God's Loving Embrace

Part Eighteen

The Law is the Law

November 2024

'I am the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.'

Isaiah 45:7

Natalie Hughes found her first impressions of London confusing rather than disturbing. She had fully expected to see veiled women on every corner, but in truth the city was much as she remembered it when she finally left, supposedly for good, at the age of thirteen. She was told off about the length of her skirt, of all things, when they arrived at Paddington, its knee length not satisfying a policeman as they queued for a taxi, but she saw two Muslim burka's before she actually saw her first mantle. During the short drive out to Richmond she saw a typically cosmopolitan European city full of diversity and difference, but it was November and she did not really expect to see anyone out in shorts. Her father had explained all about the pockets of fanatical Reformism, so she was not exactly surprised at the end of the day. But her student friends had been protesting on the basis that every other woman in Britain was being forced into a muzzle. That was clearly not true.

Her Uncle Steven was annoying rather than extreme. She had met many Christians like him before. They went to church on a Sunday for a good singsong and carried on regardless, their faith no more important to them than the large gin and tonic downed at the golf club after the service. Uncle Steven was technically a Reformist, but she got the distinct impression that it was a business decision as much as anything else. Her cousin, who was almost the same age as Natasha, who Natalie was of course pretending to be, told her on the first night that any piety was strictly for public consumption, a public face. Her father was more interested in what his friends and business contacts thought than earning God's love. Emily said lots of her friends were just the same. Their Dads all said that attending a Reformist service once a week and paying what amounted to lip service to the doctrine was a good investment in the future, and the girls dressed up once a week and curtseyed to the Pastor to get ticks in all the right boxes. Emily had only one Church gown, with a matching cloak, bonnet and mantle, but she wore gloves with it and only sometimes a muzzle. Only, she said, if her father really wanted to impress someone. They were playing a social game.

But she was not like any teenager Natalie knew or how she remembered being at that sort of age. For a few days, she and her father basically stayed in the house, getting to know their relatives again, and as it was half term she spent a lot of time with Emily up in her bedroom at the top of the house, which she was sharing for the duration of their stay. For a start, Emily had no computer, or laptop, and no mobile phone. 'Natasha' expressed some surprise, but Emily merely said that she used the family computer downstairs for her school work and that she 'did not need' a phone. The bedroom was less of a surprise. It was the sort of room Natalie had enjoyed when she was a teenager, and similar to Natasha's room at the flat in Paris, lots of pink, some soft toys, a sleepover bed that pulled out from under Emily's, and lots of pictures and posters on the walls. Not pop stars though, Natalie noted, when she scanned lots of colourful snaps of girls including Emily, mostly in smart school uniforms, and a couple of more arty prints. Emily's bookshelves spoke more of school than fun, and she had no music system, just an old radio thing. Uncle Steven was not poor, and he could surely have afforded lots more for his only daughter, but it all seemed almost politically correct, as if even in the privacy of their own home they were putting on an act for someone.

And Emily showed no particular desire to get out of the house. No friends called her on the house telephone, and she did not call anyone else. It was only when Colin Hughes suggested a trip to Richmond Park, for a walk, that Emily agreed to go out, after checking with her mother first. Aunt Rachel was not exactly unfriendly, but she seemed to spend most of her time in the kitchen, or keeping the house spotless, and Natalie was amazed when she called her husband, who was at work, more or less asking permission to go out for a walk. Natalie decided that she was imagining things, or perhaps over analysing them, because it was all a little bit strange. They were not exactly a close family and she had not been back to England in years, so sensing a little tension in the air was probably understandable after being cooped up together for several days. Her Dad was rather taking advantage. But then Aunt Rachel and Emily made a huge fuss of getting ready to go out, because the long skirts and tops they were wearing were apparently not suitable. It was insane. Modesty was clearly a law and Natalie had brought lots of knee length skirts and long sleeved tops with her, making the effort her father said would be expected by everyone. She had fitted in well enough in the house. In fact, clothes had not even been mentioned, although she thought her aunt looked a little bit worried when they mentioned the incident with the policeman at Paddington, but then again no one really liked to upset the police, anywhere. So she followed Emily back upstairs, full of natural curiosity.