The Gilded Cage - Taking my Place

Church and a Treat

"Some of the new Deepdene boys seem to have found some nasty surprises in their wardrobes when they got home?" Bella chuckled as we watched all the children streaming into the church hall, out of the main service, to start their bible classes. "Frock coats and stockings are the latest thing for our young gentlemen, it seems...much nicer than kilts, don't you think?"

"Oh, dear...certainly rather more colourful...but stockings?" I murmured, following her gaze to stare at two boys in long pale blue coats over shirts and ties, which reached down almost to their knees. Their stockings, undoubtedly worn to allow easy access to their diapers, were white and worn with shiny black sandals. It looked cute, but I doubted if that was what they thought about their new outfits. "I take it they are alpha boarders?"

"Yes...those two are cousins...they were at another prep boarding school before, and only wore kilts at home on Sundays...but Grandma is not sexist...she thinks that boys should be kept as nurslings until at least sixteen, or they get too physically mature that it starts to look quite ridiculous." My dear friend told me, as Naomi and Philippa hurried over to make sure that they were changed by me. Bella and I were not under discipline, because she was a Pastor's wife and therefore expected to help organise all of the other volunteers, whilst I was protected by Grandmama, who believed that I should be able to talk to all of the children I was looking after. I had sported a bridle on the way to church, and during the first half of the lengthy morning service, but Catriona had happily removed it herself when I needed to slip out. I was not exactly sure who she had told to leave me alone, because all the maidens helping with the bible classes were under supervision, and most of them had pacifiers or modesty bridles, but it had worked. I was living proof that a maiden could be properly presented in public but also of use. Not for the first time, I marveled at the way the ultra-conservative beliefs of the Ellesmere cabal were taking over everywhere. And at the power of Catriona Montague to protect and promote her own family.

Meadvale was not a huge place. In fact, only about a thousand people lived there. But when Pastor Michael Winstanley moved into the area, forty years before I arrived, many of his more ardent supporters followed him, and ever since, Reformists had been moving into the locale by the hundreds, every year. In the village itself, the large houses around the park and the small high street had all been bought up by the legendary first congregation, including the Montague family, the Ellesmeres, the Blackstones and the Deacons. It was quite an exclusive area, and the properties were all large and expensive, so other disciples who wanted to live near their spiritual leader but did not have the same financial resources, moved into other villages, and even the local towns, nearby. And after four decades, according to Papa, there were around ten thousand Reformists living within five miles of the village, and over a dozen churches. Our own church, the original, was the home of the first congregation, and some eight hundred people crammed in for services, and it was safe to say that our congregation was by far the most traditional and conservative. So, if you wanted to see daughters of Eve in elegant gowns or nurslings in their cute outfits and child-carriers, the village was the place to come. And when I arrived as the nanny to the four Montague girls, I had landed myself right into the traditional heartlands of the Reformist movement, and had hardly ever left it since. And I still loved it, of course. Even the embarrassed little boys in their frock coats.

Heathens, outsiders, might not understand it, but I felt safe inside that closed world, where I could see the boundaries and appreciate the rules. In Meadvale, life seemed so simple, and so straightforward to me. I had no real uncertainties. No anxieties. Helping with the bible classes was such a pleasure. Most of the children I looked after were happy. Yes, the clothes were old-fashioned, but that was normal in Meadvale. No one found it remarkable, and as always on a Sunday, I could feel the passion all around me, and share in the community spirit. Some people took their beliefs further than I liked, but there were still limits, and the vast majority of those people were also content with their lot, or prepared to accept discipline because they believed in the doctrine. Despite everything that was going on with Mr Ellesmere, I still loved the place and thought of it as home. "Are you happy with John, Bella? When your grandmother is not interfering at least?"