Chapter Ten

 Tessa and Farrah, who hadth been wide awake since the crack of dawn, spread open the flowing antique white linen curtains that exposed golden bands of morning light. They cracked open the double pane windows and let in the sweet smell of freshly cut grass and the marigolds which grew on the lattice leading up to the sill.

Elizabeth, who hadth awoken only fifteen minutes earlier, hadth a look on her face that shewed she was less than grateful for their gesture.

"Good morning, miss," Farrah said, chiming. 

Her eyes fluttered fast as she struggled to come back to her senses.

They peeled back the thick down comforter from her curled-up body. 

Elizabeth squinted.

She said, with a groan as she tossed her head into the pillow, "Pray, tell me what hast happened? For I remember so little." She curled her fingers at her sweating forehead.

"I can not say it for sure, miss. I hadth not seen thou since...." Farrah said, before she paused and looked at Tessa with trepidation, "thou dismissed Hannah," 

Elizabeth gave her confused glance. 

She said, "Dismissed? I didst no such thing." 

Tessa curled her thin brows, and she clutched the end of the comforter tighter in her fists. 

The manner in which her lady acted the day prior was one she shouldst sooner like to forget, for she hoped it wouldst not paint a picture of what serving upstairs may be like. For, though Elizabeth hadth a reputation for a gentle disposition, twas not the first time in a single day that she hadth seen her act so harshly.

"Can it be that thou doth not remember the things thou hast done?" Tessa said. 

She left her petite jaw hanging open, much like a dismantled bird house. 

Farrah shoved Tessa out of her way. 

"Thou may be used to the easy-going scullery life, but when thou works up here, do not stop for chatter of which 'tis not thy place to make. Thou must help thy mistress out of bed," Farrah said, "unless thou expects her to do it herself."

"Here," Tessa said, as she bent down beside the bed, "Permit me."

This was a most curious thing, but until she might know for sure whether the previous night’s fit of anger was due to something she couldst not control, or if she was in her own mind and accord entirely, she wanted to tread her manners carefully.

Elizabeth’s legs trembled in Tessa’s palms as she pulled them over the bedside. She put her hands on Elizabeth’s knees and she gently pressed, that they may be settled into the bed.

Elizabeth hissed, and then she cringed.

“I apologize,” she said, “my lady.” 

She didst not care to ask for assistance when she decided to, of her own strength, lift Elizabeth herself. She raised her to her left side and she placed an arm over her shoulder. They managed to rise together for a few brief seconds, before they stumbled downward. 

"Tessa!" Farrah said. She widened her brown sunken eyes as she caught her lady, "Watch out for her. She is as precious and as fragile as the glass." 

Elizabeth slipped and groaned under their weight as her own limbs seemed to fail her.

"I shalt fetch Dr. Lee," Farrah said, shifting Elizabeth’s body over into Tessa’s feeble arms.

Tessa buckled under Elizabeth's weight, which was of not much girth, even while she herself was only of a small and thin sort. They both collapsed to the floor beside the bed. Strange twas that Elizabeth didst not seem to protest or take much mind to their new predicament.

Farrah didst not see them fall, for no sooner didst she finish speaking, she was already gone, and hadth unknowingly left them both lumped together in a most sordid fashion. 

Elizabeth said, muttering as she was slumped in Tessa’s lap, "Hannah. She is..gone?" 

"Yea, my lady. For thou hast dismissed her," Tessa gulped, and then she paused. 

Twas clear that her lady was weak and ill in both body and mind, which made it quite easy for Tessa to not only forgive Elizabeth’s outburst, but sympathize with her.

Elizabeth blinked slow and she shook her head. 

She said, "Nay, I didst not." 

"She hadth thy father's knife, remember? Thou screamed a great deal and ordered her to leave thee." 

She hoped to cause little offense in her description of what she witnessed to Elizabeth, for she was not minded to hath Elizabeth believe that she thought her capable of tyrannical behaviors.

"No!" she said, “I didst naught of the sort.”

Elizabeth scrambled against the bed in a wild assay to rise to her useless feet. 

"Miss!"Tessa said, pulling her down by her back, "Please, I beg that thee try not to rise too quickly. Thou wilt surely hurt thy ankle."

She slipped with ease and she collapsed back into Tessa's lap. She, then, sighed with growing annoyance, saying, "I shalt recall her, immediately. I must. Send the order." 

A light rose up high in Tessa's soul. Hannah and herself may hath never moved towards friendship, or were in any way close, but twas fair and a praise to God that Melanie's scheming and vengeance couldst not win out the day.

She, who was much unlike her mother, who went through servants like torn and dirty laundry, hadth never been known to dismiss anyone before in all the days of her life. Twas thought that she couldst not even bear the idea, for the gentry people hadth livelihoods. Families to feed and support with the little money they sent home. They needed their work, and not to hath their lives torn to shambles by the abusive and abrasive nobility who dwelled upon the belief that they were their betters.

Tessa gave her a warm smile, though it didst little to raise Elizabeth's wavering spirits. 

She said, "With all due honor, ma'am, I am concerned for thy health. Thou art not well." 

Twas her intention that she speak now in slow and simple terms, because with each passing moment it seemed that Lady Elizabeth understood less and less of both mind and speech.

Elizabeth stared past Tessa, and she looked to the ceiling, whence naught of a sign of interest was to be found. 

She said, "I-I recall naught of my doing the previous day, except...after the news of mother’s death, I was at my vanity and.." 

Tessa gave her an encouraging nod. 

"Yea, my lady?" 

"I was at my vanity and..." she paused and scrunched her face, "The glass broke. I collapsed. Covered in blood. I downed some of the little bottle of tonic I hadth found some time earlier, but I..know not how much I drank. The whole day was a weight on my mind and then...well, everything was a blur thereafter. I longed to drink my pain away, perhaps even unto mine own death. Melanie..she was at my side, but I do not...I know not what we said to each other." 

She furrowed her brows and she clutched the round collar of Tessa's white kirtle. 

She said, pulling her closer, "Pray, be frank and tell me, verily. Shalt I die today?" 

Tessa continued smiling, "Tis' not my place to know, ma'am. I do pray to God that the doctor gets here quickly, that thou may not worry about such things." 

Elizabeth laughed and she snorted, as though she were quite drunk.

She said, tracing a finger in the air, "Yea. And afterward, Hannah wilt come back. With a bonus in her pay,” her smile dropped for a moment, “My knife. 'Tis still here?"

"Yea, ma'am. Giles hadth it returned to thy drawer, straight away."

"Returned. Re..turned."

"Madam is kind and merciful to permit Hannah to return," Tessa said, stroking her forehead, "I know the ladies wilt be beside themselves to hear of it. Everyone will." Everyone, except Melanie, of course, who may take a second and more permanent course of action to ensure Hannah's punishment. This concern was not a thing to take into deep consideration now, however, for in this very moment, a greater matter laid directly in Tessa’s lap.

Elizabeth lifted her head towards the door, though it took much of her effort. 

Melanie's familiar ticking footsteps faded fast away from the closed door. Twas clear that beyond their notice, she hadth been listening to their interlude. Tessa couldst not imagine the purpose of her doing this, for they were not sitting here in order that they may openly and discreetly discuss her person in any unpleasant manner.

"What is the matter?" Elizabeth asked, turning back to Tessa, "For, now thou looks downtrodden."

Her confused expression relaxed into one meant to bring Elizabeth comfort.

"O.' 'Tis Melanie, is it not? She is thy friend." 

"I do not want to bother thee, my lady," she said, shaking her head. 

Whether Melanie was around to hear her or not, such was not the time for expressing the bad tidings of their relationship. It wouldst be no desirous thing for Elizabeth’s ears, if these were the last thing she heard upon her death.

She stroked Elizabeth's loose blonde bangs, which seemed to flow for ages in comparison to her own sunken and buttered brown locks. 

Elizabeth giggled again, like a naïve child. 

She said, “That smell. Chamomile. Mint.” 

She breathed in the faint lingering scent. They were the airs of her notorious tonic, which must hath still been coming up through her pores.

Death appeared to close in fast and thick on her mistress, much like the morning fog. Tessa was not prepared in her heart for this, for she hadth never stood in the presence of death before, and much less the moment of transference of the bodily life into its death. She was well pleased to not hath been present when the former Lady Sheeks took in her last, for she knew not her habits in regards to these matters.

Elizabeth closed her eyes, and then she slipped hither to a peaceful state of unconsciousness. 

Dr. Lee, wherever he may be, was far too delayed in the hour. She still hadth breath to be sure, but hadth no other visible signs of movement to express signs of life.

"Madam? O' Elizabeth!" Tessa said. She shook her with quite a force. She patted Elizabeth's pale and drained face, "O' prithee wake up! Prithee. Thou can not leave us, now. Thou can not leave us here!" 

The double doors blew open with a dramatic flair, and no sooner was it known that they didst so, then was Dr. Lee at Elizabeth's side. 

"Get back, child," he said. He nudged Tessa aside, praying he didst not arrive too late.

He knelt over Elizabeth and held two fingers an inch over her puckered lips, which looked as gray as the grave that awaited her. 

A few seconds passed, and then he sighed with relief. 

He said, English as a cup of tea, "God be praised, for she still lives. Doth thou know the cause of this?" 

Tessa grabbed the now empty bottle of tonic from the floor. 

"This," she said, panicked, "I think she drank all of this. She spoke of it before.." 

Dr. Lee stood up, now bearing a sudden sense of alarm. 

He said, “I fear 'tis worse than I imagined.” 

He yanked the little bottle from Tessa’s hand. This was no good. He hadth seen this bottle before, and more than a few times in his long profession, and even more still in the presence of those already dead. 

"What can we do?" Tessa said, curling her hands at her lips.

He said, "I am amazed that she is not already dead," he gulped as he flipped the bottle in his hands, "Prepare the steeds. I shalt take her to my estate whence I can administer my personal infusions. And we shalt take her household as well, for her own comfort. O' I do pray she comes out of this, before 'tis too late."

He said, tossing the bottle to Tessa, who caught it with a start, "We need to act now. And fast, for it wouldst be a tragedy to lose two noble ladies from the House of Sheeks in only a matter of days. People wouldst get superstitious and think a curse hast landed upon this house."

He shook his head low, and he sighed with grief. The kingdom ought to hath forbidden these tonics long ago. They never didst good to anyone, and there were very few cases whence too much didst not lead to an imminent sleep-induced death.

“Go now, child. Stop thy dawdling,” Dr. Lee said, staring at Elizabeth’s body with foreboding, “for even now, there is not much time left for her.” 

Tessa dropped the bottle to the carpet, whence it didst land with a dull thud. 

She remained silent as she turned and she hurried from the room, only as fast as her short legs might carry her. Her heart suddenly ached to think of Hannah's return, for Melanie still remained here to finish her off, and there stood no protection for her from the dying Elizabeth. 

She took comfort in knowing that Giles might hither to prevent further schemes, unless he shouldst remain unaware such games art afoot, that is. He was the only one in the manor who couldst resist Melanie’s wiles and manipulations, and Tessa was the most grateful for it, for that was no easy thing.

"Stop running!" Giles said, rounding the corner at the end of the hall, "That is not the proper form of a respectable servant, young lady."

Tessa stopped short of him, and her face was still full of alarm. Twas quite a thing to be thinking of someone so intently for one moment, only to find in the next that he is rebuking her to her face.

"Giles. Sir. Thou understands not. I hadth to..."

“If thou art now going to work outside the scullery now, as thee hast been assigned by the Lady Melanie, young lady, thou shouldst get used to decorum,” He clicked his tongue, put his hands on his hips, and shook his head at her, “Thy youth appalls me these days. When I was only thy age and younger still-" 

Tessa seized forward and she gripped his arms tight. She heaved her breaths. Only in her head didst she scream harshly for him to shut his mouth and hearken to her for but only a moment; a thought which surprised even herself, who never thought such things of anyone. The least she managed to do was to bite her tongue on that desire.

He glared at her, as though she hadth now descended into madness.

She said, "I am trying to tell thee, verily, and in a most urgent matter. 'Tis Lady...Elizabeth...she woke for a few minutes, and even spake a few words, but now she..she went back under into a troubling sleep. I think she hadth at some time in the night consumed an entire bottle of the tonic.” 

“I shalt go now." 

Giles broke from her grip and he rushed past her.

"Giles!" 

"Wherefore shouldst thou speak so abruptly to me, child?" he said, whipping back, “Doth thou know not that I am your superior?”

"Yea, but I must speak more things. Dr. Lee tells me that she is going to his country estate. He tells me that we need to gather the household." 

Giles nodded. 

He said, "Leave it to me. I shalt gather my things, after I see to Elizabeth." 

He turned to walk away. 

"Nay, wait. Thou may not." 

He turned around, and looked as confused as he was offended. She couldst blame him not. Surely, this was as bold as anyone ever saw a former scullery maid to the butler. She was so moved by this thought, that she hadth forgotten even to speak.

He said, stepping forward, "Can thou not speak, child? What is it that thou wants?" 

"It is..." Tessa hesitated, then stammered. She wrung her hands at her neck. She thought to insist on safeguarding Hannah's protection as soon as possible, for she might arrive to Melanie in their absence, but she feared the consequences of exposing her friend. 

Peradventure for the moment, it may hath been a lesser emergency than this. She hadth little time to ponder and debate either thought in her mind though, for Giles seemed to boil in their silence.

Giles exploded with impatience. 

He said, flailing, "Woman. Speak UP. SPEAK UP! For, this is no time to dawdle with thy impish girlish thoughts." 

Tessa replied, with the sudden decision that she shouldst convince him to stay, and speaking as fast as she couldst manage, "Someone shouldst tend to Melanie. For is it not unlawful to leave a lady of her standing without her servants?"

A hint of horror filled Giles’ eyes. 

“Giles? What is it that vexes you?” 

“O' nay. I..I couldst not. I can not stay with—“ 

Melanie giggled as she approached them. 

"Well, of course thou must," Melanie said. She beamed as she treaded on light feet in her new gray wool riding habit. She put her hands on Tessa’s shoulders from behind, "Giles, she speaks rightly. Thou shalt remain here, while the other girls tend to my sister. Tessa wilt stay here with thee as well, and both wilt see to my person. Elizabeth is in God's hands now, and she shalt hath all the help she needs, asunder from us." 

Giles nodded, and he was now as solemn as a pallbearer at this order. 

He turned down the hallway towards Elizabeth's quarters, ever slower, and now filled with a most obvious disappointment.

Tessa faced Melanie, who quivered her lips as she ached to chide her for her crime against Hannah, and the transgressions that were, for a surety, still to come. 

Melanie raised her eyebrows, and dared her to raise an accusation against her mistress.

"Doth thou now confront me, thy lady?"

Tessa's lips quivered again, and then she curtsied low to the floor. She hadth bigger concerns than inciting a quarrel, now. She reasoned that it may serve her better to heed to Melanie, if she verily sought to win back her old friend. 

"Rise," she said, raising her chin.

Tessa obeyed, and was ever as calm as the sky before 'tis terrible storm. 

Melanie whispered in her ear. 

She said, "What is done hast been done. How quickly doth thou forget that for years, Hannah lorded us with her high power and vainglory? She bullied us, and to no end. How many nights didst we tend each other's bruises and pad the blood? Didst thou not wipe my eyes and console me, that one day she may get her dues for such unapologetic abuses? Doth thou not see, Tessa, that I carried out that promise?" 

"Yea. And she is gone now," Tessa said, gulping, "and 'tis done. But I must ask something, if thou shalt pardon my forwardness."

"Ask."

“Is that whence thou art going? To see her and ensure she is in her miserable state?" 

This was happening. Melanie hadth already made it hard to be loyal to her, and harder this day still. Tessa wouldst be wiser to hold her tongue, but she couldst not, for twas as though Melanie inwardly begged to see the rage ooze from her face like a pus.

Melanie raised a daring brow. 

She said, "Yea, and so much more than that. And if thou shouldst speak openly against my character, I shalt make it as plain that thou wanted this too, whether thou shalt admit it or not."

"I didst not..."

"Lies. She ruined our lives, all of us, and all the same. So. Stop. Meddling. Thou wouldst do better to make thy self my ally than an enemy, miss Tessa, or thou shalt be quick to see whence thy betrayal finds thee."

Tessa gave her a side glance. All of her suppressed anger. That wild passion. The years of abuse hadth passed now from her hand and she wielded the power to deal it back. 

Yet, she was also correct in her painful discernment. Tessa, herself, hadth ruined Hannah's life as much as she couldst manage, save for taking it herself, because she fueled Melanie's own hatred in the days before this. She hadth a hand in molding this new Melanie into the very character she detested, and she couldst not deny it. Dread filled her gut like a rolling fog on the graves, as she accepted that Melanie was not through with Hannah, and may refuse to be until she saw her dead. 

"Do..doth thou know whence she wilt be staying?"

"Whence I am going and what I am doing is not thy concern, anymore. 'Tis not thy place to know. Only to obey."

Melanie spun her head and she marched to the front door, fiddling with the fingers of her white leather riding gloves. 

Tessa said, pleading, "Please, Melanie."

Melanie paused. 

"Whence thou art going. What thou thinks to do. Do not. It needs naught to be this way."

She turned back, and she then squinted at her with an askew head.

"Who is it thou thinks I am, that I am minded to be hither to you?"

"Can thou not be the Melanie we knew? She was so humble and kind. I couldst trust her. I couldst love her. I still do."

"Hast thou paid no attention to the world around you? Thou art simple-minded child."

She curled her fists together, and then she turned to walk towards the door.

She said, "I am not thy friend. I am thy mistress."

Tessa said, "Then, I only seek to know one thing about thee."

Melanie stopped, and then she half-turned her head.

"What?"

"Wherefore shouldst thou become the thing we hated? Thou told me thou wouldst not be cruel, and certainly not as much as the Lady Sheeks herself. Thou hast lied." 

Melanie gritted her teeth.

She faced her once more, and then she stepped slow towards her, ever graceful like the swan but with eyes like the crow.

She said, "Thou art too bold, Tessa. And arrogance is in thy name. Didst thou not complain to me often about our mistress? Yet thee, thy self, hadth not known her but twice in thy life. Still, thou hated her. And doth thou know it not how insufferable that was to me? For, she was my everything. I looked up to her all my heart. And thy wish was the same as all the others, to see her torn down. It never stopped with thee," she pointed at her heart, "And yet doth thou call me cruel? Me? I hadth no doubt thou shalt whisper the same complaints about me, even to the sainted Elizabeth and the other girls. Thou couldst never respect what was worth respecting, for thou art a stupid low-born girl."

"Melanie.."

She raised her hand to silence her. She wound her mouth and shook her head. 

"I am done with thy prattle. I shalt embody my mother, in every way, and thou wilt shut thy eyes and suffer it." She raised her brows and smirked, "Or thou wilt be gone."

Something inside Tessa assured her that 'gone’ implied an act far darker than a dismissal.

Her eyes glowed, as though she couldst set Tessa aflame with a single glance. 

Tessa said, breaking her voice, "Wherefore didst thou pretend this kindness to me and to be my friend?" 

"Thou was a convenience. I didst not get the love I sought from thy betters, so I settled for thee. But that ended yesterday. Things, thenceforth, wilt be the way they shouldst hath been from the start. 'Tis a new world, Tessa. A new age for us all. And in these times, I love thee not." 

Tessa looked away, for she was unable to bear the disdain in Melanie's eyes. 

Tessa said, "I thought I knew thee, but 'tis plain to me now that I know naught of thee." 

"Thou didst not, and speak not again as my equal," she said, raising her chin with pride, "Thou art too forward. And I am here to remind thee, young lady, that this is a house of dignity. It demands humility, silence, and respect from its servants. And from now on, thou shan’t speak until spoken to, and even then thou shalt speak as a servant to thy mistress. For that is what thou art and always wilt be. We art not equals and I refuse to treat thou as such. Hath I made this, in any way, unclear to you?" 

Tessa curled her lips as painful tears ran down her cheeks. 

"Nay," she said, breaking her voice, "My lady." 

She stood before Melanie, and she sobbed with sunken shoulders. She was so broken in heart and spirit that she dared not to even raise her arms to wipe away the pains from her face.

"Dismissed," Melanie said, allowing her syllables to cut into Tessa like a fine razor. 

She whipped around and she headed across the empty round white marble floor entryway for the front door. 

Giles appeared from the hallway that led to Elizabeth’s apartments. 

Melanie halted before him. She smiled wide again, as if such a horrid scene hadth happened. Nay, she couldst not be bothered to notice the shell of a woman she left standing not far behind her. 

She faced him as she, then, walked backwards towards the door.

She said, smirking as she toyed with her gloves, "I am going for a ride into the village. But I shan’t leave thou long. Wilt thou wait for me, dear Giles?"

Giles bowed low. 

Tessa spotted the faint sense relief on his face, which he managed to hide from Melanie.

What no one noticed was Farrah, with her vision blocked by a towering wicker basket piled high of fresh laundry, rushing at her. What followed next couldst hardly be prevented.

She slammed into the backward Melanie, and together, they both crashed and collapsed to the floor, even as good as equals. 

Pastel fabrics and bloomers sailed high into the air, and then fell over their heads with quick and silently amusing whimsy.

"How dare you?" Melanie said, yanking a petticoat off her head. 

Farrah scrambled to pick up the linens, as though the floor might burn it. 

She said, "My lady, I..I am so sorry." 

"Where is it?" Melanie said. 

Tessa watched with burning and heavy eyes as Melanie clawed around the floor for something. 

Her mind, if for only a second, flashed back to the days whence Melanie was on her knees in just that same spot and with such the same vigor, scrubbed at the floors with the thick layer of suds and bubbles.

To Melanie’s apparent horror, didst a little corked bottle roll away from the safety of her purple crushed velvet purse. 

Farrah grabbed the bottle with her free hand. She paused. A cold silence lingered. There was not a soul living here who couldst not recognize its clear viscous contents.

She handed it to her with a slow stretch, and her lips parted. 

She said, hesitant, "Art we not feeling well, miss?" 

Melanie snatched the bottle. 

She said, "Nay. I am in mourning, in case thou all shouldst forget, for my mother is dead. My sister is thought to follow. And thou hast ruined my day further with thy clumsiness." 

Mourning? This was not so apparent to others, for Melanie was head to toe in a bright gray, with not a tear nor a stitch of black fabric to be seen. 

"I am sorry, my lady," she said, bowing low to her. 

Melanie gulped as she stood to her black-clogged feet.

"I command thee to go pack thy things and gather the ladies. Tessa knows her orders," Melanie said, sighing as she straightened her skirt. 

Farrah suppressed a snort. 

She said, with a quick bow, "Yea. Of course, my lady." 

Melanie seethed. She turned and she opened up the glass-paned oak double doors herself, and then she stormed outside in a great huff well-fitting a child in a tantrum. 

Tessa looked on as she paused before the front steps, and she listened as Farrah unleashed her pent up laughter inside. 

"Didst thee..didst thou see her...? AAA-WWHHOOP!" 

Farrah's unabashed howls grew louder, and they echoed through the manor.

Melanie's fists clenched, and then they relaxed. She even managed a smile, which she turned back and flashed at Tessa. Peradventure she was comforted in her mockery by the true purpose of her afternoon trip; the very same which Tessa was reluctant to admit as a chilling possibility which she couldst not now prevent.