The Windsor Girl

by Sylvia Burton

  Ellie said nothing, and Richard went back to his breakfast.

  Ellie’s eyes burnt into the back of his neck. Several times, Richard’s hand went to the spot, upon which, Ellie was focusing her stare.

  Suddenly, and inexplicably, he felt exceedingly uncomfortable in the girl’s presence. Annoyed by this feeling, which was so foreign to him, he turned to her and said, sharply, ‘are you still here girl?’ When she remained silent, he added, ‘you are dismissed’.

  Ellie walked slowly to the door, turned around and said, politely, ‘thank you sir’.

  She was still ‘seething’ with anger when she reached the kitchen. Richard, on the other hand, was sitting there wondering why he had done this. Why on earth had he wanted to antagonise the girl? He wondered how long she had worked here and why he had not seen her before? He would have asked his mother, but it would not be seemly to ask about a servant, especially as he had just told her about Elizabeth.

  Richard thought now, about Elizabeth. She was an attractive young lady, well spoken, and knew how to behave when confronted with parents and people of authority. Unlike little Miss Windsor, he surmised, the maid would speak her mind when, and to whom, she wanted, albeit in a polite way. Nevertheless, he reluctantly admitted, he liked the girl.

  Richard shook his head to clear the picture of Ellie from his mind. He was bringing Elizabeth to tea on Sunday and it was best that he concentrated on her.

  Try as he would, he failed, miserably, to focus his thoughts on the elegant Elizabeth. He did, however, think how nice it would be to see Ellie smile. He was sure that it would be a sight to behold.

  Chapter Eleven

  Ellie had been in service for two years now and had won the heart of everyone who worked in the ‘big house’, with the exception of the housekeeper Miss Maud, who hated her, and everyone knew it.

  Missus Blunt loved her and tried to make life easier for her. She also made life a little better for Kate too because Ellie cared for her. Ellie was never made aware of this, as Cook didn’t want it thought that she had a favourite amongst the staff. However, William had noticed and was grateful to Rose for her kindness to the girl, and for the first time, since they were married, William felt a new kind of love for his wife.

  During the summer of 1899, as in all the time she had worked at the house, Ellie dutifully returned home to her family every month. She delivered her wages to her mother every fourth week, which had been increased by three shillings a month, and used this time to catch up with the happenings in Canal Street.

  ‘Ma Bagnall’s windows were broken, you know’, said Maggie, ‘young thugs they were. Looking to get their hands on anything of value, I expect’.

  Ellie felt sure that they didn’t find what they were looking for at old Ma Bagnall’s house. The poor woman had very little.

  ‘And you friend, Mary’, she went on; ‘she’s got herself a young man’.

  According to her mother’s account, ‘ought to watch her step, otherwise, she could end up pregnant’.

  She told Ellie, in hushed tones, about the scandal of neighbour, Walter Stanton, who lived two doors away. It would seem that his wife, Floss, had run off with the coal man, only to find that he didn’t have ‘hundreds’ in the bank, as she had been led to believe. She had tried to get Walter to take her back, begging him to forgive her, but he had said she was nothing but a harlot and he wanted nothing to do with her. They had three sons and two daughters, none of them willing to speak to their mother.

  Her mother, in her formidable way, passed judgement with, a ‘who can blame them?’ She thought she was going to have a lady’s life and she didn’t give a damn about her kids, did she? Let’s see what kind of a man she gets in the workhouse, because she’ll have another man, make no mistake. She’s like that, you know, can’t do without a man’.

  On her visits home, Ellie often thought how poor the street looked. Doors, badly in need of a coat of paint, litter in the gutter and rubbish left outside the houses, instead of in the area provided. Why had she not noticed it before? It all began to feel alien to her. She knew she would not be happy to return home, permanently, nor did she feel that she belonged at the Courtney Residence. She was confused as to where she fit in, or where her place in life, actually, was.

  Maggie had noticed a great change in her daughter. Her little Ellie no longer existed. She had been replaced with this, quite sophisticated, young woman, well spoken and so confident that Maggie felt she didn’t belong here, and was a little relieved when her visit was over, and she had left the house. However, she loved her dearly and was proud of how she had turned out.

  Ellie was now in her eighteenth year but seemed older somehow. She had felt strangely detached from her ‘roots’ more, and more, of late. She didn't blame her mother. She knew that her life at the big house had changed her view of how life could be. If she was honest, she had no desire to revert to the frightened girl who had stood in front of the housekeeper, unable to speak for herself.

  She liked the person she had become. She was young and strong and had long ago decided that she was going to be ‘true to herself’, and no one, not even her mother, was going to change that. No, Ellie didn’t know where she was going in life, but she knew she would never underestimate her own abilities. She was determined that she would stand by her principles no matter who she came up against in life.

  Her brothers looked forward to Ellie’s visits. She always managed to bring them some morsel of food, which they had not tasted before. She found pleasure in watching the expressions of delight, or disgust, on their faces as they closed their eyes and hoped the surprise would be a good one.

  William gave Ellie parcels of leftovers, and fruit when in season, to share with her family. Maggie always expressed her gratitude to Ellie.

  ‘Be sure to thank him for his kindness’.

  On her last visit, as Ellie was about to make her way back to Thornton Avenue, Maggie had sheepishly given her a folded sheet of white paper to give to ‘the kind Mister Blunt’.

  Ellie had been staggered. She had waited until she was round the corner, and out of Canal Street, before she unfolded the paper. Her mother, despite her lack of education, had penned a letter of thanks. The writing looked awkward and childlike, but Ellie almost burst with pride when she read the letter.

  William had been pleased to receive it and very touched. He and his wife had never had children and although it had distressed Rose, greatly, he had not minded at all. He had not wanted the responsibility of loving, or being loved, and until Ellie had come to the house, he had lived his life quietly with little concern for anyone or anything, other than, being a good Butler.

  Now there was Ellie. Ellie was the daughter he had never had. He was acutely aware of this but Ellie, although grateful for his goodness to her, was oblivious to anything of a more personal nature that the Butler may have felt.

  Towards the end of that summer, Miss Maud gathered the staff together and told them that the family was to spend a week at the country house.

  ‘As the whole family is going for a vacation, and none of them will be staying here at the house, you will all be required to go along with them. The county house is not fully staffed so this is not to be considered a holiday, not by any means’.

  She turned to Missus Blunt and went on, ‘the town house must not be left unoccupied; therefore, William will stay here to look after things. I am sure you can manage without him for a little while’.

  ‘Well, I don’t know about that, Miss Maud’, said Missus Blunt, ‘we have stayed behind only together in the past, when the family went away and William has to be taken care of, you know’.

  Cook was most indignant and quite upset by the idea. She and William had never had a night apart in all their married life, and she didn’t like the thought of it at all.

  The housekeeper broke in, ‘everything is arranged, Missus Blunt. Your husband’s needs will be seen to, rest assured. The Mistress insists that you accompany the party, as she
wants the family to eat as well in the country, as they do here, in town. You know how difficult it is to find a good cook? So you see, my dear Missus Blunt, you are considered to be quite indispensable’.

  Cook felt better already, ‘well, if they really can’t manage without me? I suppose William could get by, it’s only seven days, after all. I’ll have to have a word with him. I’m sure he’ll understand’.

  Ellie and Kate exchanged glances, both excited by the prospect of travelling to York.

  Later, in their bedroom, the two girls discussed the trip, each asking questions and neither knowing the answers.

  Ellie wondered how they would travel and Kate thought they might be expected to walk there.

  ‘How far is York Ellie?’ asked Kate.

  ‘I really don’t know Kate, it must be a long way though’, Ellie replied, ‘it must be at least thirty miles, so I don’t think we will be made to go there on foot. It will be the longest journey I have ever taken’.

  ‘Me too. Well, since I was a baby. I hope we get to sleep in the same room when we get there’.

  Ellie smiled and said, ‘if we do, or not, it will be exciting being in the country and it will certainly make a change from smokey old Leeds’.

  Kate was excited at the thought of seeing all the members of the family, all in one place at the same time, and wondered if they would get to speak to any of them.

  ‘In a friendly manner, if you know what I mean?’ she said, sitting on her bed, her arms wrapped around her knees. ‘Do you think Master Richard will be going? He’s ever so handsome, don’t you think Ellie?’

  ‘They’re all going, according to Miss Maud, so I expect he will be there. I only hope we never have occasion to meet’.

  Kate asked, ‘why do you dislike him so much, Ellie? You’re not like that with anyone else’.

  She went on, despite the serious look on her friend’s face, ‘I know you had to serve him once, but it was only the once, wasn’t it? What ever did he do to you?’

  ‘Nothing, I just don’t want to see him again, that's all. I think he is arrogant and ill mannered’.

  ‘Well, there’s something you’re not telling me’, insisted Kate, wondering why Ellie wouldn’t confide in her.

  ‘Oh, stop it Kate. You’re being childish’.

  She regretted her words as soon as they were said. The truth was that she didn’t know why she felt the way did about Richard. She thought of him as Richard, not Master Richard, nor Sir. Since their first meeting so long ago she had, on numerous occasions, come into contact with him, as she entered or left the house.

  A number of times she had been required to take messages upstairs, to the housekeeper, and had seen him in one of the rooms, leading off the main hall. Sometimes he would walk towards her, as if to speak, but never did. And she was grateful about that. If she had the good fortune to see him first, she went out of her way in order to avoid him.

  What Ellie said now, was, ‘Kate, let’s not mention him again because I really don’t want to talk about him. Just accept that he is someone I am not likely to speak to at the country house. Anyway, we will be too busy working our fingers to the bone. We won’t have time for socialising, and who would want to talk to the likes of us? Two scullery maids.’

  Kate finally gave up the subject and they talked well into the night, finally drifting into sleep to dream, perhaps, of knights in shining armour.

  The next few days were spent preparing everything for the journey. The upstairs staff was busy packing, ever increasing, items of clothing. Victoria and her children, alone, would be taking four large trunks. Goodness knows how much more the rest of the family will take. Ellie thought, it just as well they are not going away for a month.

  Normally, every few days, Miss Maud would bring in ‘laundry maids’ who lived nearby; to do the family’s washing. There was a large room to the back of the kitchen which was fully equipped for the purpose, with set pots, mangles and rubbing boards. Here too, the floor was flagged but had several gullies running around the sides and down the centre of it, so that the water quickly drained out of the door.

  This week, the laundry maids were in every day washing, not only, clothes but bed linen, as even this was to be taken to York. Ellie wondered if it was all worth it, but I expect they know what they are going to need, she thought and her mind went back to her home, in Canal Street, where the boys would still be sleeping under old coats in order to keep warm.

  Chapter Twelve

  About two thirty, on Wednesday afternoon, Cook called Ellie over. She asked Ellie to deliver a basket to a young family who lived some two miles away.

  Missus Blunt whispered, confidentially. ‘They are such a nice couple but, oh they are so poor. The little boy is only a year old and she is almost ready to give birth again. Poor Jenny needs a little help so I’d be grateful if you would take them a little something. It’s only a drop of milk for the little one and bits of leftover food. You understand, don’t you Ellie?’

  She spoke, almost as if she was asking Ellie’s permission, though of course, she needn’t have troubled. Ellie knew, only too well, the hardships of this life.

  Cook added, ‘it’s only food which would be thrown out. It’s not like stealing’.

  Thanks to William Ellie and her family had been on the ‘receiving end’ of this kind of charity, for the past two years, and very grateful she was too.

  She smiled, reassuringly at Missus Blunt, and answered, ‘I understand, Cook, and I don’t mind going. Just write down the address and I’ll get it to them right away’.

  Cook handed her the piece of paper and she read, twenty-one, Back Parson Street, The Hunslet Road. It was just on three o’clock as she set off down the Avenue, and once she had found the Hunslet Road, it did not take her long to locate the street she was looking for.

  The house was situated in a poorer area than Canal Street, if that were possible. Dirty children played on the cobbled road, most without shoes, and all with torn or worn clothes. Unkempt women stood in groups, outside houses with dirty windows and un-scrubbed steps.

  As Ellie approached number twenty-one she thought, my mother would have a fit if she saw this squalor.

  She noticed how the women eyed her up and down, whilst she waited for an answer to her knock. She was wearing a new cloth cape, which was now part of her ‘walking out’ uniform, which the Mistress had provided, and she had on her good shoes. In the eyes of the women, standing there, she must have looked quite ‘well to do’.

  Ellie was relieved when a young man, whom she presumed was Jenny’s husband, let her into the house.

  He said his name was Mark and he was, indeed, the man of the house, although, he hardly looked old enough. His bright red hair was badly in need of a trim and his shirt had odd buttons and was frayed at the collar. Nevertheless, he had a nice manner, although at the moment, his eyes had a worried expression.

  ‘Do come in Miss. I expect the basket is from Rose’

  Seeing Ellie’s puzzled look, he elaborated, ‘oh, I beg pardon, you’ll know her as Missus Blunt, I expect. She’s a good soul, is Missus Blunt’.

  ‘Yes, she’s very kind to the staff in the kitchen’, she said, trying not to look around the bare room. It was very clean, the flags on the floor shone as if they had been polished and although there were no ‘net curtains’, the windows positively sparkled. Ellie smiled at Mark and was concerned by his obvious discomfort.

  Mark smiled for the first time, as he introduced Ellie to the ‘very pregnant’ Jenny. It was a weak smile but in an instant, his face was transformed.

  ‘This is my wife, Jenny. I’m afraid she’s not very well’, he said, picking up a small boy and holding him to his chest.

  Ellie looked over at Jenny and knew at once the reason she was ill. Jenny stood up to meet her guest, holding her back as she heaved herself up from the chair. Ellie could see she was very near her time. She had seen many women in the same situation. She had helped at her mother’s confinement, when
Harry was born, fetching water and clean towels for the Midwife.

  Ellie smiled at Jenny, who was a plain girl and not much older than herself. She said with concern, ‘you’re very near to your time, aren’t you? Are you feeling very unwell?’

  Jenny grimaced, ‘I’m afraid I am nearer than I thought. I’ve been in discomfort since ten o’clock this morning and there’s no sign of the Midwife yet. We sent for her two hours ago’.

  Mark, still agitated, broke in, ‘I’m just waiting for her to get here so I can take young Peter to his Grandmother’s. She’s going to keep him until tomorrow; it’ll be better for him to be out of the way. I really don’t know what could have happened to the Midwife’. Mark looked so worried and moving to his wife’s side, he put his hand on her shoulder as if to comfort her.

  Ellie looked thoughtful for a moment and then suggested that she stay with Jenny. ‘If it will be of any help and just until the nurse gets here’.

  ‘Oh that’s good of you miss’, gasped Jenny, now holding onto the back of the chair, then gasped once more, ‘go on.... then Mark. The quicker ... you ... get off the quicker you ... will be back’. When he hesitated, she cried, urgently, ‘go, go’.

  Ellie closed the door behind him, then went quickly over to the sink, filled up the kettle from the pitcher and placed it on the hob of the fire. At least they had some coal, so water could be heated.

  ‘I’ll make you a cup of tea whilst we wait, shall I?’ said Ellie.

  Jenny nodded as she let out a groan of pain. When the pain finally subsided, she relaxed a little and glanced at Ellie. She took note of her visitor's dress and her whole confident attitude, and asked, ‘you work at the house in Thornton Avenue, do you?’

  ‘Yes’, she said, ‘I’ve worked there for two years now’, she answered, relieved to see that Jenny was now well enough to make conversation.

  ‘What do you do there? You’re not in the kitchen with Rose, are you?’

  ‘Yes I am. I’m a scullery maid and Missus Blunt keeps everyone in line, including myself. But she’s always fair’.