Chapter 116
<116> Working Women (2)
The next day, Laura had breakfast with the two ladies. While Miss Rotis read the newspaper and smoked a cheroot, Laura was led by Miss Hyde to look around the room the two ladies used.
Miss Rotis's room had doors that slid open to either side. Grabbing the golden handle and sliding it open, the scene of a room filled with dark tones was revealed. A large bed adorned with red damask fabric and black velvet, copper candlesticks, a desk made of the finest oak, and Ukiyo-e Prints hanging all over the walls.
Admiring the mysterious scenery, Laura's gaze stopped at one point.
And she let out a scream that was by no means small.
"Oh my, I should have told you in advance! I'm sorry, Miss Pendleton."
Miss Hyde, realizing what had startled Miss Pendleton, quickly apologized. But Laura was in no state to reply. She was so terrified that her tongue had stiffened to the root.
Instead of curtains, a large lion skin was hung on the large glass door leading to the veranda. Its four legs were spread wide to the sides, and its muzzle was wide open.
The mane was as glossy as that of a living animal, and the teeth gleamed sharply as if they were about to sever the windpipe of a freshly hunted deer.
"Th-that, what is that... It's fake, right? Right?"
"It's real. Miss Rotis hunted it herself in Africa and skinned it."
"She hunted it herself?"
"Yes. Miss Rotis is an excellent marksman and is especially skilled at hunting large animals. There isn't an animal she hasn't caught, whether it's a buffalo, a leopard, or an elephant. Not to mention she skinned them all herself. But it's too much to travel with all of them, so she gave all but her favorite lion skin as gifts to those around her."
It was hard to imagine. Miss Rotis was petite and limped on one leg. That such a woman had caught a buffalo?
Miss Hyde took Laura's hand and walked towards the lion skin. Then, she reached out and stroked its head as if it were a beloved shepherd.
"There's nothing to be afraid of. Look, it's perfectly dead."
Certainly, the lion did not react to Miss Hyde's touch. But for Laura, it didn't matter whether it was dead or alive.
Laura had been afraid of large animals since she was a child. That was why she had not learned horseback riding, a common hobby for ladies.
"Ah, I wish I could catch a lion too..."
Miss Hyde muttered a wish that Laura could never empathize with.
Come to think of it, Miss Hyde was first-rate at horseback riding. During the fox hunting season, she sometimes carried a gun and roamed the hunting grounds with her brother. Mr. Fairfax was so smitten with that sight that he followed her around for months.
"Miss Rotis doesn't have any plans to go to Africa again, does she? I'm sure she would guide Miss Hyde to where the lions are."
"She won't be going to Africa anymore. She was there for a very long time. Her next destination will probably be Japan."
There was a hint of anticipation in Miss Hyde's voice.
"Is Miss Hyde going with her?"
"Yes. Unless Miss Rotis fires me."
The two then looked around Miss Hyde's room. It was as large and charming as Miss Rotis's room.
As Laura looked around the room, she suddenly noticed the piles of paper scattered on the desk. On the paper, with messy ink marks, were Miss Hyde's characteristically lively letters.
Miss Hyde, noticing Laura's gaze on the paper, quickly stood between the desk and Laura.
"Is that a diary?"
Miss Hyde shook her head, her face flushed red.
"...It's a novel."
Laura was startled.
"Miss Hyde, you're writing a novel?"
"Actually, I started writing it little by little when I started boarding. I started working on it in earnest when I came here..."
"Can I read it?"
"No!"
Miss Hyde shook her head wildly.
"Later, when it's more complete, I'll show it to you then."
With that, Miss Hyde turned to the desk and quickly began to organize the manuscript.
Laura didn't ask any further. Miss Hyde's ears had turned as red as hot coals.
Instead, Laura slowly looked around the room while she organized the manuscript, lost in thought.
She recalled Miss Hyde's boarding house, where she had been indebted a few months ago. It was practical and clean, perfect for a lady living alone, but it was shabby compared to the hotel room she was staying in now.
Miss Hyde had bravely escaped the cramped room of the Townhouse. And she was staying in a room in such a beautiful hotel, passing through the ladies' boarding houses in the bedroom town. And with each change of room, she got closer to the work she wanted.
Laura was touched by Miss Hyde's steady growth.
It was true that she had helped at the starting point. But it was Miss Hyde who made the decisions and carried them out. Laura thought that her growth had only just begun. She would stretch out further.
Like the Stone skipping Miss Hyde had thrown into the river someday, far, far beyond the horizon.
The ladies headed to a French restaurant at noon.
The reserved table was for two, but adding one more wouldn't make the place setting too crowded. The waiter brought another chair, and Laura naturally sat between Miss Hyde and Miss Rotis.
"I was surprised to see the lion skin in Miss Rotis's room. You caught it yourself?"
Laura asked while waiting for the ordered dishes to come out.
Miss Rotis, who had hung her cane on the side of the chair and was sipping the wine she had ordered in advance, nodded.
"It was the fourth year I went to Africa. I was feeling disturbed, so it was a change of pace."
"Did something bad happen around that time?"
Miss Rotis chuckled.
"It was right after the coffee farm I was running burned down and ruined all the land. It was a complete bankruptcy."
Laura looked at Miss Hyde in surprise. Miss Hyde smiled wryly as if she already knew the story and gestured towards Miss Rotis as if to tell her to continue listening.
"I received 200,000 pounds as the sole heir of my great-aunt when I was 18 years old. Everyone around me believed without a doubt that I would use that money to jump into London society and hunt for a husband. No one imagined that I would board a ship to Africa, leaning on a cane and limping."
"But, Miss Rotis did it."
Miss Hyde added.
"Yes, I did. I grew coffee there and shot beasts in the real wilderness during the off-season, not in some cute hunting ground for hunting in England. I had never felt so alive as I did then. If I had stayed put on the farm, blaming my leg, I would have become a wreck after the bankruptcy."
Miss Rotis continued calmly.
"I hung the skins of the beasts I had caught myself in my lodgings. When I saw them, I could believe in my strength. I had failed as a farmer, but my life was not a failure. So I started writing. At first, I wrote about coffee farming methods, but it was a mediocre result and the publisher rejected it. But a travelogue that wove together the stories I experienced while traveling around Africa was accepted, and it became a bestseller in England as soon as it was published."
Laura was impressed.
"That's amazing. So? Did you decide to become a travel writer after that?"
"Yes. I traveled around Egypt, India, and Qing China, writing non-stop. In a carriage, on a ship, sometimes on a camel. Ruining the farm was lucky for me. Africa is a fascinating land, but a farmer is not as free as a travel writer. I finally got the life I had vaguely hoped for when I left for Africa by becoming a travel writer."
The ordered scallop dish, veal roast, and shrimp dish came out.
Laura couldn't taste the food even while eating. Her head was so dazed by the amazing adventure story she had just heard that even her sense of taste had become blurred.
"Is it not to your liking?"
Miss Hyde asked. Laura shook her head and turned her gaze back to Miss Rotis.
"You've lived a great life, Miss Rotis."
"And a dangerous one. I almost died several times."
"How so?"
"There was a time when the ship almost sank in a typhoon, and I also encountered a gang of thieves in Egypt. Qing China was right after the war with France, so they tried to kill anyone who looked like a Westerner. I carried a gun with me throughout the trip. Even when I slept."
She chuckled.
"I like that you don't need to carry a gun for survival in England. The rest of it isn't that great compared to other countries, though."
Miss Rotis said that much and concentrated on her meal. The ordered veal seemed to suit her taste. Laura didn't want to disturb her meal, so she concentrated on her shrimp dish.
They parted ways in front of the restaurant after the meal. Miss Rotis was scheduled to have tea with a publisher staying in Bath at 2 p.m. Her secretary, Miss Hyde, had to accompany her. The two took a chartered carriage.
Miss Rotis, sitting in the carriage seat with her arm casually and attractively draped over the car window, smiled at Miss Pendleton.
"Enjoy Bath to the fullest, Miss Pendleton."
Miss Hyde, sitting next to Miss Rotis, leaned her face towards the window.
"Everything a person wants is here!"
Laura smiled bashfully.
"Goodness. This place must be heaven. Does it also have the peace and stability I've always wanted?"
"If you look hard enough!"
The carriage moved away from Miss Pendleton.
Laura began to walk the streets of Bath for a stroll.
16th-century marble buildings, a fountain in the center of the intersection, shop windows displaying goods as beautifully as paintings, and gentlemen and ladies who were faithful to the latest fashion. Laura walked among them, thinking that Bath was definitely a city that took people's souls away.
But Laura couldn't shake the feeling that she was like oil on water, as she had been in London society. Peace and stability. It didn't seem like such things would be in this luxury resort city. Maybe in the forests of Dunville Park and Whitefield.
Laura's mind wandered away from the uninteresting street scenery and recalled the lunch she had just had.
Laura had never met a woman like Miss Rotis. Such a brave and enterprising woman. She must have been born with a flame in her heart.
Mary Rotis was a person born with an extraordinary destiny that expanded the possibilities of women and inspired life.
'Unlike me.'
Laura thought with a calm heart, without any particular self-pity.
