The Gilded Cage - Accepting My Place

High Society

Easter came and went in similar fashion for me. I was only a week out of the nursery myself and still under discipline, but I was helping Annie every morning and evening at least, and then spending the rest of my time with Mama and Mummy, socialising and generally playing at being a grown-up. It was not perfect, by any means. I would have preferred not to still be under such strict discipline, but all maidens were being closely watched, I realised, and in the ongoing purge, all maidens, in Meadvale at least, were under much closer control, not just me, as Annie had intimated. The basic fact was that I was doing what I really wanted to do, which was look after my sisters and be part of the close family that I had chosen to join, so I was mostly content and keeping my promise to my Mama to make her proud of me. For the girls, and particularly for Camilla, the long weekend was quite quiet, I suppose. We spent a fair amount of time in church, because it was clearly a very important time of year in the Christian calendar, but as the weather was terrible outside, the eight of them also spent a fair amount of time up in the nursery. Despite her strange mood, and rather worrying comments about moving on, Annie was working so hard on Camilla, and had managed to avoid paddling her, which we were both pleased about. I had no deep affection for the former Karen Davenport, but no real dislike either, even if she had made fun of me at times, for her own amusement, because she was a perfectly adequate nanny and did a good job. However, I felt sorry for the situation she found herself in, and wished that Mr Ellesmere was not being quite so brutal with her, and by all accounts with her poor mother too, although that was just hearsay. I had heard enough about Madeleine Davenport's legal problems and the resulting financial disaster which had landed quite unwittingly at her door, to believe that it was not her fault at all. Her husband's business meltdown was all his doing and other than being named as a director of a myriad of companies he owned, some of which it appeared she had never even heard of, she was not involved in his nefarious activities in any way, shape or form. But bad things had been done in her name, and as he had disappeared off the face of the earth, she was left liable. And rumour had it that Mr Ellesmere was making her pay her debts in obedience and conspicuous piety.

Around the dinner table, especially when it was just the three of us, Colin Montague spoke quite openly about his knowledge of the situation, which his bank was involved in, acting for Mr Ellesmere in an attempt to minimise the huge amounts of money he had to spend to keep his sister out of jail, and the more I heard about Mr Ellesmere, the less I approved of him. Colin almost certainly agreed, without ever saying as much, but then on the Monday night, Easter Monday, I learned a little more about the hierarchy of Meadvale.

"I have never really met any of the Ellesmere family before, Papa?" I commented, after Colin had suggested that they were very influential within the community. It was true. I had only met the youngest daughter, Annabel, when she was helping with my bible class, and before I took my vows, I was fairly sure that I had never even heard the name, other than the fact that my father was working with a Reformist called Ellesmere. Nicola had told me that we were far too liberal to be on friendly terms with them, but I did not really believe that my sister had got that entirely right, because the Montague family were really very well thought of. But Papa was in agreement with his daughter, in a way.

"We are talking about the real elite here, Hermione." He sighed, sitting back in his chair as I took a dainty bite of my salmon. "Not only because of his position as an Elder, but also socially and spiritually. Richard lives on the edge of the village...on his own estate which is almost as big as Meadvale itself...so, you wouldn't see the Ellesmere ladies walking around in the public park...they can quite easily exercise in their own extensive grounds! They don't mix well with anyone below their status...and they don't need to, really...I would not say that they are snobs exactly...but they keep themselves to themselves..."

"So, they are very rich, then, Papa?" I asked, innocently. "But...Papa, you are really rich as well? I would think that the Ellesmeres would happily socialise with the Montagues?"