Episode 15: A Mess Of People Trying To—Or Trying Not To—Take A Walk

“How shall we begin?” the governess, June, addressed me once I had finally taken my bath and presented myself in the parlor.

I expected more from her than ‘how shall we begin’. It was a ploy many governesses had used before in an effort to trick me into speaking during the very first exchange between us. Then, they hoped, they could rush to my father and hold a knobby finger up, telling him that I, indeed, was capable of speech all along. They would diagnose me afterward, professing that my only malady was an obsessive need for attention, and the prescribed cure would be refusal to give me any such thing.

“I know,” June continued, not waiting for an answer she would never receive. “What is it you would do now if I were not here with you? What am I interrupting, Aurelie?”

Well now. A refreshing approach. Feign interest in the subject and then dupe her into blabbering about her favorite things. I would take that feigned interest and use it to my advantage. June would be gone by morning.

I walked over to the long, grandiose bay windows. The sun was already three quarters set, and the snow melted in part due to the orb’s brilliant effort over the course of the day.

“Outdoors? I heard you are very fond of nature walks.”

I smiled. Indeed, I was fond.

So June followed me out, her hands clasped carefully in front of her, tucked into the sleeves of her wool coat.

Before we made it to the woods, Rosemary sprang up out of nowhere, grabbing my arms and spinning me around in a surprising flourish, one so vigorous that the heels of my boots kicked up soggy clumps of dead leaves and gray slush.

June had a fright. That was the nicest mention I could give her event. With a genuine holler she fell backward, skidding down the slope at the edge of the garden, her heels over head, landing with her bottom up and a mouth full of slush.