by Rosie Clarke
Lady Kendle was quite another matter, Jessie decided five minutes after being introduced to the fragile old lady. Her hair was silvery white, long and pulled neatly into a loop at the back of her head, her face deeply lined by the ravages of ill health, but her eyes were bright, inquisitive and kind. She was very concerned about Nanny and wanted to hear all the details.
‘Poor, poor Nanny,’ she said as Jessie told her how she had found her. ‘I thought she was looking a little unwell this morning when she came in to bring me the papers and talk to me for a few minutes. We’ve all expected too much of her. She is eighteen years older than I am, you know, and she’s worked hard all her life. She worked in a laundry for some years when she was just a child, somewhere up north. She started first as a nursery maid with my husband’s parents and then became Nanny when the old nanny retired.’
‘The doctor says she will recover given rest, so we must hope for the best,’ Mary said and frowned as if she didn’t want to talk about the children’s nurse.
‘What do you think, Jessie?’ Lady Kendle asked, looking at her. ‘You’ve been a nurse so I’ve been told.’
‘Yes, my lady, Jessie replied wondering if she should curtsey. She’d never met a real lady before. ‘I was in the VADs and then at St Joseph’s hospital for two years. We had several patients like Nanny there. It was a church hospital and three of our wards were kept for the poor and elderly. I think bed rest should help. She may have been neglecting herself. If she can be persuaded to rest and eat she should do well.’
‘You’ve had good experience then.’ Lady Kendle’s gaze was intent. ‘Will you find your duties here too much, Jessie? You will have two elderly patients now as well as the children.’
Jessie smiled at the idea. ‘We often had twenty or more patients on the ward. I’ve been used to being busy, my lady. I don’t mind hard work.’
‘Call me ma’am – or Anne if you like,’ Lady Kendle said smiling at her. ‘We don’t use the title unless it’s a formal occasion. I’m very glad you’ve come and I hope you will be happy with us. Mary needs someone like you to help her. She has too much to do, as the rest of you have, I’m afraid.’
‘Thank you, ma’am. Is there anything I can do for you now?’
‘No, thank you. Mrs Pearson did my pillows earlier. She will bring me my evening meal on a tray when she is ready. I don’t require much these days. But you may come and see me before you retire if you will? I should like to talk to you again.’
‘Yes, of course, ma’am.’
Jessie had intended to do that anyway. A warm drink of milk and a biscuit often helped patients to settle for the night and it would be no trouble once she’d seen that Nanny was peaceful.
Mrs Pearson arrived with the tray for Lady Kendle. It was beautifully laid out with an embroidered cloth and silver covers over the plates, but Jessie wondered what was under them. She hoped it was something tempting to an invalid’s palate. Lady Kendle looked thin and pale, as if she ate too little.
‘Well, I shall leave you to find your own way down,’ Mary said as they left her mother-in-law’s room. ‘I hope Mrs Pearson made sure you know your way around?’
‘Yes, thank you.’ Jessie hesitated. ‘Should I call you by your name, Mrs Kendle?’
‘The domestic staff call me ma’am,’ Mary replied. ‘But you are rather different, Jessie. You have been properly educated I think. Use my name if you prefer. As my mother-in-law said, we want you to be happy with us.’
‘Thank you, Mrs Kendle.’ Jessie nodded, turning in the opposite direction. She wanted to look in on Nanny again before she went down to supper.
The doctor had given Nanny a sedative and she was sleeping peacefully, her breathing normal and not laboured. Jessie checked and smiled as she found her skin dry and cool. No sign of a fever or sweating. With any luck she would be feeling better when she woke, though she was bound to be an invalid for a while. Jessie wondered what might have happened to Nanny if she had not answered that advert.
Leaving Nanny’s room, she went downstairs to find Maggie setting the table in the servants’ hall, which was a grand name for a rather small room just off the kitchen.
‘In the old days the servants took it in turns to eat in here,’ Maggie told her as she helped place the last few items on the table. ‘Once the main course has gone upstairs we have ours in here. Cook sent the soup up ten minutes ago. She’s putting the roast under covers now so I’ll be bringing ours through soon.’
‘Do we all eat in here?’
‘Mrs Pearson fetches hers on a tray and takes it to her room – it’s down the hall from us. Alice and Carter are upstairs serving the family. Carter is a jack of all trades, so Cook says. He was Sir Joshua’s man at the start. Now he drives the car and anything else they ask him. It wouldn’t have done once, I can tell you, but we’ve had to manage because of the war. Alice complains there’s too much work, but she won’t leave. She’s got her eye on a local lad. Besides, they’re always looking for more help. Not their fault if they can’t find it.’
Jessie followed the informative maid into the kitchen and discovered that Cook was dishing up vegetables and crisply roasted potatoes onto silver dishes. Everything was placed under matching covers and sent upstairs in a serving hatch that operated by way of a pulley.
‘Captain Kendle had this put in just before the war. The food keeps better for them since he persuaded his father to have it done,’ Cook told her. ‘Must’ve gone cold before they got it in the old days. ‘Sides, it saves Carter and Alice up and down them stairs. They’d never manage fetching it all that way.’
‘Shall I get ours up?’ Maggie asked her.
‘Help me send this lot up first.’
Maggie carried the heavily loaded trays to the hatch, putting them inside and pulling the rope that let Carter know they were ready.
‘What about Carter and Alice?’ Jessie asked. ‘When do they eat?’
‘Alice will pop down when they’re all served up there,’ Cook said. ‘Carter stays until they’ve finished, then Mrs Pearson goes up to serve the puddings and he comes down to have his. We used to do it in more style once. Things ’ave been let go since the war. We thought it would get better when the captain came home; he used to be full of ideas, bit of a designer himself he was, always on the go, wanting to modernise us all. He don’t seem interested in the house these days. Still, I dare say he’s got more than enough to do.’
‘Surely the house is Mrs Kendle’s responsibility?’
‘Well, least said soonest mended on that score,’ Cook said and set some dishes on a tray just as Mrs Pearson came in carrying what looked like Lady Kendle’s tray. Jessie lifted the covers and saw that the food had been hardly touched, though she couldn’t fault the poached fish that had been sent up. ‘Here you are then, Eve. It’s a bit of poached fish as you asked, same as her ladyship.’
‘Thank you, Kate,’ the housekeeper said. She looked at Jessie for a moment, hesitated, then picked up her tray and went out without a word.
‘She probably thought of asking you to eat with her,’ Cook said. ‘Must get lonely on her own sometimes but she won’t eat with us. Got to keep up some sort of standard, I suppose.’
Jessie nodded. The nurses at St Joseph’s had eaten in a separate dining room from Matron and the doctors. She pitied Mrs Pearson in her lonely state but she wasn’t going to join her. She liked being with Cook and Maggie, and she was looking forward to meeting Alice.
‘What happened to Mr Pearson?’ she asked. ‘Or is he about somewhere?’
‘He used to be the butler here,’ Cook said. ‘Died of a lung fever a few years back. Things were different here when he was in charge I can tell you. We had lots of parties and people staying then, and plenty of servants to look after them.’
‘Come on,’ Maggie said. ‘I’ve got our dinner ready. I’m starvin’!’
‘What did I tell you? That girl’s got worms,’ Cook said, but she smiled and picked up one of the loaded trays as Magg
ie led the way towards their dining room.
The parlourmaid came down for her dinner just as Maggie had finished setting everything on the table. She was a bright, pretty girl with fair hair and lovely clear grey eyes. She smiled at Jessie, said she was glad she had come and flopped down in her chair.
‘I’ve hardly had a minute all day,’ she said. ‘And I’ve just heard they’re havin’ a dinner party this weekend. There’ll be guests overnight, too, that means more work for all of us.’
‘Will your ma come in, Alice – and yours, Maggie? Goodness knows how Madam thinks we manage when she has her posh friends to stay!’ Cook said and pulled a face. ‘You say you haven’t had a minute, Alice – what about me? My feet are killing me!’
‘I was wondering how you would cope with guests,’ Jessie said.
‘We get extra help in when we need it,’ Cook told her. ‘I suppose if I put my foot down Madam would have to find another girl or two on a permanent basis, but I’m comfortable here and we manage most of the time.’
‘Can we start?’ Maggie asked. ‘My stomach is rumbling and they’ll be ringing for their pudding before we know it.’
Silence reigned as they ate. It was steak and kidney pudding with roast potatoes, cabbage and butter beans. Jessie cleared her plate with relish. Cook certainly knew her job and the suet pudding melted on the tongue. They had barely finished eating when a bell rang. Cook and Maggie got up together and went through to the kitchen.
‘Dirty dishes down, puddings up,’ Alice said and reached into a pocket beneath her starched apron. ‘I’m dying for a ciggie. Cook hates it if I smoke while we eat. You don’t mind I hope?’
‘It doesn’t bother me.’
‘Want one?’
‘No, thanks, I don’t,’ Jessie said. ‘Should I carry these plates through do you think?’
‘Up to you.’ Alice shrugged. ‘I’ve finished for the day barring emergencies. Mrs Pearson and me take it in turns to do the tea tray; hers tonight, thank goodness. I’m worn out. What with me own work and the kids.’
‘Well, I’ll be taking care of the children now.’
‘Yeah, so I’ve heard.’ Alice grinned at her. ‘You’ll have your hands full with that Jack – a regular tearaway he is and no mistake. Little Cathy’s a love, but that boy can be a monster. You haven’t met them yet, have you?’
‘No. I was told it was too late after I’d seen to Nanny. Mrs Carmichael said the children were little lambs.’
‘She would,’ Alice said drawing deeply on her cheap cigarette. ‘Doesn’t have to look after them, does she? That house is easy to run compared with this.’
Jessie absorbed that one in silence. She hadn’t given the children too much thought, imagining that it would be easy enough to look after them. She had expected Nanny would be able to advise, but it seemed she was on her own for the moment.
‘I expect I’ll cope,’ she said and got up, gathering a few dishes to take into the kitchen.
Cook was loading a tray of puddings into the serving hatch. Maggie had piled the dirty dishes into one of the sinks to wash later. She turned and smiled as she saw what Jessie had done.
‘You didn’t need to do that,’ she said. ‘I was going to bring our pudding through in a moment. It’s treacle tart for us, scrummy!’
Jessie laughed. It seemed her new friend was always hungry, but she was still thin and there was no sign of all that food she put away on her hips.
‘I like treacle tart too,’ she said, ‘but only a small piece for me please. I’m full up after all that dinner.’
Maggie was about to make some remark when Carter walked in. Jessie noticed that he looked very smart in black and a white shirt with a bow tie. Clearly he’d changed uniform for his evening duties.
‘Any of that steak and kidney pie left for me?’
‘Course there is, we kept it hot for you. Sit down and I’ll fetch it to you. Do you want it here or in the room?’
‘I think I shall pop in and take another look at Nanny,’ Jessie said. ‘I shan’t be long.’
She ran up the stairs, going carefully into the sick woman’s room to find her sleeping peacefully. Smiling to herself, she left her to sleep. Nanny was very tired and a long rest would do her good. Nursing was what Jessie was used to but looking after the children was another matter. Alice’s comments had made her a little nervous. She hesitated, then turned towards the nursery. The children would no doubt be sleeping, but she was curious and to see them asleep might be a good way of reassuring herself.
She opened the door softly not wanting to wake them, and then her heart caught. A shaded lamp was burning on a table beside the bed and a man sat on the edge. In the light of the lamp his dark blond hair had taken on a coppery look. He was stroking the child’s head and a storybook lay opened on the chest beside the bed. Jessie hesitated, realising that she was intruding. She was about to leave them when he turned his head and saw her. He put a finger to his lips, then beckoned to her to approach. She did so, careful not to make any noise.
‘Jack was having a nightmare,’ he whispered. ‘I’ve just managed to get him off.’
She nodded, looking down at the sleeping angel. His fair hair was falling across his forehead, his face pink and soft, his skin like the down of a peach. Jessie’s throat tightened. How could anyone call such a beautiful child a monster?
Jack’s father pointed to a cot further down the room. Jessie went to investigate. Catherine Kendle was dark-haired, more like her mother with a sharp, foxy face. A lovely child, of course, but not as beautiful as her brother.
Captain Kendle was beckoning to her again. She saw that he was ready to leave and followed him from the nursery, waiting as he carefully closed the door behind them.
‘I just wanted to look at them,’ Jessie said feeling that she needed an excuse.
‘Best time to meet them when they’re asleep,’ their father said and grinned at her. She hadn’t seen that look in his eyes before and it gave her a jolt. He was different, seemed younger, happier somehow. ‘Catherine isn’t much trouble yet, I’m told, but my son is a monster, Miss Hale. If I were you I should run while the going is good.’
‘Oh no, I don’t think so,’ she said, blushing at the teasing note in his voice. This was surely a different man to the one she had seen in the London house? ‘It may not be easy without Nanny to advise me, but I expect I shall cope.’
‘I am certain you will,’ he said. ‘Well, I mustn’t keep you. I have work to do this evening, and I am sure you want to rest for a while. You’ve had a long journey and this must all seem strange to you.’
Jessie gave him a faint smile as he turned away. He had withdrawn again, as though a door had closed inside him, shutting her out, but somehow she knew that it wasn’t just her he was shutting out; it was his life. She found herself wondering about him as she went down the back stairs. Her first opinion of him had been that he was a cold, hard man, but that wasn’t true. He cared about Nanny and it was clear that he loved his son. Yet everyone said that he was a reserved man and Carter had hinted that his marriage wasn’t all it might be.
But that wasn’t her business! Jessie put her employer’s husband from her mind. She was here to help with Lady Kendle and look after the children, not to pry into their private lives.
As she approached the kitchen she could hear voices.
‘What do you reckon to her then?’ Carter was asking. ‘Seems an obliging sort of girl.’
‘How long do you think she will stay?’ Alice asked. ‘I wouldn’t if it weren’t for Walter. If the silly idiot would come I’d be off to London tomorrow.’
‘Don’t you let Walter Brock hear you call him that,’ Cook said. ‘He’d give you a black eye, my girl.’
‘He’d get one back. I don’t stand for that nonsense.’
‘I reckon she’s all right,’ Maggie said. ‘I like her and I hope she stays.’
‘Well, I think…’
What Cook was about to say was lost as Mrs Pearson
called to Jessie. She had come down the stairs and was trying to catch up with her.
‘Jessie! I’d like a word if you don’t mind.’
‘Yes, Mrs Pearson,’ Jessie said and waited for her. ‘Did you want something?’
‘Just to talk about Nanny. How long do you think it will be before she’s able to get up again?’
‘She’ll be a few days before she can do more than sit out in a chair,’ Jessie replied. ‘But if you mean when she’ll be herself again, that’s something I can’t tell you. I think she was lucky and there was no real damage done, no paralysis or loss of mobility. She should make a good recovery but she could have another stroke within hours and that might be another story.’
Mrs Pearson pulled a wry face. ‘It’s going to make so much more work – and there’s guests this weekend. I really don’t know how we’re going to manage.’
Mrs Pearson was clearly put out and Jessie felt annoyed. As if extra work mattered when someone was ill. She bit back the angry words that leapt to her tongue.
‘I shall be looking after her. You don’t need to worry.’
‘You can’t do everything. You have the children and Lady Kendle to see to and can’t be running after Nanny all the time.’
‘I can manage most of the time.’
‘Mrs Kendle says I have to look after the children for an hour in the mornings until Nanny is better. As if I haven’t enough to do as it is! This house doesn’t run itself you know.’
‘No, I don’t expect it does.’
‘Madam leaves everything to me and I’m sure I don’t know how she expects me to manage with so few staff. I can’t be expected to mind the children as well as my own duties.’
‘I’m sorry about that. It’s just while I look after Lady Kendle. I’ll be as quick as I can, I promise.’