Chapter 2- Part 1 Life After Death

The day after Rebecca dies. what to do now?

Chapter 2

It was late in the morning but Juliana couldn’t bring herself to get up. She lay sprawled on the bed watching dust particles dance in the sunlight while she contemplated what life here was going to bring. Frank worried her, she couldn’t control what he did or how he effected her; something she thought she’d come to understand in the years she’d spent harbouring her crush on him. But it appeared she didn’t understand love at all.

Olivia had left Juliana to rest for now having been told about Rebecca’s death the night before but it was approaching lunchtime and she had to get up at some time. She knocked on the door softly and carefully pushed it open.

“Juliana?” she asked softly as she walked into the bedroom. Juliana sat up reluctantly pushing her tangled curls out of her face.

“Do I have to get up Olivia?”

“Yes my dear, I know yesterday was long and unexpected but you can’t hide in here forever.” Juliana nodded reluctantly and climbed from her bed, sitting down at her dressing table and picking up her comb. Pulling it through her tangled curls she tried not to wince and she watched Olivia in the mirror pulling out different outfits and nodded when she saw the one she wanted to wear. Olivia went to put it back in the wardrobe and Juliana had to call out,

“That’s the one I want.”

“This one? The dove grey silk, but that’s a coming out of mourning dress you hated wearing anything for mourning. Besides its years old I’m not sure why we brought it with us it’s completely out of date.” Olivia asked surprised.

“Well it’s only appropriate, someone has died and you always said this dress was reserved but elegant a timeless classic; why not wear it again?”

“True, but you don’t have to mourn for Lord Carlyle's wife; you didn’t know her.”

“But Frank deserves it.” She turned back to her mirror and started brushing her hair again, before sweeping it up into an elegant creation of gleaming curls and twists held in place by various pins and a silver and enamel slide. Olivia passed her a soft cotton petticoat which she stood up and slid over her head carefully, before allowing Olivia to nip her already tiny waist with an embroidered corset. Pulling the dress on Juliana let Olivia button up all the tiny fiddly buttons trying not to fidget with impatience.

“Are you sure about this Juliana, you don’t have to put your heart on the line for this man?” It seemed an odd thing to say, but Olivia knew that despite being strong of character Juliana had a soft heart and hated to admit it. Juliana scowled at her in the mirror, but Olivia just smiled and passed her the day shoes for her dress. “Have a good day, now go and eat some tea.”

~

Hopping down the stairs pulling on her slippers, Juliana made her way back to the dining room, one of the few rooms she had seen the night before. Its heavy drapes were still drawn and the room was empty, but she went in anyway and pulled the curtains open her self, so she could find the bell pull in the wall. Pulling it, she sat down on a dining room chair and waited for someone to arrive. Eventually a timid housemaid arrived and asked her what she would like. Ordering tea and a rack of toast and strawberry jam, Juliana settled back and waited for it to arrive when she saw Wells the butler walk past and look in. She gestured for him to come in and doing so he stood and waited for her instructions.

“Wells, is Lord Carlyle ok this morning? And how is the staff coping with the death of Lady Carlyle? Has the undertaker arrived yet? I see you are all already wearing black bands, thank you for your support of the family.”

“Lord Carlyle has refused to get up just yet; he is not feeling himself this morning.”

“That is understandable, please go on.”

“The servant are all in shock, Lady Carlyle was a kind and gentle mistress who was loved by all. I made sure each servant was wearing their black band this morning personally. The undertaker was sent to the house this morning by Doctor Cartwright and Lady Carlyle is now laid out ready for the funeral.”

“Thank you Wells, please let me know when Lord Carlyle gets up and thank you again allowing me to ask you all these questions.”

“Thank you Miss Lucas.” Bowing he left the room and Juliana to her thoughts. She knew how important it was to establish a relationship with the staff of the household and it would help her fit in more easily. Leaning back in her chair Juliana settled down to her toast and was surprised when the door was pushed open and Frank staggered in looking distinctly woozy. He pulled out a chair and rested his head carefully on the table, while Juliana pulled the bell pull and asked the prompt maid for some orange juice. She was surprised that he was still dressed as normal with not even a black band, but perhaps he had not remembered after the amount of brandy he had consumed the night before.

“Frank drink this,” she suggested softly passing him the glass of orange juice the maid handed her. “Do you remember anything about last night?”

“Yes,” he croaked staring at her, red eyed.

“Which parts? Did you sleep at all?”

“A little, my head hurts. I remember you… in the middle of the night…”

“What about Rebecca?” she interrupted. “And the baby?”

“Of course… but I don’t want to remember…” he stopped talking abruptly and she topped up his orange juice, which he drank gratefully.

“I’ll be back in a moment.” She hurried up the stairs and rummaged in the top of her chest of drawers for a black band. She found it buried underneath her under clothes at the very back of the draw and then hurried back down the stairs with it. Frank looked up at her when she walked sedately back into the room.

“I heard you running on the stairs, I think it must be the only unladylike thing I’ve ever seen, well heard you do.” He said smiling weakly. She smiled back and picked up his hand gently, slipping the black band up his arm carefully, ignoring the feeling of intimacy it gave her.

“You should at least wear this, it’s only proper even when you don’t want to. I know that when my father died I hated the idea of wearing black because I well hated black and I knew my father liked to see me in colour but I wore it any way. You’ll get used to it eventually.”

“What’s happening today?” he asked as she sat back down next to him.

“I’m not sure; I asked the doctor who came last night to talk to the undertaker for us and he came this morning, so I suppose we don’t have to do anything.”

“That’s good.” He seemed uncertain of this so Juliana reassured him.

“It’s all taken care of, but perhaps we ought to stay at home just in case of problems.”

“That’s good; I mean that’s fine, we’ll just stay right here.”

“Not even leaving the room?” she asked risking a soft smile. A bit of his old self shone through when he gave her a weak grin; the old self she met all that time ago before he married. He still exists then; she thought to herself, I was beginning to doubt if I had fallen in love with someone who was really there. The door creaked opened and Wells entered silently with the small silver letter tray in his hand.

“An invite for you my Lord.” He said placing it next to Frank on the dining room table. Frank picked it up reluctantly and popped the wax seal open; he read the invitation quickly and sighed deeply. Juliana looked up from her tea questioningly and Frank replied,

“It’s from the prime minister; his wife is holding a ball I have to attend as a member of parliament, it won’t matter that Rebecca has died.”

“Would you like me to come with you?” she asked after a moment’s hesitation.

“Why?” he asked puzzled, then realising how it sounded he found himself stumbling over himself to correct what he’d said. “I mean why would you want to come not that I wouldn’t be glad of your company although I don’t know what the other members of parliament would say?”

“Why would they have anything to say? We shouldn’t be the cause of scandal because you are simply my guardian and nothing is ever going to happen between us.”

“True.” He said quietly, before he reluctantly turned to more practical matters. “Do you have any thing to wear?” he asked staring pointedly at her dowdy old-fashioned dress.

“Well that’s debateable…” she replied also thinking of her wardrobe. “I have a few ball dresses from some small parties’ back home but I doubt they are really suitable for a grand ball in parliament. When you wrote to me to invite me here for a début I thought that Rebecca would be able to take me shopping to update my wardrobe, but now…”

“I always was the one to take Rebecca shopping and chose which dresses she brought I don’t mind taking you tomorrow.”

“Thank you Frank that would be good.”

“Actually later this afternoon might be better, the undertaker should be here soon to confirm events I believe and then I can relax and we can buy you some dresses. You know before you came I was looking over the state of your finances and the father made some good investments before he died and has made you a very rich woman. The running of your home costs very little and it appears you spend very little on yourself so we can afford a little extravagance when buying your clothes.”

“But I was taught to be well, thrifty when buying my clothes.” She blushed, wishing she’d kept this information to herself seeing the laughter in his eyes.

“There is no need to be thrifty though,” he said chuckling lightly under his breath. She smiled back and they relaxed into comfortable silence, something Frank had never experienced before; his father had always dictated what was said when he was alive and him and Rebecca never had anything to talk about and had lived in awkward silence but he didn’t feel the need to talk with Juliana unless there was a need. The jangle of the bell echoed through the silence and soon afterwards Wells introduced to them the undertaker and a dismal grey cloud settled over them again.

Reviews

[nora]

youre a really good writer! this chapter took things a little slower and i really like it :) great job on this one!

[DaGirlNxtDoor]

wow! very very interesting...cant wait to keep reading :)

[Bachman]

Very well written like the chapter before it and the prologue.

Lynn