she would be able to buy her own home one day. I was never like that, becoming a nanny was an accident for me, and whilst I seemed to be good at it, I found my place in Meadvale. Pastor John had even suggested that God had led me to Meadvale. "I know I have had to do my job with both of you, which was really hard at times...and Bella, I know this is your community...and your home...but this is all getting a bit much? Hermione, you really cannot be happy about all of this?"