The Gilded Cage - Taking my Place

Crime and Punishment

"It is nice to be able to offer you my arm...even if you can't talk to me!" Steven Blackstone commented, as we joined the family procession heading for church on the Sunday morning. I smiled behind my modesty bridle, letting my eyes show him that I felt the same way, and he squeezed my arm affectionately, which felt mutual and rather nice. "And your sister seems to be doing very well in her maidenhood...I just hope she gets the top-grade history A level she deserves...I enjoyed teaching her, you know? She has spirit, although she was always perfectly well-behaved in my classes?"

I smiled and nodded, following his gaze to where Nicola was walking with Miss Knight, the picture of maidenly virtue. It was a beautiful day, with a clear blue sky and not even a breeze to tame the sunshine. None of us were wearing cloaks, although Miss Knight did have a shawl around her shoulders. My sisters and cousins were all wearing charming pink and white sailor dresses with darling little capes and bonnets, which left poor Henry in a pink frock coat that Grandmama was particularly taken with, which I had to admit that any boy would hate. But he was settling down, I thought, because his attire was not unusual in Meadvale and therefore he would not stand out, which children always dislike. Meadvale's unique retro fashions were becoming second nature to me, and they would to dear Henry, in time. Like many of the females amongst the committed First Congregation, I did not often leave the village. It was not a closed community, there were no barriers keeping people in, or indeed out, but none of the fine ladies in my family, with the possible exception of Auntie Susannah, had any particular desire to visit the heathen world. In the last two years, since I first moved down to Meadvale with my first litter of four, I could count my adventures outside of the community on the fingers of my hands with relative ease. I had enjoyed two summer holidays in France, one trip over to California to fetch our little songbirds, two visits to my parent's old house in Cambridge, one day trip to the theatre in London, and three weekend visits to Charlesfield School, in my various guises, one way or the other. Nothing more than that. So, I did not really see people in what I still thought of as normal clothes anymore. My wardrobe was extravagant of course, and very expensive as well, but my appearance was admired by everyone, and despite the discomfort, I loved looking elegant and ladylike.

Everyone had obeyed the Elder's decree, of course. Despite Grandmama's reaction to it when it appeared, we had kept our own counsel on the subject since. Grandpa did not want anyone hearing us openly criticise the Elders or the Senior Pastor, and he wanted the family to respect the community and the authorities, which he was hopefully about to join. No one knew what was going to happen in the election, obviously, but Grandmama was quietly confident, because Malcolm Montague was a well-liked man, although he had obviously been living away from the community for some years. His reputation at the bank would stand him in good stead, and the family name was good, too, so we were hopeful that things would go our way. But as Papa had said at dinner, just the night before, we had no idea how the First Congregation were going to vote. He was fairly sure that Christian Reformists in general felt that the purge following the disaster at Charlesfield had gone far enough, and would not actually be in favour of a stricter interpretation of the doctrine, but the Meadvale elite, the people who would actually vote, were more pious than anyone else.

"Everyone is voting on the way in," Steven told me, as queued to get inside. "I think that is why this is taking so long this morning...I don't know when we will get the results though?"

"At the end of the service...if the result is clear." Papa said, from just behind us, overhearing what my fiancé was saying and kindly informing us about the process. "It is something around one thousand votes in all, so it will not take so long...I believe there is a representative of both candidates and an independent arbiter counting all the slips, to ensure that everything is done properly, whilst we all pray for the right result!"