There's no response for that. It took a lot to embarrass me, and in that moment, my face was hot.
"Let us finish. The tea will be cool enough to drink," Nell said without missing a beat.
After peeing on the floor, I wasn't about to complain about another layer of discomfort.
Nell stood on a small stool and draped the petticoats over my head. I stood with my arms in the air while the nanny tugged it down over my body. She placed the bodice on next, and another set of straps or ties was tightened. I lowered my hands. In addition to the layers, the gown had long sleeves as well.
I was burning up.
"Sit. Drink your tea while I straighten up," Nell said. "Your favorite breakfast will be cold soon."
I mumbled a thank you and sat. I was hardly able to move, and my breathing was becoming labored. I struggled to pour tea in the stiff get-up and sat back finally, tea cup in hand.
Tea smells the same now as it does in the future. I sipped, added sugar, and then drank it down. The familiarity of a cup of tea did more than I expected to settle the part of me that was a little shaken at the thought of being dropped into the eighteen hundreds with the mission of finding two men, one of which I was supposed to stop from doing something in a few days.
There was cut fruit, ham and boiled eggs for breakfast, along with a slice of bread with jam. I ate what I could but quickly found it hard to keep much down with my torso in a vise.
"Are there … Indians near by?" I asked when it was impossible to eat more.
"Yes. Your father's lands borders theirs."
"Great. We can go visit."
Nell paused in her chores of straightening my room. "Miss Josie, that would not be appropriate."
"Because …" I waited and sipped my tea.
"They're savages and you are a gentlewoman."
Good lesson. "But if we're neighbors, doesn't Father talk to them?"
"Not often." Nell began brushing my hair with a thick brush. "Don't you get it in your mind to upset your father by asking him to visit the Indians. He's delicate, Miss Josie."
"I won't." I grimaced. She didn't bother to pluck out the knots in my curls but was raking through them. "What do you think happened to … uh, me during the time I was gone?"
Nell's strokes paused for a moment before they began again. "It's not possible for an un-chaperoned, unwed girl with your beauty to survive away from her father's house for long this side of the Mississippi, especially with so many savages taking slaves and the cavalry conscripting anyone they deem lost. There's no real law out here, either," she replied. "I reckon you went east like you always said you would and got yourself knocked about bad."