Sun Kissed Innsmouth
Part Nine
The groundskeeper smirked; it was a disturbing look on an already disturbed face. “I said you weren’t meant to live out here. The barn and the woods are no place for a girl like you. The old witch probably bet the house staff you would be back on all fours begging after one night out in the barn. You proved her wrong. When I saw you coming down that lane, I figured you were coming to do just that but way too late. You proved me wrong too.”
Felecia felt her jaw fall open; the groundskeeper would plainly see the shock on her face. He hadn’t lied, hadn’t tried to fool her. He said live not survive, she took it upon herself to assume her expulsion from the house was a death sentence.
No smirks or jokes to follow, no I told you so moment, the groundskeeper got quiet and let those wide, wet eyes speak to his sincerity. “I’m sorry you lost the sort of life you used to know; all I can do is help you a bit getting used to something new.”
Felecia nodded and began gathering her suitcase but the groundskeeper shook his head. “Most of that will just get in the way, a week spent working like we do will destroy all those fine clothes and leave them in tatters anyway. Best you leave all that, and ditch the playland dress besides, the only thing you have now that’s worth keeping is that coat.”
There was precious little time spent considering the groundskeepers words, the truth was obvious, most of Felecia’s clothes had already proved useless out in the weather. The suitcase was packed full of muddy underthings that would likely never again see careful laundering.
Everything that truly mattered to Felecia, all of the keepsakes, childhood gifts, stuffed animals and dolls, all her filled journals and very personal letters. The letters her father wrote to her aboard ship and gave to her behind Nana’s back. Everything she still loved in connection to her life was locked away in a room she would probably never see again.
Felecia took a moment to pull the tattered pinafore dress off and cast it aside before pulling her travel coat back on, she took one last, long look at her suitcase, feeling a final pang of hurt and frustration at having to abandon it and the remains of a childhood that would surely be left there. As if to answer those feelings she saw a light in a familiar bedroom up on the third story. Was Nanna really watching, had she been this whole time through one window or another? Or is that mother, first daring to light a candle to see by as the light continues to fade behind the trees beyond the driveway? No matter.
Felecia offered a single defiant, lewd gesture to whoever it was looking out of that upper story window before she turned to take her chances with the once feared groundskeeper.
Life at the far end of the little village out beyond the site line of the mansion was a very different animal. The people who lived in the shadow of the mansion enjoyed none of its excesses and splendors. Those lucky enough to tend to the barn, the gardens, the stables, they had some and shared what they could, but most everything produced from their labor was for those in the big house. The days catch caught by those experienced and capable to go out by boat was always saved aside for the people in the big house, likewise meat of any kind, always seemed to be up to the whim of what was easy to find or could be found at all on the lands surrounding. The spoils of the groundskeeper’s traps and hunting excursions, meager as they were, had to be offered up to the big house first.
Felecia spent her first two nights near the groundskeeper’s hovel trying to find a comfortable place to sleep only to wind up cold, tired, and drenched for the sake of her every exploit. Grand effort was wasted on securing comfort and safety from the rain while she learned to work the land one mistake at a time.