The Cottage in the Woods (3 page)

How long we scrambled in headlong flight, I do not know. Time plays tricks on us when we are in our extremities and makes a single minute stretch into eternity. I only know that at the end of such an eternity Teddy charged into the nursery with me half a heartbeat behind. We slammed the door, and I leaned against it, breathing hard, while Teddy peered intently through the keyhole to see if anything had followed us. As I struggled to collect myself, I gained my initial impression of the nursery. First the size—easily twice as big as my chamber. It seemed nearly empty, excepting one corner near the fireplace where there was a small cluster of furniture, a rocking horse, and some shelves full of toys. On the other side of the fireplace was a big, overstuffed chair, and sitting in the chair was a grizzled old lady badger of generous proportions, dressed in a cacophony of hideous patterns and colors from her skirts to her ruffled dustcap. But what arrested my attention was that her head was thrown back, and she was guzzling from a small flask. I took in all of this in an
instant, and in the next instant she gave a surprised squeak, and, wiping her mouth with the back of one paw, quickly hid away the flask with the other. This, I realized, must be Nurse, and her guilty gesture left me in no doubt about the contents of the flask.

My fright from the hallway faded as I reacted to this development. I could not immediately settle on what course to take. Surely if the master knew of this offense, Nurse would be summarily dismissed. For my own part I was innocent enough to be shocked by her behavior. Was she drunk? Though her eyes were red-rimmed and, I thought, slightly unfocused, she seemed self-possessed, and glared at me with unmistakable loathing. Not knowing what else to do, I decided to behave as if everything were normal. Accordingly, I approached her, extending a polite paw, and introduced myself.

“Ah, yes,” she responded, making no move toward me. “The new chickie. The governess. Isn’t that just grand, though? Isn’t it a privilege to meet you? A privilege, I’m sure. And aren’t we just in awe? Awestruck, that’s what it is.” And her shoulders shook as she laughed a dry, wheezy laugh. It sounded like “Heesh heesh hee. Heesh heesh heesh hee.”

Taken aback, I withdrew my paw. While her words seemed grandiloquent, her manner was sneering and caustic. I could think of no response but stood there dumbly.

“Oh!” she cried. “Was that too sarcastic?
Do
excuse me! Y’see, that wasn’t really sarcasm, chickie,” she said, climbing down out of the chair and drawing herself up to her full two feet of height. “That was just a bit of IRONY. Life’s full of irony, don’t you know.” And she began the dry laugh again, putting her whole body into it.

I felt myself stiffening. Her contempt was almost palpable. Miss Pinchkin’s Academy had not prepared me to deal with such abominable rudeness. Papa had taught me to use good manners to my elders, no matter what, and so I tried again. “My name is Ursula Brown,” I repeated, as politely as I could.

“Well, well, Miss Chickie Brown,” she responded. “Chickie, chickie, chickie. Heesh heesh hee.” She turned her back on me and waddled unsteadily over to the wardrobe, pulling out a nightshirt. Then her whole manner changed as she faced about and called Teddy over to her. “Come here, dearie,” she coaxed, her voice all sweetness and honey. “Time for bed now. There’s a good cub.”

Teddy, who was still peering out through the keyhole, said, “Wait! Wait! I think I see something!”

Her response was swift and implacable. In a voice harsh enough to peel paint, Nurse barked one brief order for him to come “AT ONCE!” Teddy flew to her side. Despite her small size, he meekly accepted her ministrations. In a few efficient moves, she had him out of his clothes and into his nightshirt, his teeth brushed and face washed, and tucked into his little bed. I noticed a smaller, badger-sized bed nearby as Teddy babbled on, unstopping, about Great-Uncle Ruprecht and the footsteps in the hallway.

“Oh yes, dearie,” Nurse agreed. “He’s a bad one, old Uncle is. We’d best not be walking about the halls at night, had we, now?” Teddy’s sensitive little face looked nearly terrified, and he burrowed under his covers.

I drew in my breath, hot anger rising in my breast. Already I felt a bond with the cub, and the thought that Nurse would play on his fears and undermine his confidence incensed me to
the point where I felt I must do something, but what? Nurse was clearly in authority here, and I dared not challenge her. Sitting on Teddy’s bed, I bent over and, lifting the covers slightly, whispered softly to him, “Don’t you believe that for a minute, Teddy. It’s just an old picture with scary eyes!”

Two big brown eyes peered over the edge of the counterpane, and I thought he would respond, but he quickly covered his head again.

I turned to see Nurse, paws on hips, giving me an evil glare. Had she overheard me?

“Some people ought to mind their own business!” she growled. I immediately thought that Teddy
was
my business, but could not summon the nerve to say so. I stood up, and though I towered over her, I felt much the smaller of the two of us.

Swaying slightly, she announced, “This is
my
nursery! I’m the nurse! You should call me
Nurse
! That’s not to say I’ll answer to you, of course, but life’s full of disappointments, isn’t it, now, chickie?” She sauntered over to the far side of the room, out of Teddy’s earshot, and I followed after her.

“Just you keep your snout out of my affairs, chickie,” she hissed, “and stay on my
good
side.”

I was struck by the thought that she had a side worse than this. The silence stretched out. Was she waiting for me to agree to this? Surely she understood that Teddy was my charge too? I wanted to say as much, but her little black eyes seemed to bore into my skull, and I said nothing.

“Good, then,” she barked. “That’s settled!”

“Wait!” I blurted. Thinking of Teddy’s haunted look, and feeling that I owed it to him to say something, I screwed up my courage. “I just wanted to ask you … don’t you worry about making the cub fearful?”

“Me?” she jeered. “Me make him fearful? Why, it wasn’t me came running in here as if the hounds of Hell was on my tail, was it? And what a sight that was!” she snickered. “What a sight!”

Here she began the “Heesh heesh hee” again, her paws clapping together, her head and shoulders bobbing up and down with each breath.

I endured her insufferable laughter in silence, and was mentally casting about for a suitable response when I realized that there was none. She was right. I had allowed Teddy to see me giving in to fear. The knowledge stung, but it only served to make me even angrier. What had I done, compared with her drinking spirits and purposely trying to scare Teddy? What would the master think of her conduct? I’m sure my expression was mutinous, and, as if she had somehow read my mind, she drew the flask from her pocket and wiggled it back and forth in front of me, a look of cunning in her eyes. “And don’t you be getting any ideas about telling tales on me, chickie, or I might have to tell the master about this little flask I had to take away from you!”

“You had to take away from
me
? What can you mean?”

“Why, your flask.” She smirked. “Right here. The one I caught you drinking from.”

I bit my lip, fighting back the tears of rage and frustration that threatened to appear. “That’s a lie!” I cried.

“A lie, is it? Supposing you tell the master your story and I tell him mine. Who do you think will be believed? The new young chickie, or the trusted old family retainer? Eh? Who do you think will be sent packing?”

Her question hung in the air like the blade of a guillotine. I could feel the bite of the cold metal as I silently faced the answer.
There was no one here to speak for me. Even Teddy had been busy looking through the keyhole, and had not seen her with the flask. I was the stranger. I would not be believed. I would be, as she said, the one sent packing. Perhaps if I had been older, less diffident, I would not have been so easily intimidated, but having never personally encountered such villainy, I was unprepared to deal with it. While my spirit rebelled at the gross injustice of the situation, I exclaimed, “I had no intention of going to the master!”

“Oh, well, ain’t that a MARVEL? Very big of you, I’m sure. Very SMART too, if ye take my meaning. I wonder if I can be so generous? Perhaps I owe it to the master to shed light on the character of his new employee!” Nurse wiggled the flask again and laughed her hateful laugh.

The door clicked open, and the flask was whisked into Nurse’s pocket just as Teddy’s father walked in. The badger’s expression changed in a trice from malicious glee to the most agreeable tranquillity. “Good evening, Mr. Vaughn,” she intoned sweetly. “I was just talking to the new governess. Tryin’ to get her off on the right foot, you know.”

My own thoughts were turbulent, and I was afraid it must show on my face. What were her intentions? Would she carry out her threat? Before I could think of a word to say, little Teddy piped up from the other side of the room. “Papa! There were FOOTSTEPS in the hall! Real ones! Uncle Ruprecht was after us! So we RAN. We ran all the way. Did you hear them?”

Mr. Vaughn picked Teddy up and held him close. His countenance grew dark and serious. “Who has been filling your head with such nonsense?” he asked.

“But it was REAL, Papa. Miss Brown heard them too. We heard them behind us in the gallery. So we ran.”

“That they did, sir,” drawled Nurse. “I didn’t like to tell you, but they did come running in here mighty wild, sir. I was just having a bit of a talk with Miss Brown about scaring the child, sir.” She turned to me with a little half smirk, as if daring me to contradict her, and I knew I was caught. If I exposed her for telling Teddy stories about Uncle Ruprecht, I was sure she would use her lie about the flask to get me dismissed. I stood mute, waiting to see how things would fall out. Mr. Vaughn’s eyes turned intently on me. “If I might have a word with you in the hallway, Miss Brown?”

I nodded and picked up my candle. On my way out of the room, I glanced at Nurse, who was still smiling demurely. She caught my gaze and purposefully patted the pocket where she had hidden the flask. Then she winked and snickered, covering her laugh with a cough.

Mr. Vaughn followed me into the corridor and shut the door behind us. “I want to make it perfectly clear, Miss Brown, that Theodore is not to be fed any fanciful or superstitious notions, most particularly not those that can only be designed to make him nervous and fearful. I must have your full agreement on this or I’m afraid your position here will be very short-lived.”

I felt the sting of tears at the corners of my eyes. How could everything have gone so wrong so quickly?

“What do you have to say for yourself?” he asked.

“Well, sir,” I began, searching for the right words, “we did hear something in the hallway, but I see now that it was very foolish of me to run. I’m afraid my nerves were a little overwrought, and I didn’t stop to think of the effect it might have on Teddy. It won’t happen again, sir.”

“And what of Uncle Ruprecht?”

I paused, wondering how to clear myself without incriminating Nurse. “I did not even know who he was until Teddy told
me. I told no stories of him or of anyone. Please believe me, sir. I would never try to frighten Teddy in any way.”

Here Mr. Vaughn subjected me to his penetrating stare, as if he were dissecting the whole of my character, testing its steadfastness, and gauging where it came up short. I trembled at this examination, but I hoped he would see my sincerity.

“I believe you would not, Miss Brown,” he said at length, “but perhaps your own fearfulness is still a threat to Theodore’s peace of mind. Need I point out that you are in a position of authority, and must be ever mindful of your example to the young? Theodore cannot learn rationality or courage from one who has not these qualities in herself.
Vincit qui se vincit
. ‘She conquers who conquers herself,’ Miss Brown. I suggest you take it as your motto. My eye will be upon you.”