A Jess Bridges Mystery

Chapter 9

Jess

I tried not to worry as Michael drove away. Enjoyable as our little scene was, now I was alone and I had to carry on the make-believe as a solo act. I’d have to dial up the dumb-blondeness. My first decision was to be passive, let them take the lead in to what to do with this snivelling wreck of an assistant.

‘Take Miss Bridges into the day room, Brother,’ Father Oak told Flunky One. ‘She’s had a distressing morning. I’ll be with you in a moment.’ I saw that he wanted to have a quick look at the file I had thrown at Michael.

The hand around my shoulders steered me into a large reception room. The fireplace was dominated by two statues that supported the mantlepiece, both in the shape of devilish-looking satyrs with horns and goat legs – Mr Tumnus’s wicked twin brothers. He took me to a rose-pink sofa that had curved legs and wooden arms. It could have been a Chippendale (the furniture maker rather than the dancers).

‘Can I get you anything?’ he asked. There was a Nordic accent rumbling under his English.

‘A glass of water and a new life?’ I asked, trying for a brave smile through tears.

‘I can manage the first; maybe Father Oak can help with the second?’

He headed to the door.

‘Hey, what’s your name?’ Please make it Sven.

‘Brother Pine.’

‘New names for your life here, am I right?’

He nodded.

‘Then I’d be Sister Weeping Willow or something?’ I gestured to my tissue. ‘Sorry, I’ll pull myself together. It’s just that I thought … oh, it doesn’t matter what I thought. All men are bastards. Present company excepted.’

Father Oak appeared in the doorway. ‘I’m relieved to hear that.’

‘Oh!’ I made it a little embarrassed squeak. Was that too much?

‘Leave us, Brother. I want to have a word with Miss Bridges in private.’

Apparently not.

‘Of course, Father.’ And just like that, mission to fetch me water cancelled, the Nordic pine walked out.

‘Miss Bridges—’ Oak took the seat next to me.

‘Jessica. Please call me Jessica.’

He smiled patiently, like you do to a child who spoke out of turn. ‘Miss Bridges, how may I help you?’

‘I … I don’t suppose you have someone who could run me back to Oxford?’

‘You have somewhere to go?’

‘I … er … I suppose not. You see, I was living with Michael … Dr Harrison, I mean. I guess that’s at an end too?’

‘It does seem that way. I was impressed, though, that you appeared to understand our way of life far better than the good doctor.’

‘He’s not good. He’s mean!’

Oak chuckled indulgently. I wondered how he didn’t see right through me. Did men really buy this big-cupsize-means-small-intelligence thing? I adjusted my best assets to bring them more to his attention. My shirt was unbuttoned to the point where he was getting quite an eyeful.

‘You may feel like that now, but you’ll see, if you stay with us, that Dr Harrison acts like that because he’s trapped in an old and corrupt way of seeing the world.’

‘I … I can stay with you?’ I acted as if he was offering me the last lifebelt on a sinking ship.

‘I usually sense within seconds of meeting someone whether they are meant to be here. I felt that about you. You might like to experience our novice programme, to see if it would suit you.’

‘Novice programme?’ Yes, Father Oak, I’m just a parrot without a crafty thought in my head.

‘It means you would live as part of the community. You would take the first level of vows but you’d be free to walk away at any time if it doesn’t work out for you.’

‘And how long does this novice programme last?’ I bit my lip.

‘As long as you feel you need it. Some move on to the second level after three months; some take a year. If you aren’t ready to move on after twelve months, I normally suggest that you aren’t on the right path and we part ways amicably.’

I hung my head. ‘I don’t feel like I’ve ever been on the right path. I can’t see the way forward no matter how hard I try.’ This was pretty much the truth about my life, actually.

He placed a hand on my bent head. ‘Child, you sound so lost. Let me help you.’

‘Oh, I am lost, so lost.’ I hiccupped a little, hiding my dry eyes in the fall of my hair.

He gathered me to his chest. ‘Not anymore. Jessica, you’ll find that all of us first arrive here like you have: confused, without purpose, lonely. Here you’ll find acceptance, friends, and a purpose. Will you try us?’

‘Oh yes. Please let me try.’

‘Good girl.’ He patted my back. ‘So, do you still want me to find you that lift back to Oxford?’ He chucked me under the chin.

‘Oh no, sir.’

That made him smile. Yes, you slime ball, I’m pressing your dominator button and you like it. ‘Not “sir”. Father Oak. And I’ll give you a new name for your novitiate: Sister Poppy – that one is available.’

Ugh. ‘Oh wow. Thank you, sir. I mean … Father Oak.’

‘Sister Ivy is in charge of our novices. She’ll see to you and explain the rules. I take it you’ve read our profile on the website so you understand our basic beliefs?’

‘You believe in Mother Earth and Father Sky, not literally as gods but as an expression of the balance we should seek in our inner being.’ I repeated it like a student who had swotted for her homework assignment. ‘You believe that the old ways of the people who once lived in harmony with nature, worshipping in groves and by springs rather than shut up in buildings, that these can teach us how to find a new way of relating to the world.’

‘Good. I see you’ve already absorbed many of the key ideas. In addition to these beliefs, we live in community, sharing our goods, not dressing to distinguish ourselves from one another but to create a sense of family. As a novice, you won’t be asked to sign over your personal wealth—’

I laughed. ‘Just as well. I’m afraid I only have debts.’

He smiled indulgently. ‘Even so, we won’t take the small things that mean so much to a person, such as jewellery or photos, but we do ask you to surrender your phone. This is as much for your own health as it is for the community.’

I had to think quickly. ‘Oh. But I left it in Dr Harrison’s car. That was silly of me!’ And it really wasn’t sitting in my handbag. No, sir.

‘Then that won’t be a problem. A clean break with the outside world, that is what we practise here.’

A willowy woman appeared in the doorway. ‘Father Oak?’

‘Ah. Sister Ivy, perfect timing. Poppy here is ready to be initiated into first order vows and to change.’ He turned back to me and kissed me on the brow in what was a very chaste manner. I was beginning to think that this particular sex cult leader was not that into me. ‘I’ll see you at dinner, Poppy.’ He got up and glided out.

There was a small pause as we both admired his impressive butt exiting the room.

‘This is all very sudden and unexpected,’ I began, shaking my head in disbelief.

‘It can be overwhelming at first, but you’ll soon adjust.’ Ivy smiled benignly, giving me something of a Stepford Wife thrill. ‘Please, come with me.’

‘Can you show me the loo first? I’m busting.’ I needed a moment to remove my phone and stick it down my bra.

‘There’s one in the changing room where I’m taking you. We encourage newcomers to bathe or shower to signal they are passing from one life to another.’

‘Like a baptism?’

She wrinkled her nose at the Christian reference. ‘A little, I suppose.’

Finding Lisette was going to be harder than I had imagined if we were all going around with new names dropped on us at random by Father Oak. ‘How long have you been here, Ivy?’

‘I was the first.’ That explained the Stepford glint in her eye. ‘I came with the Father when he moved here three years ago. We were in Yorkshire before then.’

That was too long ago and the woman looked a decade too old for Lisette. Still, she might be a good source. ‘Why the move?’ I picked up my sparkly handbag from where it had fallen by the sofa.

‘The Father felt called here.’ She gestured through the big windows to the Downs with their magnificent White Horse. ‘The energy is very special in this place.’

‘Oh yes, I can feel it too.’ We crossed the hallway and went down a passageway to the part that once would’ve been servants’ quarters. The paintwork was utilitarian green and the floor was flagstones. At the very end she opened a door onto a communal changing room.

‘Please take off all your old things and leave them on the bench. Keep only the essentials from your bag: prescription medicine, glasses if you wear them, that kind of thing …’

‘Cigarettes?’ I asked but I feared I knew the answer.

She crossed her hands primly in front of her. ‘We would ask you to refrain from smoking while part of our community. We don’t pollute our bodies.’ She had the manner of an air hostess, calm and unflappable.

So I was about to go cold turkey from cigarettes far faster than I’d expected. Maybe that was just as well as a slow giving up wasn’t really my style and I had been wanting to kick the habit. ‘OK. I’ll try my best.’

Apparently, I was not fervent enough. ‘I’m afraid we have punishments for infractions.’

And, just like that, my head went to a very kinky place. ‘Really? What kind?’

‘Extra kitchen duties, that kind of thing.’

‘Oh.’

‘You sound disappointed.’ Was that a hint of humour?

‘I don’t mean to— I’m just feeling my way, so to speak.’

She went to a locker and took out a set of folded clothes. ‘These are for you. While here, we wear nothing belonging to the outside world. We make our own clothes.’

And the dressmaker had only one pattern: sack.

‘How … er … inspiring. Wait, everything? Underwear included?’

She nodded. ‘There’s no point just making a superficial change, is there?’

I disagreed entirely as that was the reason I was here, but I was only thirty minutes into this undercover operation; I couldn’t blow it on an argument about knickers. ‘Right. Let’s get this done.’

I was relieved that she left me to shower, promising to return in ten minutes. I quickly stripped, got wet without much application of soap, just enough to convince her I’d washed away the old life. I towelled dry and quickly sorted through the new clothes. The underpants were closer to what my great-grandmother had worn: drawstring bloomers. Were they having a laugh? They presented a problem as the phone wouldn’t stay tucked in there. Why did designers make modern phones so big and heavy? I could have done with one of those little folding designs from the early 2000s. I rooted through the rest of the clothes. Hang on a minute: no bra, just a tank top. My girls were going to be bouncing about unfettered. That was not as fun as it sounded. Without proper support, my back ached after a very short time and it was bloody painful to run or do anything physical without a sports bra. I didn’t have time to work out a solution so I finished with the final layer: the sack dress. It fell to an unattractive knee length that reminded me of my school uniform. I remembered that Ivy had hers to the ankle. Maybe that was a novice thing? The skirts got longer, the longer you were here?

Nothing else for it. I tied the rope waistband tight and dropped the phone and charger down so it sat in the hollow by my hip, bound by the rope. I was going to have to find a better hiding place at the first opportunity as they were likely to drop right through when I walked.

I was just folding my clothes in a neat pile when Ivy returned. She beamed at me.

‘Well done. So many people try to keep their old underwear and I see you’ve understood the necessity to put on a complete new skin.’

I folded my arms. ‘I’m pretty big up top. Do you make anything for that?’ Ivy, I noted, was flat-chested like a ballerina.

‘Sister Foxglove has a similar figure. She binds her breasts with cloth and swears it is as good as any bra.’ Oh yeah? ‘I can supply you with some for tomorrow but I’ll need to get permission from Father Oak.’

And that was not creepy? ‘Thank you. I wouldn’t want to break the rules so soon.’

‘Excellent. Take a seat and I’ll explain what’s expected of you as a novice.’

I took a seat obediently on a bench, feeling like I was back in school and the nice games mistress was going to explain exactly why we all needed to go on a hearty cross-country run in the rain, rather than shelter sensibly indoors.

‘Novices sleep in a dormitory and unless called away to another work party, you’ll spend most of your time with them.’

‘How many of us are there?’

‘Now? Just two men and two other women. There have been a recent wave of vacancies as novices have moved on.’

‘OK.’ I wanted to ask if the genders shared the same dormitory but I supposed I’d find out.

‘We have a series of bells in the manor. We rise at five-thirty.’

‘Oh goody.’

She actually smiled at my tone. Maybe I was getting through to her? ‘You’ll find you get used to it quickly. We have an hour of meditation, six until seven; breakfast; then morning work until the noon meal. Afternoon work or recreation carries on until five when we have another hour of meditation. Dinner is at six-thirty. We go to bed at ten unless we have a special celebration or starlight ceremony.’

‘I like the sound of that.’

‘Unfortunately, there aren’t any planned this week but maybe soon. There’s been a loss locally and we feel we should cleanse the site once it has reopened to the public.’

She must have meant the murder up on the White Horse. ‘Are you talking about that poor girl who was dumped up on the hill?’

She gave me a sharp look. ‘That was a tragedy. But nothing to do with us.’

I couldn’t afford for her to get suspicious on day one. She might think I was some kind of undercover reporter after juicy details on the murder. ‘Cleansing ceremony … that sounds wonderful. Anything else I need to know?’

‘So much, but I won’t load you down right now. There are some basic house rules that you need to know from the start. I’ve already mentioned no smoking, but we also don’t drink alcohol, we eat mainly what we grow, and sexual relations between community members are banned.’

That was unexpected. ‘You don’t have sex?’

‘Not with other members of the community. Father Oak rightly teaches that it breaks apart the bonds of fellowship to seek this from each other.’

‘But you don’t leave either?’

‘That’s right. You thought we were into free love?’

‘I guess I hoped you were,’ I said with a wry smile.

She squeezed my knee a little too hard. ‘You’ll understand soon why this is the right way for us. It is all part of our philosophy.’

I’d been expecting a sex-crazed cult and I’d got myself a bunch of nuns and monks. I’d better find Lisette quickly and get out of here before I did something terrible and proved I was not a suitable recruit. ‘Great. So where first?’

‘I think I’d better show you to your room so you can meet your fellow novices.’

Just what I wanted. I was hoping that Lisette was one of the other two women. Otherwise this might feel like a very long visit.

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