The Lady in Yellow: A Victorian Gothic Paranormal Romance

Ten

Veronica burst into the classroom to find the twins already sitting at their desks, serene in their clean, white clothes. They turned around to look at her, smiling their identical smiles, emitting their same curious, light green gaze.

Veronica was relieved. There they were, perfectly safe, as Mrs. Twig had said.

Filled with renewed excitement, Veronica quickened her step into the room.

The children stood up to greet her.

"Good morning, children," she said, and stood behind her desk.

"Good morning, Miss Everly," they said as one, giving her a little bow, and a curtsy.

"You may sit down."

"You look very pretty today, Miss Everly," Jacques said.

Veronica smiled her thanks, smoothing her hair back from her temple.

"Well, children, this is our first class together. I hope our lessons shall be stimulating. Ask me anything you like, and don't worry about feeling foolish if you don't understand something. In order to teach you as best I can, I have to learn about you as well, and how far along you've come in your studies. Now, tell me where you left off with your last governess," she said.

"History," said Jacques. "We were studying the kings and queens of England."

"We left off at Anne Boleyn," said Jacqueline.

"Did you know that she was a witch?" asked Jacques.

The word startled Veronica, renewed her worries about the horrible book in the library.

"A witch, you say?"

"An enchantress," said Jacqueline. "She had an extra little finger on her left hand that she used to cast spells."

"And she went about in six-fingered gloves," said Jacques.

They laughed as if it was a hugely funny joke.

"And where did you learn that?" Veronica asked.

"Mamma told us," said Jacqueline. "Anne Boleyn lived in France as a girl."

Sovay de Grimston sounded like an imaginative lady. Veronica summoned up her most authoritative tone.

"Well. I'm not sure that that means she was a witch. An extra finger could merely be an unfortunate birth defect. Not a sign of malevolent powers at all."

"But she cast spells upon the King to get him to marry her and make her Queen," Jacqueline said.

"And lost her head for it too," said Jacques. "Men hurried to the block to collect her blood because it was said to have miraculous healing powers."

What a horrifying thought! Veronica went to the bookshelves and pulled down a large biology textbook.

"Children, I think our first lesson shall be about the circulatory system and the properties of human blood," she said. "From the point of view of science."

She put the book on her desk and began flipping through the pages, looking for a diagram of the human body.

The twins had gone silent, looking out at the yew hedge with impish expressions. Was it Test the Teacher Day, or something?

"How far did you get in your biology studies with Miss Blaylock?" Veronica asked.

"Miss Blaylock," they both moaned as if their previous governess were the dreariest person on earth.

"Did you have problems with Miss Blaylock?" Veronica asked.

"She wasn't pretty or happy here," said Jacques.

"She hated Mamma," said Jacqueline.

"Oh, I'm sure that's not true," Veronica said. "And beauty is only skin deep. You shouldn't judge lest ye be judged."

The twins sat pensively for a moment.

Veronica changed the subject. "Now, what were you studying?"

"We were studying the circulatory system," said Jacques, "to find out why some people have magical blood."

"What did Miss Blaylock say?"

"That we were misled and full of fancies," said Jacqueline.

It was relief to Veronica to know Miss Blaylock had had some common sense.

"But I believe our mother," Jacques said. "Miss Blaylock was only an ordinary school teacher. She didn't understand us."

"Well," Veronica said. "Ordinary school teacher that I am, I hope to be able to understand you. But there are fancies and there are truths, and you must know one from the other."

"Why?" they both asked.

"Well..." The incredulous expressions on their faces threw her for a moment. "If you don't know reality from imagination, others will not take you seriously. Life could become confusing. You could delude yourself into believing in things that weren't true, and acting on them, suffer, and perhaps cause suffering to others."

The twins exchanged solemn glances, then slowly opened their notebooks and took their pens in hand.

"All right," Veronica said. "The circulatory system."

The twins followed the lesson dutifully, looking as grim as if they were attending an execution. Perhaps, in a way, they were. It wasn't easy to leave the illusions of childhood behind.

"Here is what we look like inside." Veronica held up a diagram of the heart and blood vessels and networks of veins.

Jacqueline pointed to it.

"How do they know it looks like that?"

"They've seen into the body. I believe this was drawn from life," Veronica said. "Or death, as it were."

"Was it a convict they looked into?" asked Jacques.

"What do you mean?" Veronica asked.

"They couldn't look into a living man, could they, nor a good man who deserves a Christian burial. Only a convict cut down from the gallows could be looked into like that."

Veronica wasn't sure of where the conversation was going, but she had to admire the child's ability to argue a point.

"Indeed. There are hospitals in cities, like London, where they look inside these bodies before they bury them. It's how doctors learn their craft."

"So, we're studying the blood of a sick, poor person then, or a criminal, or some disreputable person," said Jacques. "Not a queen."

"Nor an enchantress," said Jacqueline.

Veronica felt as if she were floating on a bleak and windless sea. They were clever, these children.

"Well, blood is blood. We are all made in God's image. We all share the same substance, the same blood. Otherwise, how could transfusions be performed? If one of you needed blood, I could give you some of mine and you would rally. Even though I am a commoner and you are aristocrats, it would make no difference."

"It would," said Jacqueline.

Veronica shut the biology book. "Let's change the subject for now," she said. "What else would you like to study today?"

It seemed history was their pet subject. Though they could not name any major battles, they were both able to rattle off the names of all of the kings and queens of Europe, with jovial asides about the mad ones. Arguing about who knew more about the parentage of Ivan the Terrible, their conversation grew so heated, that Veronica had to end the class early for fear of a row.

Alike as they were, they didn't agree on everything.