JANE

JANE Chapter Seventeen: Leaving

Chapter Seventeen

Leaving

The telephone rang again the next afternoon. Leah picked it up. The voice on the other end of the line was asking for me; Jane Eyre. Nobody ever rang Thornton Hall asking after me.

'Perhaps it is your aunt?' Mrs Fairfax offered.

I shook my head.

More likely someone from Social Services, doing a survey about my progress since leaving the system, I thought, inwardly cringing. Then I remembered the system was overcrowded, so that was unlikely. I shook my head again yet Leah persisted until I got up from my seat and went to the door of the kitchen.

'Jane, it's some lawyer in London by the name of Price. He says he got your address from Social Services. It must be important.' I took the phone.

'You can take the call in the study, Jane. It's private in there,' Mrs Fairfax said.

The study was one of the most imposing rooms in the entire mansion, yet it was designed to be the most comfortable with large brown leather lounge chairs and

Rochester's relatives dotted in paintings all over the walls, staring out at me, judging me.

'Is this Jane Elizabeth Eyre?' the voice on the line said. He repeated my full name, date and place of birth.

'Yes, who is this?'

'This is Louis Price from Price & Sons. We're a legal firm based in London. Jane, I have some news for you. Your aunt is failing and she has instructed me to ask you to come and see her. It is her one and only desire, her final wish to set things right with you. She has something of legal importance to tell you and she asked me to make a formal request for you to come and see her.'

'I... I'm in Cornwall.'

'Yes, I know.'

'Since she threw me out of her house when I was small, I have no idea why she would wish to speak to me now.'

'She asked me to appeal to your good nature, Jane, your intelligence. It's very important and would be to your advantage if you speak with her and not on the telephone; she wishes to do this in person.'

Minutes later, I stood with the telephone receiver in my hand. I had not really thought about going into London again so soon, but something inside me, some family instinct, told me I should go. I could not deny her this final wish, although she had been cruel to me when I was younger. Two wrongs did not seem to make a right in my world. I needed to hear what the woman had to say.

I threw some overnight belongings into a bag along with my sketches and realized I had no money, no wages for the month. I would have to ask Rochester for a cashin-hand payment, something I didn't wish to do, but I had no choice.

I walked outside in my shirt, which was rolled up, along with my jeans, and a cardigan wrapped around my shoulders to shield me from the light, summer breeze.

Rochester was playing water polo with Nicola, (who was dressed in a revealing bikini), Nicola's brother and Sophie. Sophie kept shouting in French which made me smile. They made a fine family in the sun, all of the intruders (as I thought of them), so blonde and pale, unlike me, soon to be sun-kissed. I hovered near the edge of the rippled, blue water.

Nicola scowled at me. 'What do you want?' she said speaking to me as if she was in no doubt that I was merely the help. 'If you want Sophie, we're in the middle of a game,' she added.