Chapter 5 A Warning

CHAPTER 5

A Warning

Juliet's POV

"You know you don't have to knock out Aunt Elizabeth. You can always come in."

"Good morning niece, how was your sleep? I see you are working on that dress already." Aunt Elizabeth walked in carrying a tray with cups and a jug placed on it.

"Yes, you said a seamstress works better in the morning."

"Certainly. Tea?"

"Yes, thank you." I retrieved the cup and the saucer sipping a bit from it before dropping it off on the table.

"Do you like him?" I glanced at her and she smiled back nudging her head.

"You lost me aunt."

"I mean Lord Jackson, you were seen in town with him and everyone is talking about it."

"Oh, Lord Jackson is just a very good friend. Do you know that he has a thinking well?"

"Huh?"

"Oh, that was supposed to be a secret. I do not like him the way that you think."

"And what way do you think that I think?"

"The way that you think that I would want to marry him. He is just a friend and beside he has a betrothed. Lady Agnes, he had called her."

"I am glad that you know that. I do not want you to have anything further with him."

"But why?"

"Look Juliet, he is Lord Jackson, the Duke and you are just Juliet you do not want to anger any of the nobles now do you?"

"Not at all."

"Very well then, you have to thread wisely. Now get ready, we are going to get some supplies today." She patted my shoulder moving out of the room as I watched her back.

It was midday, I lay on my bed with my cheek pressed to the pillow. I had had a rumbling stomach from eating too much hot bread. The pain had subsided and I did not feel the etching desire to throw up or the cramping of my stomach walls. I wanted to go back to the dress or go out to watch the sunset. Aunt Elizabeth walked in again, this time without knocking with a bowl in one hand and a letter on the other hand.

"I made something hot for you, it would help with your belly and this letter came for you."

"Thank you." She dropped it on the table together with the bowl. I moved sluggishly out of bed to the chair just in front of the table. In the spoon in my hands, I took out a scoop of the liquid emptying it inside my mouth. My tongue felt numb but I could still taste a bit of the peppermint. I took up the letter tearing it open, it read;

Dearest Juliet

How do you do?

I have not seen you in days and your absence is lamentable. I ask your aunt about you every day but she never wants to talk about you. I am inviting you over for tea, at dusk, we can walk through the gardens together. Let me have this chance with you now I still can.

Jackson.

I read it out loud again, so I could hear the words in his voice. It was my aunt's wish, to stay away from this man. He had shown me so much in so little time. I was asked to sit here and waste away, but the urge to go and speak to him bubbled as I read the letter again. I wanted to feel his warm stare around me even when he thought that I was not looking. His smile closed the rift of solitude I had created around myself in the past years. I moved away from the chair, to the trunk of dresses. There, I found a repro silk white dress with a hooded cloak, perfect for my visit. With my gloves on and my purse, I had no fancy hat, like the one I saw on the heads of the noblewomen. I walked to Aunt Elizabeth's room, she was out to the back of the house taking out the vegetables from the farm. She had the hat I needed, the one with the peacock feathers by the rim. I had seen it the day that I was to clean her room. I sneaked away from the cottage through the gate without being noticed. At the other end of the path I sighted a carriage, the horse man waved to me and I walked up towards him.

"Lord Jackson asked that we bring you."

"How did he know that I would accept his invitation?"

"He said he is just being hopeful."

I settled in as we began the ride through the gate. It felt like a dream, alone in a carriage, in a fancy dress, going to have tea with the Duke. A man betrothed to be married in a short time. I did not know what aunt Elizabeth would think of me. She might write to mother telling her of how badly she had raised me. I felt my forehead burning now and my stomach rumbling again. I wanted to tell the rider to stop, to turn the carriage around and take me home, just then, I sighted the mightiest of them all, and the woman behind everything that Jackson has but does not wish to have. She might be going for her evening stroll as well, with her handmaids and a few guards. I bent over so I do not catch a glimpse of her eyes until we moved past them.

The carriage drove ahead and stopped. I peeked through the curtain, we had stopped in front of the garden. The carriage door swung open and the man helped me with the stool. I stepped out watching around. I could feel my heartbeat increase and the aura of an unwanted guest around me.

"Thank you." I muttered to the kind man.

"You are most dearly welcomed. Lord Jackson is in the garden. He asked that you should come to the spot where you first met him."

"Oh, that should be the rose garden."

"I presume so."

I walked down through the path of the garden, running my hands on the leaves. Then, I saw his back again, just like the first day I had seen him admiring the roses. He turned with a meticulous smile on his face.

"I thought you wouldn't come."