Netherby Halls

Miss Graves had informed her in an offhand manner that they were spared the necessity of trudging with the girls to the town chapel because a kindly parson, known as a ‘field minister’, traveled from Bath and volunteered his services every Sunday morning promptly at six-thirty, before continuing on the open road to the open fields to offer service for the poor who had no easy way to get to church.

Sassy scrambled about her room, poured cold water into her bowl, and shivered as she washed up before throwing on her undergarments. It was Sunday, and she chose one of her better gowns, a peacock-blue velvet trimmed around the low scooped neckline with cream-colored lace. The gown was high-waisted and long-sleeved. The skirt fell in a straight line to the scalloped hem at her ankles.

She brushed her long hair and tied it back with a ribbon, allowing wisps of curls to trim her forehead and ears.

She managed the few buttons at her back and with a harried exclamation peeped out of her door in the hope of finding a stray girl about. She was in luck; Molly was coming up the stairs with an armful of sheets.

“Molly, thank goodness you are here! I am having a frightful time with these back buttons—would you mind terribly?”

“Oh, Miss, how grand you look! Oh, but you should always wear colors. What a shame that you are hidden here at Netherby.” Molly sighed as she put down her load on a wall table and buttoned Sassy’s gown.

Sassy laughed and said, “Molly, your father mentioned that you were enjoying lessons with Miss Saunders before she left, and I thought, if you liked, we—you and I—could continue those lessons.”

Molly’s face lit up. “Ye don’t have to do that.”

“I know, so that proves it, doesn’t it? That I want to.” Sassy touched the girl’s shoulder. “We could start this evening, after dinner.”

“Oh thankee, Miss, but she won’t like it if she hears of it.”

“Well, my time is my own, isn’t it?” Sassy smiled at her, hesitated, and finally made up her mind to ask, “Molly, did Miss Saunders have drapes?”

Molly’s face went stern. “Papa says I am not to go on about her, and I don’t want to cause him trouble, which is what he says my mouth will bring him if I don’t stop going on about Miss Saunders.”

“Rest assured that what you tell me will be confidential, but why should a question about drapes elicit all this mystery?”

“’Tis not so simple as it seems, Miss, as you will soon hear,” Molly whispered after looking over her shoulder. “It took Miss Saunders the better part of a month to save up and buy some fine pink cloth—real pretty it was. Bought it the day she vanished, in fact.”

“How do you know this?” Sassy felt a cold chill wiggle up her spine.

“She showed the cloth to me. I even offered to help her make them up, but she wouldn’t have it. Said I worked hard enough around here already. Does that sound like she was planning to run off?”

“No, it doesn’t, and what happened to the fabric?”

“Well …” Molly hesitated.

“Good gracious, Molly! Well what? Do you think she has come to some harm?”

“I will tell ye this—something had Miss Saunders spooked. She wouldn’t speak of it. I asked her if something was wrong, and she told me not to worry my young head over it and would say no more.”

“Then maybe her trouble called her away, and she took the cloth with her?”

“No, Miss Winthrop, so I’ll tell ye that in the end I made her give me the fabric. I did and told her I would work on them. She would not have let me do that if she meant to leave, I just know it.”

Sassy frowned. “I shall have to give this some thought, but for now, I must rush if I am to make it for the service in town.”

“That be at nine, Miss, and Mistress Sallstone drives there in her carriage. She won’t like having to take you up, but there ain’t any way she can refuse you a ride if you was to ask her,” Molly said, smiling impishly.

“I think I would rather walk,” Sassy said and smiled back at the girl ruefully.

Molly chuckled. “She’d like that even less. Why, what a figure she would cut, letting one of her teachers walk all the way to parish while she drove in comfort?” Molly shook her head. “Neither one of ye will enjoy it, but there it is.”

Molly had told Sassy that the headmistress was in her office. Sucking in air and picking up her blue redingote and chip bonnet, she went and knocked firmly at Miss Sallstone’s office door.

“Y-es?” Miss Sallstone called out irritably.

Disheartened, Sassy’s shoulders drooped at the thought of having to endure even a twenty-minute ride beside the woman. She identified herself, and a moment later, Miss Sallstone appeared before her looking somewhat haggard. She wore an ensemble of brown and yellow, complete with a dark brown velvet bonnet trimmed with enormous yellow flowers and a yellow bird.

Sassy could not help the blink but restrained the giggle as Miss Sallstone said, “Miss Winthrop, what is it you wish?”