Read Lady in Waiting: A Novel Online
Authors: Susan Meissner
Lady in Waiting: A Novel (40 page)
It is Christmas, 1592, and I am in my fifty-ninth year. Jane Margaret and her family are coming to Bristol to spend the holidays with me. I
have made what preparations I can, but I feel my spirit weakening within me. I had to ask my good neighbor Eleanor to help me prepare rooms for my family’s arrival. My breath wants to skip away from me at the oddest times.
I had Eleanor climb the ladder to my attic, sweet thing, to retrieve a small wooden box I have kept there for many years.
“What, pray, would you need from an old chest at Christmas, Lucy?” Eleanor says to me as she now struggles down the ladder with the dusty box under her arm.
I help her down and take the little box. “Just something I need to give to Jane, Eleanor. Come have a posset for your trouble.”
“I daresay you shall only find spiders in there,” Eleanor scoffs, brushing off her skirts. “It can’t weigh very much, whatever it is.”
We sit down at my table, and I pour her a warm drink. “It is quite small, actually,” I tell her. “’Tis only a ring that belonged to a very dear friend of mine. I want to give it to Jane.”
“A ring? In your attic? Are you sure Jane will want it?” Eleanor laughs.
I laugh too. “Oh, yes. I think she will want this one. There’s a story behind this ring. A secret story. A lovely story that Jane will want to hear.”
My Jane knows only that I once worked for a duke and that I sewed dresses for his daughter. But I believe she deserves to hear whose daughter it was that I sewed for. And why Nicholas and I named our firstborn Jane. I have always believed Jane should know. And I have always known a time would come when I would tell her.
Eleanor sips at her drink. “What have you been doing with a secret ring in your attic, Lucy? Of all places!” She looks at me as if I have the daft notions of an old woman whose mind is thinning.
I smile and sip my own drink.
“I have been waiting.”
From Jane Margaret Staverton Holybrooke
Heather Downs
Castle Road, Bristol
3 May 1619
To Mrs. Alice Holybrooke
Great Heath, Liverpool
Dearest Alice:
I am aggrieved I shall not be able to see you and Charles and the new wee babe. A cough has settled into my lungs and the doctor here has forbidden me to travel. And I would not want to share my cough with the little ones
.I am afraid God will soon call me hence to join my dear captain and, while you do not need to mention this to my son Charles, I must tell you why I am sending this package to you. Inside the little leather sack that accompanies this letter is a ring that I would like for you to give to Philippa when she is older. The ring has my name engraved inside but it has not always been mine. Its original owner is now many years deceased. It is my desire to live long enough to tell Philippa the story someday. It is too lengthy for a letter. My mother gave it to me when I was about your age, dear Alice. Suffice it to say that it is a ring meant to be worn by someone who is loved and gives love. Please keep it safe for Philippa until such time as I may see you or her again. There is much I need to tell her
.I remain very sincerely
,Your mother-in-law
,Jane
From Miles Fenworth, Solicitor
Covent Garden
London
10 September 1665
To Miss Audrey Tewes
Chesterwood House
Devonshire
Dear Miss Tewes:
I regret to inform you that your great-aunt Philippa Holybrooke has fallen victim to Plague. It was her expressed wish that you be sent this prayer book upon her death. The prayer book was not kept upon her person during her illness, but was in the keeping of the nuns who cared for her while she lay ill. The rosary is also a gift from your great-aunt to you, as are the gold coins in the bag. Miss Holybrooke was most adamant that you take the prayer book and keep it safe. As the illness devoured her, she became convinced soldiers of His Majesty were in search of it. She asked that you guard it carefully. I write this to you because I promised her I would
.Again, my most ardent condolences on the passing of your great-aunt. She spoke often of you
.Your faithful servant
,Miles Fenworth
From Andrew Bolling
Butterworth Township
Rochdale Parish
The Salford Hundred, Lancashire
November 12, 1715
To Messrs. Tinley and Harper
Booksellers
High Street
Oxford
As we agreed by earlier post, here are the contents of my mother Audrey Tewes Bolling’s library. I apologize for the condition of the books. Her house was unoccupied and unheated for several years. It is my understanding that the prayer book and rosary belonged to her great-aunt Philippa whom was taken by Plague and my mother was resolute that the book and rosary stay together. If you cannot find a buyer for both the prayer book and the rosary, keep them for me and I shall buy them back from you and perhaps give them to my niece if she would have them
.Yours respectfully
,Andrew Bolling
December 2, 1715
From Tinley and Harper Booksellers
High Street
Oxford
Dear Mr. Bolling:
You will be pleased to know that a Mrs. Charlotte Meade has purchased the prayer book and rosary along with many other titles from your mother’s library. She was quite moved when I told her the previous owner, a Protestant, had died childless of Plague, with a rosary in her possession
.If we may be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to let us know
.Yours most sincerely
,Henry Tinley
To Chester Hadley, Locksmith
Cornmarket Street
Oxford
March 22, 1754
Dear Mr. Hadley:
I am sending to you this copper box that belonged to my mother, Charlotte Meade. I have searched her house from top to bottom and cannot find the key. I plan to settle her estate the day after tomorrow and shall return thence to Leeds. If you could perchance work the lock open I would be much obliged. I do not know what she has placed in the box
.I shall come by your shop before I leave. If I should miss you, you may send the box to me at Park Row, No. 12, Leeds, Yorkshire
.Respectfully
,John R. Meade
To John Meade
Park Row, Number 12
Leeds, Yorkshire
March 26, 1754
Dear Mr. Meade:
Please be advised, good sir, that my establishment was looted two nights ago following a dreadful fire and the box that belonged to your mother was most likely stolen
.Since the lock had not yet been opened, I do not know the contents of the box, nor do you, so I am sending you five shillings for your loss
.Respectfully
,Chester Hadley
From Priscilla Colley
Charlton Kings
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
June 14, 1801
To Esther Waddington
Marshes
Chipping Norton
Oxfordshire
Dearest Mum:
Albert and I are settled into the cottage. It is small but since it is just us two—for now!—we can make do. We found no small amount of rubbish when we moved in. Indeed one whole room upstairs was filled with boxes and crates and spider webs. Most of it we burned in the yard. But there were a few trinkets worth keeping. We found a metal box that is locked. It is green and blackened with age and soot and smells strange but Albert is going to try to open it anyway, though I told him not to bother. We should just burn it with the rest
.We also found a cradle! It was full of old newspapers and horseshoes. Can you imagine?
Must be off now. Love to Papa
,Yours affectionately
,Priscilla
From Isabell Colley Manning
New Bridge House
Kings Street
Gloucester
June 14, 1862
To Sarah Manning Swift
West Halifax Street
Baltimore, Maryland
My lovely Sarah:
I received your letter, dearest Sarah, and am grateful to almighty God that Robert survived the battle at Shiloh. I so long to see you and the children, and I worry so for you, but I fear this War of the States will outlast me, my dear daughter. I am selling the house and the furnishings and moving in with Aunt Josephine. I am afraid I am not well enough to attend to the attic. I have all my parents’ belongings there from when they moved from Chipping Norton to live here with me. My mother refused to part with anything after your grandfather died. I do not want you to have the burden of sifting through it all, dear Sarah, on some future day. I am having the lot sold at auction. I shall send to you the locket you had as a child and the doll Papa made for you. I pray I see you soon. Please be safe, my dearest
.With love always
,Mother
To Aubrey Templeton
Rosewood Manor
Chapel Gate
Cirencester, Gloucestershire
August 16, 1862
Dear Mr. Templeton:
I am writing on the matter of the lot you purchased at the estate sale of Mrs. Isabell Manning. The steamer chest has been deposited, as you requested, to your carriage house at Holywell House in Bristol
.Jeremy Stokes
To Mrs. Annabelle Templeton Ashley
Bridge Street, No. 12
Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales
January 17, 1901
Dear Mrs. Ashley:
It has been some time since I wrote you to tell you your father’s things are still in storage at the carriage house at Holywell in Bristol. There are a number of boxes of books, chests, and letters. Would you please be so kind as to direct me as to where they shall be sent? I hasten to remind you that the new owners of Holywell House are anxious to get on with the repairs
.Simon Cardwell, Solicitor
From Dora Ashley Hughes
Summer House
Swansea, Wales
August 21, 1940
To Mrs. Annabelle Templeton Ashley
Bridge Street, No. 12
Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales
Dear Mum:
I got your letter yesterday. I shall try my utmost to come for you at the end of the month if the Germans haven’t bombed the whole of Britain to kingdom come. Don’t toss anything out. I don’t care what Leo says about your father’s junk. We may need all that old rubbish to live off of. Don’t toss anything out! Must run. Martin’s awake and hungry
.Affectionately
,Dora
N
OTICE OF
S
ALE
The Estate of Martin Hughes
February 6, 2010
Swansea Auction House
Sale starts at 8 AM
Many unique items
Stored boxes sold by the case
A
LL
S
ALES
F
INAL
From Swansea Auction House
To Mr. Edgar Brownton
13 Collier Close
Cardiff, Wales
February 14, 2010
Dear Mr. Brownton:
As per your correspondence of February 8, the conditions of the lots were made clear on the bill of sale. All sales are final. I am sorry you have been unable to open the little lockbox you found in one of the boxes you purchased. We are in possession of no key, nor do we know the contents of the lockbox. As you were told at the sale, the boxes have been in unheated storage for forty years. Like as not, there is not much inside the box but dust
.Samuel Llewellyn
Swansea Auction House