ANNE EYRE (Aunt Tessa: chapter Eighteen) #Jane Eyre Retelling

Chapter Eighteen

Aunt Tessa

    The train journey was long, and I thought of his face, his body, his expressions, playing the images in my head like the schoolgirl I’d been. I put these thoughts of love out of my mind. I knew he was so far out of my reach that these images of unrequited love were both imaginary and laughable. A girl can dream.

     And let’s face it, Rochester made all other men seem pale in comparison. The boys I’d met casually, at school mixers arranged between the boys’ and girls’ schools and even at the train station on those afternoons where I travelled to wherever home was, could never compete, even in my schoolgirl memory.

    I pulled out the novel I’d begun from my reading list, one of the classics, Persuasion, and began to read. I checked my texts intermittently (there were none from him but one from Sophie wishing me Bon Chance!) Her pretty French words made me smile. I had tried to give Sophie the safe and secure upbringing in those few months I’d been with her that I’d never properly experienced myself. I hoped I’d succeeded but my influence was limited in many ways. Sophie, like most children, craved approval from her father. I suppose I had no measure of success except her smiles and the happiness I’d felt when we learnt new things together, like the map of the United States, which was new to me and I’d had to teach myself before I could teach her.  

    I knew when I was forced to leave Sophie and Nate (as I persistently thought of him), I’d miss them both. I should never have let either of them into my heart, I thought, as I snapped my mobile into its cover, folded Persuasion into the scarf in my bag (it was a wonderful story about love lost and found) and shut my eyes. The train chugged into the industrial heartland of central London as I slept.

     When I woke, there was an apprehensive feeling in my stomach that I’d carried with me all through the journey. The flutters were the opposite of the anticipation I’d felt the first time I went to Thornton and arrived near the estate cottage which overlooked the ocean. This feeling was one of dread.

    I took the tube to my aunt’s house in South London. You couldn’t see your surroundings on the tube as it fed like a snake through all of central London, but you felt covered up, literally unseen in the grey and the dark. I remembered the streets without having to check the A-Z directory. My Aunt Tessa’s house was particularly familiar. It was a cold and drab summer’s day. The temperature felt more like autumn. The summer sky began to spit down rain as I reached the steps of Tessa’s house in the expensive enclave of real estate that was Knightsbridge. I walked to the door and rang the bell. Her nurse opened the door and led me, gratefully almost, to my aunt’s sitting room.

     She was seated by the fire with a checked rug wrapped around her knees and the television on. Aunt Tessa looked up as I entered the room. Her hair was greying and she looked older than her years and thinner. Her face was soft in the firelight. There were dark shadows under her eyes.

     ‘Hello Anne,’ she said softly.

     ‘Hello,’ I replied, formally.

     ‘Thank you for coming.’

      We made small talk about the journey then she eyed me up and down and spoke of her real reason for wishing to see me after all these years.

    ‘I brought you here to let you know that when you went away, after you were in foster care, your schooling was paid for by me. It was my financial advisor’s signature on those cheques.’

     I looked at her incredulously.

     ‘Why?’

     ‘It is not what you think, Anne.  I did not do it for your good, just out of my own guilt. I wouldn’t see the truth before my eyes. When you fought with my ex-boyfriend, I knew he was in the wrong, but I didn’t want to admit it. I am sorry for that alone. As you know, I didn’t warm to you, as a child. You were too inquisitive, too knowing and the truth is, I just didn’t like you.’ She paused before speaking again.  ‘Is it wrong to be envious of a child?’

    ‘Yes.’

   ‘Do you forgive me, Anne? It’s just that I feel I want your forgiveness before…’

   ‘Yes. I forgive you,’ I said, wanting her to stop speaking so I could leave.

   ‘Then you must hear the rest of this story…’

    I knew she would not have dragged me all the way to her house without spilling more bile.

    ‘I knew your father. The reason that I paid for your schooling was that he left me, gave me, the money that was supposed to be for your upbringing and your future.’

   I was shocked.

   ‘He lived in America after you were born and when he and your mother separated he remarried. After a few months, he wanted to see you and I told him a terrible lie which he never bothered to fully check. I told him you had died in the time during which we’d had no contact. I told them something plausibly tragic and as I was your legal guardian their signatures were never required. Your mother was out to it by then anyway and your father - absent father that he was - he’d only been eighteen when you were born; his name wasn’t even on your birth certificate. He never bothered to check; that is how much he cared about you Anne. By then, I’d sent you away. You see, I was in love with him and I was jealous of your mother.

    Envious, even though she has spent her life going in and out of psychiatric clinics.   It is true she has never wished to see you. I was jealous that she had something of your father’s that I did not; you. So I made up the terrible lie to keep you away from them and him, away from us. The money was in my hands by then and your father did not ask for it to be returned. Out of guilt, I paid for your schooling but that was it. I invested the rest, wisely, I might add.’

     Did she expect me to congratulate her? I was shocked and stood up. I’d feared she’d use these last moments of her existence to hurt me.

    ‘I brought you here, Anne, because you also have an uncle. The letter is there, on the coffee table. He has asked after you; he lost touch with your father when they too, were infants; he only recently heard of your birth; but not the lie of your death. He has a small fortune, apparently, made it in the City last decade. He wants to leave it to you so that you can inherit his wealth. He has no children of his own, nor is he likely to.’

    She coughed, making her face look more pinched in and unappealing than ever.

    ‘He asks you to write to him; you must do so, Anne. I have gone through the money your father left, but you will surely be looked after by this uncle. He has made that promise in the letter. This goes some way to my atonement, to making up for all my lies.’

    I looked at her, speechless. I gathered she’d been jealous of my mother, me… the world… and had seemingly endless psychological issues of her own. Talk was pointless. I just wanted to leave her room and never see the woman again.

    I took the letter and gathered my coat as I left.  I let her have the final words.

     ‘Anne, you have cursed me. I always knew you’d be the death of me.’

     As I left the house, sometimes I thought my whole family must have been mad, that my only hope in life was forging a new path, finding new people, creating my own way. I was not reduced to tears as I walked along the footpath; I was calm, controlled.

     I felt some inner comfort and distant nourishment as I looked at the name of my uncle on the paper and read his welcoming letter. I resolved to contact him as I ordered tea at the Berkeley, one of the nicest hotels in town. I’d earnt it. It was almost a relief to know that my parents had not intentionally abandoned me to a system which had nearly destroyed me; that they’d been victims themselves, something I was determined not to be. And what of my aunt? She was the saddest victim of all. I had only pity for her.

    I shed a tear for my lost upbringing in the bathrooms of that posh hotel and afterwards resolved not to cry over it again, to save my tears for something good, some future happiness. I believed I’d finally earned some tears of joy.

    I stayed in a nice hotel that night. I had more than enough money to pay for the room with a sunken bath and cable television. The next day, before I was due to start my return journey to Devon and then on to Cornwall, I decided to go shopping in the street I’d read about in society magazines, Pont Street. Then I went to Harvey Nichols and realised how much Sophie would love the beautiful counters and lush shop windows. I dreamt of what was good as I wandered through the departments. I bought a gift for the maids and Mrs Fairfax and afterwards I caught a double decker bus and treated myself to an afternoon in Oxford Street. I walked along to Regent Street, to a famous toy store, where I selected a doll to add to Sophie’s collection, one that looked a little bit like her and one I thought she would love.

     After her father married and she was sent to boarding school, she would need all the strength, creativity and imaginary friends she could muster. I, of course, would have to start afresh.  I did not envisage returning to the place I grew up in; I wasn’t sure what I’d do after September but resolved to finalize my university scholarship applications. Then, if all went as planned, perhaps enrolling in a few subjects would be a start; I could study at night and work during the day… that was the plan of escape once all the preparations for Nicola Ingram’s wedding were underway.

ANNE EYRE (Engagement: chapter Nineteen) #Jane Eyre Retelling

Chapter Nineteen

Engagement

   After I’d travelled from Devon to Cornwall, I took a taxi from the bus stop in the village to Hay Lane. I wanted to re-live the extraordinary sight of the estate in what was left of the summer sun. It was afternoon by then and Thornton Hall in the sunset was truly memorable. I took a photograph to add to my collection. All of the angles of the old mansion swept up into the fading light. The image of pink and gold took my breath away as I snapped a few more photographs. Sophie had texted me and had ridden to the gate with her father on her horse, Xavier, to greet me. I was very surprised, but I shouldn’t have been. Sophie and her father were excellent riders.

   My heart sank when I saw Nathanial’s handsome, smiling face. ‘If you had telephoned earlier, Anne, we would have driven to the station to collect you. It was Sophie’s biggest wish to greet you in the twilight,’ he said enthusiastically.

   I smiled again.

  ‘I wanted to make my own way to Thornton. I wanted to take some photographs. These moments in the summer light won’t come again for a long time.’

    It had been a privilege to see the faces of Sophie and Nate waiting for me at the gate, even more exciting than any photographs I could take.

   ‘Bienvenue!  Anne! You’ve returned to us!’ Sophie squealed as she slid off her saddle and ran into my arms to give me a welcome hug. Nathanial led the horse up the track as Sophie spoke to me in a rush of tumbling over sentences while the three of us walked towards Thornton Hall.

   ‘… and I know all the words you left for me to learn and we got Mrs Fairfax to prepare dinner especially in your honour – she made apricot chicken.’ I must admit, just the thought of my favourite dish excited me. Apricot chicken consisted of chicken pieces mixed with onions, apricots, nectar and spices then baked in a casserole dish until the sauce simmered and reduced in the oven. The chicken would be served with rice or my favourite creamy potatoes. Sophie talked on excitedly as my mouth watered. Even with a delicious meal, I wondered how I could endure another dinner with the Ingrams. I could always plead exhaustion after my lengthy day’s travel.

    Before dinner, I spoke with Mrs Fairfax in the kitchen. She was showing me how to make bread and butter pudding, a recipe I’d always wanted to make. I’d looked it up on the web but Mrs Fairfax had cooking skills passed down through generations of women in her family, skills that couldn’t be taught online and I’d resolved to learn some of them.

     For this delicious recipe, I was spreading the fruit bread with strawberry jam as Mrs Fairfax stirred the milk, eggs, sugar and vanilla all the while chatting to me like a close relative. I’d changed into an evening skirt, one I’d bought from the most fashionable shop in London and wore a cream antique blouse and bracelets I’d bought from a market store in Notting Hill.  I’d even curled my hair in an effort to look my best. It was as if, knowledge of my family and the wrong that had been done to me, was a weight from my shoulders. It was no hardship to dress up tonight. Deep inside, I knew I wanted to look my most desirable, to make it harder for him to say our inevitable goodbyes.

     I’d already bought a jobs magazine from the train station and had started looking for employment on the internet. I’d told Mrs Fairfax that I’d be ready to leave when summer ended and had started looking for work closer to Cambridge, where I intended to start my classes.

   ‘I’m so proud of you, Anne,’ she said. ‘You are such a smart girl; it’s no wonder you have been accepted into one of the best universities in the world.’

   ‘Thank you,’ I replied.

    I hoped, although my academic record was flawless, that I hadn’t just been accepted because I’d fitted a slot that was marked underprivileged. Still, my interviews had gone well and I’d had excellent references from my teachers and youth workers. That same day, I’d found a letter waiting for me, confirming my scholarship, but I’d still need extra money.

   ‘I think I may have found some jobs to apply for in Cambridge…’

   ‘Oh, no need to look, Anne. Mr Rochester has a company there and he will give you an excellent reference. All it will take is one phone call from him and I’m sure he can arrange suitable employment for you while you complete your studies. I don’t think we’ve ever had a staff member that was going on to Cambridge! Even Rochester went to university in the States after Oxford… oh, of course it was a top college, but then he’s never had anything to prove since he was born. His family gave him everything,’ and here Edwina Fairfax leaned closer, ‘which makes your achievement that much bigger but don’t tell him I said that,’ she laughed. ‘And guess what? He’s made preparations to travel to Europe. He’s ordered engagement rings from London for Nicola to choose from. They arrived in a parcel by express delivery and with a guard who travelled with them all the way from Paris!’

    I tried to smile but I felt gutted.

    We talked on as we cooked, then Sophie came into the kitchen reciting the poem I had taught her and announcing her intentions to sing me her new songs (the ones she’d been learning from her latest CD collection) after dinner.

    The house was alive that evening. The Masons, the Ingrams, and some other neighbours were at the table. I found I was off colour, though, after another half an hour of listening to the irritating Nicola describing all the reality TV shows where she’d been offered a guest spot back in LA.

     ‘Of course, I wasn’t tempted to take any of them since….’ And then she looked at Nathanial, pawing him after the entrée, ‘my heart belongs here.’

     After the main course, I excused myself, suddenly feeling nauseous. I didn’t know why but I suspected it had something to do with the casual way Nicola gave me dagger eyes, then brushed some lint off Nathanial’s jacket. He was speaking animatedly with Matthew Eaton when she leant over to take his hand and I was glad to notice their fingers did not linger together for more than a moment.

    Even so, it was time for me to leave and I excused myself and took a torch with me again to navigate the long hallway, at the end of which, the lights were almost too low to see in the dark shadows.  When I reached the door of my bedroom I heard footsteps rushing behind me.

    ‘Anne, why did you leave early?’

    ‘I’m tired from my journey. Um… you’re right, I should have congratulated you.’

    ‘Why?’

    ‘You’ve obviously done a great job with Sophie while I was away. She is looking wonderfully happy today.’

    ‘She’s happy because you’ve returned to Thornton Hall.’

    ‘Oh well, of course. I should also congratulate you on your engagement.’

    I felt faint. Perhaps it was from exhaustion or emotion but I opened the door to my large bedroom, thinking he’d leave pretty quickly.

   ‘What engagement?’

   ‘The whole house is talking about your marriage to Nicola. They say you’ve made preparations to travel to Europe, after Sophie goes away to school, for your honeymoon. Mrs Fairfax…’

    He smiled incredulously, ‘What?’ he asked, quite rudely, I thought.

    ‘Mrs Fairfax says while I was away she’d never seen you look so happy. That you’ve been constantly with the Ingram’s and have been singing with Nicola and her brother in the drawing room playing piano and guitar with them every evening until late.’

    ‘I’ve been managing their band, Anne. I probably demonstrated a few chord progressions! You know they are trying out the new songs in the local pubs in the village. It’s true that suddenly I feel like listening to music again.’

    ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Nevertheless, it’s time for me to go.’

    He shrugged regretfully.

    ‘Well, congratulations on Cambridge. It’s quite an achievement.’

    ‘You mean, coming from my background.’

    ‘I mean, coming from any background.’

    ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘I know.’ I wished I was more excited about going.

    ‘Modesty never became you.’

    ‘I’m not sure what you mean.’

    ‘You are a modest person, Anne, but I suspect your talents far exceed your current situation so I must let you leave. You are worth more than being stifled in this place.’

     I looked around at my beautiful room; the view at night, through my window, of a garden lit with lights that led to the ocean, was perfect.  This view was a glimpse of freedom, a better world than the one from which I’d fled. I didn’t know how I’d have the strength to leave this place - and Sophie - and him.

     Suddenly there was a loud thump on the roof of my bedroom.

      I jumped and turned to the wall.

     ‘What was that?’

     ‘Nothing. Just a squirrel, perhaps. They get into the roof at night.’

    For some reason I associated squirrels with winter; the frozen St James’ Park I’d walked through many times on my way to the West End when I lived in London. I’d never seen any squirrels in the grounds of the estate but then I’d never looked very hard, either.

    I reached for my dressing gown and threw it on the bed.

    ‘What is to become of your daughter?’

    ‘You have prepared her well. She is to go to school, Anne. But I’m sending her to the best one I know; it’s new, modern and with a progressive education ethos. It will not be anything like the way we were brought up.’

    ‘Good,’ I said. ‘I shall stay in touch with Sophie to make sure that happens,’ I smiled, feeling, in my nineteenth year, very grown up, almost my own person, finally. I was adult enough to know that the minute I left Thornton Hall, Sophie would no longer be my responsibility and she would forget me. She would grow up and move on as all children do; just as some adults, like her father, already had.

   I opened the door to my sitting room and went inside, expecting Nathanial to leave.     He lingered at the threshold.

  ‘I shall miss you, Anne.’

  ‘And I you,’ I said matter of factly. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I’m tired. I want to go to bed.’

   He was clearly reluctant to leave.

  ‘You have guests.’

   Nathanial paused.

   ‘Why do you have to leave?’ he asked.

   ‘Because you are getting married.’

   ‘Who told you this?’

   ‘The servants, Mrs Fairfax and everyone in the village says an announcement is imminent. They say traditionally your family places a notice in a London newspaper. I am staying until everything is settled with Sophie and then I’m leaving. I have applied for another job, closer to where I’m studying.’

   ‘But I don’t want you to leave.’

   ‘Well, I don’t care what you want. This is about what I want and I intend to go.’

   ‘Why Anne?’

    I was becoming frustrated, exhausted with all of these word games.

   ‘Because I don’t want to stay here, in the place where I have been happiest, in the place where I have felt loved only to become a shadow in the light of that vacuous woman.’

   ‘You mean Nicola Ingram?’

   ‘Yes, your fiancée.’

   ‘She is not my fiancée.’

   ‘Well, not yet.’

   ‘Not ever. Anne, if you were to leave me now, I don’t know if I’d survive. You have become as normal to me as every breath I take.’

   ‘Oh please, Nate. Those are the words to an old song I don’t wish to hear.’

    I walked over to my door.

    ‘Please leave now.’

    ‘Why?’

    ‘I am about to pack my things.’

    ‘Where are you going to go?’

    ‘I told you, I’m going to university. I aim to change my fate.’

   ‘Your fate is with me, I feel sure of it.’

   ‘As far as I know, the last time I read my employment contract, you didn’t own me. I have my own mind, obviously, and my own desires and I’ve decided to leave Thornton - earlier than I’d anticipated, it seems,’ I added, under my breath.

   I turned from him, knelt on the floor, pulled my suitcase out from under my bed and flung it open, just as he reached for me and also found himself kneeling beside me.

    He touched my face and turned it towards his own. There was a loud noise as the band started to rehearse in the drawing room downstairs. The sound of the drums and base made a heavy beat and the raucous, drink-fuelled conversations became louder, drowning out our muffled voices which were raised louder causing even more commotion. He held my shoulders in his hands and I was aware of the strength in his grasp. This did not dissuade me.

    ‘You are right, Anne. It is up to you to decide your destiny yet I feel if I say what I am about to, you will reject me; if I were to let you leave this house tonight  you would just as easily forget me.’

    ‘Forget you? Forget Sophie and this place I have called my home? You must be joking! I will never forget you.’

    This led to an unexpected moment.  

   He pulled me into him so that my thin, unloved body and his were breathing almost in the same moment, and he kissed me. A kiss as soft and sweet as a summer’s day, a kiss I’d long remember and one I’d thought about since the afternoon I’d met him in Hay Lane. It was a kiss I never thought I’d get. For the first time, I felt what I could only describe as, unearthly.

    My hands moved into his hair and his into mine. Before I knew it, I had completely lost control; lost control with a man who thought only enough of me to hide away with me in my room, to keep me a secret from his rich friends and the entire world. Suddenly I pushed him, gently, but he took no notice, leaning into me again, wanting me and I him.

   ‘Stop,’ I whispered, not knowing if this was the right step to take with him.

   ‘No,’ he said in return, ‘Not until you promise me something…’

   ‘Anything,’ I laughed.

   ‘Now you really can’t refuse,’ he moved off me so that we were separated for the first time in minutes. ‘Marry me, Anne. It is you I want. I know you are young but I want only you to be with me forever and for us to be a family.’

    I stopped smiling. He may as well have been speaking Italian. His words seemed to make almost zero sense.

   ‘Marry you? But... You want me as your wife? Have you thought about this? Have you honestly compared me to Nicola?’

    ‘Yes, and there is no comparison.’

    ‘Exactly. I have no money, I am not beautiful and I’ve never appeared in any of those society magazines that are flung all over your house.’

   ‘You are beautiful to me. Your face is the only one I want to see when I wake up in the morning. Besides, I don’t care, Anne. That stuff is not important. It is inconsequential.’

   ‘Inconsequential? In your world everyone is status obsessed.’

   ‘But I am not. All I want is you. And you are more than my equal, Anne; you are my better, in so many ways. I want to be worthy of you.’

   ‘I disagree,’ I said. ‘We are equals.’

   ‘Okay,’ he agreed, ‘equals.’

    ‘You would say anything just to sleep with a new girl.’

    ‘Anne, if that is all I wanted, I could pick up a girl in the village pub any night of the week.’

    It was true. A guy as hot and rich as him, was prey to many local women, to almost any woman. How did he know I was different? It was as if he could see into my mind. I could never marry a man, be with any man, just for money. I’d been broke before and I wasn’t afraid of it.

    What he said, in essence, was what I’d longed to hear. His words were more perfect to me than the music I’d constantly listened to in my many walks along Hay Lane. I looked at him in the near dark, loving him, totally. 

   ‘I’ve wanted to make it official for a long time but I thought you were too young to get involved with me. This decision decides your destiny; one that will make you a young mother; that will require you to stay with me and Sophie and be a family.’

    A family... I longed to be part of one; my own, although I’d never put my feelings into words; I longed to be part of his world; I was speechless; this moment had to be a farce.

    ‘But what of Nicola?’ I asked, almost trancelike.

    ‘Nicola is nothing to me, she’s a girl I’ve known for years; we got together a few times at her instigation and she’s dated half of London as well. She’s more interested in becoming famous and being in magazines than me. And could you imagine her influence on Sophie? She likes children even less than I do,’ he joked. ‘Besides, neither of us are together for the right reasons. Her family want us to form a property alliance; that is all. She’ll forget me and move on. I heard she already has her eye on some guy in the village. Nicola is no hindrance to our union.’

    Those words should have given me a clue, but I did not want to listen to my head.

    ‘I want to marry you, Anne. I love you. I want us to be what we lack. Together we would be a family. Together we would know love.’

   Know love? It sounded deeply seductive, almost as seductive as the look in his eyes.

   ‘Are you serious? Is this a joke?’

   ‘Of course, I mean, of course I am serious. To prove it we should not sleep together until its official.

    ‘Oh, so you’re assuming I’d let you stay tonight?’

    ‘Not at all, I just want you to know I’m completely serious.’

     Still, I could not believe him.

    ‘This is not a joke. I love you Anne Eyre. Will you marry me?’   

    ‘Yes,’ I said quietly, ‘I will marry you Nathanial Rochester.’

    He covered me with kisses until I kissed him in return and I would not have stopped but for the fact that he did. I looked up, following his gaze. There was a shadow at my partially closed door and before Rochester left the room, I heard a creak in the floorboards and saw movement in the distance.

ANNE EYRE (Preparations: chapter Twenty) #Jane Eyre Retelling

Chapter Twenty

Preparations

    What was I thinking? Lost in love, I did not question the scruples of a man who had already organised the honeymoon.

     The wedding was organised so quickly the servants openly gossiped about my supposed pregnancy; I was not pregnant, obviously. But as neither of us had any family to organise and I had few friends I wished to invite, there seemed no reason to wait.  We both wanted to move forward with our future. I longed to go to Europe; it had always been my dream to see other places. To see them first with my husband and new step-daughter would make them even more special.

    There were to be only a few guests back at the finest country hotel for the reception. Sophie insisted on ordering and helping to choose our wedding and bridesmaid dresses which arrived in huge boxes shipped from Paris, again at exorbitant cost; Nathanial assured us that money was no object. Nate and I chose our wedding rings; I selected a large ruby and diamond ring. Mrs Fairfax and Leah, and especially Sophie, gasped when they saw it. Perhaps I would not have chosen such a large ruby or so many diamonds if the other options I had to choose from had been any smaller! I loved the fact that Nathanial did not want to place any limits on either beauty or excesses, although I was mindful material wealth was not the basis of my love for Nathanial Rochester. He was a man unlike any other; I loved him so much it scared me.

     I chose a plain but simple gown to offset the ring and my elaborate, upswept braided hair. A village hairdresser had practised various designs on me and we came up with one that was both fashionable and traditional.

    Sophie’s hair and dress was a more elaborate version of my own. Her gown was also tied with pale blue ribbons and cream lace. Sophie looked a dream and told me I did too. At least, I looked as much like one of those women in the photographs of bridal magazines as I ever would.

    Mrs Fairfax put her hand over her mouth when she saw me during my final fitting as I stood on a chair in the middle of my sitting room.

   ‘Oh Anne, I am speechless. You look a picture. You look… beautiful.’

   It was nice to hear, although I knew I’d take a lot of convincing.

    I wound the veil over my head and Sophie trailed around the edges on the floor as Leah took many photographs for us to keep, some with our jeans sticking out from under the edges of our dresses. I proposed to frame these informal photographs and give them to Nathanial as a wedding present – after we were married. I did not want him to see my wedding dress in advance; no future bride plans to let her fiancée see the dress before the wedding.

   ‘You are my something blue,’ I told Sophie as I touched her nose and straightened her sky coloured ribbons as she giggled. But I wasn’t taking any chances. Merida gave me a cobalt garter, to tie above my knee and Mrs Fairfax gave me a silk handkerchief (“something old”, passed down through the generations) which was also “something borrowed”. The “new” was my dress.

     I compared my gown with the many outfits I’d been given to wear in foster care; clothes, passed down from so many others. I felt re-assembled, whole and made new again, from my toes upwards as I tried on all of the fashionable designs I’d bought to wear on my honeymoon. Sophie chose some of them. Six-year-olds have pretty good taste, or at least, this six year old did.

    ‘I want you to buy everything new for our honeymoon, darling,’ Nate said over breakfast. The room was quiet except for our eating and speaking.

     All of the houseguests, including the band, had left to go on tour. Nicola had been the first to go. She’d exited, draped over a new boyfriend and seemingly without a backward glance, just as Nate said she would.  

    An unfamiliar hush had swept over Thornton Hall. ‘You needn’t ever want for anything again,’ Nate assured me as we finished our breakfast. 

    In the days leading up to the wedding, Mrs Fairfax seemed extra cautious in her communications with me.

    ‘Anne, just be careful. I’m only warning you because I’ve never seen him act quite so suddenly in matters of the heart. He’s been single, as far as I know, since he got back to London from America, the first time, a while ago now.’ We were seated outside picking some berries as Edwina continued, ‘I mean, look at him, Anne. ‘It must have been by choice. I suppose it was true that he and Nicola meant nothing to one another… that he just flirted with her to make you jealous but a man who is quick to discard a woman… well, you don’t seem very streetwise in that way. I urge you to be careful Anne.’

    I tried to hide my distaste for her words. After all, it could not be easy for her to believe a man like him would love a girl like me. It would take some getting used to the fact that I would now help to make decisions in the house.

    ‘You’re not pregnant are you, Anne?’

    ‘No,’ I said, frustrated at everyone’s insinuating glances, from the grocer in the village to Leah’s in the kitchen. ‘Honestly, it is impossible! For the umpteenth time, we’ve never even slept together. Is it so hard to believe that he would choose me, that he would want to marry… me?’

    ‘No, Anne, of course not. You are a sweet but very young girl with remarkable intelligence and you have been an exceptional governess to Sophie, but you should consider keeping it the way it has been, Anne, until you are married. Then you can be sure of him. I’ve known him since he was small and now I think… he’s the sort of man who prefers the chase to the actual domesticity of wedded bliss, if you know what I mean.’

     I didn’t, not really.

     She looked at me like she knew something about Rochester I did not but was afraid to tell me. And of course, I was afraid to ask, wary of anything that could ruin my happiness.

     I wandered through the downstairs sitting room that afternoon after I’d taken Sophie riding. I ran my hands over his old photograph albums. I knew little about his time in the United States but I’d seen some pictures of a road trip he and Christopher had taken along Route 66 and also some snaps of the streets and sidewalks of New Orleans where I knew he’d spent many months working on a film that never got released. I did think it was weird that he wanted to wait for us to be together but  the marriage was only a few days away and I agreed with him that we should use this time to get to know each other in ways that some people didn’t. We would be friends as well as lovers, a perfect match.  

ANNE EYRE (Wedding: chapter Twenty-one) #Jane Eyre Retelling

Chapter Twenty-one

Wedding

    Sophie and I rose early the morning of my wedding day. Mrs Fairfax took care of Sophie while I bathed and had my hair and make-up done. The church was filled with more than the usual amount of people from Sunday services and the local community. No expense had been spared in preparations for the wedding, but I’d requested a small and tasteful ceremony. The household staff were dressed in their best and the most luxurious of Nathanial’s cars was decorated with ribbons to take us to the church.

   We had not seen each other for two days because Nate had to finalise some business in London. I arrived at the church with Sophie who looked so small trying to adjust my train. Leah, Merida and a few girls from the village library, whom I’d befriended, acted as my bridesmaids. I was not nervous, as I knew deep in my soul this would be the happiest day of my life, so far.

    When I looked inside the church, preparations had been made for a far more lavish ceremony than I’d intended. Most of the villagers were seated. There were huge bunches of flowers and ribbons at the end of every pew, festive garlands as far as the eye could see. The stained glass windows shed light on the entire room, with just the right amount of sun to create patterns on the walls and coloured light from the glass. These details had been left to Mrs Fairfax and she’d done an incredible job. We had not hired a photographer because one of Nate’s friends, a cinematographer, was invited. He’d brought his camera with him. As the music played, I had the feeling this event would irrevocably change my life.

    My diamond tiara was covered with flowers. My hairdresser from the village had decided with me that the flowers would be removed after I’d said my vows to reveal the glittering jewellery Nathanial had bestowed upon me. It was a very grand tiara but Nate had insisted upon my acceptance of this family heirloom.

    There were mostly unfamiliar faces in the small crowd that gathered to wish us well. I knew some of the people from the village.  The band was the same one that played at the local pub on Saturday nights. They were brilliantly talented and had learnt some classical pieces for the occasion, putting their own spin on them. Afterwards, the band would play our first song. Nate, alongside Sophie, had picked the music, which was to be a surprise. Afterwards we would celebrate with a few friends and spend our first night together in a luxurious hotel that overlooked the sea in Devon. The next day we would make our way to the airport and Nate’s private jet. Nathanial’s sports car, the one he was driving when we met, would be decked out with a Just Married sign for the trip.

    And yet…

    There was a look of apprehension on Nathanial’s face as Sophie and I walked slowly down the aisle in time to the music.  The church was perfect, the faces of the congregation were glowing and Sophie was practically delirious with happiness as she smiled up at me throwing flower petals near my shoes.

   I leant down to whisper to her.

   ‘Now you have to go first,’ as the music started and Mrs Fairfax ushered her in front and she started dropping the pink petals shyly.

    Everything was perfect in that moment and as I glanced through the veil towards the man who looked at me, expectantly, I felt only perfect hope and joy at the prospect of our imminent union.

    The service began and our vows were traditional.

    Rochester looked nervous as words were spoken aloud. His voice, normally rich and deep, cracked for a moment as a draft edged under the door.

     Now, don’t quote me on the exact vows that were said. What follows, is my memory of them…

     We reached the point in the service where the vicar asked both of us and the congregation if we knew of, ‘any impediment why we would not lawfully be joined together in holy matrimony and that if we did we should speak now…’ or something to that effect.

   Those words jumbled in my mind. All I could think about was the face of my husband-to-be, Sophie’s delight and Mrs Fairfax. She looked humbled, pleased that her concerns were unfounded. Meanwhile, some mysterious friends of Nate’s had arrived and taken seats in the first isle whilst the musicians above us in the balcony prepared to play our post-marriage song…

    In the silence between sentences, a loud bang could be heard at the far end of the ancient stone building.

   The vicar paused and after a moment it was obvious that the rattle at the base of the village church was simply the wind on a summer’s day.

   He continued…    

    ‘Speak now or forever hold your peace…’

    There was more silence as the vicar went through the motions then asked the question he knew by rote and considered rhetorical. He had never, in all the hundreds of marriages he had presided over, ever been answered with anything other than perfect silence. I looked into the eyes of the man I loved as more indirect noise interrupted the service.

    A door finally opened and slammed shut in the space of a few seconds.

   ‘The marriage ceremony cannot continue.’

    A man’s voice spoke from behind me.

   The entire congregation turned their heads; even Sophie, who was used to behaving as if she was in her own little world, had stopped fidgeting with the flower petals in her hair and on the train of my gown. I froze as she looked up.

    Christopher Mason, dressed in an expensive suit, his curls brushed from the determined expression on his face, stood before us.

    Nathanial turned to the vicar and said, ‘Just ignore him. Please… continue.’

   ‘I’m here to declare the existence of an impediment to this marriage.’

   I was frozen. I’d always been wary of happiness being snatched from my grasp, just when it was within reach, but this was inconceivable. 

   ‘Just continue…’ Nate said under his breath, turning from the small crowd of drop-jawed onlookers.

    Rochester took my cold hand which was a good thing. If he hadn’t steadied me I think I might have collapsed.

    ‘Take no notice of him Anne,’ he whispered.

     It was kind of hard not to.

     ‘I declare the existence of an impediment… an insurmountable impediment,’ Christopher announced from just a few feet away from us.  He walked closer, near me until he was standing close by. He peered into my eyes as if he could see into my soul.

    ‘There is something you do not know,’ he turned to the congregation. ‘There is a secret that exists…’

    Sophie looked up at me, wide-eyed and innocent. There were many things she had not been told, did not know, so those words were not particularly shocking to her. She took my hand as Nathanial held the other.

    ‘Proceed,’ Nathanial stated clearly, but he appeared to be talking to the vicar and ignoring Christopher Mason.

    ‘I’m sorry Nate; I tried to call you out on this; I tried to reason with you. There is no way I can let you go through with this; you could be charged with bigamy…’

    The word had a vague meaning to me, but it hadn’t sunk in yet.

    ‘What are you saying?’ The vicar (in all his many Saturdays of repeating the standard words) had never encountered a wedding like this one. He was almost as surprised as me.

     He cleared his throat before speaking.

    ‘Eight years ago Nathanial Fairfax Rochester married my sister, Berenice Antoinetta Mason in a church in New Orleans on the twenty-sixth day of November.’

    ‘How do you know this?’

    ‘I was there. I am her brother. This man, Nathanial, is my brother-in-law.’

     I could literally hear the congregation give a collective sigh, but the judgement of others was not uppermost on my mind. In those seconds, I began to lose all hopes I may have had for my future.

      The intruder continued, ‘Our father was a rich industrialist who had companies all over the world and it was thought a merging of class and money would be fortuitous for both families but who knows, maybe they were in love. I only know they were married quickly; they had only known each other for two weeks. I was a witness; here is the documentation.’

    He pulled from his coat a piece of paper. I did not wish to see the contents as I slumped in the aisle. Later, I was told the document was a copy of the marriage certificate of Nathanial Fairfax Louis Rochester and Berenice Antoinetta Mason, signed by both parties, witnessed and dated in New Orleans.

    Rochester looked at him.

   ‘That document may prove I was once married but it does not prove Berenice Mason Rochester is still alive.’

    Christopher shrugged.

   ‘She was a few weeks ago.’

    ‘And where is this Berenice Antoinetta Rochester?’, the lawyer who stood with him asked Christopher.  ‘We must ask you to produce her.’

    At this point Rochester turned and faced the congregation.

   ‘This girl… my…Anne knew nothing about this,’ was all the words he could find to say. Then he took my hand and walked with me quickly down the aisle.  

   ‘Come on then, all of you who would do anything within your power to make trouble; come and meet the first Mrs Rochester; meet my wife.’

    The band did not play and the sun did not shine as we hurried down the steps. No rice was thrown in celebration and no bells chimed. No wedding ring joined the large sparkling stone of my engagement ring. But what was worse, our love had been built on what I hated most – a lie.

   The journey in his car was the fastest of my life. Through it all he spluttered broken words, ‘forgive me Anne, I should have told you. There is an explanation, I promise you.’

   I couldn’t speak. I leant my head on the window until it occurred to me to ask, ‘Where is Sophie?’

   ‘She is okay, she is alright. She is with Edwina Fairfax.’

    I scowled.

   ‘Don’t blame Mrs Fairfax. She knew nothing, or she knew something. Edwina knew we had a visitor, a woman who stays upstairs but I’d convinced her she was a lodger. No one except Christopher knew I had been married. It’s a long story and one I will try to tell you soon, if you can stand to listen.’