Chapter 20 - The Scent of Japanese Lilies

As this is a Regency story, there is bound to be some AU-ness and OOC-ness. Please bear with me. Emphases are in italics and titles of books &ca are underlined. This story places great stress on the significance and meanings of flowers.

Language of Flowers

Chapter 20 – The Scent of Japanese Lilies

The Marquess of Sterne was in a rare mood of complete rage. Enquire as he might, he deceived no news of a conveyance carrying two women and a gentleman to the Dover Apparation point. Failing this, he ventured to uncover whether Villiers had sent the ladies to France in separate carriages and ridden to Dover himself. This line of enquiry did not yield any result. All he managed to uncover was the innkeeper of Thickey's word that Lord Villiers did arrive in a carriage with a heavily veiled lady. It puzzled Sterne to learn that no other woman had passed through the Apparation point that night. Could it be that one of the women took a barge over to Calais? Perhaps one of them had bribed the innkeeper, this uncouth Thickey fellow, to remain silent, Sterne mused; and accordingly, he threatened that selfsame personage with hexes and curses if he did not reveal the truth. The man, though visibly frightened by one who was clearly a member of the Quality, continued to protest that no second lady had Apparated or sailed to Calais the previous night. Frustrated, Sterne stormed out of the public house and Apparated to Calais to press his investigations there.

Calais too yielded no information on a gentlemen travelling with two women. He stopped at the most expensive hostelry, the Rayon Noir where Villiers would have most likely spent the night and made his enquiries. All the proprietor would reveal was that an English Milord had arrived last night with an English lady with flaming red hair. They both had the largest rooms at the front. The Milord slept in the room on the left and the lady, whom the inn's clerk revealed to be the Milord's sister, slept in the other room. They both arose before dawn, consumed coffee and two rolls. Thanking the proprietor with a snarl, Sterne stormed onto the dusty street cursing Villiers, Lady Ginevra and Miss Granger. Why was he unable to find any trace of Miss Granger? Had Villiers killed her? Had she met with an accident? Though he was the picture of sullenness and anger, Sterne could not but be slightly palliated to learn that his godson had the decency to house Lady Ginevra in a respectable establishment in a separate room under the falsehood that she was his sister. That would at least put an end to the curious tongues of the French, mused the Marquess as he made his way past the post carriages.

Miss Granger's disappearance, however, was a more perplexing matter. A single young woman* without an abigail would not be deemed reputable. What respectable inn would house her? Given the circumstances, Sterne would not be surprised if the formidable Miss Granger took it into her head to pass herself for a vulgar trollop and secure a room in some of Calais's shabbiest public houses. Wearily, he strode into one such establishment and questioned the lady of the place whether she had rented a room the previous night answering to Miss Granger's description. The haughty woman only cackled at him; her unctuous toothless husband, on the other hand, informed his lordship that he had described the ideal abigail – a personage too high on the instep to patronise an establishment called Chez Nous. At the second such public house (if it may be called thus), which was shabbier than the first, his failure to obtain any information on Miss Granger, aggravated his temper and sulks. The third establishment, which was a little better than the second, again brought forth no information. This had the effect of rendering my Lord Sterne irritable and he decided to calm himself by re-arranging his thoughts over a good brandy. He found it remarkable that Miss Granger could be so well concealed if she had flown with Villiers. Perhaps he had wronged her by assuming that she had willingly flown with his disreputable godson. Perhaps she was really abducted. If so, Sterne vowed he would spare no pains in locating and murdering Villiers. For a moment, he contemplated informing the Duke of Mallefille of his son's actions, but soon decided against it when he recalled that the Duke was a notorious libertine before his marriage. What if Villiers really had intended to wed Miss Granger? He would have sent her post haste to l'Hôtel Mallefille where the Duke resided with his unmarried eldest sister – that would have been most proper and Lady Ginevra could act as a witness and chaperone. It was an ingenious plan. Sterne paused in mid-thought; it was too elegant a solution to be considered by a Malfoy. Whether Villiers abducted Miss Granger or was eloping with her was immaterial. Sterne curled his lips into a grim sneer. It would appear that either way, he would kill that young man. Tossing a few small coins on the table, he was preparing to leave when his attention was arrested by a few young ruffians who were cursing their luck in French.

"Fiend seize it, I should not have thought that a little page could have cut me eye so roughly," complained the first rustic, who had the distinguishing mark of an eye patch over his left eye."

"Bah!" commented his portly companion. "The English are all mad sans doute. The little creature scurried away before we could steal from it."

The assembled ruffians laughed at their misfortune as they toasted the page who had eluded them.

"Fancy an English Marquis forgetting something that was carried by this boy."

"Mad English!" cried the third ruffian. "But you must say, he does look as pretty as a girl."

"Nah. Too much gumption to be a girl, with that shock of frizzy hair! Ha! Ha! You think the little brown eyed thing is now at the Rayon Noir with his Milord?"

"We could try the stables later and attempt to rob him for giving me my bad eye," suggested the first hooligan with the eye patch.

"A bloody nose, was all I got," said the second. "Who would have thought he would have been a wizard."

"I bet the green and silver dragon embroidered livery would have found a good price too," said the third.

This curious conversation put Lord Sterne at ease as he mentally berated himself. How could he have been so stupid! He had been seeking a young lady when Miss Granger was dressed as page – a stroke of genius on her part. The more he thought on it, the clearer it became to him that the Malfoys were the only English house in Europe that dressed its servants so ostentatiously. Then, he frowned imperceptibly. Was Villiers treating her so shabbily that she had to run after him? Had he been mistaken in his assessment of this matter, Sterne silently asked himself as he stepped out into the streets. Could it be that Miss Granger's note to her father was the truth? Was she really in pursuit of Villiers? If so, why did she beg her father not to worry for her reputation or safety? While he knew that Villiers could behave when he chose, what lady would be considered respectable if a day was spent in his company without a chaperone?

"Ha!" Sterne exclaimed to himself with a grim curling of his lips and furrowed brow. Undoubtedly, Villiers had compromised Miss Granger's reputation and she wanted him to make amends. But Villiers, being the scoundrel that he was, wanted to marry Lady Ginevra. If this were the case, Sterne mused, he did not blame Miss Granger for wishing to remand Villiers and demand that he do right by her. By Jove, Sterne thought with his white clenched fists, he would kill Villiers if this hypothesis was true! As he was about to enquire about for the rates of the diligence** to Paris, he suddenly recalled that the innkeeper at the Rayon Noir had informed him earlier that the English Milord and his sister left by the pre-dawn diligence. Mentally calculating all the stops the coach would have to make for alighting and boarding passengers as well as posts where the horses could be changed, the couple would arrive at the Rayon Elegante outside the Argenteuil by four o'clock in the afternoon. He quickly consulted his pocket watch and saw that it was an hour to four. If he Apparated to the outskirts of Paris where the Rayon Elegante was, he would be in time to meet them. Thus, Lord Sterne Apparated to the Paris suburbs.

The Rayon Elegante had a very well kept appearance and Sterne made free to bespeak of a private parlour where he could rest. Towards half past three when a rattle of hooves brought his gaze to the window, he saw a page wearing the Malfoy livery dismounting a handsome grey horse. With his door slightly ajar, Sterne heard Miss Granger's familiar voice requesting the innkeeper in perfect French to prepare a private parlour for the Marquis she served. He smirked and traced his lips in thought as he overheard he instructing one of the bar wenches to show the English Milord and his sister to the private parlour which she had secured so as to enable her to wait on them. At four o'clock exactly, Sterne's private ruminations were justified. The loud sounds of clattering hooves and carriage wheels announced the arrival of the diligence. Growing paler with mild excitement at what he was about to do, he waited till he heard the innkeeper welcoming Villiers and Lady Ginevra in an unctuous manner. Sterne smirked at his godson's astonished utterance of "Vraiment" when told that his servant had arrived before him and was waiting for him in the largest public parlour in the back. After another gasp of astonishment, this time from the lady, the newly arrived travellers made haste down the passage and into the parlour.

Sterne counted to ten before springing into the parlour, which was a door from his. Gripping the handle of the door firmly, he twisted it with great force and stepped into the room. His unwavering gaze swept the room and came to rest on Miss Granger grasping her friends' hands with a look of delight and relief.

"Good day, Miss Ganger," he purred said quietly, clenching and unclenching his fists.

She pointedly cast him an indignant glare and as she did so, Sterne noted that she looked very well in the livery of a Malfoy page. The three-cornered hat that she had worn undoubtedly concealed her neatly tied hair. That same hat had now been carelessly discarded on the arrival of her friends lay on the table.

"You could not have escaped me so easily," Miss Granger told Villiers and Lady Ginevra.

"So, Villiers did not abduct you?" Sterne strode forward, glaring at everyone present.

Miss Granger replied in a voice of icy politeness, "Have the goodness to think more of my faculties, my lord."

"And if it pleases you," added Villiers indignantly, "do not doubt my intentions."

"Indeed, my lord, I'm sure Hermione has a very good reason for following us," said Lady Ginevra.

"Following?" laughed Miss Granger. "I came after you with the special licence."

"We do not need that in Paris. The Embassy will settle it all for us and Father will throw us a rout party at Hôtel Mallefille."

Rolling her eyes and suppressing the urge to hit her friend at the back of his head, she said, "Oh, but it will help grease the machinery of the bureaucracy, Villiers. It is a necessary advantage even if the English ambassador is your cousin, Nymphadora Tonks."

"Cousin Nymphadora always helps those in distress," Villiers reminded Miss Granger in a teasing tone.

"What is all this?" thundered Sterne, twisting and untwisting his gloves.

"Isn't it obvious?" mocked Miss Granger, glaring at him.

"I see plainly that you have used Miss Granger abominably. You clearly have no intention of wedding Lady Ginevra. Cad! Cur! How dare you ruin a lady of Miss Granger's stamp!" Sterne murderously approached Villiers in a quick stride. The young man struggled to draw his wand from his pocket. However, the weapon did not show itself, for Sterne's deathly white hand tightly grasped his godson's throat. "You bloody rascal! How dare you use her in such a fashion!" he snarled through his clenched imperfect teeth.

Miss Granger calmly rolled her eyes at the two men struggling with each other and moved forward to put an end to the violence. That gesture was obviated by a tearful scream from Lady Ginevra who attempted to unfasten Lord Sterne's hand from her intended's throat. Miss Granger, being the sensible person that she was, withdrew her wand. "Move away from them, Ginny!" she coolly instructed and delivered a stinging hex to the hand at Villiers' neck.

Lady Ginevra, who did not pay any heed to her friend's warning, was also a victim of the hex.

Sterne was silently impressed with Miss Granger's mettle and her ability to instantly sober him. He narrowed his eyes and glowered dangerously a staggering and choking Villiers. Lady Ginevra instantly flew to his side and cried, "Villiers, my darling, are you all right? Are you hurt?"

Instead of answering his lady, he hotly demanded, "Shall it be wands then?"

"Incorrigible swine! I'll kill you for dishonouring Miss Granger's name."

"No!" cried Lady Ginevra, tugging at Miss Granger's sleeve. "Please be calm! It's all a misunderstanding. No one's honour was injured!"

"Be rational, Lord Sterne!" snapped Miss Granger waspishly. "Do you really want more blood on your hands?"

"This one does not count," sneered his lordship silkily. "It's for another's honour."

Miss Granger put herself between the two men as they withdrew they drew out their wands. "You are being illogical, my Lord. This has gone on far enough. Please listen to me for a moment and all will be put to right."

"Do you still defend him?" demanded Sterne, paling further with rage.

"I defend him from you. Whatever injury he has done you through me (imagined or otherwise) is nothing but a figment of your overwrought imagination. I apologise for any undue stress we have unwittingly given you," she said coldly.

"Stay out of this, Miss Granger," interjected Villiers quickly. "Nothing you can say will deter me from fighting Lord Sterne. Hold your peace. I will defend your honour yet, my friend, against the scandals this beast laid at your door."

After bowing to each other and levelling their wands at each other, Miss Granger and Lady Ginevra issued a joint order through their wands to disarm the gentlemen. "Shame on you both! I am leaving! Ginny, if you will join me," Miss Granger announced, tossing the gentlemen's wands to the table. As she put on her hat, she continued, "If you wish to kill each other when we leave, by all means, feel free to do so. But I counsel you to talk it over."

Leaving the men staring after them in complete shock, the ladies departed from the Rayon Elegante's largest private parlour arm-in-arm.

Footnotes:

Readers, you will notice that the title of the chapter contains the name of flowers/plants. This is significant to understanding the plot. While some of you may be familiar with the language of flowers, I beg you to allow for differences in interpretation. Some flowers/plants have one meaning during the time of the Regency and another during the Victorian era. My guess is that those of you familiar with this language are acquainted with the Victorian interpretation rather than the Regency one.

Naturally, there is also a deeper meaning beyond that of the flowers. What it is – I leave it to you to uncover.

(1) If you present someone with a gift of Japanese lilies (yes, collectively – they have no meaning on their own) you are telling him/her, "You cannot deceive me."

View it here http://www.city.uozu.toyama.jp/en/cstl/jpg/p02.jpg and http://www.campbellsnursery.com/Handouts/Images/lily_japanese.gif. I know some of you have been asking me as to what "Lily" means. The thing is – lily on its own has no meaning, you must accompany it with an adjective or sub-species. The first lily known to western civilization was the Madonna lily (Lilium candidum). According to the Time-Life Encyclopedia of Gardening – Bulbs by James Underwood Crockett (1971), ".....it is mentioned in history for the first time on a tablet that was inscribed in Sumeria nearly 5,000 years ago. The tablet tells of a city in Persia that was surrounded by fields of lilies and in fact was named Susa, which means lily. Some scholars believe the lily spread from Persia in the caravans of nomads who took edible bulbs along as food for their long journeys; occasionally they would drop one, according to this theory, and it would take root and grow where it fell." However, an ex-beau of mine who is an expert on Sumerian and Mesopotamian history informs me that susa does not mean lily. However, what is certain is that bas-reliefs of this white-flowered species have been found from Ninevah of 700 BC. The Madonna lily also received great respect from the Minoans, who portrayed it on frescoes and pottery in 1800 BC Crete. They associated it with their goddess Britomartis. The "lilies of the field" mentioned in the Bible are now thought by most experts to have been anemones, not lilies. Narcissus and lilies were used in the funeral wreaths of ancient Egypt, and a bulb of it had been entombed with an Egyptian mummy (though Scheider doesn't mention which mummy).

Our word, lily, was derived from the Latin word for this plant, lilium, which was in turn derived from the Greek word for it, leirion. The Greeks held this lily in such high esteem that they associate it with their queen of the gods, Hera, and in their mythology, tell that it first sprouted from milk of Hera. They used crocus, lilies, and hyacinths in ceremonial crowns as far back as 380 BC, and Theophrastus (the Father of Botany) wrote of them just before the third century BC. As with so many other things, the Romans adopted the Greek respect for the Madonna Lily. They associated it with their queen of the gods. Their soldiers took it with them as not only food, but also making a salve for wounds and an ointment for burns from the bulbs. In this way, this lily was even introduced as far away as England. Not only was the burn ointment used till fairly recent times, European beauties, as late as the 19th century AD fought off old age with a salve prepared as Dioscorides (41-68 AD) suggested, "being beaten small with honey......clear faces and make them without wrinkles." Yet another of Dioscorides lotions required much more work. This one required 3,000 lilies to make a single batch. This lily also made several appearances in the poems of Virgil (70-19 BC).

In Christian times, respect for this flower was carried even through the change of religions. It was grown in Charlemagne's garden in the ninth century and even into the 15th and early 16th centuries, when paintings of the Angel who had always been portrayed holding a sceptre, now was portrayed holding a white lily. It was a symbol of the Virgin's purity and her role as Queen of the Angels.

Because the introduction of Chinese and Japanese lily species to our society came during much more recent times, there is much more knowledge that survives about it. Japanese lilies were first introduced to the West by pictures from Engelbert Kaempfer in about 1690. These pictures included L. lancifolium, L. speciosum, and L. concolor, but they weren't published till 1791. The next botanist in Japan was Carl Thunberg in 1775. He collected many bulbs and may have brought some lilies back with him. The bulbs of L. lancifolium, davidii, japonicum and the Gold-Band Lily (L. auratum), have been in the diets of Japanese, Koreans and Chinese for over 2,000 years. Seriously, we don't eat the flowers, we cultivate a certain type of lily, dry it and boil it into a tea. I believed it can be used to help the complexion and reduce pimples on oily skin.

(2) The French, in those days, called visiting English noblemen "Milord".

(3) I anticipate that some readers will ask, "Why didn't Thickey tell Severus that a pageboy had gone through the apparation point at 1 am?" The answer is very simple. Severus was asking for a lady. Thickey really did not know that the page was Hermione in disguise. To his mind, a lad had gone through, not a lady. If Severus had phrased his question more generally, perhaps, he would have found it out and pieced two and two together.

* (4) In the context of this chapter and story, "a single young woman" refers to a lone woman, not an unmarried one. An unmarried woman is simply called a maiden, maid.

(5) Ape-leader is Regency slang for an old spinster or an old maid. Once you had gone through 4 to 5 Seasons and still remained unmarried, you were deemed an ape-leader. In those days, they had their first Season at 16 or 18, depending on the young lady's rank, fortune, family, Father's desire to launch her, ability to find a suitable sponsor for the Season, state of her education and so on. Why were old spinsters/old maids called ape-leaders? It was believed and widely preached in church by the hellfire-and-damnation pastors that women who did not marry would be punished after death. Their punishment after death for failing to procreate would be to lead apes in hell.

(6) "High on the instep" is Regency slang for someone who is very haughty or proud.

** (7) The 'diligence' the French name for the mail coach cum stage coach.

(8) It is intimated in this chapter that the most luxurious and expensive of all the inns at Calais is the Rayon Noir. This establishment is entirely fictitious.

(9) When I say "abigail" here, I mean lady's maid. In this case, the term is always spelt with a lower case 'a'. The task of such a person was to dress her mistress, style her hair and chaperone her mistress around town or in company. A lady would always call her abigail by her last name/surname only. This is the etiquette and I have kept to it. Ironically, the title and the name "Abigail" is Hebrew for "father rejoiced" – why is this ironic? Think about it

(10) The Rayon Elegante (a fictitious establishment) is placed in the outskirts of Argenteuil. Argenteuil was founded as a convent in the 7th century (the monastery and convent there is most famous for being the place that Heloise sought refuge in). It's in the famous Pierre Abelard and Heloise story. Those unaquainted with the story, perpend –

Living within the precincts of Notre-Dame, under the care of her uncle, the canon, Fulbert, was a girl named Heloise, of noble birth, and born about 1101. She is said to have been beautiful, but still more remarkable for her knowledge, which extended beyond Latin, it is said, to Greek and Hebrew. Abélard fell in love with her; and he sought and gained a place in Fulbert's house. Becoming tutor to the girl, he used his power for the purpose of seduction, and she returned his devotion. Their relations interfered with his public work, and were not kept a secret by Abélard himself. Soon everyone knew except the trusting Fulbert. When he found out, they were separated, only to meet in secret. Heloise became pregnant, and was carried off by her lover to Brittany, where she gave birth to a son. To appease her furious uncle, Abélard proposed a secret marriage, in order not to mar his prospects of advancement in the church; but Heloise opposed the idea. She appealed to him not to sacrifice for her the independence of his life, but reluctantly gave in to pressure. The secret of the marriage was not kept by Fulbert; and when Heloise boldly denied it, life was made so difficult for her that she sought refuge in the convent of Argenteuil at Abélard's bidding. Immediately Fulbert, believing that her husband, who had helped her run away, wanted to be rid of her, plotted revenge. He and some others broke into Abélard's chamber by night, and castrated him. The priesthood and ecclesiastical office were canonically closed to him. Heloise, not yet twenty, consummated her work of self-sacrifice at Abélard's jealous bidding that she never again shared romantic love with a man, and became a nun.