Private Universe

The Arrangement

Breakfast was an informal affair for everyone, held in the kitchen. Bridie and Jack handled frying of masses of eggs and sausages, Abby made rafts of toast, Eleonora and Fanny saw to the making of buckets full of tea. Hilary and Deirdre were set to laying the table by Lady Charlotte, who helped and generally encouraged the others. The general mood was joyous. Everyone, for reasons they could not put into words, convinced the ghouls were vanquished and never returning.

Jack felt whole and realised he hadn’t since arriving. It was something divorced from his tiredness. There was a sense of liberation. Some darkness at the back of his mind was gone and he saw no way it could return. If he’d had to explain that to the others, he’d have failed, but he saw the same thing in their faces.

The tiredness was still strongly with him and he started to nod over his tea. Charlotte suggested he needed to go and sleep, so he gave his apologies and went back to a bed with no dreams or interruptions.

The mood at the breakfast table changed with him gone. All that could be said about the ghouls had been and most of those at table found they had other things on their minds. Lady Charlotte was aware that she and her cook shared something that such different stations in life normally didn’t. But what on Earth is normal now, she wondered. Something would have to be done here, she realised. She couldn’t pretend that nothing had happened the night before and didn’t want to even if she could. That Bridie knew about her just what she knew about Bridie worried her less than she thought it might. She had no feeling that the knowledge would ever be used against her.

Four women sharing one man, however. That would need to be dealt with and no one else would be as able to ensure it was than herself. She was about to request a meeting with the other adults when Gina arrived.

‘You,’ said Bridie, ‘Are not going to believe what went on here last night. Not none of what went on here last night.’

It turned out that Gina had heard nothing of the shooting that morning. Nothing untoward had happened in the village and her walk down to the castle had been, as always, uneventful. She would not have believed what they told her, but that they all told her it and all were clearly sincere.

‘Well, ladies. I think that I need to speak with some of you of last night and … Well, of last night. Perhaps Mrs Hawk and Abigail could deal with the breakfast things while we talk upstairs in the study? Girls, I suspect you two could use a rest as well after last night, so perhaps you’d like to retire to your room?’

Once in the study, Charlotte let the others sit, took a deep breath and began.

‘Well ladies. The conversation we are about to have may be a little strange for most of us. Certainly it’s unique in my experience. I believe I am correct in thinking that we all have what we might call a friendship, a rather… intimate friendship, with Jack.’

She knew by the downcast eyes and sudden way that every one of them became less a member of the morning’s happy group and more an isolated and either shy, confused or marginally belligerent woman than she had been, that she was right.

‘Please note that when I say ‘all’, I do mean all. To say that this situation is unusual is less English understatement and more a bald-faced lie. I think we are all aware that it should not be happening. I think we are all unwilling that it should stop. I also suspect that the fault, if there is one for this, lies more with us than with the young man, happy though he may be with it. For myself…’ She paused, trying to wrap her mind around a strong, but still unclear feeling she had about what she wanted here. ‘I feel nothing is to be gained by us behaving like silly girls here. What has happened, has simply happened. We have a choice of sending Jack from this house, for reasons which I think we could never explain to anyone, or of keeping him here. At least, until the end of the summer, when he must leave us anyway. Can I assume that the second is the preferred option for all of us?’