The Circle of Sappho (22 page)

We are finding it hard not to speak of last evening during our lessons today but we have all taken Miss Leigh's caveat to heart; that we must not breathe a word about the Circle to anyone, not even each other while we are outside the sacred places. There is a difference about us, however, a blossoming in our beings that only we are privy to. It feels like torture, at times, to know that there are others who share my experience and yet I cannot speak to them of it. But I want to stay true to Miss Leigh and the Circle, and would not wish to endanger either in any way, so a covert exchange of glances within the classroom will have to suffice. I count the days to the next meeting, which will be at the time of the full moon.

The following entries contained much the same musings, including the ways in which the girls secretly communicated with each other. The next meeting arrived and some of the details had been written down.

Tonight we met at the library once more and entered the steps as before but this time with our blindfolds removed; as we were now initiated they were no longer needed. I had arranged with the other two girls in my dormitory that we would leave individually, so as not to arouse suspicion, and then meet up at the library. I was last. I went downstairs and into the book-lined room without event or hindrance, then swung the appropriate panel open and stepped inside. When I reached the bottom of the stone steps, the other two girls were waiting for me and we made our way along the corridor, to the ceremonial room, together. We were full of anticipation and excitement, having already seen the full moon through our dormitory window, but had to conduct this journey in silence, as part of the route the passage took was under the staff rooms and we did not want to alert anyone to our presence below.

We arrived at the initiation chamber and were finally allowed to talk as this area was, so Miss Leigh told us, underneath the lake.

We had remained inside the initiation chamber during the previous meeting, but tonight Miss Leigh said we were to go outside. I was not quite sure what this entailed, although all became clear soon enough. Miss Leigh stood up and beckoned for us all to follow. We waited by a curtained entrance, on the opposite side of the chamber, while Miss Leigh took a large golden key from her pocket and unlocked a wooden door. It was pulled open and we went through one by one and then carried on down another passageway. At the end of this was a series of stone steps leading upwards and we followed Miss Leigh to the top, where a large stone blocked our way. Several of the girls pushed it aside and moonlight flooded the passage. Passing the stone I found myself in a small temple. We waited until the final girl came through and then went out through the temple's entrance onto the island. We followed Miss Leigh along a path to a small clearing. Here a circle of stone seats awaited us, surrounding a stone altar. This is where the evening's ceremony was to take place.

Before the ceremony began, Miss Leigh announced that she wanted to talk to us about what she called ‘reclaiming the night'. She told us that the night traditionally belonged to women; why it was our right as females to encompass and allow the night to open up and develop our intuition. It represented the magical, creative side in a woman, she said, and everything which is opposite to the customs and social mores that we, as girls, and then as women, have to adhere to if we wish to be fully accepted, and not exiled, by society. She told us of an incident that had happened when she had lived abroad as a governess to a family who had several daughters. It was a country where women had to be clothed from head to toe in heavy black robes whenever they went outside, and they were never under any circumstances allowed to unveil themselves to any man to whom they were not related. Miss Leigh told us that these women had a very strict home-life, where they had to obey their husbands and look after the man's home and his children, with no rights of their own.

One night though, she witnessed something which had stayed with her to this day. The family were staying at a house in a small town, in mid-summer, and the society in which she found herself seemed as heavy and claustrophobic as the weather. She had finished her duties for the day and was lying in bed, about to go to sleep, when a strange noise reached her ears. It was a mixture of metallic clashing and wailing voices, becoming increasingly louder. Curious, she got out of bed. As she watched from the window she saw, to her astonishment, a procession of women coming around the corner not too far away. Every one of them was without her veil; they had been discarded! And instead of robes they wore long dresses. Their hair was loose, flowing freely down their backs, and as they moved along the street the women wailed and sang, all the while banging drums, cymbals and other percussion instruments. To the rhythm of this noise they danced wildly, surrendering control of their bodies and minds to the full moon, which shone brightly in the night sky.

As they came closer she went out onto the balcony. From here she could see the whole street, able to observe but not be observed. Not that the women would have taken much notice of her, as they seemed lost within their own worlds. They passed beneath her window and she could see their faces, their expressions one of ecstasy and total abandonment. And yet wherever they were at that very moment, they were no longer separate but together in a place where women were free to express themselves. In this way, they had reclaimed the night as their own.

The following morning Miss Leigh had walked around the bazaar and there, once more, were the women going about their daily business, their veils across their faces and dressed in the dark attire which symbolised their suppression.

It was as if the night before had been only a dream, Miss Leigh said, yet she knew it had been real. These women, with their secret life, were walking among men who thought they were under their control, with no idea that they were actually beyond their control and at least once a month, at full moon, showed their real selves.

Miss Leigh explained that within every female there is a primitive, wild side and that we need to harness the powers of nature to help strengthen this naturalistic side. Using the night allows us to access those emotions and feelings which are dormant during the daytime. She said this was why she had begun the Circle of Sappho in the first place, so that through these meetings, and her teachings, we could learn to awaken this side of our nature and once it had been allowed to emerge, use it in a positive, powerful way. And it was very important this happened, she said, because if allowed to surface without any control, it could become dangerous not only for the individual but also for the society in which they lived.

Yet, these primitive emotions must be allowed to surface, said Miss Leigh, as to ignore them would only turn us into the daytime personification of those blacked-robed women; suppressed and artificial. To be able to endure our future lives as ‘dutiful wives', we would always have this other side of us which could not be taken away; something which we could call our own and that would allow us to be free when we needed to be.

In the same way as we had our duties and obligations to the school, lessons, prayers and routines, once a month, under the full moon, we could renew our powers through participation in the moon goddess ceremonies and worship of Aphrodite. This is what Sappho taught, she said, and this is what a previous inhabitant of the estate had understood. It was her notebook, Miss Leigh told us, which had first suggested the idea of starting the Circle, or rather continuing it, as it had originally been created by another woman. Miss Leigh had discovered this notebook when she had swum across the lake to explore the island. She had found it in a box, along with several other items relevant to performing the necessary ceremonies for empowerment. The box had been left inside the recess of a temple, which had been built on the island. From what Miss Leigh had learnt since, the woman's husband had encouraged her fully and indeed had built the island, temple and passageway that linked them with the main house. If and when we students were to marry, she said, this would be the desired state of union, the two people helping each other to reach their potential, not just as husband and wife, but as man and woman. Although some of our husbands might find the concept of mutual union abhorrent, if they were to find out the reality, she said, they would in fact benefit greatly from it. In this way we might help our husbands find their own empowerment in the years to come.

It seems both women and men have access to this ‘night' power, although women normally benefit from it more, which is a way to allow fierce emotions that burn within them to be let out. As these were normally suppressed during the day, this nocturnal outlet allows it safely to be expressed. It is actually through women that enlightened men – as Miss Leigh called them – might find their own outlet and connection to this power.

She then warned us that we have a responsibility to ourselves, as women, and to our husbands, to retain access to this force and keep it alive within us. It is solely down to us because our very survival depends on our connection to our deeper instinct.

The entry finished. The ceremony itself had not been recorded. The next entry mentioned the fact that Grace had been invited to Miss Leigh's room that evening to discuss an important matter. Swann turned the page, but stopped. The entries were now unreadable, as they had been written in code. He looked at the clock; it was time to leave. He would return to the diary with the intention of deciphering its code and learning the secrets that must surely be hidden within it.

Swann left his office in Gay Street and headed towards his warehouse in the Avon Street district. As he crossed over Wood Street and into Barton Street he noticed Isabella Thorpe. Ever since his arrival in Bath, she had been trying to convince Mary to organise a dinner party so she could become ‘better acquainted' with him; so far he had been successful in avoiding it. She was conversing with a friend a little way down Barton Street, so Swann quickly retraced his steps and headed along the southern side of Queen Square and then turned left into Princes Street and into the more notorious part of the city, where he had his warehouse.

About a month ago he had seen Isabella while he was in disguise. He was in his usual beggar's outfit, as he was on his way to see George and Bridges at the Fountain Inn, but upon seeing Isabella had thought for a moment of formally introducing himself to observe her reaction, but refrained as the consequences of ‘breaking cover' could be calamitous, even fatal. He had walked past and as he did so, overheard her comment to a companion: ‘People like that should not be allowed in this part of town.' Swann smiled to himself at the memory.

Once in his beggar's disguise again, Swann had made his way back to Avon Street itself and the Fountain Inn, where no one but George and Bridges knew his true identity. Inside, he found the two men already there. He bought three drinks at the bar and carried them across to where the thief-takers were sitting.

‘Mr Swann, why that is very kind of you, sir,' said George, as the drinks were placed on the table in front of him.

‘You can have this one as well, George,' said Swann, pointing to his own glass. ‘I may need clarity tonight. Do you and Bridges know what to do?'

‘Yes, Mr Swann. But where are we heading, you haven't told us yet?'

‘Lansdown Crescent. It is in the Upper Town, do you know of it?'

George nodded and Swann told him the house number, the description of the gentleman they would be shadowing, and the exact spot where Swann would be hiding when the money was handed over. He had left instructions with Fitzpatrick earlier to inform Moorhouse that he would not be followed from his residence, but instead Swann would be concealed near the old East Gate – where the money was to be handed over – to observe the transaction. He wanted Moorhouse to believe there was nobody shadowing him as experience had taught Swann that he would most likely keep looking behind him, and thereby arouse suspicion if the blackmailer or his associates were watching. He wanted George and Bridges to follow this prospective Member of Parliament in case the location was suddenly changed or if Moorhouse became a victim of another crime, robbery, with the large amount of money he was carrying. If there was a change of plan, one of the thief-takers would remain with Moorhouse while the other would let Swann know.

‘Once you arrive at the old East Gate,' continued Swann, ‘find somewhere to wait out of sight but from where you can see me. If I raise my left arm it means there is trouble but to stay where you are. If I raise my right arm it means …'

‘… there's trouble and to come right away,' finished George.

‘Exactly.'

Swann realised Bridges had not signed a word or lip-read since he had entered the inn. His head was down and he looked miserable.

‘What is wrong with Bridges?' he asked George.

‘It's Rosie, sir. She is being thrown out of her home tomorrow.'

‘I see. Well I may have a solution.'

Swann tapped Bridges' arm and he looked up.

‘Do not worry, Bridges,' Swann signed. ‘I know of a building in the area where Rosie can stay as long as she wants to.'

Bridges' expression did not change.

‘I do not understand,' Swann said to George. ‘I thought Bridges would be happy.'

‘She lost her job yesterday and had to pawn her violin, but still cannot afford to stay anywhere for long.'

‘I assume you have not had a change of heart regarding her staying with you?'

George looked sheepish but resolute.

Swann tapped Bridges' arm again. ‘Perhaps I forgot to mention it, but this place is rent free. Rosie does not have to pay any money for as long as she stays there.'