The Swiss Finishing School

“Who is Lottie?”, asks Jessica.

The question catches me on the hop but it explains her previous utterance requesting that I should tell all about Elizabeth.

It was nothing to do with telepathy or mind reading but the discovery by my niece of the old letter of condolences that Lottie had sent me at the time of Elizabeth's accidental death which I had kept all these years but carelessly left in a book I was reading.

I know that I have some explaining to do but am in a quandary as to how much I ought to reveal bearing in mind the possible emotional effect on Jessica.

To play as I go along is perhaps the best tactic and I start to tell her how I met Elizabeth.

“She came from an aristocratic family and had recently returned from a finishing school in Switzerland, the renowned Château Mont-Choisi in Lausanne”.

I stop for a few moments, collecting my thoughts. There was a time when I would have lit a cigarette to give me some thinking time but not now, having given up the habit for the sake of a healthier living.

“It was at a birthday party of a mutual friend when our paths crossed and it was the inevitable coup de foudre.”

“How romantic”, sighs Jessica.

“Yes, but very much frowned upon by her parents, I am afraid. A young girl of eighteen years of age becoming involved with a man twice her age and, what's more, her social inferior.”

“But you were rich and of independent means!”, Jessica interrupts.

“Not then, my darling, that came later through my inheritance.”.

I am afraid that if I mention Lottie in great details I'm bound to open a Pandora box, so I decide to be prudent and keep the disclosure to the minimum. There will be other occasions to elucidate.

“When Elizabeth was at the Swiss finishing school she struck up a friendship with Lottie and they kept in touch. I suggested that they should have a reunion and I would have the opportunity to meet her school friend.”

Jessica is listening attentively and I go on to relate my fiancée's desire to visit the Reichenbach Falls and the traumatic experience of her tragic fall into a ravine that caused her demise.

“It was at her funeral that I met Lottie.”

At that point I say that I have a headache and would continue the conversation the following day.

I am not sure what I will say next. I will make a decision after a good night sleep. At the moment I am tempted to skirt the issue but knowing Jessica's ability to read a person's body language and the skills she has learnt working as a magician on the stage, I don't know how much I can get away with.
She gives me a suspicious look and smiling asks:

“ You are not keeping anything up your sleeve Uncle Jeremy, are you?”.

© Luigi Pagano 2020

1) https://www.abctales.com/story/luigipagano/tense-situation

2) https://www.abctales.com/story/luigipagano/treading-boards