An extract from a novella I started writing last year in an attempt to keep my mind active during lockdown: -
Lady Charlotte Wardle Mrs Charlotte Clarke sat in the private compartment of a railway carriage and looked lovingly at her new husband, Jonathan Clarke.
It was her twenty first birthday and against her father’s wishes and knowledge, she had married her sweetheart in secret a little over an hour and a half earlier.
Jonathan was four years older, and the two had met when Charlotte was twelve. Jonathan had been taken on as junior footman at the age of sixteen by Sir Charles Wardle, Charlotte’s father. It had taken two years before she was even able to speak to the young man. As was common in Victorian England, household staff on the Wardle Estate were not permitted to speak unless spoken to, and were required to turn and face the wall whenever a family member or visitor passed by, unless told otherwise.
She had eventually entered her father’s study via the garden terrace French Doors whilst Jonathan was alone organising papers for his master, and ordered him not to turn away.
Over the years she managed to speak to him perhaps two or three times a month in this manner. By the time she was sixteen, she had fallen in love with him, but he never showed her any affection. Two months before her twenty first birthday she finally told him how she felt about him.
He replied that he felt the same, and they kissed for the first time. At that moment her father entered his study and immediately flew into a rage, striking the young man and dismissing him on the spot, telling him he would have him beaten if he ever set foot on his property again.
He then turned to his daughter and reminded her of his plan that she was to marry a man over twice her age who promised to invest in Sir Charles’s business in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
Whilst she sat in her train carriage, Master Philip Marsden stood on the station platform with three of his closest friends, waiting for Charlotte and Jonathan’s train to depart. Philip and Charlotte had been friends since they were both three. Philip thought of Charlotte as the younger sister he never had, and vowed to do everything within his power to make sure she married the man she loved when he heard what had happened.
Suddenly there was a commotion as Sir Charles burst onto the platform shouting Charlotte’s name. He was incandescent with rage, and when he saw Master Philip, he strode up to him demanding to know the location of his daughter.
Philip calmly replied, “Mrs Clarke is on her honeymoon sir.”
“Who the devil is Mrs Clarke, and I demand you tell me where my daughter is right now.”
“Why, Mrs Clarke is your daughter Charlotte of course. She married Jonathan Clarke earlier this morning”
“She can’t have" screamed Sir Charles, "I forbade her to marry that servant. She is supposed to be in church marrying Henry Strode right now.”
“Ah well” said Philip, “she married up at Knowl Park manor house this morning where we have a private chapel. It’s in the same parish as your estate and the local church. I wrote to the Bishop and asked him to re-consecrate and dedicate the chapel because it hadn’t been used for fifty years. Not many people even know it is there. An ordained Anglican vicar did as I asked and then came each week to read Charlotte’s banns as prescribed by law. He came again last night and lawfully married her and Jonathan this morning.”
“She can’t have married anyone else. Her banns were read at the church, and she hasn’t left the Wardle Estate in two months.”
“Ah well you see,” explained Philip, “I smuggled a maid’s uniform to her last month, and she has been slipping out through your scullery door every week to be present when her banns were read. She left for good this morning just before you had breakfast. You actually walked right past her whilst she was standing with her face turned to the wall.”
“She can’t be married! I forbid it! Where is she right now?”
“In a private train compartment with her new husband. If she and Jonathan have any sense, they will be getting ready to consummate their marriage as we speak.”
At that moment the guard blew his whistle, the engine driver blew his, and the train began to move.
Sir Charles ran to the last coach and climbed aboard, ignoring the guard’s protestations. The enraged Lord began to move through the train, shouting Charlotte’s name, opening compartment doors, forbidding her to marry “that servant” causing distress and mayhem as he went.
When he got to the front compartment of the leading carriage, he threw open the door and shouted at the young couple inside, then stopped in his tracks.
Meanwhile, Charlotte and her new husband looked out of the window and smiled as their train steadily steamed in the opposite direction.
Lovely story!