April 20, 1875
Tuesday
What an Interesting evening… I found out this afternoon that He
and I would be dining with His godfather. The Terrifyingly
Important Lord Henry. I was in dithers about what I should
wear. Especially since I was almost certain that He would
remember to bring me this time. I finally settled on my dark
green gown with the black and gold trimming and a small amount of the
matching jewelry. The ones with the dark gold trims that matched
my hairsticks so well. As much as I wanted to just hide, I
figured I should draw attention to places other than my middle just in
case. I wish I knew when I would start showing… I also
spent some more time practicing my nod and smile as well as my
sereneness…
Anyway. As we were driving up to the house (which was also on
stilts), He mentioned that the stilts looked quite interesting and
wouldn’t it be nice to have a mansion on stilts? Then if there
was a flood there wouldn’t be a problem. Flood?!?!? And
then, to make it all worse, if the stilts broke, we could have a
mansion that was a Boat! I, well, just, I. How horrible…
After meeting Lord Henry, well, I shouldn’t have been nearly so
worried. He couldn’t even keep our names straight. I wonder
if both of them are related by blood as well as by the godfather/godson
relationship? But, for all that he was forgetful, he was
congenial. He showed us his croquet setup around the
veranda. Henry tried his hand at some croquet and did not have
his best moment. The mallet went one way (and landed by me), and
the ball went the other way and landed on the ground off the
veranda. Henry said he’d fetch it and jumped off. Where he
landed in about knee deep of muck. Eww! I almost lost my
lunch again. But then I got distracted when Lord Henry asked me
to toss him the croquet mallet. He got a funny look on his face,
brought it back to me, and then asked me to toss it back.
He asked how I did it because when he tossed a croquet mallet it went
all wonky. I looked at him a moment, pulled out one of my hair
stick knives, and tossed it. It landed with a thunk right where I
wanted it to.
He looked at me again, looked at Henry (who had gotten back up with a
couple more lost croquet balls), and asked, “Well why didn’t you say
so? Let’s go play darts!”
After dinner, Lord Henry asked me to teach him to throw croquet
mallets. It was quite a lot more enjoyable an evening than I
realized it would be. Oh, and since I could see that he was
having a hard time remembering the names of his servants, I asked if he
had ever thought of having servants with all the same names…
When we got back to the house, we found that we need to pack because
we’ll be leaving again. Great. More seasickness.
Oh, and I missed a fight. One created as a diversion to stopping
a cock fight! I miss all the fun… I had to work hard not
pout around Him
Wednesday
He got called into the admiralty office this morning. I wonder if
it has anything to do with us leaving again sooner than
later… He came back and offered to help with my
packing. But we’d only been here 2 days so there wasn’t much to
pack. As part of the packing, I walked past where Violet and
Victoria were packing. So many things to pack for children.
Sigh. It’s enough to depress me into next week.
Someone mentioned going to the market. I mentioned I didn’t want
to go because I didn’t want to spend money. I mean, once I
take my leave of absence, I won’t have an income any more. Well,
I suppose I’ll have my pin money, but there are lots of things that
have to come out of that already.
Anyway. Victoria indicated that she wanted to go to the market
and Mrs. Frazer asked me to escort her. Lord Henry showed up just
as we were getting ready to leave and offered to go with us. It
was an… Interesting… trip through the market. Both Victoria and
Lord Henry seemed to be rather attentive to me. And neither of
them seemed to be looking at things themselves. In the carriage,
Victoria tried to have a whispered conference with me. She wanted
to know why I was feeling like I couldn’t spend money. And asked
if it was because of the baby. How could I tell her? And I
think I know how she would react if she found out that the money was
because I plan to take a leave of absence. She talked about me
having friends if He turned out to be a cad. Not that He would
be. He’s very affectionate in His scatterbrained way.
Expecting must make me stupid. It wasn’t until we got home and a
whole pile of boxes were delivered to my room. Lord Henry
mentioned that he was way behind in giving presents to his god-daughter
in law. If he does this now, what will he do when They are
born? And then, to top it off, He walked in with a whole nother
pile of boxes. I think I must have whimpered. It might have
been an echo of the WAHHHHHHHHHHHH going on in my head. I had to
repack all the stuff into boxes as small as possible because I’d be
taking up more than my fair share of space on the ship. It’s not
that big of a ship.
I am in awe of my friends. There were several really lovely
items. I had rather liked a couple of bracelets and necklaces
that I saw. But a couple of the items. Well, I
remember looking at that horrible statuette and cup (what in heavens
would someone DO with a cup that size?!?) and wondering who would sell
junk like that, and, worse, who would spend money on such. Well,
now I know. With Victoria’s help, things were finally sorted and
repacked. I think they found places for them on the boat.
I’m writing this in the cabin as we leave. I only just got the
hang of being on land and now I’m back in a boat. Not only a
boat, though. One with a bunch of marines on it. And
only smirking Mrs. Cuthbert for female company.
Thursday
Remind me why I wanted to stay on the boat He is commanding? I
was so excited to be near Him again, but he’s been beyond distracted
with being in command. And the other ladies and such are all on
the other ship. I like Mrs. Cuthbert, but she smirks way too
much. At least the marines leave me alone when I do my
workouts. Well, they did after I, well, persuaded them that they
should. And All the people that I’m responsible for are on the
other ship. I’m totally not earning my wages. Perhaps I
should have already started my leave of absence.
Saturday, 24 April
I am soooooo sick. There is a storm like to sink the ship and
send us all to the depths of the ocean. I wonder that I haven’t
died yet. The waves are so huge and the lightening so
awful! I think I’m going to go hide now. More.
Tuesday, 27 April
The quiet of the day was interrupted by several people scurring
about. There was semaphore going on between the boats. I
finally got someone to tell me that there was cannon fire in the
distance. Now we’re going to investigate. And I think Mrs.
Cuthbert is thinking Pirates. Pirates! I’m only good about
Pirates if they actually come on the ship. I’m not so good with
guns and cannons. Bow and arrow maybe. I’ll string
it. And put on a few more weapons. And then get out of the
way until I can be useful.
Wow. Mr. Salmaline just catapulted himself over to the other
ship. People are starting to fire guns. Now they are
getting the cannons involved. We’re going to see battle. I
should be excited but I don’t have much boat battle experience. I
think I shall meditate until I can be useful.
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