Entanglements

1647

The next weeks went smoothly. I was able to settle into a routine with the tasks Heylwigis had given me, and Mevrouw tried her best to keep Meneer away from me.
Heylwigis told me that when Mevrouw had first come to the house as a wet nurse and maid for Titus, it had not been long before they fell in love. It was the kind of ‘love’ Heylwigis believed wasn’t love at all.
“No one can fall in love so fast after the death of such a wife,” Heylwigis said with blunt sincerity one morning.
“Oh?” I said, “How do you mean?”
Heylwigis put down the dirty dish into the bucket for washing and paused, sitting down on the small stool and thinking of her words carefully.
“Saskia was much more than a wife. Everything about her radiated what a proper woman ought to be. He treasured her, but she was given back to God. Too good for this earth,” she paused, “And then the grief took hold of him.”
Heylwigis trailed off, staring into the distance. I stopped sorting the dishes and looked to meet her gaze. She seemed to forget I was standing there —lost in thoughts of the past.
She got up from the stool and spoke again, “Men cannot fall in love so quickly after losing a treasure like that.”
“Surely his time of mourning has sufficed?”
“I believe so. But nevertheless, I do not believe that he loves her.”
Heylwigis grabbed a clean rag and began drying the washed dishes, “He keeps her as company, you know how men are. I‘m sure she would be quite ruined to hear that.”
“Oh?” I said, pretending not to know what she was getting at.
“The moment she bedded him without a marriage proposal, that was the moment she destroyed whatever reputation she had left. Without him and his money, she would be tossed to the streets.”
I nodded, gently wiping the plates with a linen rag.
“Do not think you shall take her place so quickly,” Heylwigis wagged her finger at me, “He will not commit to you.”
I grimaced, “Do you really think me that much of a whore?”
“Not of you,” she said, “But of him. I have seen the ways he looks at you. But he cannot, for if he did wed again, Titus would lose his inheritance.”
I nodded, clearing my throat, “Enough of this talk, I have work to continue.”