The Purpose of Miss Shepley

Chapter Three

The Great Sweat and The Crowning of Alward of Fridric

Near Midwinter in the Year 504 of the Common Reckoning, Baelham was beset with sickness, and a fever laid low the House of Fridric. High King Bertward of Fridric succumbed first to the sickness, followed by the Queen Alwyn and the young princesses Bertwyn and Brandwyn, but the Prince Alward of Fridric was attendant at Frodulf Court, and thus was spared.

The Baelgast made Alward of Fridric High King. The peoples of the Ethelfolk, the Wulfric, and the Drihtrafn assented and renewed the Peacetroth at Midsummer in the Year 505.

Being but a youth of seventeen years, a Council of Regents was formed to guide the young High King: Osbert, Earl of Fyric; Eadmund, King of Wulfsig; and His Excellency Lord Everett Richards, Duke of Everfirth. The Drihtrafn did not send a Regent.

(Excerpt from An History of the Peacetroth and the Peoples of the Trothlands, as recorded by Aethelred of Caxton, and amended so as to include Events of Recent History by Alfred Caxtonson, Esq.)

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The clock in the hall chimed quarter to eleven, and, like a little clockwork figurine, my grandfather yawned. It was a well known fact that the house went to bed when the master did, and soon, the first of our guests said their farewells and drifted out of the ballroom. Temperance Grimmond led a successful petition for one last dance, but the musicians put away their instruments afterward, and the ball was ended, at last. Rarely had I been so grateful that my grandfather was such a strictly regular man.

I was limp with exhaustion, and I leaned heavily on Miss Goodwin as we climbed the maids' staircase. Miss Goodwin, too, moved sluggishly, pausing between each step to gather strength for the next. When we crossed the threshold to my sitting room, I thought I could have felt no less triumph than if I'd reached the highest peak of the Rook Mountains.

We found Mrs. Burke asleep in one of the tall chairs she preferred for her needlework. She was as tidy as ever, her legs crossed at the ankles and her hands folded over her sewing. She hardly would have seemed asleep, at all, if she hadn't snored so.

I sighed and trudged toward her, but Miss Goodwin caught my hand and stayed me.

"No need to wake her," she said quietly. She picked up a candlestick and padded toward my bedroom. "I won't pretend to know Mrs. Burke's methods, but I think I can manage well enough for one night."

I said, "Thank you, Miss Goodwin," and I meant it sincerely -- such tasks were rather beneath her station, though she never hesitated to undertake them when she was needed. This was, in part, why I loved her so.

"The day's been long enough." She closed the bedroom door behind us and cast me a wry smile. "And I confess I harbor doubts about the efficacy of the lemon paste."

This was also, in part, why I loved her so.

Miss Goodwin went round the room lighting candles -- my room was dark save for the glow of embers in the fireplace. I kicked off my slippers and sighed out relief as I put my feet to cool floorboards. To be sure, my feet still ached, but at least they ached differently without shoes on.

I leaned against a bedpost, too weary to do anything but wait for Miss Goodwin's help. I imagined how very nice it would feel to be free of it all, and how very soon now I would be free of it.

In cozy silence, she unfastened all the little buttons running down my back, and then she tugged at the shoulders of the dress.

"Ah, careful..." I said. "I'm sewn into it."

"Sewn into it?" Her tone was nakedly incredulous. She groped round for a moment, pulling at this part and that. "Ah, here..." she said. "You couldn't move your arms much tonight, could you?"