An Orphan's Journey

by Rosie Goodwin

  ‘And have you heard how Freda is gettin’ on?’ Pearl asked then and Susan nodded.

  ‘I ’ave, as it ’appens. She left the butcher’s an’ got took on by a farmer but never lasted a week there afore the farmer’s wife dumped ’er back at the ’ome. Her boss reckoned she were bone idle, which don’t surprise me, an’ she’s still waitin’ to find another position, so I ’eard.’

  They spent another leisurely hour strolling and chatting but eventually they headed back to the town where they parted, promising to meet up again at the same time the following week.

  Pearl was almost at the drive that led to the Forbeses’ house when she suddenly became aware of a horse’s hooves galloping up behind her and, turning, she was shocked to see Monty bearing down on her. The horse was frothing at the mouth as Monty whipped the poor creature to make it go faster.

  ‘Out of my way, servant!’ he shouted as he flew past and Pearl just had time to jump aside.

  ‘Idiot!’ she shouted at his retreating figure as she shook her small fist at him, but he rode on without even looking back.

  Will won’t be pleased when he sees what state the poor horse is in again, she thought as she dusted down her skirt and set off. But at least he’ll be gone next week an’ it’s good riddance to bad rubbish far as I’m concerned.

  She found Cook and Mrs Veasey in the kitchen when she entered and told them, ‘Master Monty just come chargin’ after me on ’is horse like a bat outta hell! If I hadn’t jumped outta the way I’d be flat as a pancake.’

  ‘Oh, Pearl, your grammar really is atrocious,’ Mrs Veasey sighed, ignoring what she’d said about Monty. ‘From now on the mistress says that I’m to start correcting you and so is Cook here, so be warned.’

  Pearl flushed with indignation. What was wrong with the way she spoke? And what did she have to gain by learning to speak posh like they did? Even so, she supposed she should at least try, although she knew it wasn’t going to be easy. ‘I were only tellin’ yer about Monty’s bad be’aviour,’ she mumbled, crossing her arms across her flat chest.

  ‘No, Pearl . . . I was only telling you about Monty’s bad behaviour,’ Mrs Veasey corrected. ‘Now try again.’

  Pearl sniffed. ‘I were . . . was, only trying to tell yer . . . you, about Monty’s bad behaviour,’ she repeated slowly.

  Mrs Veasey smiled approvingly. ‘That’s much better. You see you can do it when you stop to think. Let this be the start of the lesson.’

  Pearl let out a deep sigh. She’d have to watch her step in future.

  The following week, the house was in turmoil as Monty prepared to leave to start his new school in London. His mother had insisted that his father should travel with him to see him properly settled and they were to sail with the tide early the following morning on one of Mr Forbes’s own ships. The hallway was full of trunks containing Monty’s clothes and the books he would need. The ones they hadn’t been able to obtain would be bought by his father when they arrived in London.

  ‘Promise me you won’t leave him until you are quite sure he has settled,’ Pearl heard Mrs Forbes implore her husband as they sat at dinner that evening. And then the poor mistress broke into tears again.

  ‘Anyone would think we were sending him to prison rather than to one of the best schools in England,’ her husband said softly as he handed her his handkerchief. Her own flimsy little lace-trimmed one was quite sodden.

  Monty meantime sat silent, his face angry and resentful. He was well aware that his easy life was about to finish, for the next few years at least, but what could he do other than go along with it? He knew his mother didn’t want him to go, she had made that more than clear, but his father wasn’t as easy to twist around his little finger.

  ‘The time will fly by, son, you’ll see,’ he told Monty now. ‘It’s high time you knuckled down to some serious work now. And then when you come home, you’ll be able to take over some of the businesses here for me.’

  Throughout all this Eliza sat silent, although she was secretly relieved he was going. With him out of the way she would have the mistress all to herself and she couldn’t think of anything nicer. She was starting to like being pampered and spoiled. Only the day before Mrs Forbes had taken her to her own dressmaker in the town and had her fitted for two new dresses. She had even let Eliza help choose the patterns and the material for them and she could hardly wait to have them. How grand she would be then with matching ribbons in her hair. Pearl was sure to be quite green with envy. Better still, the night before, Mrs Forbes had entered her room and tucked her in and kissed her goodnight. Her own mother had never done that and now Eliza intended to make the best of it.

  The meal was a miserable affair and no one ate much. What a waste, Pearl thought as she carried the barely touched leg of lamb back to the kitchen. Unbidden her thoughts flew back to her family in England and she wondered how they were faring. No doubt her ma would still be drowning her sorrows in gin and her dad would be passing every penny he could get his hands on over the bar of the nearest inn, but it was her siblings that she worried most about, though she knew that she couldn’t do anything to help them. Her ma had made sure of that when she had Pearl and Eliza shipped off to Canada without so much as a goodbye.

  ‘Eeh, what a waste of time cooking that was,’ Cook grumbled when Pearl slid the untouched lamb on to the table before returning for the vegetables. ‘But never mind, I can save the meat pie I’d cooked for our dinner till tomorrow and we’ll have this tonight; I know Will loves a bit of lamb so it won’t go to waste.’

  As a result, when Pearl eventually went to bed that evening she was feeling comfortably full, but the room still felt very lonely without Eliza.

  Pearl was up first thing in the morning as Mrs Forbes wanted breakfast prepared early so that her husband and son wouldn’t set sail on an empty stomach.

  ‘I’m glad I don’t have to get up at this unearthly hour every day,’ Cook groaned – usually the kitchen was warm and Pearl had a pot of tea mashing for her by the time she had to put in an appearance. The next hour was hectic as the family pecked at their breakfasts while Will was packing Monty’s luggage on to the carriage. And then at last it was time for them to go and Mrs Forbes clung to her son on the steps of the house, sobbing as if she might never see him again.

  ‘I shall miss you so much,’ she wept as she covered his face in kisses and he blushed a dull, beetroot red. ‘Please promise me that you will take the very greatest care of yourself. Write regularly, and if there is anything at all you need, let us know immediately.’

  ‘Yes, Mother.’ Monty untangled her arms from about his neck and escaped into the carriage where his father sat waiting for him.

  ‘Safe journey,’ Emmaline called, waving her handkerchief as Will urged the horses forwards. ‘Goodbye, my darlings.’

  Monty sat staring sulkily out of the window with his arms crossed while his father waved back. They stayed watching and waving until the carriage was out of sight over the horizon.

  ‘Oh, if only Zack had let me go the docks to see them off,’ Mrs Forbes sobbed to Mrs Veasey. ‘But he said it would be too upsetting and we would be better saying our goodbyes here.’

  ‘And I believe he was quite right.’ Mrs Veasey placed a comforting arm about her shoulders and turned her around. ‘Now come inside and I’ll get Pearl to fetch you a nice fresh pot of tea.’

  Emmaline cried on and off for the whole of that day, even paying little heed to Eliza, but the next day, true to her word, when Pearl had completed the housework, she was sent for.

  ‘Right,’ Mrs Forbes told Pearl with a bright smile. ‘I think it’s time we had a go at turning you and Eliza into young ladies now.’ Eliza, who was already in the drawing room, scowled while Pearl merely sighed resignedly. She really didn’t have much say in the matter if it was what her mistress wanted, so she supposed she may as well get on with it.

  ‘I want you to repeat after me. How now brown cow.’

  And so, the first les
son began.

  When it was over Pearl rose to leave but Mrs Forbes stopped her. ‘Pearl, I hope you don’t mind me asking but what caused your limp? Was it an accident of some kind?’

  ‘Oh no, missus, I mean, ma’am. I were born wi’ . . . with one leg shorter than the other.’

  ‘I see.’ Mrs Forbes tapped her lip thoughtfully before eventually saying, ‘In that case, I think it might be remedied. Tomorrow morning, I shall take you to see the shoemaker in town. Be ready to leave by ten o’clock.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am, thank you, ma’am.’ Pearl shot out of the door with a smile on her face. Could there really be something done to improve her limp? She could only live in hope.

  Chapter Sixteen

  ‘N

  ick . . . I thought it was you!’ Pearl ran forwards and without thinking threw her arms about the boy’s neck, making him blush furiously.

  ‘Give over,’ he objected. ‘I’m pleased to see you an’ all, but there’s no need to go all soppy on me!’

  ‘Sorry.’ Pearl giggled as she stepped away from him. It was the first time she had seen him since they’d started their new jobs and she thought he looked tired.

  He was standing outside the blacksmith’s and thumbing across his shoulder he told her, ‘One o’ the gaffers horses needed shoein’ so I’ve brought him in. I’ve got a list o’ stuff to get ’ere fer the farmer’s wife while he’s bein’ done an’ all. Per’aps yer could tell me the best places to get ’em?’

  He held the list out to her and she nodded. ‘Ah well, as luck would have it, I’m just on the way to the haberdashery shop to pick up some embroidery silks for Mrs Forbes. That’s where you’ll get the darning wool from. Come on and I’ll show you where it is.’

  As they started off side by side, he stared at her curiously from the corner of his eye. ‘Here – I thought there were somethin’ different about yer an’ I’ve just realised what it is; yer talkin’ all posh now! An’ you ain’t limpin’! What happened?’

  Pearl grinned as she pulled her shawl more tightly about her shoulders. It was now early October and bitingly cold. ‘Well, I’m trying to,’ she told him. ‘The mistress and Mrs Veasey have been giving me lessons but I still forget from time to time and revert back to my old way of speaking. And as for my limp, Mrs Forbes took me to see the shoemaker and he’s made me a built-up shoe for this foot so that this leg is the same length as the other. It’s wonderful, I don’t have to limp anymore.’

  ‘Well, it’s great regardin’ the limp but as for lessons on how to speak, there were nothin’ wrong wi’ how you spoke before,’ he said huffily. ‘Yer sound all different now. But ’ow are you? Yer look a bit tired.’

  ‘I am,’ she admitted. ‘When we first went to work for the Forbeses, Eliza was working in the kitchen but then Mrs Forbes decided she wasn’t well enough and since then I’ve been doing her job as well as my own.’

  ‘So is Eliza still not well then?’

  ‘Oh, she’s really well now, thank goodness,’ Pearl assured him. ‘The trouble is since their son Monty left to go to school in England Mrs Forbes has got a bit obsessive about our Eliza. She almost treats her like a daughter and Eliza is taking full advantage of the fact.’

  She looked so sad as she told him that Nick was shocked. ‘But she were always such a timid little thing.’

  ‘She’s just quiet and doesn’t enjoy the lessons like I do, but she’s got to be quite sly now,’ she said regretfully. ‘She can play Mrs Forbes like a fiddle and barely speaks to me anymore. Not that I’m not pleased for her,’ she added hastily. ‘It’s nice to see her being so looked after. But that’s enough about us. Susan told me that you haven’t been having it easy. How are you getting on?’

  Hands in pockets, Nick shrugged and she noticed how much he had grown in the last few months. He was still stick thin but decidedly taller than she remembered him. ‘I reckon I’m gonna change jobs in the new year,’ he confided. ‘I quite fancy workin’ at the shipyard. Farmin’ ain’t what I imagined, but I’d love to work on the ships. Better still, I’d like to sail in ’em one day, but we’ll see.’

  They had arrived at the haberdashery by then and smiling, Pearl told him, ‘Here we are. What colour wool does your boss want? I’ll come in and help you, if you like. I have to go in anyway.’ And so together they entered the shop.

  At that moment up at the house, could Pearl have known it, Mrs Veasey was having a word with her mistress. ‘I’m a little concerned about Pearl,’ she told her.

  Mrs Forbes frowned as she sat at her ornate escritoire writing a letter home to her parents in London. ‘Oh, and why is that?’

  ‘I’m afraid having to do her own job and Eliza’s is proving rather too much for her,’ Mrs Veasey said with a note of concern in her voice as she chose her words carefully. ‘You see, when she first took on Eliza’s job, we all thought it would be temporary, just until Eliza had got over her dreadful cough but . . .’ Her words trailed away.

  Mrs Forbes flushed. ‘I don’t feel that Lizzie is strong enough to resume kitchen duties yet,’ she answered tartly. ‘And even if she was, I enjoy her company. She keeps me amused. What is wrong with that?’

  ‘Oh, nothing at all,’ Mrs Veasey hastened to assure her. ‘And Pearl has never complained – she’s a hard-working girl. But the thing is, ma’am, the master is due back any day so there will be more work and . . . well, people are beginning to talk . . . you know? They can’t understand why you would take an orphan under your wing.’

  ‘So let them,’ her employer snapped. ‘As my mother would say, while they are talking about me they are leaving some other poor beggar alone. What I wish to do in my own house is my own affair. However . . .’ She looked slightly guilty. ‘Pearl is a good little worker and doing amazingly well at her lessons and I don’t want to overwork her, so perhaps you could arrange another kitchen maid to take Lizzie’s place? I don’t want it said that I’m a slave driver.’

  ‘Very well, I’ll look into it straight away,’ Mrs Veasey said primly and turning about she left the room without another word.

  ‘So how did you get on?’ Cook asked the second she walked back into the kitchen.

  Florence Veasey shook her head. ‘It seems that she has no intention of Eliza resuming work in the kitchen, so she’s told me to employ another kitchen maid. It’s something, I suppose, and at least that will take some of the work from Pearl’s shoulders.’

  The cook tutted. ‘That little madam is getting too big for her boots,’ she said angrily. ‘Why, only this morning I heard her shouting at Pearl to come and do her hair immediately. She treats her like a servant but they’re sisters, for goodness sake! I think Madam Eliza has forgotten that. Between you and me, I think the master has his concerns as well. The way she treats that lass is a little disturbing. Anyone would think she was the daughter of the house!’

  ‘I agree, but as there’s nothing we can do about it we just have to get on with things. Meanwhile, I’ll go and see if Miss Walker can recommend a new kitchen maid.’

  In the hallway, with her ear pressed up against the green baize door, Eliza fumed as she listened to the two women speaking about her. They just want to spoil things for me ’cause they’re jealous, she told herself as she crept away. But I won’t let them!

  Three days later, the new kitchen maid that Mrs Veasey had appointed arrived and at sight of her Pearl’s mouth dropped open. ‘Freda,’ she said. ‘How are you?’

  Freda sniffed as she sat at the table drinking tea with Cook before being shown to her room. ‘I’m all right, I suppose. You ’ave to be, don’t you?’ she answered indifferently.

  ‘So do you two know each other?’ Cook asked. If they did, they certainly didn’t seem too pleased to see each other.

  ‘Yes, we were in the workhouse back in England together and we came here on the same boat,’ Pearl said, and making an effort she gave Freda a smile.

  ‘In that case when Freda’s finished her tea, you could perhaps show her up to your room,�
�� Cook told her. ‘She’ll be sharing with you.’

  Pearl’s heart dropped like a stone. As lonely as she was without Eliza, she didn’t relish the thought of having to share a room with Freda again. She had always been so spiteful and unfriendly, but perhaps she had changed now? Pearl could only hope so.

  ‘So that will be your bed there,’ she told Freda shortly after she had shown her up to their room.

  Freda sniffed as she looked around. ‘It ain’t exactly posh, is it!’

  ‘It’s comfortable enough,’ Pearl answered as she straightened the cover on her own bed. ‘But I’ll leave you to unpack now. I have to go and lay the table for lunch.’

  ‘Ooh ’ark at Miss La-di-da!’ Freda said maliciously.

  Refusing to be goaded, Pearl quietly left the room with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that things might not be quite so harmonious in the Forbes household from now on. It was bad enough with Eliza acting like she owned the place, but something told her things were about to get worse.

  Once the lunch dishes were cleared away, it was lesson time, Pearl’s favourite time of the day, and they trooped into the drawing room to find Mr Jackson waiting for them.

  Like Eliza, Freda wasn’t at all keen on being educated, but Pearl still loved it and soaked up everything she was taught like a sponge. Recently they had been learning about the kings and queens of England and Pearl had enjoyed it. Now he was teaching them about Greek mythology and she loved that even more. She was enchanted with characters such as the beautiful Artemis, the daughter of the legendary Titaness Leto and Zeus, the king of the gods, and fascinated with all the gods of ancient Greece. Mr Jackson had sent for some books on the subject from England to help them with their learning, but as yet Pearl was the only one who had shown any interest in reading them.

  ‘Ah, Mrs Forbes informed me that there would be another pupil joining us. Welcome, Freda,’ Mr Jackson said as they entered the room, but Freda merely scowled and sat down looking disinterested before they had even begun. Eliza didn’t even attempt to speak to her and looked down her nose at her.