God's Country

Part Seventy

'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.'

Psalms 23:1

Brogan Hardcastle would have laughed if she could have heard the Social Democrats debating how to oppose the Christian Democrats on policy semantics. She had already learned that, whatever the politicians said, their objectives were what everyone ought to be worrying about, not their pious public face. In her first few days in Meadvale she had seen everything she needed to see and more, and she had learned two very important things about Reformism. Firstly, all the members of the First Congregation she had met thus far had a genuine, all-consuming faith, including every maiden and Daughter of Eve she met, with every single one of them feeling blessed to earn God's love. She might find the life she was expected to lead at Lake House restrictive and almost inhumane but Alice Craig, her constant companion, loved every single minute. She was obviously born to it, and brainwashed into accepting the dictates of the Pastor's, but that had to be just as true of anyone who believed in anything to a certain extent. Brogan, getting over the initial shock and awe of her brutal transformation, tried to understand that faith, because that was what she was there for, and once she had sat in the Cathedral and listened to Pastor Michael Winstanley preaching to the faithful, she understood the power and the unity of Meadvale. Winstanley wanted to save the world, and Meadvale was his blueprint for that project, something the media was yet to fully recognise. Charles Buckingham had managed to distance himself from the Church, whilst never hiding his own membership, and as a result of his eye-catching policies the obvious extremes of the movement had been brushed almost casually aside. No one, not even Brogan herself, with all her many doubts and suspicions, had imagined that the covered women they took pictures of were gagged beneath their veils. Brian Strickland had not got many things right during his political career, but ironically the rant about Christian extremists which may well have cost him the election had been frighteningly accurate.

Secondly, her hosts did not believe they were mistreating her. In fact, Mr and Mrs Craig made her very welcome, within the strict limits of Miss Ellis's relentless routine, and she was treated as part of the Craig family from day one. Paul Craig kept every promise he had made to Steven Lawrence, making time to speak to her every day and urging her to use her time in Meadvale as a chance to think about her attitude for the future, to think about her life. Her lessons, delivered by headphones whilst she was covered with a blanket on top of everything else to help her concentrate, focussed on her duties of obedience and modesty to her father and her natural place within her family and society. Miss Ellis, clearly briefed by Paul Craig on her basic needs, told her over and over again that when she finally went back to school she would be a different girl, and Brogan believed her.

She tried to imagine what her character would be thinking in those circumstances. She was supposedly with a good friend of her stepfathers, even if their relationship had got lost after Lawrence moved to Australia. During their long correspondence, she could tell that Craig thought a lot of her late stepfather. He had been prepared to do absolutely anything to help even before he heard all the details, and in those circumstances, already in trouble with her school and family, Brogan Lawrence would surely have been prepared to take her medicine quietly. Maidenhood was clearly a fairly draconian cure for a simple teenage meltdown, but it was only for a limited period and Miss Ellis offered powerful motivation for young Brogan to behave, whilst giving her precious little opportunity to do otherwise.

Ironically, Brogan could relate the situation to her own relationship with her stepfather. Her childhood had been fractious to say the least, as she never saw eye to eye with her natural father and had nothing in common with her mother. She had attended a variety of private schools, both day and boarding institutions, mostly the sort of liberal institutions her mother thought would help her bright daughter thrive. Mrs Hardcastle was a minor socialite, a former model, who enjoyed life. She did not set much store by examinations or structure, and never provided Brogan with any stability or drive. Her stepfather, when he appeared on the scene as she approached her teens, was just one of the many 'uncles' Brogan had met, but unlike the others he took an interest in her. He thought she was bright but her performance at school was terrible. So he read her the riot act and moved her out of the sort of school where teachers were addressed by their Christian names and work was almost optional, and sent her to a very traditional boarding school with the proverbial flea in her ear. Brogan hated it at first, and begged her mother to let her come home, but Lawrence came to visit her every weekend and tried to make her see that she needed some discipline.