Copyright Oggbashan June 2020
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons.
This is a sequel to Missed: Fenian Outrage.
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Felicity's father gave us Ffordes Castle and its estate as a dowry for Felicity. I had intended that we should set up home in a new house built on my father's estate but that would take years. My father had suggested the Dower house but that was still occupied by his mother who looked set for many years of fit life. Neither she nor my mother were keen on my grandmother sharing the family home, large as it is, because they have different ideas on how a household should be run. They get on very well when living apart but close, but the two of them under the same roof causes friction.
Ffordes Castle was antique and the estate had been neglected as very few of the Ffordes family ever went there. Mrs Simkins, Felicity's old nurse and her daughters Rose and Hazel, looked after the small castle itself. The estate's agent was based at Wantsumford Manor, thirty miles away, and only visited about once a month. A resident owner could make a real difference to how the estate was run and make improvements. I had a large income from my father and a capital sum that had been intended to build the new house.
Mrs Simkins and her daughters welcomed us effusively even if they made me blush by calling me Prudence sometimes instead of Mister Frederick. I couldn't preserve my dignity as the new owner when all four women had known and worked me hard as a maidservant drudge of all work. However my few days working as Prudence had made me well aware of how hard maidservants had to work at Ffordes Castle.
Felicity and I agreed that one of the first things we needed to do was clear the woodland that was very close to Ffordes Castle's moat. The leaves, and even some fallen branches, had clogged the moat. I paid some of the farm labourers to fell the trees and stack much of the timber to mature for building and the offcuts for fires.
I remembered how hard it had been for me, as Prudence, to clean and relay the sixteen fireplaces each morning. I had them all fitted with closed stoves, most of which burned wood but some used coal. I also changed Mrs Simkins' old kitchen stove, wood-burning with an open grate, by a modern coal burning range. That range also provided hot water to the new plumbing. The old garderobe I had used as Prudence became a bathroom with running hot and cold water, a flushing toilet and an above-bath shower. There were three other bathrooms. The major change was to install a steam central heating system run from a wood and coal burning furnace in one of the old buildings. That meant that most of the new stoves rarely had to be lit.
I replaced the bridge to the Postern door with a much wider structure with railings on either side. That became the main family entrance, with the drawbridge reserved for trade deliveries and guests. Felicity and I would often leave by the postern to walk around the estate and see how works were progressing. The postern was still secure with an iron sheathed door held shut by a wrought iron draw bar. Although attackers could now approach that door, it opened outwards. A battering ram would not breach it, and because it was recessed into the castle's wall, it couldn't be levered open. It was totally unnecessary in the mid-19th Century but even without raising the main drawbridge; once the main door was shut we were safe from anything except an army with modern artillery.
The down side of living at Ffordes Castle is that my new wife Felicity and Mrs Simkins' daughters, Rose and Hazel, all knew I had been dressed as a maid on my previous visit. Because I was the same size as Felicity, and her twin brother, Graham, they used me as a mannequin for Felicity's dresses and for dressmaking of new clothes for her. Felicity had sometimes used Graham as a human mannequin when they were adults for adjusting the final fit of new dresses, but her husband was more available.
All three of them thought I needed practice to walk like a fashionable lady. I showed too much ankle when wearing a larger crinoline. I had been acceptable as the maid-of-all-work Prudence in a narrow skirt, but as the lady's maid Abigail, wearing a smallish crinoline, I hadn't walked as I should. Despite my protests, they often trussed me up in a tight corset and made me wear a dress ballooned out by a large crinoline in which I had to walk and climb stairs decorously.
When dressed as a lady, they called me Fortuna. Felicity was named after one of the attributes of the Roman Goddess Fortuna. As Fortuna, I was expected to behave as a fashionable lady and pretend to be a visitor to Ffordes Castle. Frequently I was expected to make polite conversation, in a higher pitched voice, while drinking a dish of tea.
Felicity, Rose, Hazel and Mrs Simkins all criticised my performance as Fortuna. After a few weeks practise they were satisfied that I could behave and move acceptably.
I was embarrassed when Graham arrived unexpectedly when I was dressed as Fortuna about three months after our marriage. Unlike when I had been Prudence, he didn't laugh at me because he had a serious message.
"Frederick/Fortuna," he said, "You are at risk again. There has been a Fenian assassination attempt on an Irish member of the House of Lords. Fortunately the assassin was using an old flintlock musket that failed to fire and he was arrested. But - and this what concerns you - he was linked to the organisers of that meeting in Oxford. Everyone who attended that meeting is now being sought as potential co-conspirators. A list has been published in today's Police Gazette and that list includes you."
"Oh shit!" I said, forgetting to use my Fortuna voice.
"Oh shit, indeed," Graham continued. My father, yours, and Lord Edmundsbury are trying to get your name removed from the list of suspects but your whereabouts are known. The notice of your marriage to Felicity in The Times included that you would be living at Ffordes Castle. I came here as fast as I could but I would expect an official search to reach here within hours, long before your innocence could be established."
"You can't be seen as Fortuna," Felicity said. "Fortuna doesn't exist and the simplest enquiry would establish that. She ought to be in the lists of gentry and nobility and she isn't. Given time, maybe we could construct a back story for her that would survive investigation but we haven't got that time. I'm afraid you'll have to be Prudence again."
"Prudence?" I exclaimed.
"Yes, Prudence." Felicity said, "Prudence was here the last time the Police came. If she is seen again no one would query her existence. A clumsy, poorly educated farm worker's daughter learning to be a downstairs maid is beneath notice. And if, as last time, you open the main door, the Police would not expect the man they are seeking to be the first person they see."
"But they know I should be here. Unlike last time they will be looking for me by name not an anonymous Fenian. So where am I, Felicity?"
Felicity and Graham looked at each other.
"You can't be with your parents or at Wantsumford Manor," Graham said slowly. "If you're not here those will the next places they'll look."
"Great-Uncle Simon!" Felicity said suddenly.
"Yes, that would be an idea," Graham said, "Although one would expect both of you to visit together."
"Maybe I intend to follow next week when 'the curse' has ended?" Felicity suggested.
"Who the hell is Great-Uncle Simon?" I asked in my normal voice, forgetting to be Fortuna.
"You should know," Felicity said, "He sent us a wedding present."
"So did dozens of your relations I haven't met yet," I objected.
"But you should remember, Frederick. He sent us half a dozen cases of cognac and you had to pay more duty because he hadn't paid enough."
"I remember paying the duty but not who the cognac was from," I said.
"We're wasting time," Mrs Simkins said suddenly. "If Frederick is to be Prudence he needs to change NOW! The Police may be at the door in minutes."
Felicity, Hazel and Rose rushed me into our bedroom. Within seconds they had stripped me and thrown Prudence's shabby dress over my head. My wig as Fortuna had been rumpled and shoved under the old grey mob-cap. Hazel smeared some soot from the fireplace around the new stove over my face, enough to make it look as if I had been working on the fires.
"His hands won't do," Rose said, "and we haven't got enough time for him to roughen them. I'll get the gloves I use when shifting coal."
Rose was back within minutes with coal stained and disreputable leather gloves. They were slightly too small but they pulled them on my hands. They were so tight I couldn't remove them by myself. Once I was fully equipped as Prudence we went back to Mrs Simkins and Graham.
