No love for Louisa

ONE

(Ten years later)

Clutching  the book of poetry  close to her chest, which she had just been given to her as a parting gift by her  beloved Governess, Miss Mary Rothwell,   Louisa  stood beside school room window of Thorn view Grange  with sadness in her blue eyes, and a slight ache in her heart as she watched the lady in question hand her luggage to the driver of the carriage , as she set of for her new position with another family  across the other side of the country in Yorkshire.

Now that her youngest charge, Louisa's cousin Rosemary, was of the age where she could dispense of her schooling, and  soon was  destined for the London season to find a suitable husband, Miss Rothwell's services would no longer be required. But still, Louisa would miss the woman who had become her kindred spirit in the last  seven years, since her aunt Katherine had died, after her body eventually give up the fight with the lingering illness she suffered from before Louisa had come to live there.

Miss Rothwell had quickly come to recognise that, unlike  young Rosemary,  whom she had primarily hired to teach by her father,  showed little interest in expanding her mind past the basic lessons of what she was learning in the schoolroom. But it was  her older cousin Louisa, who sat in with them, had been the one with  keen mind and who  had a passion for knowledge of the wider world and was extremely smart. The young woman's interest in history and the arts and books,  had been a pleasure to nurture, so she had done with with gusto, and the two had become friends.

So, today's parting had been a sorrowful one, with hugs and tears shed, with promises that they would keep in touch by writing to each other.  Louisa had not wanted to see Miss Rothwell off at the door as she got into the carriage in fear she would break down and cry again.   And even now she found herself moving away from the window  unable to watch the carriage drive away,  and take Miss Rothwell away from her. Instead she closed her eyes taking in a deep breath to compose and brace herself  for the coming changes she was facing, that filled her with a certain dread and uncertainty about her future, knowing her time under her Mother's family home had just become more tenuous.  

Now that Rosemary was of marriageable age, and would find a husband and settle down in a home of her own, Louisa would no longer have a reason to stay on, and knew she would have to find some sort of employment  as a ladies companion or a Governess once the wedding ring was on her cousin's finger.  Her Uncle Joseph had allowed her to stay under his roof as a companion for Rosemary, because his wife had made him promise to do so, on her death bed.  

Even after all these years,  despite his wife's wishful hopes, he had never accepted Louisa as part of the family, and had treated her with total indifference, mixed with disdain, claiming she had came from bad blood and no good would come of having any association with her.  Lately, he had been making it clear she would not be welcome to stay on at his home, once his daughter  was married, and he was finally  free from his wife's foolish promise.

But first, Louisa would be accompanying Rosemary to London for the season the in the  following month or so, as her companion chaperone. It would be her final obligation  before being happily dismissed by her uncle, to find her own way in life.

 Perhaps  one of the the reasons why she had been so keen to learn all she could from Miss Rothwell, was the knowledge that she would never be following the path of her younger cousin Rosemary, in  finding an eligible husband, Her uncle had made it quite clear that with  the shame and scandal  of her parents background and death,  she had no place in society to expect such a future. No decent respectable  man would want a wife with such a marred background. So knew she would have to make her own way somehow in the world, and she realised quite quickly  a good knowledgeable education gave her a better chance in doing so.