Part three

I don’t remember much, for I was dizzy with fear.

The man had told you to leave us be, it was none of your business, after all.  You told him to get out, or you would make him. You did in the end anyway.

I was sitting on the baldachin bed, frantically tying up my corset, arms aching as I held them behind my back. I bit my cheek to try and hold the tears in.

‘Are you alright?’ you asked me, getting closer to me. I asked you not to come near me, and for the first time in my life, I was listened to. We stood at opposite ends of the bedroom for what felt like decades.

‘What that man tried to do was despicable, it is in no way your fault.’ You assured me. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scream. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, and I was sure it wouldn’t be the last.

‘You can’t tell anyone.’ Was all I said. ‘My family…’

‘You have my word.’

Stillness fell around us. I couldn’t leave, not yet, for my eyes were red and swollen, and my braids half undone, making my hair resemble a bird’s nest.

‘Cobalt, right?’ you said, breaking the silence.

‘Pardon?’

‘Your dress, it is of a cobalt-blue colour, made with alexander silk. I was told that there’s nothing that young ladies love more than their clothes, am I wrong?’

A distraction then.

‘You’re not, but how could you know so much about colours and fabrics?’

‘I have two younger sisters, and many, many, cousins.’

‘Or perhaps you spend a great deal of time learning such terms to impress young ladies.’

‘Perhaps I do.’ You said, smiling at me.

‘Tell me then’ I challenged ‘what other facts might you be able to tell me about my dress?’

‘Several in fact, Miss…?’

Jules.

‘Echo’ I lied.

‘Echo, huh? Strange name.’ He said, raising an eyebrow.

‘You don’t believe me?’

‘No, but I’ll take it. Anyway, Miss Echo, your dress is of a light shade of cobalt blue, rather than a more common darker shade, as brunettes tend to look better in brighter colours. I also know that since you wore your hair down, that you aren’t married.’

‘I wouldn’t take that last one as an ‘impressive’ fact, but more as common knowledge, and it isn’t even a fact about my dress, but rather about my hairstyle.’

‘Well, maybe I don’t know that much about dresses.’

‘I guess not.’

‘How did you find me here?’ I finally asked you.

‘I heard screaming, his. I thought someone was injured, so I rushed here.’

‘I… hit him with a candlestick.’ I admitted.

‘That’s impressive if I must say so myself.’

I laughed. ‘I think it was the panic that gave me enough strength to do it. But-’ I quickly added, seeing your expression. ‘I don’t want you to pity me. I am fine, I’m used to it, after all these years.’

‘You shouldn’t be…’ You stopped talking as we both looked at each other and thought the same thing: voices.

I got up immediately and ran to you. If someone found us here, alone, with me in this state.

‘You need to leave.’ I said. ‘they can’t find us here, together.’

‘How?’ you replied. ‘the window is out of the question, we’re too high up I would die.’

‘There’s no other exit.’ I added. ‘Or anywhere to hide.’

‘Maybe under the bed?’ I suggested. We didn’t have any other choice, so you nodded and walked away, but in that same moment, my whole family came in, accompanied by him.