9. Chapter 9: Salve

Chapter 9: Salve

            The next afternoon, Hermione lay on her enormous four-poster bed, kicking one post with a stockinged foot. Her oldest maidservant, Mary, sat darning a petticoat by her side.

            "M'Lady…" scolded Mary gently, "If your mother saw you…"

            "Bummer" said Hermione.

            "What is this 'bummer'  m'lady?" Mary looked surprised. Her mistress' vocabulary had in the last two weeks become strange and foreign. It must be all those books Lord Granger let his daughter read. Everyone knew that ladies should only read scripture but Lord Granger was indulgent, and handed his daughter great volumes of poetry, philosophy and science.

            Hermione gave the bed post another kick. She was reflecting on her father's scolding yesterday evening. Lord Granger had severely reprimanded his daughter for her shameful outburst at Lord Camvile…

            "But father, he was a deceitful wretch!"

            "He may be but that does not give you leave to shame him in front of all our servants."

            "But father…"

            "And when will you learn, daughter, that ladies do not shout in that unladylike manner. It is most unbecoming."

            Hermione pouted.

            Her father sighed and ran his fingers through his whitening hair. It was an action so much like her future father that Hermione got a sudden strong wave of déjà vu.

            "Daughter, I cannot have you tossing all these suitors aside one after another. You must choose soon or you will be too old to marry. The Granger name will be doomed."

            "I will choose soon father," lied Hermione. "But Lord Camvile was a complete prat."

            "You see, it is such language that will get you in trouble. You must learn your place." Her father wrung his hands in distress. "I will speak to Father Lorenzo about setting you scribe work. It will be good for you to reflect on scripture for at least two hours every day."

            And that was how, that morning, Hermione had found herself in the company of Father Lorenzo laboriously copying various biblical passages her father had chosen for her to study. Of all the passages she had copied out, one stuck out in her mind… "Ephesians 5:22-24…mulieres viris suis subditae sint sicut Domino. Quoniam vir caput est mulieris sicut Christus caput est ecclesiae ipse salvator corporis sed ut ecclesia subiecta est Christo ita et mulieres viris suis in omnibus…"

            Aaaargh! The bible was obviously written by men!

            She gave her bedpost another kick. She would have to spend every morning of the next month memorizing more of such passages. Her father had told her he would test her when he and her mother returned next month from a visit to Lancashire.

            Hermione sat up in bed and Mary looked up at her in surprise over her sewing.

            "What day is this, Mary?"

            "Thursday, M'Lady."

            Thursday! This was the evening which she had agreed to meet Malfoy in the barn. But of course, Malfoy was not up to going anywhere for a while. Her father had seen fit to give him three days paid leave, and, remembering the ugly mass of bleeding cuts on his back, she hardly thought it was enough. She felt a sudden inexplicable urge to see how he was.

            Hermione put on her shoes and straightened her dress.

            "Going somewhere, M'lady?"

            "I'm going to take a walk in the gardens."

            Mary put aside her sewing but Hermione stopped her.

            "No, Mary dear. You finish your sewing, I would like some time alone to reflect on the scripture my father set me this morning."

            Mary nodded approvingly. "As you wish." She picked up her sewing as Hermione left the room.

            Hermione skipped along the increasingly familiar corridors of the huge manor. She was beginning to get the feeling that she had lived here all her life. She skipped and hummed, heading towards the inner compound and gardens. It had been a long time since she skipped anywhere. But she felt so lighthearted now that Lord Camvile had been packed off and her parents had left for a visit to Lancashire.

            Audley and Fanhope were in charge of the manor now, but Hermione wasn't afraid of them at all. She discovered that all she had to do was smile sweetly at them and they would fall over themselves to please her. If only it had been so easy for ladies to get their own way with boys back at Hogwarts…wait a minute, perhaps it had. She as she thought of Harry going all ga-ga over Cho Chang in the fifth. And Hannah Abbott only had to glance at Justin Finch Fletchley to have him panting at her heels.