Bitter Oath (New Atlantis)(14)

Finally, Jane climbed to her feet, and suggested they should go. Obediently, Liv rose. When Rene stood to join them, she couldn’t help feeling a surge of excitement. The idea that he was to be part of her life while she was here, living in the same house, with no father looking on with critical eye, was blissfully appealing. To get to know this mysterious stranger, without the strictures of her time, was a gift. This was the kind of adventure her grandfather told her about. They type of adventure she had always wanted to experience. That Rene was part of it only made it that much more thrilling.

When they led her around the building and introduced her to the moving pathway, she had her first real sense that she was no longer in her own time. With intense concentration, she watched as the white moving belts carried them along at a fast walking speed. When they started to add their own steps to the pace, it was absurdly dislocating to watch the scenery pass twice as fast as it should. She giggled, and took Rene’s arm so that she would not fall. Jane walked on the belt that ran alongside theirs and chattered away about the house she would be living in and her next door neighbour, Maggie, who was a gifted artist, and her new husband, Travis, who was an artist, too.

The moving pathway took them across several circular canals, and the land on either side of the canals seemed to serve different purposes. She didn’t ask about it, and her companions didn’t explain. By mutual agreement, they kept information about this new world to a minimum.

Within half an hour, they had left the city behind, and had reached the coast. They left the moving pathway, and began to follow stationary pathway up the side of a cliff, where a line of beautiful villas in the Greco-Roman style dotted its edge. Half way up, Jane turned in to one of the more elaborate residences. Even Rene and Jane seemed impressed.

‘Beats our little place,’ Jane commented, as they walked into the atrium, and got their first look at the ocean beyond the floor to ceiling glass windows that opened onto a vine covered patio.

‘My one bedroom unit tends to pale into insignificance next to this, too,’ Rene said with a laugh, as he took in the parlour that was as large as the one at Foxmoor Manor, and yet infinitely more comfortable. The monochrome cream rugs beneath their feet felt as thick and cushiony as grass, and extended all the way to the white walls. The furnishings were large and well stuffed, and looked far more comfortable than anything they had at home. Extending off to the left, what looked like a kind of kitchen opened directly onto the parlour, and a table made of white wood with four chairs surrounding it, filled the gap between kitchen and parlour.

‘You can have the master bedroom Liv, as you are the guest. If this is the same as Maggie’s place next door, you’ll have the same kind of incredible view from your bedroom window as here. I bags the second bedroom, and you get the studio, Frenchie,’ Jane announced happily, fully engaged with her new, short term lifestyle.

‘Frenchie?’ Liv said with shock.

‘Her nickname for me. I’m French Canadian. The story I told your father was not far from the truth. But my father was no aristocrat escaping the French Revolution, and he had no other children but me. My mother was Obejwe.’

‘Canadian? What is that?’

‘It is what the territory above the United States will come to be called a century after your time. There will be a few wars before that happens though.’

‘It is hard to credit. You know the future. Will King George III remain monarch for much longer?’

‘Let me see,’ Rene became thoughtful as they walked down the hall to the bedrooms. ‘I think 1811 is when George IV will be made Regent, until the mad king’s death in 1820… do not quote me on that. I do not have a download that extends into that period. What about you, Jane?’

‘Nope, no idea. But your clothes remind me of Jane Austin movies I’ve seen.’

‘Jane who?’ Liv asked

‘Jane Austin. Wrote romantic novels in your time that were very popular’

‘I am afraid I have never heard of her.’

‘She didn’t write under her real name, if I recall. Does Sense and Sensibility sound familiar? Pride and Prejudice?’

Liv shook her head apologetically. ‘I am not well read in the literary field. I am a Natural Historian.’

‘That’s okay. I might dig up the movies while you’re here. You can tell me how accurate they are.’

‘Movies?’

‘Janey, slow down. Too much information. Liv, she will explain movies to you another day. Here is the master bedroom. Wow, the view is spectacular. Look, there is a storm coming in.’

They all moved to the window, and looked out at the grey ocean. On the horizon heavy, black clouds brewed. Liv felt a little frightened at the idea of being so exposed when such a storm hit. What if the windows couldn’t hold back the wind and rain?

To distract herself from such a worrying thought, she turned away from the view, and took in the room. More thick, cream rugs covered the floor. And an unposted bed so wide it had room for four people, dominated the space. A series of white-wood doors ran along one wall, and when Jane opened the centre door, she realised it led to a laundry.

‘You are about to get an education, which can’t be put off until tomorrow. Rene, go make us some lunch. I think Liv will feel more comfortable hearing about what’s in here without you being present.’

Liv was shocked how readily Rene took direction. What man in her time would put up with such orders, especially when he was told to do a woman’s work? Make lunch indeed! She would let Jane show her this laundry, and then she would go and make the meal for them all. Cook had insisted that all the girls learn how to run a kitchen and cook the basics. No one knew how many servants the girls would have at their disposal once they married.

‘Come,’ Jane beckoned with her hand, and Liv followed her cautiously into the room. ‘Okay, now this is a bath. You would be familiar with that, I assume. Did you have water from taps in your time?’

Liv looked at the huge bowl set low to the ground. It was unlike any bath she had ever seen. It would take more buckets to fill than she could imagine. As she watched, Jane turned a spigot and water started to pour into the bowl. The water steamed.

‘Oh, my heavens!’ she gasped.

‘One for hot and another for cold. That way you can have it just the right temperature. Mostly, we use baths to relax in. To get clean, we use the shower.’

‘Shower? Like rain?’ She followed Jane to a cubicle with more spigots and something Jane called “buttons”. ‘We shower every day. You can select the type of shower you would like. If you want water pouring over you like a waterfall, you press this button,’ she pointed to one of the small squares. ‘If you want a light mist coming from all directions, you press this one. And there are lots more. I would suggest you stick to mist until you get used to it. This is a soap dispenser. See?’ She pressed another “button”, and liquid shot out at them. It smelled like hyacinth.

‘Stand back a little, I’ll show you what happens.’ Jane pressed the first button she had indicated, and a torrent of water gushed from the ceiling, flooding the cubicle.

Liv jumped back with a little yelp, brushing water droplets off her dress.

‘You get naked, close the door, and the water stays inside. Soap your body with the liquid, and then rinse it off. For the time being, use towels to dry yourself. I’ll find some for you later.

‘Now the basin is for washing your hands. The water comes into the bowl just as it has in the bath and shower. There are plenty of mirrors, as you can see. Have you ever looked at yourself naked in a mirror?’

Liv flushed bright red and looked away, mortified by such a question.

‘Sorry, I don’t mean to embarrass you. Your time was a lot more modest than mine. I only mentioned it because when you shower you will see yourself in one mirror or the other. That might challenge you for a while.’

Jane stopped and studied her for a few moments, until Liv felt obliged to look back and meet her eye. Liv squared her shoulders, and lifted her chin. ‘I will avert my eye when I must shower.’

‘Whatever. Just giving you a heads up, as Maggie would say.’

‘Heads up?’

‘A warning. Now this is the one that is going to really challenge you. This seat thing over here is a toilet. You had water closets and pottys, if I remember. This does the same job. You remove your underclothes and sit on there when you need to urinate or defecate. There is paper there to wipe yourself. Just drop the paper in the toilet, and when you are finished, stand up and press that button.’

She pressed the button and water gushed into the bowl and disappeared. Water gushed everywhere in this room, she was finding.

‘That water flushes everything away and then you wash your hands with soap from this dispenser.’ She pointed at yet another button which she didn’t press this time.

‘Let me get this right. This is a commode with water?’ Liv asked.