Chapter 2
The day starts like every other. The maids enter and proceed to open the curtains and windows. Then we dress into our soft colored day dresses. As the maids help me pull on my mint green ruffled dress and assist Lizzie into her strawberry colored bow adorned dress, we are given the schedule of the day.
After a quick breakfast in the sun room, I will start the day with Latin, Greek, and mathematic lessons, while Lizzie endures piano and flute before getting ready for the garden luncheon she is sharing with Katherine and Belinda Attlee, the banker's daughters.
After a simple lunch alone in the sun room, I will continue my studies but this time in piano, flute, and etiquette. Lizzie during this time will take her daily rounds of the gardens and the town, and then finish the afternoon with a quiet time reading and embroidering in the sitting room, right off our bed chambers.
Before having dinner, I will join Elizabeth in the sitting room for an hour before we spend the last half hour preparing ourselves for supper which the Swann family will be sharing with Captain James Norrington and Gillette, the Captain's right hand man.
When the maids leave us at the breakfast table, Lizzie lets out a large sigh, "This is so tedious. We do this every day. I can't wait until I am married."
I stare at her, unbelieving.
"Only for the freedom it brings." She says quickly giving me the "duh" look. "Look at us. We've been doing the same thing ever since I can remember."
"Just think of how I feel." I tell her, spreading butter over a toast. "Father won't even let me attend the dances until I am sixteen. I can't take walks like you and I certainly cannot have luncheon with anyone.
"You want to spend an entire hour with Katherine and Belinda?"
"Maybe yes, Maybe no. " I tell her, "I mean, they aren't too bright or proper, or pretty, or anything good at all but they're fun to laugh at, with their ridiculous feathered hats and the way they 'sway' when they walk. They're like overstuffed peacocks."
I take a sip of water, "Besides, just wait a couple weeks and then we'll have the same schedule and everything will be double the fun. We'll "spice" the chef's food, and "accidentally" drop some garden toad into Mrs. Hatcham's shoes."
"Anna!" Lizzie gasps with amused shock. "You wouldn't dare."
A few moments pass.
"All right, you would dare." Lizzie says, slightly giggling behind her napkin but quickly becomes serious.
"Anna, I've been meaning to ask. What will you do about your, um, nightly escapades, when you turn sixteen?"
"What on earth do you mean?" I ask, biting into a jam covers slice of bread.
"You know you can't continue them after your coming out party. Father will have you watched day and night for a very long time. That is what happened to me."
"I thought coming out would be fun and I would be faced with freedom."
"It is fun but Father doesn't want you meeting anyone, err, below you and falling in love and ruining your chances in marrying into the high society. So he will probably have you watched closely for the next nine months or so until he is confident that he can completely trust you."
"What about you?" I ask her slightly accusingly. "Why aren't the hound dogs at your side all the time?"
"It's been over two years. Besides, Father knows I won't act on impulse and marry the first man that promises me adventure and a life of freedom."
I make her a face at the snide remark about my taste in men just before Mrs. Hatcham enters the room.
"Girls, your tutors are ready for you."
Following the housekeeper we end up at the bottom of the stairs, where we separate. Lizzie enters the parlor and I go upstairs to our sitting room to begin Latin with Ms. Redding.
I enter the room where my books have been set on the table and Mrs. Redding stands beside it, her hands folded and her face set in a permanent smile.
"Annalee, how are you feeling today?"
"Fine," I mumble and drop myself into a nearby chair, my mood already completely ruined after seeing her.
"That is wonderful." Mrs. Redding replies through her gritted teeth and sits down beside me. "Let's start with Latin. More specifically, its history."
Oh, joy.
After an hour of learning about the Classical Age of Latin, we move on to Greek Phonology which we "have fun investigating" for another hour. Then we start mathematics. For the past few weeks, trigonometry has been our battle.
"There." Mrs. Redding says, relieved and closing the mathematic book at noon, precisely one hour after we started, her face pale and tired but her smile, ever so bright, plastered onto her face.
I get up from my seat, and without a word, head downstairs to the sun room where a small lunch has been laid out.
I take my seat and proceed to eat from platter upon platter of chicken soup, fried fish, baked potatoes, warm bread, and steamed vegetables.
In the back ground I can here Katherine, Belinda, and Elizabeth in the garden, laughing and chatting the hour away.
I quickly finish my meal and make my way to the parlor where, from a window, I can watch my older sister and her guests eat and "enjoy" each other's company.
I sit down on the window seat, and grab the book lying on a nearby table, "Northanger Abbey". I curl up beside the window, my knees to my chest and the book on my legs.
I spend the next thirty minutes of the lunch hour, half reading and have spying on the girls. Katherine does most of the talking and Belinda, most of the laughing. Elizabeth sits there, obviously uncomfortable. She smiles when proper but uses up most of her attention on her meal.
I occasionally laugh at something Katherine or Belinda does. They aren't outright funny or even amusing with what they say but I find the way they act to be quiet entertaining.
I giggle softly as Belinda, for some strange reason, pretends to faint off her chair and to the ground, and then jumps right back up, her hat lopsided and her hair in a mess.
The lunch hour passes much too quickly and before I know it, Mrs. Hatcham is escorting me to the parlor where Mr. Kemmp is seated.
In his hands, Mr. Kemmp holds a music book which he hands to me. I take it and sit down on the piano bench. I proceed to sight read half a page of the book before my teacher stops me. We spend the next hour and a half exploring technique and practicing the three pieces that I am currently working on.
Then, without a break, we move on to my flute lesson in which we do exactly the same thing for another hour and a half.
When Ms. Avilly arrives for my lesson in etiquette, I am in a terrible mood. Outside the sun is shining and there is no cloud in sight. A slight breeze blows across Port Royal cooling everything to a perfect temperature. It is a perfect day and yet, here I am, inside, doing studies while Lizzie is most likely taking a nice stroll in the gardens or more likely visiting the small shops in the center of town.
"Annalee! No slouching." Ms. Avilly says, briskly entering the room. I slowly straighten my back, keeping one eye on my teacher to see how long I can drag my motion out before she does something about it.
"When told to do something, one must do it quickly but gracefully." She says sharply, tapping my back with the ruler she carries around until it is straight and then my chin to lift it.
Ms. Avilly then grabs a chair and puts directly in front of me before taking a seat.
"With your coming out party only two weeks away we have so much work to do." She says.
I just glare at her. I am not so bad that I would need "so much work". Sure my posture is equivalent to the hunchback of Notre Dames' and I don't know when to shut my mouth but… all right, I am pretty bad and I don't want to disgrace Father at my coming out party.
I sigh, "All right Ms. Avilly. What would you have me do?"
Taken aback, her eyes widen and then dart around as if expecting a prank. She quickly recovers though, her lips pursed and her mood obviously becoming worse, as if she were angry with me for being unpredictable.
She soon has me walking precariously around the room with three books on my head, slowly adding one more at a time until I teeter, sending them to the ground.
The next hour sees me practicing serving tea, what conversations are proper at a diner, and learning the proper way to eat a four course supper: which forks to use, which spoons to use, and what foods go in what plates.
When the hour is finished, I slowly drag myself upstairs into the sitting room. There, I drop myself onto a chair.
"What are you doing?" Lizzie asks from the other side of the room where she was quietly reading, all curled up on the window seat.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" I ask her more harshly than I intended. "I am slouching."
Thankfully, Lizzie doesn't seem to be taken aback by my attitude.
"I can see that. What I meant was: Why aren't you getting ready for you fitting?"
"Fitting? What fitting?" I manage to drool out of my mouth, completely unaware of the words coming out my either of our mouths.
"The fitting for your gown for the party. It was moved from tomorrow to today."
"No one told me that." I say, still slouched on the chair, determined that nothing is going to move me for the next hour.
"You should probably strip down to your bottom petticoats. The Mrs. Pirren will be here any minute."
I groan and slide myself off the chair and onto the ground. I then start dragging myself towards the door leading to the bedroom. I can feel Lizzie's eyes on me and I hear a small giggle.
"You look ridiculously enormous when you move like that." She says.
"Good." I reply sluggishly, "I was going for the inflated walrus look. Didn't you know it's all the rage in London?"
This gets an outright laugh from Lizzie just as I reach the door and swing it open. I get up and, without even hiding behind the dressing screen I undress, not really caring if anyone would enter and see me in such inappropriate attire.
After taking off the dress and several layers of petticoats, I slip on my robe before returning to the sitting room where the tailor, Mrs. Pirren is setting up the stand and her sewing and fitting equipment.
"Annalee, it's been so long. How have you been?" Mrs. Pirren says wrapping me in an enormous hug.
I hug my old nanny back and smile slights, my mood already improving.
"I've been okay except for the fact that my etiquette teacher is doubling her efforts, trying to make me presentable before the party."
"You can't blame her. This is one of the most important days in your life. Mess up on your coming out party and don't be surprised if you stay an old spinster for the rest of your life. Mess up on that day and you'll probably regret it for the rest of your life. " Mrs. Pirren says, before going into a short pause, "But don't worry, Anna. You'll do just fine."
Even though her words make me nervous and suddenly very anxious, I know that she means well.
Besides, she is right. Daniela Montrose, a local merchant's daughter, made an absolute fool of herself at her coming out party after she used absolutely no manners and was rude to some guests. She is now twenty eight and hasn't even courted.
I step up onto the stand and watch as Mrs. Pirren goes through roles upon roles of cloth, showing different ones to me.
"Surprise me." I tell her after I notice that she is getting worried and slightly flustered after I say "Maybe" to the twentieth role.
She immediately brightens and leaves the fabric alone, telling me that she wants the dress to be a complete surprise. She quickly takes my measurements and then calls for Beeker, our butler, to come and aid her with carrying all her equipment downstairs and into the coach that brought her here from the other side of town.
We quickly say goodbye, knowing that we'll see each other again soon for a couple more fittings and then for the party.
"That went well." Lizzie says not even looking up from where she has been reading the whole time.
"What is that supposed to mean?" I ask her, slowly reverting back to my previous mood.
"All I am saying is that I am surprised with how you acted. You were in a really bad mood before."
"Yes, well, Mrs. Pirren is one of the only nice people I know and I don' think she deserved to see me in a bad mood."
"No one deserves that." Lizzie says, a small smile tugging on her lips.
I ignore her and go back to my room, calling behind me, "We should probably start getting ready for supper. We only have a half hour before the Captain and Gillette will be here.
Lizzie immediately jumps up and rushes to the room where two maids are waiting for us, holding up our dresses for the evening.
