Yew Tree Gardens

by Anna Jacobs

  Walter met with the same sort of response.

  But Gil overheard Lizzie and Cook talking a few days later, saying she gave them the shivers, so quietly did she move around the house.

  ‘You shouldn’t have let Miss Gardiner push you into hiring her,’ Walter said. ‘You should choose your staff by how you feel about them. The rest of us get on well, more like a family. She doesn’t fit in.’

  ‘I can hardly sack the poor woman. She seems to do her job competently. I think I need a woman to hire people like housekeepers. Maybe I should ask my mother to do that sort of thing for me in future.’

  ‘And maybe you should learn to do things for yourself.’

  ‘You could help with that sort of thing, though. You’re a good judge of people.’

  ‘I won’t always be around to help.’

  Gil looked at him in horror. ‘Aren’t you feeling well?’

  ‘I’m well past my threescore years and ten. Living on borrowed time, some would say.’

  Gil shuddered. ‘Don’t talk like that.’

  ‘Don’t put blinkers on. Look at the world as it is.’ He waited for this to sink in, then added in a more cheerful tone, ‘Now, how about you go and see the rest of the beneficiaries? I reckon they’ve been waiting long enough to hear the good news.’

  On his way to the next person on his list, Gil encountered Duncan Chapman in the village and had to stop because the other man deliberately barred his path.

  ‘I was coming to see you,’ Chapman said.

  ‘It’s not convenient just now. I’m on my way to see someone.’

  A sneer curved Chapman’s fleshy lips. ‘Another beneficiary?’

  Gil didn’t like his tone. ‘None of your business.’

  ‘It ought to be.’ He raised his voice. ‘If it weren’t for you, I’d be the one sitting at Oakdene now.’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’

  ‘You heard me. I don’t know how you got round the old lady, but people in these parts don’t appreciate you getting Oakdene by trickery.’

  Gil raised his own voice to match, realising Chapman was performing for an audience, presumably people in nearby houses or the village shop. ‘I’d never even met Miss Bennerden and I don’t appreciate your insinuations. If you keep making them, you’ll be hearing from my lawyer. Slander, they call it.’

  ‘It’s not slander when it’s the simple truth.’

  ‘I’m quite prepared to take the matter to court.’ He hadn’t meant to, had decided to ignore it, but Chapman wouldn’t let the matter drop.

  ‘Oh, yes. Very easy for you to do that when you have all her money.’

  Gil tried to step round him, but Chapman moved more quickly to block his path.

  ‘You’ll regret it.’ This time he spoke in a low voice.

  ‘Please get out of my way,’ Gil said loudly.

  Chapman raised his voice again. ‘Not till I’ve had my say. Does it make you feel good to play Lord Bountiful and tell people what they’ve been left?’

  ‘I’m doing as Miss Bennerden asked.’

  ‘What has she left me, then? I’m not prepared to wait any longer to find out.’

  ‘Nothing.’

  Chapman’s previously ruddy face turned white. ‘I don’t believe you. I’m a relative. She couldn’t have ignored me completely.’

  ‘She hasn’t left you anything. You should ask Mr Mortlake, if you don’t believe it. He can also tell you that I had nothing whatsoever to do with Miss Bennerden’s will.’

  This time, when Chapman tried to stop him moving on, Gil pushed him aside and started walking down the street.

  But the other caught up with him and grabbed him by the injured arm. ‘Don’t you treat me like that.’

  They were saved by the village policeman, who moved across from the other side of the street, clearing his throat and looking embarrassed. ‘Now, gentlemen, if you please. Let’s not have any arguing and shouting.’

  ‘He’s the one causing trouble,’ Chapman said at once.

  Gil turned to the policeman. ‘I was accosted by this fellow who is preventing me from going about my business.’ He turned and walked off, wishing he could stride away instead of limping slowly.

  Behind him he heard clearly, ‘It’s not worth it, sir. No arguments can change a will.’

  ‘I’m not so sure about that. People should stand up for what’s right.’

  Gil stopped and turned round, meeting such a look of hatred from Chapman that for the first time he wondered whether the other man’s threats should be taken seriously.

  It might have been foolish, but the very next day he went into Swindon and visited Mr Mortlake, making an extremely simple will in which he left everything he owned to his mother, and if she predeceased him, his second brother, Jonathon. Under no circumstances was Chapman going to get his hands on Oakdene.

  He didn’t tell Walter what he was doing, because the old man had come down with a cold.

  Gil had probably been needlessly concerned. This was England and the twentieth century. People didn’t kill others because they were upset at not being left any money.

  But still, doing this gave him peace of mind.

  The new housekeeper asked to speak to Gil after she’d been there a week.

  ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, sir, but I can’t settle in this house. It’s so far away from everywhere, and when I go into the village, people won’t chat to me.’

  She didn’t say that was because Chapman was still stirring up trouble, didn’t need to.

  ‘Oh. Well, where do you want to go?’

  ‘Back to the home, if you please. I felt safer there and I had company.’

  He hoped he’d hidden his relief at this, but of course, it left him with the problem of finding another housekeeper. Or did it?

  ‘Why don’t we just find another maid?’ he suggested to Walter the evening after he’d taken the housekeeper back to the home. ‘We don’t need a fancy housekeeper as well as Madge, surely? She’s proving to be a very capable woman.’

  ‘Copping out?’ Walter asked.

  ‘No. Just trying to create a peaceful home and life.’

  ‘You’ll never be truly peaceful here till you’ve sorted things out in the village.’

  ‘First I’m going to London to pick up my new shoes, buy a car and take Don up to meet the shoemaker.’

  The visit to London went well. Horry accompanied Gil instead of Walter, so that he could show Gil the motor car. He kept an eye on young Don, who had never ridden on a train before, his mother being too poor to afford outings.

  The bootmaker fitted the new shoes very carefully, checking the most minute details, then sat back on his heels and looked up at Gil. ‘Try walking in them.’

  Gil moved across the room, then back. It was so much more comfortable, and he beamed at the bootmaker. ‘Wonderful.’

  ‘I pride myself on making a difference.’

  ‘Could you make me another couple of pairs, and maybe some boots for winter?’

  The man rolled his eyes. ‘You’ll have to wait your turn. I’m as busy as ever.’

  ‘Perhaps you should talk to Don about an apprenticeship, then. He’s waiting outside.’

  To everyone’s delight, the bootmaker pronounced Don a ‘likely lad’ and agreed to give him a month’s trial, after which they would sign apprenticeship papers, with Gil paying the fees.

  ‘I won’t let you down, Mr Rycroft,’ the boy whispered as they got ready to leave.

  ‘Don’t let yourself down.’

  Chapman might sneer about playing Lord Bountiful, but Gil found helping people very satisfying indeed.

  They went on from the bootmaker to see the new motor car.

  Here, Horry took charge, clambering all over it, sliding underneath, and driving it up and down the road.

  ‘What do you think?’ Gil asked him when he pulled up again, setting the big handbrake on carefully. Horry might talk about the mechanics of it, but Gil liked the comfort of the leather seats
and the way the spokes on the wheels spun so fast as the car was driven along that they turned into a blur.

  ‘Time you came for a ride, sir.’

  When they were out on the road, he drove up a hill, parking to test the handbrake, then said earnestly as they made their way back, ‘I don’t think you’d go wrong buying it, and you’d not have to wait for delivery. He’ll let us drive it away today. We can motor home, if that’s all right with you?’

  ‘It’s fine with me. I brought the money in case.’

  He handed over the money and gave himself up to the pleasure of spinning along the roads.

  All was right with his little world.

  1912

  Chapter Eight

  At the beginning of January Renie was summoned to see Mrs Tolson as soon as she was free. The housekeeper was considerate enough not to take away a waitress during a busy period.

  Renie went as soon as the lunchtime rush died down, knocking on the housekeeper’s door and waiting.

  ‘Come!’

  Inside, Mrs Tolson was sitting behind her desk, smiling, thank goodness, so Renie knew she wasn’t in trouble.

  ‘Sit down, Irene.’

  ‘Thank you, ma’am.’

  ‘We’ve been watching you over the past few months. You’ve picked things up very quickly and you’re a hard worker.’

  Renie couldn’t help beaming at this praise.

  ‘Mr Greaves and I were wondering whether you want to stay here as a waitress till you marry, or whether you’d be interested in making a career in our hotels. You know that the Carling family owns several?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’ She paused, puzzled. ‘I don’t know what you mean, exactly.’

  ‘We have to move with the times. At the moment we have women who work in the office, but who know little about the day-to-day work in the rest of the hotel, and we have women who work in housekeeping or, like you, in waitressing, but who don’t know about office work. Mr Greaves and I wondered if you’d like to learn about other areas, then learn office work as well. I’ve seen how you love books, so perhaps you’d be able to handle the paperwork. You’ve been going through those books in the staff sitting room very quickly, I gather.’

  It took a moment or two for this to sink in. ‘Office work! I thought only men did that, except for lady typists. And I don’t know how to typewrite.’

  ‘Men have done the clerical work until now, but women are doing a lot of different jobs these days. The thing is, there are times in hotels when a lady guest needs to speak to another woman about some problem. And there are more ladies travelling on their own these days, too, so we’ve been considering this for a while. Mr Greaves is very forward-thinking, for all he’s not a young man.’

  Renie tried to appear calm and efficient, but couldn’t help bursting out with, ‘Ooh, that sounds marvellous, Mrs Tolson.’

  It won her a smile. ‘What about marriage? Some of the women who work here are courting and only working till they marry.’ She sat watching, head on one side.

  They always asked younger women that. Renie wondered suddenly if they asked the men too, something that hadn’t occurred to her before. Then she realised the housekeeper was still waiting for an answer. ‘I don’t want to get married, Mrs Tolson. My sister did and … well, I’ve seen how unhappy she is. Anyway, I don’t have a young man.’ The lads were a bit too cheeky for her in London. She wasn’t going to risk being forced as Nell had been. Cliff had even had the cheek to blame Nell for expecting a baby after doing that to her.

  ‘Then would you like to try our idea? It’d mean working in other areas: doing the bedrooms for a while, learning to type and do simple accounts, all sorts of things. You’d lose the extra tips money but you’d be earning a higher wage once you were fully trained, and I think you’d find the working conditions more pleasant too.’

  ‘I’d love to try it.’ Renie had thought all jobs were boring, and you just had to put up with that in order to earn your daily bread. But this one actually sounded interesting.

  ‘Good. Say nothing to the others. I’ll announce it when I’m ready to move you.’

  It caused a sensation when the other women were told that Renie was going to work in housekeeping, then move to the office. Some of the older women, who’d been there some years, didn’t try to hide their jealousy. One of them stopped talking to her and there was less help offered when they were rushed. There were even a couple of nasty tricks played, which upset her.

  ‘You’re mad to do it,’ Daff said. ‘You’ll lose your tips and you’ll lose your friends, too.’

  Renie had already begun to realise that. ‘But I’ll have a chance to do something more interesting with my life. And I’ll earn more later.’

  ‘But you’ll be making beds and emptying chamber pots. Ugh. I wouldn’t like a job doing that, not unless I was desperate.’

  If you’d lived in Willow Court, Renie thought, you’d be quite used to filth. You could always wash yourself when you’d finished, after all. Anyway, if suffragettes could chain themselves to railings and get arrested, could suffer through hunger strikes, all to win votes for women, she could surely put up with these small cruelties to do a job that was a new thing for women. She read about the suffragettes avidly in newspapers and greatly admired them, but knew she couldn’t have been that brave.

  When she changed to cleaning the guests’ rooms, the other cleaners were suspicious of her and unhelpful. If it hadn’t been for Miss Pilkins keeping an eye on her, they too would have played nasty tricks on her.

  When Miss Pilkins found her crying over her work one day, she sat down on the bed and patted it. ‘Sit beside me and tell me what’s wrong, Irene.’

  ‘No one speaks to me and they don’t help me. It’s not going to work, Miss Pilkins. It just … isn’t. Maybe you should have chosen one of them to do this.’

  ‘If any of the others had been suitable, they’d be working in waitressing now to learn about that area, then being trained as an assistant to the manager instead of you. But they’re not suitable, even though they’re older. They’re good workers or they’d not be employed here, but they don’t think beyond their daily routine.’

  She winked. ‘They don’t take an interest in what the suffragettes are doing or think about women getting the vote.’

  Renie looked at her, worried this was going to turn into a reprimand.

  ‘I admire them too,’ Miss Pilkins said quietly. ‘But if we’re wise we won’t tell others how we feel. You can do this, Irene, I know you can.’

  ‘But I’m only eighteen. What do I know of the world?’

  ‘You know how to learn. That’s why you were chosen. Mr Greaves wants to have the training of you before you get set in your ways. You’re a quick-thinking young woman who reacts well in an emergency. That’s important, too. You saved us a lot of trouble when you helped Mrs Thompson a few weeks ago. That wasn’t part of your job, but you brought back her dog and calmed her down. She turned to you, even though more senior men were available, because she felt more comfortable with another woman.’

  She stood up. ‘Get on with your work now. I’m going to speak to the others.’

  Renie couldn’t see how that would help, but when she heard footsteps and saw the other two maids on this floor going towards the stairs, then heard voices in the stairwell, she realised Miss Pilkins had actually pulled all the other housemaids away from their work to attend a meeting.

  Something hard and hurting inside her eased a little at this gesture of support. Even if it didn’t help, it made her feel better, not so much alone.

  She set to work on the room, determined to do her very best and prove they’d been right to trust her.

  Miss Pilkins had informed Mrs Tolson of the problem and what she intended to do about it. They’d agreed not to tell Mr Greaves yet. He hadn’t been well lately, so they tried not to worry him about details, especially during the busy Christmas period.

  She waited until all the housekeeping staff except Irene we
re gathered in the staff sitting room, then rapped on a table for their attention.

  ‘I’m going to be blunt today. The management has chosen to give Irene Fuller a chance at a new type of job and that’s upsetting some of you.’

  Mutters greeted this, but they avoided looking her in the eye.

  ‘You no doubt think someone who’s been here longer should have been chosen for the new job, but I’m afraid Irene was considered the most suitable.’

  She looked round, ignoring the scowls. ‘Among the reasons are that she hasn’t yet got any fixed ideas about how things should be done in the hotel. But also, she’s a clever girl – you’ve all seen how voraciously she reads – and she’s a quick learner. Mr Greaves, Mrs Tolson and I have made our decision for this experiment. If Irene left now – and don’t pretend you’re not trying to drive her away – we’d not choose anyone else here but would look in one of the other hotels for someone suitable and bring that person in over your heads.’

  She paused, then said bluntly, ‘I will add two things. First, if Irene succeeds, she opens an opportunity for young women that wasn’t there before. You should all welcome that. Second, I shall sack anyone who plays nasty tricks on her – and no, she didn’t tell me about those. I have eyes in my head and I know how our housekeeping system works.’

  As someone tried to call out, she held up one hand to stop them. ‘I’m not going to discuss it with you further Either you want to work here or you don’t. Make up your minds, because if you don’t let Irene have her chance, you’ll be the one who leaves, not her. Now, get back to your work, please.’

  She waited till they’d all gone, then let out her breath in a long sigh. She’d risen through the housekeeping ranks herself, knew that most of the women who worked here didn’t have what it took to do a thinking job and also that it’d been dinned into them that some jobs were only for men.

  It was a hard path doing something different, as she herself knew. From now on, the open hostility and nasty tricks would end – Miss Pilkins was pretty sure of that – but the resentment would still simmer beneath the surface.