Exclusive Excerpt:
‘I am Headmistress Harding,’ the woman says, by way of introduction, ‘and you’ll address me as such. I am not your teacher, as you very well know—I am here as guidance in the loosest sense. You are on your own.’ I can hear Fernanda gulp, and the headmistress can hear it too, as she looks at her for the next sentence. ‘You are all adults; you do not need babysitting.’
‘I do,’ Rowan mutters in my ear and I have to cover my mouth to stop the laughter emerging. I am often unable to breathe when Rowan makes me laugh, something I do not want to happen in front of everyone.
‘Here, we do not care where you are from or who are you,’ Headmistress Harding says. ‘We care that you are women. And we care about your minds. Everything else is irrelevant. No one is to be treated differently, not under my roof.’ She looks around before saying, ‘This place is a promise. A promise to a better future, the future you’ve only ever dreamed of. Some of you will even leave us early if you catch the right eye. Headhunters will be looking at this school throughout the year, so you never know.’
She pauses before looking back at us.
‘You are all aware, or you should be aware, that you are in charge of your own education here at Lakegrave,’ Headmistress Harding continues. ‘You are to use the tools available to you here in the school.’ She clicks her fingers at the artist who wasn’t paying attention. ‘I will now show you said tools, so look alive and eyes forward.’ There is a mutter of apologies. ‘Through the left door is the library and through the right door is the group classroom, if any of your interests end up aligning. The dormitories are on the second, third, and fourth floor. You should all have been to your rooms since they are listed in your letters.’ One student raises their hand. ‘Dormitory assignments are listed in the dining hall, if you have misplaced your letter, which you can look at after the tour.’ The student’s hand is quickly withdrawn. Headmistress Harding steps down and walks towards the back door, under the staircase. We all scramble behind her to keep up, having to file through in a single line.
I’m surprised to see it leads to an outdoor area: a small courtyard with columns around the edge where you can see into the hallways that run around the sides. In the courtyard are massive trees that stretch as high as the building itself and more greenery overwhelms the area, with some flowers dotted around, too. In the middle are four benches facing each other, likely for outdoor study.
Headmistress Harding does not stop in the courtyard but instead walks through it to another back door, ushering us all to hurry up as if we are an inconvenience to her.
We step into what looks like a ballroom turned dining hall, as it is a grand room filled with paintings like the entrance, but the floor is marble and on the left near the tall window sits a piano. There is no space for dancing, however, as the room is mostly filled with lines of dark wooden tables and chairs with lots of lamps sitting upon each one.
‘This is where you’ll consume your meals,’ Headmistress Harding explains once we are all in the room. ‘Where are Velika and Norabella? Please make yourselves known to everyone.’ Two students’ hands shoot up. ‘Velika will be your main chef, an expert already in the culinary field. Norabella will be her support as a pastry and dessert chef.’
It is one of the things I wondered about when I found the school to only have one staff member. I can cook for myself, but I doubt those who come from money know how to use a kitchen—they have people to do it for them.
It seems like the headmistress expects us to not only support ourselves with our studies, but to support each other with the running of the entire school, too. I will later learn about the students who do the gardening and be told of the other chores that are also handled by us.
No comments:
Post a Comment