JANE

JANE Chapter Eleven: Secrets and Lies

Chapter Eleven

Secrets and Lies

After a few days' absence, Mr Rochester returned. He was finalizing some paperwork in relation to the horse sales. Sophie and I were playing piano in the drawing room; there were more off notes than on when Sophie played her part. He could hear us from his desk and seemed to find the whole scenario very funny.

Sophie looked up and ran to him until he said, 'Off me, Sophie!' Pretending to be annoyed, he added, 'We have guests arriving this afternoon, I must finish my work.'

It was clear her affection for him existed despite his gruffness. On some level,

Rochester's basic kindness was obvious to Sophie. She would go to hug him regardless of his apparent coldness. It didn't occur to her that someone raised undemonstratively, might not wish to hug her back. I believe most children have excellent instincts about those closest to them and Rochester responded to her regardless.

After music lessons finished, he took us for a long drive around the estate and we had an early lunch at the local pub. It was as far from my inner-city London reality as I could have imagined. I was embarrassed that the girl at the bar, who was new and didn't know Rochester, assumed we were a family. Deep down, although it was not a vague possibility, the idea brought me a feeling of happiness I'd never previously known. Although Rochester, at twenty-eight, was older than me, I'd never met anyone like him – anyone as interesting or as strong minded as him. He was nothing like the boys or teachers I'd met. If I had known myself better, I would have been able to put words to the feelings I was experiencing for the first time. Instead, I looked away as he glanced at me when he carried a tired Sophie to the car. I was scared of getting close to anyone, much less this powerful man who was officially my employer.

That afternoon Rochester's friends, the Ingram's, arrived. They had already fallen asleep in the upstairs wing after their long trip. Sophie was at her riding lesson so Nate asked me to join him to play pool in the living room. It was a fine afternoon but already the faint glimmer of sunlight had fallen behind clouds in the sky. There was music playing in the drawing room and the kitchen staff were busy shopping in the village to buy extra food.

A warm silence had settled over the house as Nate told me about the people who were staying for the house party. I'd already heard about the "beautiful" Nicola Ingram from Mrs Fairfax.

'I'm not sure, but I have a hunch he's thinking of marrying this one,' she had said.

'Rochester is probably just biding his time to make sure she is genuine and not after his money. Although the Ingrams are one of the finest families in the district, she doesn't stand to inherit anything like the fortune that Rochester has and he would never marry a woman who was just after prestige.'

I suppose that meant Nathanial's future wife would become Lady Somebody, which all sounded a bit grand in the twenty-first century.

I'd never heard Nathanial mention his title and I was pretty sure he never used it. It was a bit embarrassing in this modern day and age. I'd seen so much need in some of the poorer boroughs of central London. I wondered if Mrs Fairfax was exaggerating as she was prone to doing. I knew her generation would be impressed by hereditary titles, but I wasn't. I would have just fainted if, for example, he'd introduced himself as Lord Rochester and asked me to address him as Sir. In fact, I may have left.

I collected Sophie from her riding lesson. When we returned we had to walk past the sitting room. Unbeknownst to me, Sophie had taken pictures on her father's mobile phone of all my paintings, her riding instructor, the food we had eaten and anything else she had found interesting during the day. When I walked into the kitchen to gather our drinks, Sophie and her father were flicking through the photos together. I noticed when she stopped at the photo of Enrique, the riding instructor, and added that we had arranged to have lunch together, he paused.