Pure Women with Dirty Secrets
An amateur staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream leads to unexpected complications. Women resembling Jane Austen's heroines, with a touch of Lady Audley's Secret, might appeal to those who enjoy a little romance, but also to the fans of authors such as Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle and Ruth Rendell.
England, 1878
Chapter I
Basil Prickling was a 'big mouth'. A big heart, too – scarred in his childhood by his mother's illness and early death – unfortunately he wasn't as smart as he was kind. He loved to show off, so some acquaintances would invite him to dinner to make sure their guests should not get bored. Sir Warwick Elmer had brought him to Deepwell for the sake of his daughter, Sophia, who had taken it into her mind to host and organize the staging of a play. Actually Sophia had 'borrowed' the idea from her cousin, but the initiative was hers.
Sophia Elmer had come to spend the summer holidays at home, with her room-mate from the boarding school, Jeanne Calloway. Jeanne was really English, but her mother adored French romance novels, so the girl had been given a name meant to sound French. Sophia and Jeanne had different personalities – and yet they got along really fine. Sophia was sixteen and she was a lovely girl, pretty like a butterfly, with a velvety round white face, adorable dimples in her cheeks and chin, sincere eyes and a contagious smile. Jeanne was eighteen – she was short and skinny, she frowned a lot, looking always irritated or upset – she had a long face, a dark complexion and a grimace of neverending discontent. The real reason behind her attitude was the inner conflict caused by the incompatibility between the natural instincts of her young heart and some deep concepts she had been brought up with.
Sophia, on the other hand, had no such problems. To her everything was just a game. Hearing her cousin speak about Shakespeare, she had instantly become enthusiastic and she had run to Sir Warwick to persuade him to stage a comedy outdoors, in the park near the manor house – right where the woods began there was an old stone platform that could have easily been used as a stage. Jeanne would have preferred a tragedy, but her friend was the hostess and she fancied a comedy – she was still young and hardly able to understand the subtleties of a tragedy. Anyway, there was a long discussion in order to choose the comedy that was to be played: Sophia favoured As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream, while her cousin liked the Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing better. The final decision was to be made by Sir Warwick, who chose – according to his daughter's wishes – A Midsummer Night's Dream. He was aware of the fact that he spoiled the girl too much, but he also thought that thus he could make up for the thousands of small attentions and delicacies Sophia had missed in the absence of her mother, the late Lady Elvira. He also had a feeling of guilt concerning his niece, Athena Stonegate, but he wouldn't allow himself too tender gestures with her, since she was a grown woman already when he had found her.
Athena had become an orphan at the age of fourteen and she had stayed at a boarding school. Sir Warwick was her uncle (on her mother's side) and her godfather, so he was supposed to attend to her needs – unfortunately at that time his own wife had fallen ill and died, leaving him with a three-year-old girl on his hands – whom he had no idea how to raise. Sophia had become the most important thing for him, so he had almost forgotten all about Athena. Meanwhile, after finishing her studies at eighteen, Athena needed money and a place to live. Discovering her pedagogical vocation, the headmistress of her school had asked her if she wasn't interested in staying there as a teacher, still having a room and a healthy meal and – of course – some wages. However, when she came of age, Sir Warwick was forced to acknowledge her existence by an official letter – his niece was supposed to come in possession of her inheritance. Confused, having no idea how to behave with this young lady who was a close relative, after all, but whom he didn't really know, he had contacted her by means of intermediaries so as to respect the will of his brother-in-law – he felt relieved to have this 'problem' solved, without being aware of what it implied: Gordon Stonegate had been (officially) a successful tradesman and most people didn't know that some business had gone wrong and that the voyage at sea which had ended so tragically had actually been his intent to recover something of what he had lost. What Athena had really inherited was more of a debt than a support. Her job at school wasn't enough for her to cover the debts, so she had started working as a governess for rich families – including the Pricklings, Basil being one of her first pupils. Now Athena was twenty-seven – almost twenty-eight. Her uncle had met her at the Bentons' and he had had a shock at realizing who she was. He didn't know how to justify the fact that the governess was his own niece and that he hadn't even been able to recognize her! His social status and his remorse – but also because he was in fact a warm and loving man, once really close to his sister – he had persuaded Athena to give up her job as a governess and to come to live at Deepwell, where a woman's hand was needed to rule the household. Soon he had discovered that his niece was by no means what he had expected: a 'lady of the house'. She had been used to see to her needs, obviously, but her personality was that of an intellectual. After recovering from the initial deception, Sir Warwick had found in her a wonderful partner of discussions and a positive influence for Sophia.
Sophia also liked Athena a lot – in the first place, she looked much younger than she really was and very much like Sophia: just a little taller and a more mature figure. Perhaps her skin was not so soft anymore, but it kept a rosy glow, her mouth was small, with fresh lips, and her enormous green eyes were so intense that they were likely to intimidate at first, proving an uncommon intelligence, but at times also a childish amazement that appealed to older men. Sir Warwick couldn't understand how she didn't mind being called 'an old maid' and why she seemed indifferent when he suggested she should get married. He would have liked to find her a good husband, yet he wasn't going to force her to marry some gentleman he considered appropriate, but one she would approve of. Did she like any of those he invited to Deepwell? It was hard to tell. If they were handsome, they lacked intelligence; if they were intelligent, they were too old; if they weren't too old, they didn't have much money; if they had enough money, they were disgusting. Even Sophia noticed that none of them was good enough for Athena.