Blue Castle (Bedtime Story) Chapter 11

Step into the quiet magic of The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery — a tender story about awakening, courage, and self-discovery. Through Valancy Stirling’s journey from fear to freedom, this session invites you to reflect on the power of living authentically and embracing joy, even in unexpected places. Let the stillness of this story remind you that it’s never too late to choose a life that feels true to your heart.

Transcript

Chapter 11 Meanwhile the dinner in its earlier stages was tracking,

Its low length along true to sterling form.

The room was chilly,

In spite of the calendar,

And Aunt Alberta had the gas locks lighted.

Everybody in the clan envied her those gas locks,

Except Valancy.

Glorious open fires blazed in every room of her blue castle,

When autumnal nights were cool.

But she would have frozen to death in it,

Before she would have committed the sacrilege of a gas lock.

Uncle Herbert made his hardy perennial joke when he helped Aunt Wedding to decode meat.

Mary,

Will you have a little lamb?

Aunt Miltred told the same old story of finding a lost ring in a turkey scrub.

Uncle Benjamin told his favorite prosey tale of how he had once chased and punished a now famous man for stealing apples.

Second cousin Jane described all her sufferings with an ulcerating tooth.

Aunt Wellington admired the pattern of Aunt Alberta's silver teaspoons and lamented the fact that one of her own had been lost.

It spoiled the set.

I could never get it matched.

And it was my wedding present from dear old Aunt Matilda.

Aunt Isabel thought the seasons were changing and couldn't imagine what had become of our good old-fashioned springs.

Cousin Georgiana,

As usual,

Discussed the last funeral and wondered audibly which of us will be the next to pass away.

Cousin Georgiana could never say anything as blunt as die.

Valancy thought she could tell her,

But didn't.

Cousin Gladys,

Likewise as usual,

Had a grievance.

Her visiting nephews had nipped all the butts of her houseplants and she vied her brood and fancy chickens.

Squeezed some of them actually to death,

My dear.

Boys will be boys,

Reminded Uncle Herbert,

Tolerantly.

But they don't need rampageous animals,

Retorted Cousin Gladys,

Looking round the table for appreciation for her wit.

Everybody's smart except Valancy.

Cousin Gladys remembered that.

A few minutes later an Ellen Hamilton was being discussed.

Cousin Gladys spoke of her as one of those shy plain girls who cannot get husbands,

And glanced significantly at Valancy.

Uncle James thought the conversation was sagging to a rather low plane of personal gossip.

He tried to elevate it by starting an abstract discussion on the greatest happiness.

Everybody was asked to state his or her idea of the greatest happiness.

Aunt Mildred thought the greatest happiness for a woman was to be a loving and beloved wife and a mother.

Aunt Wellington thought it would be to travel in Europe.

Olive thought it would be to be a great singer like Ted Rassini.

Cousin Gladys remarked mournfully that her greatest happiness would be to be free,

Absolutely free,

From neuritis.

Cousin Georgiana's greatest happiness would be to have her dear dead brother Richard back.

Aunt Alberta remarked vaguely that the greatest happiness was to be found in the poetry of life,

And hastily gave some directions to her maid to prevent anyone asking her what she meant.

Miss Frederick said the greatest happiness was to spend your life in loving service for others.

Aunt Cousin Stickles and Aunt Isabel agreed with her.

Aunt Isabel,

With a resentful air,

As if she thought Miss Frederick had taken the wind out of her sails by saying it first.

We are all too prone,

Continued Miss Frederick,

Determined not to lose so good an opportunity,

To live in selfishness,

Worthiness and sin.

The other women all felt rebuked for their low ideals,

And Uncle James had a conviction that the conversation had been uplifted with a vengeance.

The greatest happiness,

Said Valancy suddenly and distinctly,

Is to sneeze when you want to.

Everybody stared.

Nobody felt it safe to say anything.

Was Valancy trying to be funny?

It was incredible.

Miss Frederick,

Who had been breathing easier since the dinner had progressed,

So far without any outbreak on the part of Valancy,

Began to tremble again.

But she deemed it to be part of prudence to say nothing.

Uncle Benjamin was not so prudent.

He rashly rushed in where Miss Frederick feared to treat.

"'Dos,

' he chuckled,

"'what is the difference between a young girl and an old maid?

' "'One is happy and careless,

And the other is scappy and hairless,

' said Valancy.

"'You have asked that riddle at least fifty times in my recollection,

Uncle Ben.

Why don't you hunt up some new riddles?

If riddle you must.

It is such a fatal mistake to try to be funny if you don't succeed.

' Uncle Benjamin stared foolishly.

Never in his life had he,

Benjamin Stirling,

Of Stirling and Frost,

Been spoken to so.

And by Valancy of all people.

He looked feebly around the table to see what the others thought of it.

Everybody was looking rather blank.

Poor Miss Frederick had shut her eyes,

And her lips moved tremblingly,

As if she were praying.

Perhaps she was.

The situation was so unprecedented that nobody knew how to meet it.

Valancy went on calmly eating her salad as if nothing out of the usual had occurred,

And Alberta,

To save her dinner,

Plunged into an account of how a dog had bitten her recently.

Uncle James,

To back her up,

Asked where the dog had bitten her.

"'Just a little below the Catholic Church,

' said Aunt Alberta.

At that point Valancy laughed.

Nobody else laughed.

"'What was there to laugh at?

Is that a vital part?

' asked Valancy.

"'What do you mean?

' said bewildered Aunt Alberta.

And Miss Frederick was almost driven to believe that she had served God all her years for naught.

Aunt Isabel concluded that it was up to her to suppress Valancy.

"'Those you are horribly thin,

' she said.

"'You are all corners.

Do you ever try to fatten up a little?

' "'No,

' Valancy was not asking quarter or giving it.

"'But I can tell you where you'll find a beauty parlor in Port Lawrence,

Where they can reduce the number of your gins.

' "'Valancy!

' the protest was wrung from Miss Frederick.

She meant her tone to be stately and majestic as usual,

But it sounded more like an imploring whine.

And she did not say doors.

"'She's feverish,

' said Cousin Stickles to Uncle Benjamin,

In an agonized whisper.

"'We have thought she seemed feverish for several days.

"'She's gone dippy,

In my opinion,

' growled Uncle Benjamin.

"'If not,

She ought to be spanked.

Yes,

Spanked.

' "'You cannot spank her,

' Cousin Stickles was much agitated.

'She's twenty-nine years old.

' "'So there is that advantage,

At least,

In being twenty-nine,

' said Valancy,

Whose ears had caught these aside.

"'Dos,

' said Uncle Benjamin,

''when I am dead you may say what you please.

As long as I am alive I demand to be treated with respect.

' "'Oh,

But you know we are all dead,

' said Valancy,

''the whole Stirling clan.

Some of us are buried and some aren't.

Yet that is the only difference.

' "'Dos,

' said Uncle Benjamin,

Thinking it might calm Valancy,

''do you remember the time you stole the raspberry jam?

' Valancy flushed a scarlet.

It suppressed laughter,

Not shame.

She had been sure Uncle Benjamin would drag that jam in somehow.

"'Of course I do,

' she said.

It was good jam.

I've always been sorry I hadn't time to eat more of it before you found me.

Oh,

Look at Aunt Isabel's profile on the wall.

Did you ever see anything so funny?

' Everybody looked,

Including Aunt Isabel herself,

Which of course destroyed it.

But Uncle Herbert said kindly,

''I wouldn't eat any more if I were you,

Dos.

It isn't that I grudge it,

But don't you think it would be better for yourself?

Your stomach seems a little out of order.

' ''Don't worry about my stomach,

Old dear,

' said Valancy,

''it is all right.

I'm going to keep right on eating.

It is so seldom I get the chance of satisfying meal.

It was the first time anyone had been called old dear in Deerwood.

The Stirlings thought Valancy had invented the phrase,

And they were afraid of her from that moment.

There was something so uncanny about such an expression.

But in poor Miss Frederick's opinion,

The reference to a satisfying meal was the worst thing Valancy had said yet.

Valancy had always been a disappointment to her.

Now she was disgrace.

She thought she would have to get up and go away from the table.

Yet she dared not to leave Valancy there.

And Alberta's maid came in to remove the salad plates and bring in the dessert.

It was a welcome diversion.

Everybody brightened up with the determination to ignore Valancy and talk as if she wasn't there.

Uncle Wellington mentioned Barney's nate.

Eventually,

Somebody did mention Barney's nate at every Stirling function.

Valancy reflected whatever he was,

He was an individual that could not be ignored.

She resigned herself to listen.

There was a subtle fascination in the subject for her.

Though she had not yet faced this fact,

She could feel her pulses beating to her fingertips.

Of course they abused him.

Nobody ever had a good word to say of Barney's nate.

All the old whitetails were canvassed,

The defaulting cashier counterfeiter in fiddle murderer in hiding,

Legends were trashed out.

Uncle Wellington was very indignant that such a creature should be allowed to exist at all in the neighborhood of Deerwood.

He didn't know what the police at Port Lawrence were thinking of.

Everybody would be murdered in their bed some night.

Yet it was a shame that he should be allowed to be at large,

After all that he had done.

What has he done?

Asked Valancy suddenly.

Uncle Wellington stared at her,

Forgetting that she was to be ignored.

Done.

Done.

He's done everything.

What has he done?

Repeated Valancy.

What do you know that he has done?

You're always running him down,

And what has ever been proven against him?

I don't argue with women,

Said Uncle Wellington,

And I don't need proof.

When a man hides himself up there on an island in Muskoka,

Year in and year out,

And nobody can find out where he came from or how he lives,

Or what he does there,

That's proof enough.

Find a mystery and you find crime.

The very idea of a man named Nate,

Second cousin Sarah,

Might the name itself is enough to condemn him.

I wouldn't like to meet him in a dark lane,

Shivered Cousin Georgiana.

What do you suppose he would do to you?

Asked Valancy.

Murder me,

Said Cousin Georgiana solemnly.

Just for the fun of it,

Suggested Valancy.

Exactly,

Said Cousin Georgiana,

Unsuspiciously.

And there is so much smoke there must be a fire somewhere.

I was afraid he was a criminal when he came here first.

I felt he had something to hide.

I am not often mistaken in my intuitions.

Criminal,

Of course he's a criminal,

Said Uncle Wellington.

Nobody doubts it.

Glaring at Valancy.

Why they say he served a term in the penitentiary for embezzlement,

I don't doubt it.

And they say he's in with that gang that are perpetuating all those bank robberies around the country.

Who say?

Asked Valancy.

Uncle Wellington nodded his ugly forehead at her.

What had got into this confounded girl,

Anyway?

He ignored the question.

He has the identical look of a jailbird,

Snapped Uncle Benjamin.

I noticed it the first time I saw him.

A fellow by the hand of nature,

Marked,

Quoted and signed to do the deed of shame,

Declaimed Uncle James.

He looked enormously pleased over managing to work that quotation in at last.

He had been waiting all his life for the chance.

One of his eyebrows is an arch,

And the other one is a triangle,

Said Valancy.

Is that why you think him so villainous?

Uncle James lifted his eyebrows.

Generally when Uncle James lifted his eyebrows,

The world came to an end.

This time it continued to function.

How do you know his eyebrows so well,

Daz?

Asked Olive maliciously.

Such a remark would have covered Valancy with confusion two weeks ago,

And Olive knew it.

Yes,

How?

Demanded Aunt Wellington.

I have seen him twice and looked at him closely,

Said Valancy composedly.

I thought his face the most interesting one I ever saw.

There is no doubt there is something fishy in the creature's past life,

Said Olive,

Who began to think she was decidedly out of the conversation,

Which had centered so amazingly around Valancy.

But he can hardly be guilty of everything he is accused of,

You know.

Valancy felt annoyed with Olive.

Why should she speak up,

In even disqualified defense of Barney's nate?

What had she to do with him?

For that matter,

What had Valancy?

But Valancy did not ask herself this question.

They say he keeps dozens of cats in that hut up back on Vistavis,

Said second cousin Sir Taylor,

By way of appearing not entirely ignorant of him.

Cats?

It sounded quite alluring to Valancy,

In the plural.

She pictured an island in Muskoka haunted by pussies.

That alone shows there is something wrong with him,

Decreed Aunt Isabel.

People who don't like cats,

Said Valancy,

Attacking her dessert with their relish,

Always seem to think there is some peculiar virtue in not liking them.

The man hasn't a friend except Roaring Abel,

Said Uncle Wellington,

And if Roaring Abel had kept away from him,

As everybody else did,

It would have been better for some members of his family.

Uncle Wellington's rather lame conclusion was due to a marital glance from Aunt Wellington,

Reminding him of what he had almost forgotten,

That there were girls at the table.

If you mean,

Said Valancy passionately,

That Barney's nate is the father of Cecily Gay's child,

He isn't.

It's a wicked lie.

In spite of her indignation,

Valancy was amused at the expression of the faces around that feastful table.

She had not seen anything like it since the day,

Seventeen years ago,

When at cousin Gladys' thimble party,

They discovered that she had got something in her head at school.

Lies in her head.

Valancy was down with euphemisms.

Poor Miss Frederick was almost in a state of collapse.

She had believed,

Or pretended to believe,

That Valancy still supposed that children were found in parsley beds.

Hush,

Hush,

Implored cousin Stickles.

I don't mean to hush,

Said Valancy perversely.

I've hushed all my life.

I'll scream if I want to.

Don't make me want to.

And stop talking nonsense about Barney's nate.

Valancy didn't exactly understand her own indignation.

What did Barney's nate's imputed crimes and misdemeanors matter to her?

And why,

Out of them all,

Did it seem most intolerable that she should have been poor,

Pitiful little Cecily Gay's false lover?

For it did seem intolerable to her.

She did not mind when they caught him a thief and a counter-fighter,

A jailbird.

But she could not endure to think that he had loved and ruined Cecily Gay.

She recalled his face on the two occasions of their chance meetings,

His twisted,

Enigmatic,

Engaging smile,

His twinkle,

His thin,

Sensitive,

Almost ascetic lips,

His turn on air of frank,

Their deviltry.

A man with such a smile and lips might have murdered or stolen,

But he could not have betrayed.

She suddenly hated everyone who said it,

Or believed it,

Of him.

When I was a young girl I never thought or spoke about such matters,

Said Aunt Wellington crushingly.

But I am not a young girl,

Retorted Valancy uncrushed.

Aren't you always rubbing that into me?

And you are all evil-minded,

Senseless gossips.

Can't you leave poor Cecily Gay alone?

She is dying.

Whatever she did,

God or the devil has punished her.

Enough for it.

You don't need to take her hand,

Too.

As for Barney Snape,

The only crime he has been guilty of is living to himself and minding his own business.

He can,

It seems,

Get along without you,

Which is an unpardonable sin,

Of course,

In your little snobocracy.

Valancy coined that concluded word suddenly and felt that it was an inspiration.

That was exactly what they were,

And not one of them was fit to mend another.

Valancy,

Your poor father would turn over in his grave if he could hear you,

Said Miss Frederick.

I dare say you'd like that for a change,

Said Valancy brazenly.

Those,

Said Uncle James heavily,

The Ten Commandments are fairly up to date still,

Especially the Fifth.

Have you forgotten that?

No,

Said Valancy,

But I thought you had.

Especially the Ninth.

Have you ever thought,

Uncle James,

How dull life would be without the Ten Commandments?

It is only when things are forbidden that they become fascinating.

But her excitement had been too much for her.

She knew by certain unmistakable warnings that one of her attacks of pain was coming on.

It must not find her there.

She rose from her chair.

I am going home now,

And you only came for the dinner.

It was very good,

And Alberta,

Although your salad dressing is not salt enough,

And dash of cayenne would improve it.

None of the flabbergasted Silver Wedding guests could think of anything to say until the long gate clanked behind Valancy in the dusk,

And then.

She is feverish.

I've said right along she was feverish,

Moaned Cousin Stickles.

Uncle Benjamin punished his butchy left hand fiercely with his butchy right.

She is dippy,

I tell you,

She's gone dippy,

He snorted angrily.

That's all there is about it.

Clean dippy,

Old Benjamin,

Said Cousin Georgiana soothingly.

Don't condemn her too rashly.

We must remember what the old Shakespeare says,

That charity tinketh no evil.

Charity,

Puppycock,

Snorted Uncle Benjamin.

I never heard a young woman talk such stuff in my life as she just did.

Talking about the things she ought to be ashamed to think of,

Much less mention.

Blaspheming,

Insulting us.

What she wants is a generous dose of spankweed,

And I'd like to be the one to administer it.

Huh.

Uncle Benjamin gulped down the half of a scalding cup of coffee.

Do you suppose that the mumps could work on a person that way,

Yelled Cousin Stickles.

I opened an umbrella in the house yesterday,

Sniffed Cousin Georgiana.

I knew it betokened some misfortune.

Have you tried to find out if she has the temperature,

Asked Cousin Miltred.

She wouldn't let Amelia put the thermometer under her tongue,

Whimpered Cousin Stickles.

Miss Frederick was openly in tears.

All her defenses were down.

I must tell you,

She sobbed,

That the Valancy has been acting very strangely for over two weeks now.

She hasn't been a bit like herself,

Christine could tell you.

I have hoped against hope that it was only one of her colds coming on,

But it is.

It must be something worse.

This is bringing on my neuritis again,

Said Cousin Gladys,

Putting her hand to her head.

Don't cry,

Amelia,

Said Herbert kindly,

Pulling nervously at his spiky grey hair.

He hated family eruptions.

Very inconsiderate of those to start.

One at his silver wedding.

Who would have supposed she had it in her?

You'll have to take it her to a doctor.

This may be only a brainstorm.

There are such things as brainstorms nowadays,

Aren't there?

I suggested consulting a doctor at her yesterday,

Moaned Miss Frederick,

And she said she wouldn't go to a doctor.

Wouldn't?

Oh,

Surely I have had trouble enough.

And she won't take Redfern's bitterns,

Said Cousin Stickles.

Or anything,

Said Miss Frederick.

And she is determined to go to the Presbyterian Church,

Said Cousin Stickles,

Repressing however to her credit to be.

To her credit,

Be it said,

The story about the banister.

That proves she is sleepy,

Growled Uncle Benjamin.

I noticed something strange about her the minute she came in.

I noticed it before today.

Uncle Benjamin was thinking of Mirage.

Everything she said today showed an unbalanced mind,

That question.

Was it a vital part?

Was there any sense at all in that remark?

None whatever.

There never was anything like that in the Stirlings.

It must be from the Van Barras.

Poor Miss Frederick was too crushed to be indignant.

I never heard of anything like that in the Van Sparras.

She sobbed.

Your father was old enough,

Said Uncle Benjamin.

Poor Papa was peculiar,

Admitted Miss Frederick tearfully.

But his mind was never affected.

He talked all his life exactly as Valancy did today,

Retorted Uncle Benjamin.

And he believed he was his own great-great-grandfather born over again.

I've heard him say it.

Don't tell me that a man who believed a thing like that was ever in his right senses.

Come,

Come Amelia,

Stop sniffing.

Of course Doss has made a terrible exhibition of herself today.

But she is not responsible.

Old mates are apt to fly off at a tangent like that.

If she had been married when she should have been,

She wouldn't have got like this.

Nobody wanted to marry her,

Said Miss Frederick,

Who felt that somehow Uncle Benjamin was blaming her.

Well,

Fortunately there's no outsiders here,

Snapped Uncle Benjamin.

We may keep it in the family yet.

I'll take her over to see Dr.

Marsh tomorrow.

I know how to deal with big-headed people.

Won't that be the best,

James?

We must have a medical advice,

Certainly,

Agreed Uncle James.

Well,

That is settled.

In the meantime,

Amelia,

Act as if nothing had happened.

And keep an eye on her.

Don't let her be alone.

Above all,

Don't let her sleep alone,

Renewed whimpers from Miss Frederick.

I can't help it.

The night before last,

I suggested she'd better have Christine sleep with her.

She positively refused and locked her door.

Oh,

You don't know how she's changed.

She won't work.

At least,

She won't sue.

She does her usual housework,

Of course.

But she wouldn't sweep the parlour yesterday morning.

Though she always swept it on Thursdays.

She said she'd wait till it was dirty.

Would she rather sweep a dirty room than a clean one,

I asked her.

She said,

Of course.

I'd see something for my labour,

Then.

Think of it.

Uncle Benjamin thought of it.

The charred potpourri,

Cousin Stickles pronounced it,

I spelled,

Has disappeared from her room.

I found the pieces in the next lot.

She won't tell us what happened to it.

I should never have dreamed it of those,

Said Uncle Herbert.

She has always seemed such a quiet,

Sensible girl.

A bit backward,

But sensible.

The only thing you can be sure of in this world is multiplication table,

Said Uncle James.

Feeling cleverer than ever.

Well,

Let's cheer up,

Suggested Uncle Benjamin.

Why are chorus girls like fine stock racers?

Why,

Asked Cousin Stickles,

Since it had to be asked and Valancy wasn't there to ask it.

Like to exhibit cause,

Chuckled Uncle Benjamin.

Cousin Stickles thought Uncle Benjamin a little indelicate,

Before Olive too,

But then he was a man.

Uncle Herbert was thinking that things were rather dull now that those had gone.