Riverbreeze: Part 3 (21 page)

“Who will get the bean and be king for the evening?” Robert called out, enticing the crowd.

“Me! Me!” Robin shouted, making everyone laugh.

“Me!” Arthur Crockett shouted, jumping up and down. He landed on the hem of his skirt and fell face forward onto the floor. His mother instantly helped him up, and after everyone saw he was all right, they turned their attention to Robin once again.

Elizabeth watched her husband and his son with delight and decided she didn’t need Robert to get the bean. She already felt like a queen. She had already won.

“Here we go.” Robert said, quickly winking at Elizabeth. Then he placed the knife in Robin’s hand and guided it into the cake for the first slice.

There weren’t enough plates for everyone, so the guests just put their hands out. By the time everyone had their piece, the cake looked like it had been run over by a pair of oxen, but no one cared. They all gobbled up their cake, carefully though lest they swallow the bean without knowing it. It didn’t take long; Jamie had the bean! With an excited shout, he pulled it out of his mouth and showed it to all.

“I declare James Bassett the king of misrule!” Robert announced, not at all disappointed that he hadn’t gotten it. “Choose your queen.”

There was no mystery as to who Jamie would choose. He gallantly held out his hand to Evelyn, smiling impishly at her and when she gladly placed her hand in his, she curtsied slow and low, making her full skirt puddle around her. In return he bowed formally to her, lifted her up and kissed the back of her hand. Then he raised their hands and said, “My queen and I declare that this evening’s entertainments will begin with the children’s play.”

Everyone clapped enthusiastically and then there were a few minutes of chaos as the children set up at one end of the wide hall and the adults gathered close to watch them. The parents of the children were enlisted to help in the play, so Robert and Elizabeth, Emily and Charles Crockett and Nicole and Roger Wentworth gamely went forward to participate, not knowing what to expect.

The scene was set up like a schoolroom and the parents were directed to sit down on cushions on the floor facing the “adults”. Then the lessons began. Tap, tap, tap, Charles Jr. rapped a wooden measuring stick on the edge of a table that was meant to be a desk. “Master Crockett…” He called on his father, pitching his voice high to imitate a schoolmistress. “Who is the king of England?”

Crockett, a mischievous gleam in his eye, answered, “King James!” He laughed in a rascally way, playing to the crowd.

The boy gasped, caught off guard. He quickly looked over at Alice for direction. The crowd laughed under their breaths while Alice shook her head. “You know what to do.” She told him in a stage whisper.

He recovered nicely. “No, no, no!” He chanted, raising his voice as he rapped the table again.

Out of the corner of her eye, Elizabeth saw Nicole cringe. Her poor table.

“That is wrong. You will stand in the corner for five hours!”

Everyone gasped, then laughed as Charles Sr. put on a great show, grumbling and hanging his head before standing up and shuffling to the back corner. “You’re mean, Mistress Teacher.” He said, sticking his tongue out at the boy.

Everyone laughed again. Elizabeth giggled and covered her mouth with her hand, exchanging a look with Robert. What question would they be asked to answer?

Out in the crowd, Jamie and Evelyn surreptitiously moved through the guests and plucked a sleeve here or tugged a lock of hair there or tapped someone on the shoulder, only to slip away before the person could see who did it. Everyone knew it was them, but no one could catch them. They did a beautiful job of attacking at just that moment when the person’s attention was focused solely on the play.

Jamie’s and Evelyn’s antics continued on throughout the play which lasted about another fifteen minutes. The children had lots of fun pretending to be the teachers and the parents had a grand time acting like naughty children. By the end of the play, all three fathers were standing in various corners of the hall and the small table was scarred up pretty badly.

When it was all over, the children bowed and everyone clapped and whistled, making the children feel wonderful. Elizabeth and Robert gave Robin a big hug and kiss and his smile was so big, he was beaming.

Jamie stood tall at the front of the crowd and announced, “A small break before the dancing begins!”

Charles Jr. darted in and pinched Jamie’s behind, a look of pure delight on his face. Jamie gasped and turned around, theatrically grabbing for the boy, but Charles Jr. quickly darted away to safety, hiding behind Alice. Everyone laughed, continuing to enjoy the show.

Once the laughter died down, the crowd dispersed into separate rooms. Some went back to the large parlor and filled up on small squares of brown bread and cheese, herb tarts, apple tarts, nuts, ginger cakes and almond cakes. Others went to the kitchen while others went outside to smoke including Robert, Jamie, the governor and John Tradescant. Robert and Jamie said they weren’t going to smoke, just cool off some. Alice took the children back upstairs to the nursery along with Hetta and her baby son. She said she needed to feed him. That left Elizabeth, Evelyn, Abigail, Emily, and Nicole in the hallway.

“That was so much fun and the children were adorable!” Elizabeth exclaimed. “You did a great job too, pestering the crowd!” She grabbed Evelyn’s hands, smiling at her.

“You were wonderful too.” Evelyn said. “And you answered your question correctly.”

“Well, when he asked me who the queen was I could have given him your name but I decided he had already been rattled enough when his father said King James. Plus I didn’t want to stand in the corner.”

“There weren’t any corners left anyway!” Both twins laughed together.

“I’m glad you had a good time.” Nicole said in her pleasant voice, coming up beside them. “Now, who else is ready to have a good time?” She asked mysteriously.

All the women looked at her with raised eyebrows. It was Emily who asked, “What do you have in mind?”

“Who would like to see my cabinet of curiosities?”

“Is that like Tradescant’s rarities?” Evelyn asked as she, Elizabeth, Abigail and Emily followed Nicole into a small room at the back of the house.

Nicole let out an amused laugh. “Oh no, my dear. Quite different, I assure you. We do have a collection of natural artifacts, shells, fossils, bones, feathers and the like, but this special cabinet I think you will find quite interesting, I’m sure.”

Again Elizabeth and Evelyn exchanged a look and shrugged their shoulders.

Once in the room, Nicole went around and lit candles. There was a desk and chair, another small round table and chair and an embroidery frame set up by the fireplace. One whole wall was lined with shelves and this was where the collection was displayed. Elizabeth was impressed. She wondered if Robert had seen it. If they were going to start a collection like this they would definitely need to build an extra room. And then on another table was this ‘box’ specifically built to hold it. Elizabeth didn’t know what else to call it. It looked like a miniature house, painted on the outside with windows, doors and clapboard siding. The roof was peaked and painted to look like shingles. Why would they have a thing like this? Was it a play house for her girls?

Nicole had a funny look on her face, like she had a delicious secret. She explained that all they had to do was look into the two peepholes at either end of the house in order to see the delights inside.

Elizabeth went first, extremely curious. Inside she viewed the interior of an English house. At first the painting of each room, bedroom, parlor, and dining room, looked rather flat, but then Nicole whispered in her ear to look more closely and at a different angle. There were mirrors positioned in specific places to reveal the true three dimensional image.

Elizabeth gasped, shocked. She finally saw the secret. A specially shaped mirror had been placed on each painting to transform a flat, distorted image into a three-dimensional picture. The first one was of a naked and very beautiful Venus in bed with Cupid. They were doing some very naughty things. The second one was of a clothed man, although his breeches were down around his ankles and his bare bum was fully exposed, and a scantily-clothed woman, her skirts pushed up around her hips and her bodice gaping open, exposing her breasts, doing it on a sofa; and the third…Elizabeth stepped back, her mouth hanging open a little. That little scene was quite taboo.

She stared at Nicole with wide eyes. Nicole laughed. “Oh dear, I’ve shocked you. I thought, now that you are a married woman…Are you all right?”

Elizabeth nodded her head slowly. “I know not what to say!” She exclaimed. She had always thought she was rather sophisticated and quite knowledgeable in the ways of the marital bed, but this…this display was beyond anything she was familiar with.

“My turn.” Evelyn said, pushing her sister aside as if she couldn’t wait.

Elizabeth watched her sister, dumbfounded. She had never seen anything like this. She knew that people liked reading books and little booklets about sex and she knew people liked to look at pictures, but she had never done either.

Evelyn finished looking, stepping back with an excited smile on her face. “How fascinating!” She said.

“Fascinating!” Elizabeth exclaimed, shocked at her sister.

Evelyn flushed a little. “Well, the way the picture is painted and the way you have to look in the mirror to see it come to life…that is fascinating.”

“Let me see.” Abigail was next.

Would Abigail find these pictures sexually arousing? Elizabeth wondered. Probably not. Emily might, but not Abigail.

And Elizabeth was right; Abigail stepped back, her face strained. She tried to hide it; she didn’t want to appear different from the other women, but Elizabeth could see her discomfiture.

Emily was next. She was the most affected, but not in the way the other women would have imagined. As she pulled back from the peephole, she avoided everyone’s eyes. “If you do not mind, I must see to my sons.” She said quietly, hurrying out of the room.

“What’s wrong with her?” Elizabeth asked in a whisper. It seemed to her that Emily appeared saddened by the experience, as if looking at those images had reminded her of something in her past.

Evelyn and Abigail shrugged their shoulders while Nicole said regretfully, “I should have realized that looking at those images would upset her. I must go apologize.” She said. “If you will excuse me.”

She turned to leave, leaving the twins and Abigail wondering what had just happened.

However, there was no more time to think on it. Nicole didn’t even get to leave the room. Suddenly Roger appeared with a strange gentleman.

“There you are.” He said, stopping his wife with his hands on her shoulders. “Nicole, I want you to meet Mr…”

Elizabeth didn’t hear anything after that. She thought she might faint. Oh my God! It was the man in her dream; the man with the scar on his face!

She turned to Evelyn; she must have looked as pale as a ghost because Evelyn immediately grabbed her shoulders. “What’s wrong?” She whispered.

“That man…’tis him!”

Evelyn looked over Elizabeth’s shoulder. “He looks harmless.”

Elizabeth slowly turned around and took a good look at him. He did look harmless; he wasn’t large or imposing or ugly or rough-looking. In fact he was rather effeminate looking with a soft, round-ish bone structure to his face and fine brown hair pulled back in a tail. His eyes were a pale blue and suddenly she had a feeling she knew him. But then thinking herself ridiculous, she changed her mind. No, she didn’t know him although he must remind her of someone, but she had no idea who. His clothing was ordinary and plain, a simple brown wool doublet and breeches without any embellishment. He wore nothing that would indicate status or wealth. He was still talking with Nicole and Roger and appeared not to be paying attention to the other women in the room. So, this was the man; this is where the introduction took place. But why was he significant?

Nicole and Roger finally finished their conversation and they steered him further into the room. Nicole started to introduce him to Abigail and they spoke for a few minutes before turning to Elizabeth and Evelyn.

Now the stranger’s eyes widened for a whole second and his mouth dropped open, eyeing both the twins. Elizabeth thought that he was momentarily stunned by their identical appearance, but that wasn’t it. It was the necklace. Of course he would react like that. Most everyone had. Perhaps she should have insisted on not wearing it after all, she thought.

He composed himself quickly then, pasting a polite smile on his face. He bowed to each of them as Roger made the introductions.

“Mr. Halcock, this is Elizabeth Bassett, our good friend Robert Bassett’s wife. And this is Evelyn Bassett, Jamie Bassett’s wife.”

“A pleasure to meet you both.” He inclined his head, then stepped up to Elizabeth, a little too close for comfort. “Mistress Bassett, I must say, that is a magnificent necklace you are wearing. May I?” He reached up to touch it, but stopped until he received her permission, his hand hovering close to her décolletage.

What could she say? No? “Certainly.” She answered politely although she felt quite uncomfortable about it. She glanced at Evelyn who imperceptibly shrugged a shoulder.