by Wendy Gill
She found herself walking along this built-up area, checking all the buildings as she went until she came to the solicitor’s office. It was a detached, two-storey building and the last house on West Street. After the solicitor’s building, beautiful Scottish moorland reached as far as the eye could see.
It was an impressive location and boasted two stone pillars supporting a canopy which covered a small porch that led to wooden carved double doors. The sides and front of the pillars, except for the entrance, were bricked three quarters of the way up, with the top portion housing windows to provide light inside the porch and protection from the elements.
A plaque, fixed to the side of the door read ‘Grundy, Grundy and Grundy Solicitors’.
Ella guessed it must be around 8 o’clock in the evening by now. She assumed that Grundy, Grundy and Grundy Solicitors would have locked up and gone home long ago.
She stepped up onto the porch and found that in the recesses on either side of the pillars were wooden benches which were out of sight of the road.
Deciding to take a short rest before she set off once more in search of accommodation, Ella sat down in a corner and placed her carpetbag on the floor; raising her aching feet, she used it as a footstool. Then rolling up her cape she placed it on the sidewall and rested her head on it.
She closed her eyes and let the silence engulf her, intending to stay for only a little while. She was soon fast asleep.
Charles Grundy took off his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes. He placed all the paperwork on his desk in a folder and took it to the filing cabinet, and closing the drawer, he heaved a big sigh.
He had nothing to look forward to when he returned home, and he found himself staying at the office longer and longer and tonight was no exception. He looked around to make sure everything was in order before making his way out, locking the door behind him.
He turned to go onto the street and was amazed to see a young woman with her head on one side and her feet upon a carpetbag, fast asleep and seemingly without a care in the world.
Hesitating, he approached her and touched her shoulder expecting her to wake up, but nothing happened, she was still fast asleep. Taking hold of her arm, he gently shook her until she stirred, then he stepped back so he would not alarm her.
Ella struggled to open her eyes. She took a deep breath and held it for a moment before slowly coming from a deep, dreamless sleep. Her eyes grew larger as she took in a portly gentleman with tall black hat, small round glasses and tight-fitting tailcoat, exaggerating his girth.
“I beg your pardon, sir. I did not mean any harm. I sat down to rest for a while and must have fallen asleep. It has been a long day,” the young woman told him.
“Well, you cannot sleep here all night. You never know who is lurking about. May I walk you back to your home?”
“Unfortunately, I have no home to go to. I was looking for lodgings but have so far been unsuccessful. I wonder, sir, do you know of anywhere I could retire for the night? Then, in the morning I can search for somewhere to stay for a few days. If so, would you be so kind as to direct me? I am a stranger here and I am afraid I am lost.”
“Where do you want to go? You may have a problem at this late hour. Have you no relations here that you could go to? Marchum is a very quiet little town I am afraid. Not much goes off here so there is no call for lodging houses, we do not get many visitors,” the portly gentleman told her.
“I am here to see, Grundy, Grundy and Grundy, Solicitors. I noticed their name on the plaque on the wall, so I sat down to rest for a while. I have been travelling all day. I guess I would still have been here in the morning if you had not come by.” Ella gave a weary smile, but Mr Grundy did not miss the twinkle in her eye.
“Tell me, what is your name?”
“Ella Penrod, do you think you might be able to help me, sir?”
“You are Ella Penrod? Well, I must say I am most pleased to see you my dear. My name is Charles Grundy, it is I who sent you the letters. The best thing for you to do is come home with me and we will have some supper and talk.”
“Come home with you sir, I could not, I do not know you. Thank you for the kind offer but I really must decline.”
“There is no impropriety involved here, for even though we have not met before, I am your uncle, so there is no need for you to be miss-ish. Your circumstances leave you without much option I am afraid. You are quite safe with me you know, I am not built to be chasing young ladies ’round the bedroom, as you can well see.” Mr Grundy patted his portly stomach and gave her a devilish wink.
Ella decided she liked Mr Grundy and felt that she could trust him, but she said, “My uncle sir? I did not know I had an uncle.”
“I am your uncle by marriage. But come along, it has been a long day for me too. Let us go home and have something to eat and I will explain everything to you when we are sitting comfortably. There is no need for you to feel nervous. By the end of this evening, I have a feeling that you and I are going to be great friends.” He held out his hand and Ella placed her hand in it and he helped her to her feet.
Mr Grundy picked up her carpetbag, held out his arm and she tucked her hand under it and they set off, back down West Street, retracing Ella’s footsteps.
By now the light was beginning to fade and the evening was starting to come alive. One or two characters passed them by as they walked the length of West Street and cast an eye in Ella’s direction, she was grateful for Mr Grundy’s presence.
Oddly, when they turned into Haywood Street, which comprised of two long rows of terraced houses, one on either side of the road, they didn’t meet a soul. Haywood Street was deserted.
Ella and Mr Grundy did not speak until they neared the end of Haywood Street, which like West Street, heralded the end of the town. “Nearly there my dear, nearly there,” he told her kindly.
Mr Grundy stopped at the last house. He opened the little wooden gate that led into a small forecourt garden. He proceeded up a narrow path with a very small lawn at either side then up two shallow steps which brought them to the front door.
Mr Grundy placed Ella’s carpetbag on the top step and said, “Before we go inside, let me show you the side of the house. I know it is getting dark now and you may not be able to see much but it will give you an idea of the layout of the house.”
He led her back through the gate to the side of the house where there was a further wooden fence leading onto an open meadow. But it was difficult to make anything out at the far end of the meadow in the fast fading evening light.
Mr Grundy pointed his finger to an extension added onto the side of his house and Ella saw what looked very much like a barn with a thatched roof.
"That extension was your aunt Fran’s workshop, but we will go into that in the morning. I am ready for my tea. The days all seem to be long and meaningless now. But it could be I am just getting old. I am certainly not getting any younger but meeting you and bringing you home today, has lifted my spirits no end.
“Come, let us put the kettle on and have a nice little chat before we go to bed. There is a spare room that you may use tonight and then we will decide what is best to be done with you in the morning. You must be tired and hungry having travelled all the way from Rampton.”
"On the contrary sir, my little nap has revived me. I have not been so wide awake for a long time. But I could not possibly go to sleep until I know what all this is about. I left my last employment in Longcash Moors on the edge of Rampton this morning with only a few shillings in my purse, no job and no prospects of finding one soon.
"Now I find myself with more than ten pounds left in my purse, thanks to you, and an offer of a bed for the night and something to eat. Although I must admit sir, I indulged myself at The Leg of Mutton Inn when we stopped to change the horses, with a very fine lunch and a most-welcome hot cup of tea.
“I have not had such an amount of money in my purse for quite a few years, not since my father died leaving me with nothing. I have had to
work for my living and it has been an unpleasant three years. Being able to splash out on a nice lunch was very extravagant of me but, by Jove, did I enjoy it, then I felt guilty for I indulged in not one, but two very fine meals today. It was very extravagant of me considering the size of my purse.”
Mr Grundy gave a delighted chuckle and unlocked his front door, picked up Ella’s carpetbag, and entered the long dark hallway with a staircase running off to the right that led to the first-floor landing.
Mr Grundy placed the carpetbag on the bottom step of the staircase, then he lit a candle that was conveniently placed on a little side table, opposite the staircase and to the left of the entrance door. The candle gave off a warm pale glow providing light along the hallway which ran the length of the house and Ella found herself in the small homely kitchen.
More candles were set alight and Mr Grundy pulled out a chair and told her to sit down. He said he would make them some supper and then they could go into the front room and have a nice cosy chat.
Having all her offers to help turned down, Ella sat at the kitchen table and looked around her.
There was a big white pot sink with a window above and wooden draining board to the side. What looked like a backdoor leading out to the rear garden, but Ella could not confirm this because she was unable to see anything of the outside for by now it was too dark.
There was a big open fireplace with a cast iron oven to the side. The floor was stone flagged and a large dresser covered one entire wall and was piled high with cups, plates, pots and pans, in fact, anything a cook would need to prepare a meal seemed to be located on the shelves.
Glancing outside, she could see nothing, but total darkness and she felt warm and safe for the first time in the past three years. Ella gave a silent thank you and resigned herself to her present situation without any feeling of guilt or prick of conscience.
“Any minute now I am going to wake up,” Ella said.
“Supper is nearly ready, there is only some cold ham, bread, butter and a cup of tea I am afraid. I was not expecting visitors. Tomorrow is Saturday; therefore, I do not have to go into work. We can both have a good lie-in in the morning, then we will go shopping so I can stock up the empty larder. You can enjoy looking around the shops and buy yourself some new clothes if you wish. Money is no object. You can get whatever you like.” Mr Grundy placed a steaming cup of tea in front of her.
“Help yourself to the food. You will feel much more at ease with your situation when you have eaten something. Travelling always makes me very hungry and irritable.”
"I cannot possibly impose on you like this, and I certainly cannot accept money from you. I should not really be here at all. Things seem to have gone off the rails so to speak. Really Mr Grundy, I do appreciate you putting me up for the night, indeed I do not know what I would have done had you not been working late and found me.
“You should not have been so kind to me. I am afraid I have had quite a few years of people being unkind. Your kindness took me by surprise. It was so easy to allow myself to be talked into this.” Ella gave a defeated sigh as she bit into the bread and butter.
"No, no, you mistake me. I will of course be funding the cost of filling up the larder; after all, it is my larder. But the money I spoke of is yours by right. Your Aunt Fran left everything to you. We will talk about that later. Tomorrow I will also show you around your Aunt Fran’s extension.
“Workshop as your Aunt Fran called it, attached to the side of the house. The one I showed you when we arrived. We had the extension built for your Aunt Fran, somewhere she loved to escape to when she needed a bit of peace and quiet. She loved to look out over the meadow, down to the stream and across at the wood. She was a very wealthy woman in her own right, besides what we had jointly.”
Mr Grundy paused while he ate some supper then continued, “Unfortunately we had no children. I say unfortunately, I cannot say either of us was inclined to feel broody. We were happy with each other’s company. I miss her very much, very much indeed.”
He paused again and taking a deep breath, he added, "When she became ill, your Aunt Fran asked me to write to you and ask you to come and meet her. She had followed your progress over the years, but she was taken from me too quickly. By the time I had written that third letter to you, it was too late, your Aunt Fran had passed away.
“After I had posted the third letter onto you, I decided that if I had not heard from you within two weeks, I would go to Longcash Moors myself to find out if you still lived at the Sterns’ mansion. I must say I am extremely pleased I did not have to undertake that journey, my poor old bones do not travel well these days.”
"I never received the first two letters. Lady Stern intercepted them, read them and withheld the money you had placed inside. It was only by chance that I came upon the postman as I made my way off Lady Stern’s property, and he gave me the third letter.
"The postman told me about the other two letters he had delivered for me to the Stern’s residence. He took me back to the house and I told Lady Stern that the postman was waiting at the door ready to act against her if she did not give me the letters she had withheld.
"Once she knew the postman was waiting for me outside, she did not deny withholding the letters. She had kept them, and reluctantly she gave them back to me. Or I should say, practically threw them at me, together with the two five-pound notes that you had so kindly enclosed in the letters. It was a very lucky encounter with the postman for if I had not bumped into him, I would never have known that they existed.
“There was not much else she could do after I had told her that you had mentioned enclosing the money in both of the other letters she had withheld. I am most grateful to you for that Mr Grundy, thank you.”
“No need for thanks my dear, the money is rightfully yours.”
“I am confused to say the least, sir. Are you sure you have the right person? I am not aware that I ever had an Aunt Fran, you must be mistaken.”
"No, there is no mistake. You look like her you know. It could be her sitting there now. Fran followed your every move. She was going to write to you when your father died. I am so sorry, my dear, for your loss.
"Until I met Fran, I am afraid I had been a most selfish individual, she taught me to live and love like I had never known. Now my life has gone back to what it was before your aunt and I met. I was hoping against hope you and I could become friends, you have nobody, just like me, but I do not expect a young woman like you will want to be bothered with an old fool like me.
“Let us put these pots in the sink and leave them for tomorrow. I need a good night’s sleep and I am sure you must be ready for your bed. It must have been a long day for you too, travelling all that way. We will talk in the morning and work everything out. All will turn out for the best. Don’t worry your pretty little head over it.”
Ella looked at Mr Grundy. "I feel I can trust you Mr Grundy. The moment I opened my eyes and saw your kind face smiling at me, I felt I could trust you. With all my straight-laced upbringing, sleeping in a house with a man I have only known for two hours goes against everything I have had drilled into me about protocol.
“I am throwing all that to the wind and I am going to admit to you Mr Grundy, I would be very grateful for a bed for the night. I do not want to be a burden to you. And I do not want to have something that does not belong to me. Are you quite sure sir that I am your late Fran’s niece?”
"Did your father never talk to you about his younger sister, the one who ran away from home to become an actress? I believe that her father, your grandfather, disowned her and would not have her name mentioned in his house. History has a habit of repeating itself you know.
"Believe it or not, I lived in Wanebridge some twenty years ago and met Fran, sitting in a doorway crying her eyes out. She had no money, nowhere to live and was on the verge of becoming a lady of the night.
"Her aspirations of becoming an actress never came to anything, and what money she had, soon ran out. You
r grandfather had refused to let her go back home, he said she had made her bed, so she must lie on it. I was quite a man about town in those days. I offered her a bed for the night, just like I have offered one to you.
"A bed for the night was all I offered your Aunt Fran. I could not leave the young woman sitting on that doorstep, anything could have happened to her. She also accepted my offer of a bed for the night and she never left.
"We fell in love and got married. I became a solicitor and we moved down here, away from gossiping tongues and we never looked back. I am sure you will enjoy rummaging through all her things in the extension, but I digress. I am afraid where Fran is concerned, I can become a bit of a bore, do forgive me.
"There was an old aunt of Fran’s, and your father of course, whom Fran kept in touch with. A Lady Whiteman, she kept Fran informed of all that went on back at your old home, Foxtails Hall. Fran has followed your progress from the day you were born. She wanted you to make your own way in the world, to learn how to survive and make a future for yourself, just like she had to.
"Before Lady Whiteman died, she told Fran her housekeeper was friends with your father’s housekeeper, who had a daughter, who I believe you kept in touch with. When Lady Whiteman died, your old housekeeper’s daughter kept Fran up to date with your whereabouts.
“Fran said that she had grown up being given everything she wanted, in fact, she had been a spoilt young woman not satisfied with anything she had until it was taken from her. Fran found happiness and contentment by having to survive on her own and she said I had done that for her. I always said it was the other way around, I had not known happiness until we met.”
"I remember Lady Whiteman. She terrified the life out of me. She died many years ago and I am ashamed to say I had not thought of her in a long time. Yes, Lady Whiteman was an aunt of my father’s. I guess your Fran must have been my aunt. You have given me much to think about Mr Grundy, I wish I had met her, Aunt Fran I mean. I only ever knew my father whilst I was growing up and he brought me up like the son he never had.