New Year's resolution (Sat. Morning)- Xmas 1677

[Charles Whitehurst]

Langdon House

 

Located on the south corner of Picadilly, this large house seems almost out of place with the smaller town homes further up the block. Likely it is because it predates the development of Pall Mall and St. James Square.

 

Though the house shows signs of age from its Tudor origins, the walled grounds of two acres are well maintained, with a nice garden in back. There is an entry gate to the front, and a gate in the rear to the stables. A military man might appreciate the security of the perimeter.

 

The house has 3 levels plus an attic. The ground level hosts a small ballroom, parlor,dining room and study. The second floor hosts a masters BR, Missus BR, and a guest room. The third floor has three guest rooms, with the servants sleeping in the attic.

 

New Year's Eve had been wild for the Earl of Langdon. His body and head ached from the drink and exertion. He awoke later than usual, but it was still morning. Wearing his housecoat, he had Cook prepare the breakfast food Frances loved above all else and then he carried a quantity of it up to her room. He knocked at the door and asked if Frances was dressed because he would like to come in an talk with her. Amy was there with the key to unlock the door so she might peek in if Frances were not to answer.

[Hope]

You never knew how many friends you really have until the chips are down. Frances had discovered that she had none, nada, zippo. She'd sat piningly looking out her window hoping praying that someone would come to free her, perhaps the ladies from the market that had tried to help, or someone else, anyone, would take pity on her imprisonment. But even Tony (the younger but her favourite of London streets crew) had abandoned her.

 

She'd been fed and watered in the meantime true enough, but the servants of Lord Langdon proved not to be her friends either - there was a distant look in their eyes, she saw it, they did not care for her really. They were just the hired help of her tyrant keeper. She'd been a fool to think that any of them had cared for her more than it simply being their job to be polite.

 

All of this had set just one resolve in the young woman’s mind, that next time she escaped she'd not stick around in London. There was nothing, no-one for her here.

 

Breakfast was not at it's usual time today, her stomach was rumbling when she finally heard the sounds of feet arriving outside her door. It was the tyrant. The last person she wanted to see, but she was hungry.

 

"I'm not naked if that is what you mean." she replied in teenage stubborn tones. She was in her night gown still, it had been some days since she'd bothered to change clothes. There was little enough point to it when she was not allowed to leave the room.

 

Should he enter he'd find her sat at the chair by the window, wearing the heavy brocade dressing gown he'd brought once brought her when things were better between them. "Since when did you start delivering meals. It must be a slow news day in London. Leave the tray on my bed." She refused to turn to look at her jailor.

[Charles Whitehurst]

Charles entered her room and did as bid, placing the tray of food on her bed. The door had been shut behind him and he moved to sit on her bed beside the tray, given that she had taken the chair for herself.

 

"Happy New Year Frances. It is a new year and a chance for a new start with us. I wanted to leave you alone for a few days to reflect on your conduct before trying to clear the air between us." He did not ask for permission to speak. He assumed she was listening even though likely she would be playing at ignoring him.

 

"You are my ward, as is your mother. It is my duty to look after you and I will. But, I don't just do it out of duty, I do it out of love for you too. Ever since you came to my door to beg some food and then your mother's rescue, we have been linked you and I. I cared for you then and I still care for you, despite your best efforts to vex me. Right now I seem a tyrant to you because I keep you a prisoner. I do so for your protection, not because I enjoy imprisoning girls I care for. In a few years you will be a young lady and you will come to realize what I did for you. Now it just seems mean."

 

His monologue continued. He had practiced to himself while Elam shaved him. "The world is full of bad people that mean me harm and mean you harm. You are not old enough to know the sorts of dangers you face outside this house. It is not the sort of dangers that a couple of young boys can protect you from. Yes, you lived on the streets for a time when you ran away from Morehead's arrangements. You were darn lucky that no one really hurt you. I stopped some Turks who were kidnapping English girls and selling them into slavery. You remember that. There are criminals that would beat you or even rape you." He was not sure she would understand what that was, but he said it all the same. "If anyone ever hurt you Frances, I don't think I could stop myself from killing them. You mean that much to me. If those boys had hurt you ... it would be that last girl that they would hurt. I know they are your friends, but there are plenty of other boys out there that are not. They would hurt you for the fun of it, or to steal your coat. That is no life for you. Your father and mother provided for you so that you would not need to live like the poor. Poor people suffer in misery. The world is not open to them. I was poor once. I know the difference. People take advantage of the poor." He paused for a moment because he lost his train of thought.

 

"We were getting along fine, you and I, even when I married Jeanne. It was a mistake. I admit it. Even adults can do foolish things sometimes. It was not until I brought Catherine home to meet you and Bradley that you changed. She is no threat to you. She and I have adult fun together. That is all. You and I have a better sense of fun together. I don't want to lose that." He debated about telling her about the sled race next, in hopes of exciting her, but he was beginning to learn that women liked to talk. He assumed girls were born with the same trait.

 

"I will pause for now so that you can tell me what you want to tell me. I am here to listen."

[Hope]

He begun with a new years wish, and thought of clearing the air - but then immeciatenly begun by reminding her that he was the boss of her. She lost her ears at that point... she wiped at the window with sleeve and peered out. Though just as before there was no body out there to come save her.

 

Eventually he stopped talking. She did not reply, did not say anything. Perhaps he'd leave now.

[Charles Whitehurst]

It seemed that Charles was not properly equipped for dealing with a pre-teenager girl. He had no sister and no guidance in this area. Like most young men, it was assumed that logic and kind words were sufficient. Apparently not. The idea of a spanking occurred to him, but he convinced himself to withhold for now. If it was a boy, he would know precisely what to do.

 

"Frances, it is rude to ignore me. I was planning to enter a sled race with the King today and was planning to see if you might be interested in joining me, but it seems like you are more interested in staring out the window."

[Hope]

His saying that drew her attention away from the window and to the man.

 

"Aren't you afraid I'd just run away?" because she would.

 

"Aren't you afraid I'd tell everyone that I'm being kept a prisoner locked in my room." she'd do that too.

 

But of course he'd not give her that opportunity. He had no intention to take her anywhere, but was just saying this now, taunting her.

 

"You know very well I want to go outside, so why tease me with it." her chin quavered. "Are you going to make more lists of demands, and hold this over me as a prize you will give if I do everything you want? I am not a dog to be trained. Just leave me alone." she turned away so he'd not see the tear roll down her cheek.

[Charles Whitehurst]

If he did not care about Frances it would not effect him when she was so unhappy.. It did bother him.

 

He paced the floor as he pondered what words to say. None came readily. "Frances, I never had a sister or a daughter. I do not know how to speak to girls, I suppose. I am a soldier. I think like a soldier. I know how to speak to soldiers." Maybe she would understand his lack of eloquence.

 

"You tell me what you want me to say Frances. I love you and you used to love me. You seem to have changed. When you love someone, you want to protect them."

 

"When I thought of a partner for sledding, you were the first one I thought of. I did not think of other women. I thought of you laughing as we raced the others. The sled is for two. One drives and the other is a gunner to throw snowballs at other drivers. I was going to let you choose to be either the driver or the gunner. It would be so much fun, regardless of whether we won or not."

 

He paused to see if he had broken through her shell. With luck, he would.

[Hope]

If nothing else at least she was listening now, even if she did not want to let his reply into her heart.

 

"I am a person, you know how to speak to a person don’t you?" she returned.

 

She did not want to talk. She'd tried to tell him how she'd felt often enough before, but it was pointless then, he'd not hear her now either. "You know what has changed." the girl still months from her 13th birthday replied with voice taut, "When I first arrived you let me be Mistress of this house, you used to talk to me like I mattered. Like you cared. Even when you married that French cow I had a priority to you, I could tell. But now, you parade you mistresses at the dinner table, and they treat me like a bothersome kid."

 

"That was when I realised that was all you thought of me also. I. I had ridiculous dreams of what my future would be like. At least I know they were ridiculous now. But now I see I’m just nothing. There is no point my being here anymore. There is no point my being alive. I don’t want to talk about his any more.”

 

Enunciating these thoughts solidified them in her mind, gave them a shape and a certainty she'd not quite realised before. There really was no point any more. But she was trapped, trapped in this room, no chance of escape even to death. Her eyes slid back to the window...

[Charles Whitehurst]

Early teenagers were the worst. Everything was dramatic to them. Life was not living if it was not going their way. Charles was left to wonder whether this was adolescence or seriousness speaking.

 

"Don't be silly. You can still be the mistress of the house, if you seriously wanted. However, you can't be mistress if you run off. Then you are just mistress of the gutters," Charles explained logically.

 

"There was no parade of mistresses," Charles scoffed. "I bring Catherine over one night ... one bloody dinner ... and you are so sure I've abandoned you?" Would she see the logic in that? Unlikely.

 

"Abandon the long face Frances. You are still number one with me." He was purposely vague as to what category he meant. Certainly she was his favorite ward and favorite 12 year old, so that made his words true.

 

He went down on his knees beside her and attempted to kiss her cheek. "I'll not bring over Catherine for dinner again without your approval. I'm sorry I made you feel bad. You are the first lady I kissed in the new year. Happy New Year Frances. I'd kiss you on your lips but I don't kiss pouty-faced, pitiful looking ladies. Now if you were to smile, forgive me, give me a hug ... I might think otherwise."

[Hope]

His assurances and denials sounded like empty words to her - that was until he promised not to bring Catherine over again. Dramatic thoughts of throwing herself out the window vanished. "Really?"

 

She looked at him eye to eye, and he called her a lady (wasn't that adult status), and he said a whole lot of other things that she liked. Wiping her eyes on the back of her sleeve she accepted his embrace.

 

Though after all that had happened she was not so quick to want to kiss. "But I shall not kiss you Lord Langdon, for I am not that sort of girl." she sniffed. She'd be better than his light skirted courtesans.

 

"So you promise not to have loose women in the house anymore?"

[Charles Whitehurst]

He chuckled at her disinclination to kiss his lips. "Good for you. That is what a proper young lady might say."

 

"Let us talk of promises then. The only loose lady I know is Catherine. I will not bring her to dinner or stay over night without your permission. I think that fair. But, other ladies I could bring to visit surely as long as they do not demonstrate themselves to be "loose." He paused for agreement.

 

"In return, if you wish to be shown respect in the house, you must promise to act the role of a proper ward and not run off again like a child. You can have your friends to visit, assuming they do not teach you to do loose or illegal things, but you cannot disappear with them, abandoning the house, your mother, and myself. Is that clear and agreed?"

[Hope]

As he laughed her lower lip jutted, why did she feel like she'd fallen into a trap to be proper? Anyhow, that did not mean forever.

 

"There was Eleanor too." She reminded him of the other bit of fluff he'd had over (though he'd not flaunted Eleanor at the dinner table like he had with Catherine.)

 

"So, once you make a promise you negotiate ways to break it?" she replied. She had a jaded enough view of her guardian to believe that the only reason he'd have any woman around was so he could lay with them, no matter if they were classified loose before they arrived or not.

 

"There is no way I would invite my friends here, If I even have any friends left after you threatened to arrest them." The moment of feeling there was an alternative to running away was disappearing fast.

[Charles Whitehurst]

"Yes, Eleanor too," he agreed. "I have had nothing to do with her since that one night," he clarified. "I am not trying to break anything. I merely want to have friends come to visit as long as they are proper. If you think them some lightskirt because of something they did then I shall not invite them again without your permission." He paused to see if that would be acceptable. Already he was agreeing that he could not use his bedroom to shag anyone. He supposed it was just for a few remaining days. Then they would be off to Langdon, and there was the possibility that he could be convinced to give Frances into the care of some lady he respected and liked.

 

As for her friends, Charles nodded. He expected the scamps to have been chased off. "Make new friends. I introduced you to Princess Anne last year. Most any young lady would love to have a princess for a friend. Lady McGregor has three sisters, including some your age. The Duke of Norfolk has some younger daughters." He had rescued one. "Back in Cornwall, any number of country lasses would love to be your friend," he encouraged.

 

"So, let's go and get your coat. We don't want to be late for the sled race. Do you want to be the gunner, or do you want to drive?" He had Amy standing by to accompany them. If Frances tried to run off, he had commanded Amy to give chase and tackle her.

[Hope]

His clarification seemed fair, though she still wondered why he was even saying so. Was he scared that the King would be upset at him? After all he'd gained wardship of her via the king, but now he just locked her up. She did not expect that had been what the King thought he was agreeing too.

 

"Princesses are boring." She mumbled, now she'd got to thinking about her best friend Tony, and what had happened she was becoming upset again. Turning back to the window, though she knew she'd not see a friend out there waiting. She had no friends.

 

"I don’t think I want to go after all." she said. Waves of depression swept over her again, she was defeated, nothing cheered her, all was dark. "You can do whatever you like, I've no right to set any request let alone demand. You do whatever you like."

[Charles Whitehurst]

Charles was ill-equipped to deal with petulant pre-teens, let alone depression. He would take Frances to Church on Sunday to meet with Davina. There was also a planned meeting with Sophia about Frances. Maybe they could knock the moroseness out of her.

 

He had tried being nice and it was not working. He had tried being stern and it was not working. It was enough to make him wonder whether he wanted to have any children of his own. Maybe I should let William and Bradley carry on the line instead.

 

Annoyed, Charles replied "of course I can do what I want. Of course you have no say under the law. Nevertheless, I was trying to be nice Frances. I want us to be like we were before I brought Catherine to dinner. But you don't seem to want anything but to mope in your room."

 

"I did not have to invite you sledding, but I wanted to invite you. If you would rather stay in your room indefinitely, that is your decision; not mine. I am giving you this chance to have some fun together before the end of the season; but, I will not force you to do it. Are you coming, or would you rather stare out the window some more? I'm planning to have us go to church on Sunday too."

[Hope]

She could hear the frustration, hurt too, in his voice - it was enough to bring her out of her self absorbsion a moment. Turning back she looked at the man twice her age but trying to figure things out too. Perhaps there was not any motive behind this than he was trying to do a kindness.

 

"I am sorry... Lord Langdon." she said, emotional too she wanted to hug and for everything to be better, but hugs did not do that actually. "I shall go to the sledding if you would like."

 

She still did not understand it, he'd not wanted her to attend other court events before. It just did not make any sense to her.

 

Trying to smile she spoke again, "It wont take me long to get dressed."

[Charles Whitehurst]

It seemed odd for her to call him Lord Langdon, given the familiarity, but the difference in age probably warranted the formality.

 

"Grand, dress warmly. I'll collect my heavy coat and gloves." Heading out the door he signaled to Amy that they would be going sledding after all, and that Frances staying with Charles would be her responsibility.

 

 

 

~ fin?

[Hope]

Fin & onwards to the event thread!