A few hours later Hannah and Betzy arrived home in one carriage and another carriage followed them with all her parcels.
Henry Clark was there when the carriages arrived to open the door and help Hannah out of the carriage. There were other footmen that Henry called from the house to carry the parcels into the house. There were mountains of them. In Hannah's hand was a hard case that would only be entrusted to Henry. "Please put this on the desk in the library Henry." Without a word he just nodded and took the case carefully and reverently from her hand.
She entered the foyer and stopped at the large ornate mirror hanging over the hall table as ornate as the mirror. She looked in the mirror. Staring back at her smiling was a new woman. She took off her gloves smiling. Laying them on the table. As she attended to herself the servants were moving in and out of the house with all her parcels. Henry was ordering them where the boxes and parcels should go. Then as she looked at her reflection still smiling she carefully removed her hat pin and then the hat and laid it on the hall table as well.
Entering the library she flopped down in the chair behind Benjamin's desk with a big smile of success on her face. "Betzy tell Mammy to make me some tea and I would like a big dish of peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream, please."
"Yesum Miss Chamber-lane." She curtsied and left the room.
Hannah sighed happily as she surveyed the room. Henry had set the hard case on the desk as requested. She stared at the case for a while, smiling, simply smiling for the first time since Benjamin's demise.
Then she sat up and pulled the hard case towards her. Turned it so that the lock was facing her. She took her reticule and searched inside until she found the key.
"There you are." She spoke to the key. Slipped it into the keyhole, turned it, with a distinct click, it sprung slightly open. She lifted the lid of the case slowly. The top compartment was lined in velvet splendor on hinges. Upon opening the box, the top tier lifted up automatically and rode up with the lid. On the underside of the lid was a mirror.
When Hannah opened the box light and sparkles lit up her face along with her brilliant smile. The afternoon sun had come in through the westerly window and hit the contents of the hard-case and the contents illuminated her face. Hannah started lifting the items of the hard-case up through her fingers. Like running ones fingers through long flowing hair.
Diamonds! Emeralds! Rubies! Sapphires! In all their splendor.
"There we go! Now this is the thing." She smiled with such satisfaction on her face.
Betzy came in with a tray.
"Now Betzy...." Hannah began without taking her eyes off of the necklaces and pendents and bracelets and rings in the box she gave Betzy the next set of instructions. "Please, I would like you to go up to my room and remove all the new garments from their boxes and hang up the gowns and put the lingerie in the chest of drawers. Stand out the perfume bottles on my vanity. And discard all the boxes. Is that understood?"
"Yesum Miss, rite a way."
When Hannah was once again alone she exclaimed, "I did it!" Said with such satisfaction, "New life here I come."
Hannah had all her clothes burned. After Betzy collected up all her gems that she tossed all over her room in a fury, earlier that day, she went to town to her private jeweller and traded them for new ones. Ones of her choosing. Not gifts from her husband or other men.
Then she went to the House of Françoise Haute Couture and picked up a new wardrobe.
Then off to the master cobbler for a new shoes and riding boots and dress shoes, day shoes, evening shoes, walking shoe.
Then to the haberdashery for leather gloves and parasols and hats. Many of them.
All the latest styles.
Now she drank her tea and ate her peach cobbler and felt like a little girl. Giggling inside. When her stomach was full to bursting she sat back in the chair and swung it around to look out the floor to ceiling windows that looked out onto the vast gardens. She felt content for the first time since she got home from the island.
There was only one thing missing in her life but she was going to have to put that out of her mind if she was going to survive this world that she was in. 'Enough of that!' She thought.
Betzy came in a while later to collect the tray.
Hannah spoke, "Please send Henry in here to me."
"Yesum Miss."
"Madam you sent for me." Henry was standing at the open door watching Hannah writing on a piece of paper. Into the ink went the feather plume. Scratch, scratch, scratch. In again went the plume tip and out again. She was writing frantically. Very excited. Henry stood at attention in the doorway.
"Oh yes, Henry, please come in."
Henry approached.
"I would like you to organize and dispatch this request as quickly as you can."
Henry took the page from her outstretched hand. He read it and then raised his eyebrow to her in a questioning way.
Her face was emotionless and unmoved by his reaction.
"Any questions Henry?"
"No Madam, none!"
"Good! Please see to it immediately."
"I will take care of it myself."
"Good! Thank you! That will be all."
"Very good Madam."
Hannah was well pleased with herself. This was the first move in the right direction.
She had her dinner on the balcony outside her room as the sun was setting it was a warm evening and she sat alone by candle light and thought about her future. She had to go to that appointment on Friday at Mr. Perlmutter's office. She would just ignore the flowers and that ridiculous letter. He had the nerve to quote Shakespeare and pretend that it was his own. As though he thought Hannah stupid and would not recognize it for what it was. Absurd! One of the servants came into her room to light a fire. She would sit by the fire and read a book and drink a glass of sherry. Betzy came in and cleared away the dinner dishes.
"Betzy would you bring me a glass of sherry please."
"Yesum Miss. Will dare b' any ting else Miss?"
"No, I think that will be all for now. Thank you."
Then changed her mind.
"Oh Betzy, the clothing that I wore to town today."
"Yesum Miss?"
"Burn them tomorrow, will you?"
"Yesum Miss. First ting."
It was a lovely evening and Hannah felt splendidly content and peaceful.
She read her book and enjoyed her sherry at the fireside until midnight.
That night she slept well.
