The Secret Attachment

II

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for." Dead Poets Society

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II.

"Katy, go on upstairs and help Eliza get ready," Mrs Banes instructed as she went back towards her sitting room. "Really, it's nearly ten o'clock. How does she ever expect to find a husband if she spends her mornings thus?" She shook her head in disapproval.

Katy obediently went upstairs and quietly knocked on Eliza's door when she came to her bedroom.

When she heard an annoyed groan coming from inside, Katy knew that was Eliza's reluctant permission to enter.

Eliza's bedroom was small, but pretty, and utterly chaotic. There was not a surface available that was not utilised to store piles of clothing, or stacks of books, or sometimes both. Dresses and underclothes were draped over the screen, and her dressing table was filled with more nick knacks than potions and ointments.

Katy often offered to help her organise her things, but Eliza insisted that this was the only way she could find anything.

Eliza sat up in bed with a tired frown on her face. Her naturally curly, blonde hair, was impossibly frizzy, and yet flat on one side from where she had slept on it. Her bedclothes were in disarray, and Katy was certain that the brown stain on the front of Eliza's nightgown was last night's tea.

"Don't look at me like that, Katy. You know you would not have me any other way," Eliza playfully scolded, as she stretched and pulled back the bedclothes.

Katy merely shook her head with a smile and went to open Eliza's drapes. Eliza's bedroom had such a lovely outlook onto the garden. The garden at the Banes family cottage was probably Katy's favourite thing. As children, she and Eliza had often pretended that it was enchanted. The hedges and sporadic clusters of wildflowers made it look like the perfect grove for fairies.

"You really ought to utilise your mornings better," encouraged Katy. Why, now Katy had been up for nearly four hours.

Eliza smiled sweetly. She did have such a sweet, angelic face, with soft, dainty features. She was small, and completely unsuspecting. One would not assume that she was as wild and spontaneous as she was.

"I can't help it!" she protested. "You know how I get with a book," she reminded Katy. "Lady Arabella had been kidnapped by a wicked, roguish pirate. I simply had to know how it ended." Eliza clutched her heart dramatically and threw herself back into her bedclothes.

Katy giggled and climbed onto Eliza's bed with her. "Well, do not keep me in suspense," she urged.

Eliza's green eyes flared, similarly to how her mother's did, only this time it was with wild excitement. "Well," she began excitedly, "Lady Arabella's wicked fiancé chartered a dozen ships in every direction to find her, but he never did. The pirate took Arabella to his secret cove where he ravished her." She whispered the last part as though it were taboo. "But then he got sick with fever and died. Arabella lived out her life as a lonely maid on the island, longing for her pirate captain."

Katy turned her nose up. "Oh, what a sad ending," she said, disappointed.

"Oh, but they are the best ones!" insisted Eliza. "The more tragic and heartbreaking a romance, the better!"

Katy knew that she and Eliza's opinions differed on this topic greatly. Dying from fever was not her idea of romantic. Not at all.

"Well, if romance is what you seek, then you might be in luck," Katy said, bringing her friend back from the land of make believe.