Moorland Hall (FIRST DRAFT)

from 9-10 November 2010: The Morning After the Fire

(8 November is where I started writing something and realised that I wasn't writing the next morning, but when Rochester had been away for some time and Fairfax receives the letter that he's about to bring a house party to Thornfield. D'oh ...)

The following morning, Julia woke up with a smile on her face. The handkerchief was next to her on the pillow, a reminder of last night. Last night! She sat bolt upright and felt colour fade from her face. Mary Nearsby had attempted Mr. Harrington’s life by setting fire to his bed! Getting ready and getting dressed had never felt so slow in all her life, and by the time she stepped into the hallway outside, it felt as if several hours had passed, which of course they had not. Mr. Harrington’s room lay just a few doors down from hers, and she could see the door was open. Coming in to survey the damage from the night before, Julia tried not to let any familiarity with the scene show. Seeing Mrs. Nearsby by the window, taking care of putting hoops on the bed curtains, chilled her blood to the core. How could that cold-hearted woman be allowed to set a foot in the house after what she had done?!

‘What happened here?’ she demanded, nodding to the singed bedposts and open window, which still hadn’t been able to get rid of the smell of smoke.

‘It would seem Mr. Harrington took it upon himself to light a cigarette in bed,’ Mrs. Nearsby replied calmly. ‘Always said that sort of thing was dangerous and that an accident would happen one of these days.’

‘Mr. Harrington doesn’t smoke.’

‘And you’re the expert, I suppose? Please.’ The woman actually sniggered at her!

‘Didn’t anybody hear anything?’

‘Mabel is old and as such, a heavy sleeper. You’re much younger, Miss ... Young, is it?’ Oh yes, there was no doubting the sarcasm in her voice. Julia grunted a kind of response. ‘And your room is just a few doors down. You didn’t hear anything?’

Perhaps if she tried confronting her, she would get some sort of reaction! The thought that actually, if she did and the woman really was murderous, perhaps it would be a rather stupid thing to do anything to provoke her, but those thoughts were far from Julia’s mind. All she wanted to do was to bring the would-be arsonist to justice, no matter what her employer wished.

‘As a matter of fact, I did. I heard a laugh.’

‘I’ve known the dog to be up to many a shenanigan, but laughing isn’t one of them.’

‘It was not Pilot, it was a woman’s laugh. I’ve heard it here before, from the coach house.’

Mrs. Nearsby was a much colder character than Julia had taken her for, because she didn’t flinch, didn’t even raise an eyebrow and certainly didn’t look in any way nervous. Just like she’d imagine a real murderer to behave, cold and calculating, and calm – way, way too calm.

‘Then might I suggest you keep your door locked at night, Miss Young?’

‘Are you threatening me?’

This time, she had the audacity to laugh, a short, mirthless sound. Not quite the same as the night before, but not too far off. ‘Oh good heavens, you silly girl, why would I be threatening you?’

‘You tell me.’

‘Perhaps you thought you would be safe inside a house in the middle of nowhere. Well, perhaps you are, and perhaps you’re not. I still wouldn’t take any chances.’

‘That’s a threat.’

‘No, it’s an urge to be cautious, Miss Young. Just because we’re in the middle of nowhere doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a safe neighbourhood.’ She shrugged, picking up some more hooks. ‘Didn’t you hear there’s a gipsy camp on the other side of the village?’ Finishing the length she was working on and then standing up, she added, ‘Wouldn’t trust one of them as far as I could throw ‘em.’