Assert Herself
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.
Proverbs 21:9
“Bonsoir, Madame,” Lady Ambrose heard and looked up from the book she was reading.
“Oh, Bonsoir, Bridgette,” she said. “Is it time for me to habiller?”
“But yes, Madame,” Bridgette said. “The dinner will be ready in an hour.”
Lady Ambrose sighed and put the book down. Who would have guessed that she would be able to find an English book to read in a bookstore in Rome?
She went into her dressing room, and Bridgette followed her, closed the door, began removing her day dress and started talking. All in French, certainly. She never spoke anything else.
“One hopes that Madame is happy with her marriage?” the maid asked, and Lady Ambrose stared at her. French maids must be much more brazen with their employers than English ones. She couldn’t imagine any maid of hers daring to ask such a question… however much they might enjoy being on the receiving end of gossip.
But this maid seemed not at all put out by her silence. “One hopes that Madam will begin to assert herself, to bring forward her own views with Monsieur. It cannot begin too soon.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Surely, even when Madame was a Mademoiselle she was watching the older married women and seeing how it was that they asserted their own independence and began bringing their husbands around to their own way of viewing things? Madame is young and, certainly, that means that Madame does not have the strong will that comes from maturity but, then, Madame has the fresh beauty which, itself, can be turned to her advantage.”
Madame was glad that the maid had closed the door. If Monsieur were to hear any of this conversation, she could not imagine what he would do. She was certainly glad that this maid, whom they had employed in Calaise, would not be returning with them to England.
But how to respond?
“I have worked for many Madame’s, as you will understand. They each had their own way of dealing, you see. My last Mistress, she was amazing. Her husband did not know, from one day to the other, which wife he would have to deal with. She wore moods as others wore clothes. Oh, it was a joy to watch.”
Madame Ambrose stared. Or would have if the maid hadn’t been doing something with her stays just then. She had known women like that, too, and had always wondered why their husbands put up with anything of the sort.
Just then, the door opened. “Are you almost ready, My Dear?” her husband asked, “I was thinking of perhaps a short walk before dinner.”
He was interrupted by a voluble speech from her maid, which went by almost too fast for Lady Ambrose to follow, as to how it was not at all proper for gentlemen to enter their wives’ dressing rooms without, at the very least, knocking, and better if they abstained completely and…
“I will enter at any time I please!” her husband snapped. “And you will keep a civil and appropriate tongue in your head, or you will be finding your own way back to Calaise!”
“I have never heard the like!” the maid muttered but then busied herself finishing.
“I believe I am almost ready,” Lady Ambose said, her face white.
“I hope you don’t think,” she said, doing her best in her limited Italian, as she hurried after her husband down the stairs, “That I had anything to do with that… that outburst.”
Her husband paused at the bottom of the stairs, breathed in a few times deeply and, holding out his arm to her, started them toward the door. Then he replied slowly, also in Italian. But his Italian was so much easier to understand than that of everyone else here. If nothing else, he spoke much slower.
“Indeed I don’t. I wish for the children to have a French governess. It is folly to waste the opportunity. I wouldn’t mind them learning German, but that will have to wait for later. German governesses are dour things, and I won’t subject our children to any such thing. But the French do have their own ideas, radical, revolutionary, cowardly ideas, which keep getting the world in trouble. We will have to keep a good eye on whom we hire so she doesn’t fill our young minds with any such nonsense… as if I can’t go where I please in my own house… or, in this case, rooms that I have hired. Or see my own wife whenever I wish. What Gaulic nonsense.”
Lady Ambrose walked along and rejoiced that her husband had not heard one word of the treasonous conversation of her maid before he had walked in. She would no doubt have gone flying from their window, and her husband would be explaining himself to an Italian magistrate. Although perhaps he would get off as justified, depending on how the Italians viewed such things. The provocation would have been extreme.
Thank you for coming round Arthur’s Substack. I hope and pray it will be a blessing to you.
Arthur publishes with Wise Path Books and include the children’s/YA books:
The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid: A Christian historical fiction chapter book about four orphans who go to live with their aunt on a dairy farm.
The Bobtails and the Cousins: The sequel to Preacher’s Kid. The aunt has married, and the cousins come to visit. Meaning town kids dealing with chores and manure and…
The Bobtails go to France: The sequel to cousins. The Bobtails, and Preacher’s Kid, get to take a trip to New York, London, Paris, and a small town in France. To get some cheese.
and
No Ordinary School: A brilliant but socially clueless boy gets recruited for a special school. Where he makes a lot of money, gets a girl, and solves a mystery.
As well as GK Chesterton’s wonderful book, “What’s Wrong with the World”, for which ‘Arthur’ wrote most of the annotations. The book is a series of essays on how modern politics has gotten the wrong prescription for the wrong diagnosis.
Quite a few chapters of the Bobtails and No Ordinary School are here on this substack as audio.
I also write as Von, and I encourage you to check out that substack. There is a lot of theology and politics there, as well as quotes, poems, other articles, and links to other Science Fiction. But ‘Von’ also is publishing some serial books and stories. Much more adult and serious books than here, for the most part. Some of them.
Von is publishing the stories:
Contract Marriage
Contract marriage is an adult dystopia examining the issues of marriage. Like 1984 and Brave New World, Contract Marriage treats the relations between the sexes as a fundamental aspect of how a society is formed and, thus, how a society can go wrong.
Unlike those dystopias, Contract Marriage isn’t all horrible all of the time. The characters for the most part have a good time and get along in their society. But the issues of sexuality, of marriage or not, monogamy or not, faithfulness or not, and gender roles… keep coming up and causing tension and conflict and joy and pain.
My desire is that my readers would be thinking along with my characters about these issues and perhaps even arrive at the same place (minus the flying cars).
Article 17
Article 17 is a military science fiction story with aliens and romance. It is set in a future reminiscent of Napoleon era Britain. The war was going very poorly until the military installed a dictator. This story follows one of the dictator’s great men: Cladin Tomirosh, Leader, and thrice decorated hero.
Island People
Island People is a young adult fantasy book centring on a young prince. The book starts with his kidnapping and follows his adventures as he not only escapes from his kidnapper but gains critical allies and friends.
The entire book is scheduled on Substack, and there are several sequels. This is a book I wrote years ago, so it is in a bit of a rough form. Critiques and comments are more than welcome, they are requested.
…and his story ‘The Oracle’ is in haitus, but there are some chapters there. Feel free to check them out.
God Bless you as you read, and may you do all to the glory of God.