Saints and Sinners

Chapter Eight

Meadvale

Surrey

"She is sixty-six...almost sixty-seven?" Miss Scott asked as she deliberately circled around Caroline Blackstone, examining the wretched Daughter of Eve from every angle, not missing a trick, her steel-tipped walking stick tapping on the wooden floor with every step. Gayle Doyle had no idea exactly how old the legendary keeper was, but she had to be in her eighties at the very least. Daphne Scott was celebrated as the first ever keeper, originally employed as some sort of house maid by Pastor Richard Winstanley to help his wife care for their four daughters. Miss Scott had moved to Meadvale with her own parents as part of the famed first congregation, the loyal disciples who flocked to Pastor Richard's side when he resigned from the Church of England over the decision to allow women to become vicars. Pastor Richard's daughters were expected to be examples to the burgeoning Reformists, as Winstanley set out his vision for their community, and Eleanor Winstanley, his wife, started to dress her girls in long modest dresses and prim bonnets, just because she liked the look, apparently. And that was how a desire to get modern teenagers dressing modesty turned into conspicuous piety in Richard Winstanley's doctrine. Pastor Richard wanted all of his disciples to stand out from the heathen masses, and he encouraged his wife to go further with their girls, to create a look for his community, but his children were not as keen on their new wardrobes as he would have hoped. Miss Scott, still a teenager herself, found herself having to force the four girls to dress as their parents wanted them to. Famously, despite her relative youth, she dared to mention to pastor Richard that it would be easier to discipline his daughters if their mother was setting a better example. Miss Scott herself had adopted her own strict dress code, always wearing a grey Regency-style dress and a crisp white apron when she was on duty, and she convinced the Pastor that his wife needed to be manifestly modest and pious to encourage her girls, not to mention the rest of the congregation. Eleanor was not particularly keen, but with her husband's help, and the paddle she had already been using regularly to tame the four children, Daphne Scott quickly got the family into a reasonable routine, making her the first keeper, Eleanor Winstanley the very first Daughter of Eve and her four teenage daughters the first maidens.

"Yes, Miss Scott...but fit and healthy for her age, Miss Scott?" Miss Doyle said, standing nervously to one side as Caroline stood still, with her head bowed, and her mittened hands clasped together in front of her body. Doyle had removed her cloak and bonnet, but had left her switched off, as requested, so that Miss Scott could inspect her without fuss. The revered keeper, still Principal of Crowthorne Keeper Training College, was on the management board of the Keeper Licensing Authority, and often volunteered her services to investigate troubled Daughters of Eve or errant keepers. Miss Doyle had been instructed to present her charge at the KLA offices in the shadows of the Winstanley Priory at precisely midday.

"I see you have her in a punishment corset, Miss Doyle?" Miss Scott commented, using her stick to point at the long, shaped silhouette of the fearsome stays beneath Caroline's dark blue velvet gown.

"Yes, Miss Scott...it keeps her more rigid during her devotions and it has improved things a little, I think?"

"Good decision, Miss Doyle...but you are her first licensed keeper, I believe? And despite being recognised as a gold standard keeper, this is your first senior position?"

"Yes, Miss Scott...although Mrs Blackstone did spend several months with Miss Bryant at Ellington Manor last year, before I was engaged, Miss Scott."

"She has received far too many auto-punishments...even taking into account the enhanced standards required...and I see that you have also administered corrective discipline on many occasions, Miss Doyle?"

"Yes, Miss Scott...but she struggles with the new minimum duration...she gets so nervous and that makes it worse, Miss Scott?"

"She doesn't believe that she can meet the standard, then?"