The Housekeeper's Daughter

by Rose Meddon

  ‘Why don’t you go on up to bed, love – take that Horlicks anyway? I know it’s a warm night but it’ll help you nod off nice an’ quick.’

  ‘I don’t want a Horlicks!’

  ‘Lower your voice. I will not have you bawling like a fishwife. Remember where you are, for heaven’s sake.’

  ‘Then please just listen to me for once,’ Kate said. ‘Your lives may have passed you by, but that doesn’t mean mine has to. Whether you like it or not – and you, too, Edith – I’m going to do something. Something for the war and something with my life. It might take a while, and I might not know for certain what it is yet, but mark my words, I’m going to do it. And can’t neither of you stop me.’

  Sweeping from the room – and making a point of slamming the door behind her – Kate stood in the corridor, her teeth gritted and her hands clenched. If, before that precise moment, she’d had any lingering doubts about her plan, she didn’t now. Now, she was adamant: she would let nothing and no one stand in her way.

  * * *

  The following morning, Kate awoke to find that she had a headache. As she stood pegging Miss Naomi’s little squares of muslin to the line in the laundry yard, her eyes felt like squares in round sockets and the sunlight taunted her with its brightness. She’d hardly slept at all last night – mainly because, after her confrontation with Ma and Edith, she’d gone to bed feeling cross and unable to calm down. At times, the two of them treated her like a wayward child and showed a complete disregard for her opinions and views. Just because they didn’t want to do anything differently from how they’d always done it, didn’t mean she had to live her life in the same fashion.

  Pegging the last of the cloths to the line, she groaned; she was doing it again, going over and over in her mind how unfairly they’d spoken to her and how, with hindsight, she should have gone about it differently. For a start, she wouldn’t have said anything at all to them yet. As it was, it might be a couple of weeks before Ned heard anything from his cousin. A couple of weeks. In that amount of time, the war could have come and gone.

  ‘You all right?’

  Just when she thought her day couldn’t get any more tedious!

  ‘Fine, thank you,’ she muttered, fielding Luke’s enquiry.

  ‘Your ma said I might find you out here, said she’d heard you in the laundry a while back.’

  Unable to ignore him without inviting comment, she turned to face him. ‘And here I am. She was right. There’s a surprise.’

  ‘You look… cross.’

  Well, it was brave of him, she’d give him that.

  ‘No,’ she said, lowering her shoulders, and immediately feeling the tension starting to drain from her neck. ‘No, I just didn’t sleep well.’ There was little point rankling him, as well.

  ‘Aye, a touch warm, weren’t it?’

  ‘Very.’ Looking back at him, she sighed. None of this was really his fault and yet, sooner rather than later, he was the one whose life – along with all his hopes and his plans – were going to be turned upside down, his dreams tossed about and then cast aside like flotsam on the returning tide. But, even though he was standing between her and her dreams, she didn’t hate him. She just knew now that she no longer wanted to marry him.

  ‘Day before yesterday, I got talking to that Mr Colborne.’

  Determined not to let him see that this piece of news piqued her interest – after all, this could still be a trap of some sort – she drew a long breath and then said, ‘Which one?’

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘Which Mr Colborne? There’s three of them.’

  ‘Oh. Aye. The lightly-built one.’

  ‘Mr Lawrence.’

  ‘That’d be him.’ What she mustn’t do now, was show too much interest. She must wait for him to go on and explain, which, being Luke, he was bound to do. ‘He were having trouble starting that motor of theirs. Fine job, she is.’

  ‘Aye?’ How was she unaware that this had happened? Luke had been talking to Mr Lawrence and she hadn’t known about it?

  ‘Any road, as you know, back in the winter, I went up and helped out on Abe Pardey’s farm – him having not long since picked up that tractor from that auction over at High Barns.’

  Unable to help it, Kate yawned. ‘Sorry. I’m just dead tired. Go on. You were saying.’

  Creasing his forehead with a deep frown, Luke continued. ‘Well, more ‘n one occasion, she wouldn’t fire up. And him and me had to see what to do about it. He knew a bit about motors but I knew nothing. Even so, betwixt us, we always got her going. So, I offered him – Mr Colborne, that is – the benefit of what I’d seen previous.’

  ‘And did you get it started?’ she asked. Much to her own surprise, she was genuinely interested now.

  ‘We did that.’

  ‘I bet he was pleased.’

  ‘He were. So much so that when I said I’d always wanted to have a go in such a fancy motor, he offered to show me how to drive her. Up the drive we went, all the way to the lane. First him, then me. Then me again. In truth, tedn’t that much different to Abe Pardey’s tractor. And I told him as much. Course, he laughed at that – said not to tell his father, given the sum it had cost him.’

  ‘Mmm.’

  ‘Any road, the thing is, he said to me that being able to drive a motor is a real useful thing to know how to do – what with the war coming and everything. I told him I’d never thought of that. But, it’s like he said, Kate, this war ain’t going to be just about rifles and bayonets, like the wars gone before. It’s going to be about mecker… mechanized guns and… armoured fighting vehicles, the likes of which have never been seen on a battlefield before.’

  ‘But if no one has seen them, how does he… oh, never mind.’ There were times to pick holes in facts and times to just let them go. As her mother often said, if you’re not minded to hear the answer, don’t ask the question in the first place.

  ‘So, I says to him, I shouldn’t mind that. And he says to me, maybe I could speak for you. All sorts of regiments are going to need men who know how to drive.’

  ‘Ned… Mr Edwin knows how to drive. By all accounts it’s no big deal.’

  ‘You’re wrong there, Kate. It’s a real tricky thing to master. And it’s a proper responsibility, going along at such speeds.’

  ‘Hmm. So, you’ll be off soon, then?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I said, you’ll be off to join up soon.’

  ‘Well, once war is formally declared, as Mr Colborne put it.’

  She shook her head. Ten minutes with one of the Colbornes and Luke Channer had a mouth full of big words. Formally declared, indeed.

  ‘And I suppose now that you’re hobnobbing with the gentry, you’d know when that will be.’

  ‘Won’t be long now. I doubt you’ve seen the papers this morning but, two days back, Austria-Hungary declared herself to be in a state of war with Serbia. And then there’s that grisly business in Ireland. Newspaper said within days there could be civil war there. So, the way I see it, it’s begun – we’re already at war – or as good as.’

  Not having been expecting such an informed answer from him – but having no reason to believe him wrong – she stared back at him. It was still worth checking that he wasn’t toying with her, though. ‘And that’s the God-honest truth?’

  He nodded. ‘God’s honest. Mark my words, by the end of this week, if not before, one way or another, we’ll be at war.’

  She swallowed. It wasn’t just talk then; it was real. Even so, she would make a point of finding Ned to see whether he agreed. But if it was true, perhaps she would be needed for this volunteer thing sooner than she’d thought. Lord – there was a thing. And her not in the least bit ready, either.

  ‘I see,’ was all she managed to reply, her mind whirling.

  ‘Look, Kate, marry me, will you? Let’s not hang about no more. Give us the nod and I’ll go up the church and get a special licence. Vicar’ll give it us. He’ll understand our haste; like everyone
else, he’ll know war’s a-coming.’

  And then it struck her: this was her mother’s doing. It had to be. While everything Luke had just said might indeed have its roots in the truth, it was her mother who had put him up to this. On the back of her announcement to them last night, Ma must have nabbed him and pointed out that as far as getting married was concerned, it was now or never. Well, she wouldn’t be herded like a wilful ewe.

  ‘What does Ma say to it?’ she asked, not blinking as she watched his face for the slightest sign that she was right.

  But he didn’t blink either. ‘She thinks it a good idea. She’s of the same mind as me – that we shouldn’t wait on the off chance that all of this will go away.’

  Curse him. He wasn’t even going to attempt to deny it. ‘You’ve spoken to her then.’

  ‘Spoke to her first thing – soon as I heard-tell the latest about the war.’

  ‘Then my answer’s no.’

  ‘No?’

  ‘That’s right. You heard. No. I will not have you and my mother – and no doubt my sister, too – scheming behind my back and deciding when I get married. When I want to get married, it will be me who decides. Me and my husband-to-be.’

  ‘Your husband-to-be? Kate—’

  ‘And now I really must go back inside. I’ve stood here listening to you telling me your long tale about motors and Mr Colborne and driving in a war when all along, all you were trying to do was trick me—’

  ‘Trick you? Bloody hell, woman, is that what you think this is – a trick?’

  ‘It’s underhand, that’s what it is. And I’m surprised at you falling for it. Told you I’m acting strange, did she—’

  ‘Well…’

  ‘I knew it! Told you she was worried about me, did she? Said you could make me see sense – that I needed to be settled down. Need a babe to fill my days, do I? And a husband to put an end to my taffety ideas? Is that what she said? Because trust me, I don’t need either of those things until I say I do. And so, when you look at the calendar and wonder why there’s no day ringed for us to be walking up the aisle, stand in front of the mirror and look at yourself long and hard and then, go and take a good look at my mother because, between the two of you, you’ve set back your chances…’ It was on the tip of her tongue to say altogether but something made her think better of it. ‘…even further.’

  Spinning away from him, she finally drew a proper breath. How dare he! How dare her mother! Well, if that’s how they wanted it. If they weren’t going to respect her wishes, then she wouldn’t give a fig about theirs, as Miss Naomi would say. She would go ahead with her plan. Ned respected her opinions, and that was all that mattered.

  ‘Kate—’

  ‘No, I’m done,’ she called over her shoulder as she stomped back across the yard. ‘And if you know what’s good for you, you won’t breathe another word about weddings.’

  Seething, she returned to the laundry and slammed the door shut behind her. Marriage? Well, if that was how her opinions and her dreams were to be run rough-shod over, then marriage could wait. Those three schemers had just seen to it that now, no matter how much Luke pleaded, there would be no naming of the day at all.

  Chapter Five

  A Fateful Evening

  Kate stared into the bowl. The knob of soda she had dropped into it a moment ago seemed to have dissolved and so, extending her forefinger, she tested the temperature of the water. Just right. Holding Miss Naomi’s hairbrush by its silver handle, she carefully lowered the bristles into the liquid. Taking care not to wet any of the silver surround, she stood for a moment, waiting for the soda to do its job.

  Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, she wondered about Ned’s plans for the day. Would she get the chance to see him? Hopefully, he would be thinking about seeing her. She’d fussed with her hair, just in case.

  Deciding that she had waited long enough, she lifted the hairbrush from the liquid and gave it a shake. An examination of the bristles, though, made her return it to the solution; she might as well ensure that they were completely clean.

  She sighed. Yes, she was rather hoping to bump into him because she wanted to see how he would behave towards her. Since their shared confessions, the suspense of waiting to see him was becoming unbearable, leaving her with a constant feeling of being strung out on tenterhooks.

  Growing impatient, she lifted the hairbrush from the bowl, turned on the tap and held the bristles under the stream of cold water. Idly watching as it splashed into the sink and gurgled down the plug-hole, she fancied she heard footsteps. Turning off the tap, she listened, the purposeful nature of them making her stiffen; by the sound of it, Ma was on the warpath. From force of habit, she made a quick check down the front of her uniform and readied a general denial. And then, when the footsteps came to a halt behind her, she fixed a smile and turned briefly over her shoulder.

  Standing with a pile of table-linens in her arms, her mother surprised her by smiling back. ‘You look a lot brighter today.’

  Brighter? That wasn’t the sort of accusation she’d been expecting. More used to denying things, she wasn’t even sure how to respond. Perhaps the best thing was to remain vague – at least until she’d had a chance to spot the trap. There was bound to be one. ‘Umm…’

  ‘Had a chance to think things over, have you?’

  There. That was it.

  ‘Happen I have,’ she replied, shaking the water from the bristles of the brush and then laying it on its back on a piece of cloth on the drainer. Reaching for the scrap of towel hanging on the nearby peg, she dried her hands. No matter how strong her desire, she must not let her mother know anything more about her plans. She’d already made that mistake once. Nor must she let slip anything to Edith. In fact, it was Edith’s treachery she feared the most.

  ‘Then no wonder you look less grumpy.’

  Even that sort of dig wasn’t going to provoke her; she would let the words wash over her. She would console herself with the fact that her plan showed all the signs of coming together nicely.

  That she chose not to offer a reply meant that eventually, her mother turned and walked away. Priding herself on having managed to keep her mouth shut, Kate also set off, making her way up the stairs and along the landing to Miss Naomi’s room. Further along the corridor, on the curve of the main landing, she could tell from an oblong of brightness that Mrs Russell’s door stood open. She could also hear voices – although, where Pamela Russell’s shrill tones were concerned, it was hard not to.

  ‘I have to concede that your plan worked.’ That voice belonged to Aunt Diana.

  ‘Of course it did.’ And that was Pamela Russell answering her. ‘And wasn’t the atmosphere all the better for it? Wasn’t it? Wasn’t conversation at supper on both evenings far more civilized? And I thought the picnic-tea on the lawn a triumph – everyone was present and yet no-one fell out. Given the unsettling nature of the current situation, that was no small achievement.’

  ‘But how many more distractions do you have up your sleeve, Mamma?’

  Realizing that Miss Naomi was also there, Kate decided it was safe to stand and listen a while longer.

  ‘As many as prove necessary to keep the peace until your father arrives.’

  ‘Still no word from Papa?’

  ‘The only word he sent, was to say that he has – and I quote verbatim – his fingers in several new and lucrative pies, which, for the moment, he dares not desert. An indication of when he is likely to join us, however, was conspicuous by its absence. This evening, I shall telephone him.’

  ‘May I speak to him?’

  ‘If you wish. I intend being quite straight with him. He agreed to this gathering, and so he should jolly well show up. And sooner rather than later. I can’t do it all single-handedly.’

  ‘That’s most unlike you, Pamela. As often as not you tell him, in no uncertain terms, not to meddle – that you have everything under control.’

  ‘That’s different. That’s when we’r
e in Clarence Square, where I can rely upon things to happen in accordance with my precise instructions. Down here, it’s all rather more haphazard.’

  ‘So, what further amusements do you have planned?’

  ‘A party. Out on the lawns, under the stars – food, entertainments, music—’

  ‘And you can pull that off, Pamela, out here, in the middle of nowhere, with only the minions you’ve just described as being haphazard?’

  ‘Of course not, Diana. Don’t be ridiculous. I have no faith in those bumpkins whatsoever. But I do have faith in my address book.’

  Since she was one of the haphazard bumpkins in whom Mrs Russell had just expressed no faith, Kate felt it time to slip away. And so, turning carefully about, she crept back along the landing to where, taking every care not to make a sound, she returned Miss Naomi’s hairbrush to her dressing-table.

  A party. Under the stars. That meant at night, with the cover of darkness: opportunities aplenty to keep watch on proceedings. She might even have the chance to sneak away and see Ned. Yes, on the evening in question, she would see to her hair and change out of her uniform. From the sound of it, Ma and Edith would be too busy to bother about where she was and what she was doing. And, to improve her chances further still, next time she saw him, she would let slip that there was nothing she liked more on a pleasant evening, than a stroll down through the woods to the cove. He probably wouldn’t think it odd; he’d already come across her wandering about the grounds. But if he did, he did: she couldn’t help that; in a couple of weeks he would probably have left. Gone was the time for hesitation, or for standing about letting the grass grow under her feet.

  * * *

  Five-and-twenty minutes to seven. If she didn’t hurry up and get this done, she wasn’t going to have time to get herself into her hiding place before proceedings got under way. The trouble was, the ring of salt around the soles of Miss Naomi’s navy-blue kid-skin shoes was proving laborious to remove. She had scraped away the worst of it with the blade of a paring-knife. Then she had dabbed at it with a scrap of cloth soaked in white vinegar, watching with relief as some of it dissolved. Unfortunately, traces remained, stubbornly resisting her attempts to pick it from the stitching, grain by grain, with the end of a meat-skewer. It didn’t help that she was standing in her own light, straining her eyes to see. Still, it was her own fault for not having seen to them yesterday, the minute Miss Naomi had come back from walking down at the cove and pointed out to her their condition.