by Rosie Clarke
‘Well, it’s not your fault,’ she said. ‘Madam should have taken on two new girls, but there’s no point in trying to tell her. She won’t listen. I suppose we’re lucky to have you.’
Jessie felt like having a go but kept her mouth shut. Mrs Pearson was clearly worked up and answering back would only make things worse. She went into the kitchen. Maggie was finishing a huge slice of treacle tart.
‘There’s a scrap left for you,’ she said. ‘Do you want hot custard on it?’
‘No, just as it is,’ Jessie replied. ‘Any chance of a cup of tea – or do we have it later?’
‘I’ve come for the upstairs tray,’ Mrs Pearson said. ‘Then I’m going to my room. I’ve had enough for one day.’
‘What about Lady Kendle’s supper drink?’ Jessie asked.
‘She never has anything after her meal,’ Cook said. ‘She only ate her soup at dinner. Never touched the fish I sent up.’
‘I’ll take her some warm milk and biscuits when I go up,’ Jessie said. ‘She needs something to give her strength.’
‘She won’t drink it,’ Mrs Pearson said and sniffed. ‘But suit yourself. When I’ve seen to the tea I’m not doing another thing.’
‘She can be a right misery when she likes,’ Maggie muttered as the housekeeper went out. ‘She wants to swap places with me and Cook sometimes.’
Jessie smiled but made no comment as she ate her treacle tart and drank the tea Cook had poured into a large blue and white cup. Being in the kitchen with the staff at Kendlebury wasn’t much different from being in the hospital canteen. The nurses had moaned about Sister or Matron; here it was Mrs Pearson or Mary Kendle but it didn’t mean very much. It was just letting off steam after a hard day’s work.
It was nice being part of a team again, Jessie thought as she listened to their gossip. Alice’s young man was taking her to a dance at Torquay on Friday night. She was excited over it, telling Maggie about the new dress her mother had made for her.
‘I bought some black satin shoes on my afternoon out,’ she said. ‘I’m dying to wear them but they pinch a bit. I shall have to stretch them before tomorrow or they’ll cripple me.’
‘I’ll do that for you,’ Cook said. ‘I’ll put damp newspaper into the toes and let it dry; that should do the trick.’
‘No you won’t,’ Alice cried, horrified. ‘I’ve got some proper shoetrees. The woman in the shop said they would stretch.’
‘Them salesgirls will say anything,’ Carter told her coming in from outside with a bucket of wood for the fire. ‘You let me try them on for you. I’ll stretch ’em!’
‘You will not!’ Alice knew she was being teased but wasn’t in the mood for it. ‘I’m going to my room. I want to curl my hair in papers.’
‘Wish I could,’ Maggie called after her. ‘I’ve got this lot to wash yet.’
Jessie looked at the sink piled high with dishes.
‘Can I help?’ she asked.
‘I’m used to it,’ Maggie said. ‘Don’t bother me but you can dry the dishes, not the glasses ’cos we rinse them in cold water and leave them to drain, polish them when they’re dry. Get a better sparkle that way. If you put the dishes on the table Cook will put them where she wants them.’
‘Are you going to the dance?’ Jessie asked as she followed her to the sink and picked up the drying cloth.
‘Fat chance,’ Maggie moaned. ‘Even if I’d got someone to take me my ma wouldn’t let me go. Says it is where girls get into trouble – palaces of sin, that’s what she calls dance halls.’
‘Tell you what, I’ll take you to a tea dance on your afternoon off,’ Carter said. ‘They have them every Thursday, Saturday and Monday in Torquay. Take you next week if you like.’
‘Go dancin’ with you?’ Maggie pulled a face. ‘No thanks. I want a young feller.’
‘That Billy Wright I suppose,’ Carter said not in the least bothered by her refusal. ‘Can’t see him dancin’. You’ll be lucky to get him to the music hall. All he wants to do is drink down the pub.’
Maggie stuck her tongue out at him but he only laughed. Jessie smiled at their banter. She thought she was going to like it here.
*
It was half past nine when Jessie took the tray up to Lady Kendle’s room. She knocked softly in case the old lady was sleeping and was invited to enter. She put her tray carefully on the chest beside the bed.
‘It’s only warm milk and a biscuit, ma’am. A little snack at this time sometimes helps you to sleep.’
‘Did you learn that in nursing, Jessie?’
‘My aunt always swears by a warm drink at night,’ Jessie said.
‘Why did you give up nursing?’
‘I lost my job.’
‘Would you tell me why?’ Jessie did so and Lady Kendle looked sad. ‘It is so unfortunate when that sort of thing happens. The doctor was at fault, of course, but they couldn’t afford to lose him. I’m afraid you were expendable, my dear. It is very unfair but the way of things.’
‘My aunt warned me how it would be but I had to speak out. The girl was upset and she wasn’t the first. I thought it was time he was stopped.’
‘I understand why you felt that,’ Lady Kendle said. ‘But sometimes it’s best not to tell what you’ve seen, better just to pretend you don’t know what goes on.’ She sighed and the sadness in her became so overpowering that Jessie felt it as a physical ache. ‘I discovered that many years ago, but it was a hard lesson for you to learn, Jessie.’
‘I was angry at first but I’m over it now.’ Jessie wondered what kind of memories had brought that look to Lady Kendle’s eyes.
‘It was fortunate for us, of course, but I am genuinely sorry, my dear. I believe you must have been a good nurse.’
‘I hope I was. I tried to do my work well. Aunt Elizabeth always says do your best and you can’t do more.’
‘I am quite sure you did.’ The bright eyes dwelt on her face. ‘Do you think you will like living here? It is very quiet in the country you know.’
‘It will be different,’ Jessie admitted. ‘But I’ve come here to do a job and I expect I shall be busy.’
‘Oh yes, you will be busy,’ Lady Kendle said. ‘We need more staff. It’s the plain truth that we haven’t enough. My son says we have to be careful with money. Sir Joseph thinks he is too careful already and Mary hates being told she can’t spend money, but then most of it is hers, of course. She has a perfect right to do what she likes with her own money.’
Lady Kendle reached for her warm milk and sipped it. Jessie smiled inwardly but said nothing. Lady Kendle obviously wanted someone she could talk to but it wasn’t her place to ask questions; she would listen but not pry.
‘Harry changed when he came back, after he was wounded that last time. Captain Kendle that is,’ she said and took another drink. She wasn’t sure why she was telling the new girl this but she couldn’t talk to her son these days and she certainly couldn’t tell either her daughter-in-law or her husband what was on her mind. ‘It’s this house – too big for us in these modern times. We should sell it and buy something smaller, something that only needs a few servants to look after it. We shan’t, of course, we shall soldier on somehow and perhaps when I’m gone… Harry might sell one day.’ She smiled to herself. ‘He told me it would make a good hotel if it was nearer Torquay, but as things are he probably couldn’t give it away.’
‘It would be a pity if this house were to become a hotel,’ Jessie said. ‘It is a beautiful family home.’
‘For a beautiful family.’ Anne Kendle pulled a face. She had thought something of the kind once, but that had been a long, long time ago. She finished her milk and put down the glass. ‘That was very nice. Thank you for coming to see me, Jessie, and for the drink. I think I should like to sleep now.’
‘Is there anything more you need?’
‘No, thank you. Harry will come in later and see if I’m all right, and Sir Joshua sleeps next door. He helps me in the night if I need him. I am very lucky, you kno
w. I often think of others less fortunate and realise how much I have to be thankful for.’
Jessie smiled but made no comment. She had completely fallen under Lady Kendle’s spell and thought that her family were lucky to have her. Many women confined to their rooms for most of their lives would complain endlessly, but it was a pleasure to serve this invalid.
Jessie glanced in at Nanny once more before she went to bed. She was still sleeping and there didn’t seem to be much point in sitting up. Jessie would be up again by five and look in on her then. Hopefully, Nanny would sleep through the night and be much better for it in the morning.
Jessie unpacked her few bits and pieces, hanging them in the wardrobe before undressing. Sitting in front of the table by the window, she brushed her long hair and glanced at herself in the hand mirror her aunt had given her on her eighteenth birthday. The casing was made of silver and though old and a little battered, it was Jessie’s most prized possession.
‘I bought it second-hand down the market,’ Aunt Elizabeth had told her. ‘But I’ve had the brushes renewed so they’re nice and clean.’
‘It’s all lovely,’ Jessie said and hugged her because it was such a wonderful and unexpected gift. She wondered about how her aunt was feeling, whether she felt lonely. She had a lot of friends, Jessie knew, but that wasn’t the same as family, was it? Her aunt would feel strange sitting down to supper on her own.
Jessie smiled and took out her smart leather writing case. It had been a present from Robbie when he first went to France.
‘So that you’ve got something to remind you of me,’ he’d told her and she always felt a pang when she used the notepaper inside, because it had been bought for writing to Robbie.
But she was going to use it now to write to her aunt, because she knew that she would be feeling a bit odd in that empty house, just as Jessie was feeling rather strange in her room. It had been fine when she was with the others, but now she couldn’t help feeling rather cut off from her friends and she missed her aunt. They’d been so close these past years, sharing everything.
She bent her head to the task, writing several pages before looking up. The moon had come up now, making it quite light outside. She stood up to get a better view and saw a man walking alone. His hands were in his pockets as he walked, head down, and there was something about him that seemed to tell Jessie that she wasn’t the only one in this house feeling a little lonely. Captain Kendle was a complex man, a man of moods and not easy to understand, but Jessie thought she liked him better than his sharp-tongued wife.
She watched until he disappeared from view, then sat down to finish her letter to her aunt. Tomorrow she would think about a letter for Archie, but at the moment all she wanted was her bed.
Chapter Five
Nanny was awake when Jessie went in at a quarter past five the next morning. She looked at her a bit oddly, then announced that she had wet the bed.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I tried to get out but went dizzy and peed myself. You’ll have to help me get up. I dare say I shall be all right when I’ve dressed.’
‘You can get dressed if you want and sit in your chair,’ Jessie agreed. ‘I’ll put it by the window for you and you can have your breakfast there while I change the sheets.’
‘We’ll see about that, miss!’
Nanny pulled a face. She clearly thought she would be able to walk about once she could get out of bed, but even the effort of putting her feet to the floor exhausted her. She sat there for a few seconds looking grey and frightened, and she let Jessie dress her in a clean nightgown and her old dressing gown, then leaned heavily on the younger woman’s arm as they walked slowly and carefully to the chair.
‘It’s knocked me for six,’ she said as she sat down. ‘Stupid of me to crock up like this. Good thing you came, Jessie. They would have had to send me to the Infirmary if you hadn’t. Might have to as it is if I’m too much trouble.’
‘Oh, I’m sure they won’t,’ Jessie said and smiled at her. ‘Captain Kendle is very fond of you, you know. I’m sure he would look after you himself if he had to.’
‘He came in to see me before you as it happens,’ Nanny said and gave a cackle of laughter at the idea of being looked after her by her boy. He would always be a lad to her, of course, whatever he did, including winning medals for bravery on the Somme. ‘I couldn’t think what had happened but he told me – and about you. How you’d taken charge straight away, and that you were decent and kind.’
‘So that’s how you knew me. I did wonder.’ Jessie laughed softly. Nanny had been testing her. ‘Would you mind having your breakfast early? It will make things easier if I can finish here before the children are up and about.’
‘Not sure I want more than a cup of tea.’
‘You must try to eat a little. What do you usually have?’
‘A bit of toast and jam.’
‘What about a boiled egg and bread-and-butter soldiers?’
‘Think I’m a child do you?’ Nanny glared at her.
‘It’s what I like for breakfast if I’m lucky enough,’ Jessie said. ‘And no, I don’t think you’ve gone senile. Strokes have to be very bad to affect your mind as a rule. It’s more often one side of your face, an arm or a leg – but yours was very mild, you know. I think you were just worn out. You’ll be fine when you’ve had some rest.’
‘Think so do you?’ Nanny’s eyes narrowed intently. ‘Not humouring me?’
‘I’m pretty sure,’ Jessie said. She pulled the sheets off the bed and took them with her as she left the room. ‘Don’t try to do anything, Nanny. I’m going to get your breakfast first and then I’ll make the bed – all right?’
Nanny gave her another hard look but didn’t say anything. It wasn’t easy for her to be waited on after a lifetime of service.
Jessie took the sheets down to the dirty linen room. Maggie’s mother came in to do the washing twice a week and there was a pile waiting to be sorted. Another sheet or two wouldn’t make much difference.
Maggie came in with a bucket of dirty water as Jessie was about to leave. She glanced at the sheets and then poured the water down the big stone sink.
‘Ma does sheets on Mondays and Thursdays but I’ll put these in the copper and boil them. Nanny’s, I suppose?’
‘A little accident. She couldn’t help it.’
‘Don’t suppose she could, poor old bugger. I’ve finished scrubbing the kitchen and pantry. Floor will be dry in a minute. Do you know where to find clean linen?’
‘Yes, thanks. Mrs Pearson showed me yesterday. I want a boiled egg and soldiers for Nanny. Shall I get them myself or ask Cook?’
‘Ask her. She’ll only be miffed if you don’t.’ Maggie grinned. ‘Go on in. I’ve got to help Alice get the downstairs done before anyone is about. She’s doin’ all the bedrooms today and she’ll never get round if I don’t give her a hand.’
Jessie nodded and went into the kitchen. Cook had made a pot of tea and she gestured to her that she should have one.
‘Thank you,’ Jessie said. ‘But I mustn’t be too long.’ She explained what she needed and Cook got up to fetch a pan of water, which she set to boil. ‘Can we have the soldiers really thin please? Nanny won’t be able to manage much, but we need to tempt her.’
‘Of course you can,’ Cook said and smiled at her. ‘You’ve a kind heart, Jessie. I suppose that comes of being a nurse.’
‘Perhaps,’ Jessie said and drank her tea. ‘It doesn’t always follow though. I’ve seen nurses be unkind to elderly patients. Patients can be very difficult at times, you know.’
Cook nodded, setting the tray with two plates of bread and butter with the crusts off and cut into fingers and two boiled eggs. She added a small teapot, a jug of milk, sugar bowl and two cups and saucers.
‘Can you manage all that?’ she asked, slipping a cosy over the pot. ‘It’s quite a long way.’
‘I’ll manage,’ Jessie said. ‘If I sit and eat my egg with Nanny I think she may feel m
ore like attempting her own.’
‘Like I said, you’ve got a good heart, lass.’
Jessie shook her head. She carried the tray upstairs. It wasn’t too heavy, which was as well since it was a long way. Nanny looked at her suspiciously as she set it down.
‘Are you going to force-feed me? I’ll never eat that lot.’
‘Some of it is for me. I’m going to keep you company.’ Jessie smiled as she saw the older woman’s surprise. ‘Today I’ll take the top off your egg for you. Not because you can’t but it might be an effort.’
Nanny said nothing. She watched as Jessie sliced the tops of both eggs expertly.
‘Glad you know the proper way,’ she said. ‘I hate bits of shell all over.’
‘So do I,’ Jessie agreed. She fetched the dressing stool to the table and perched on it, dipping her soldier in the perfectly cooked egg and biting into it. Nanny watched as she chewed, laying the rest of the bread finger down as she prepared to pour a cup of tea for them both. ‘Milk and sugar?’
‘Milk no sugar – milk after the tea, mind.’
Jessie looked at her. ‘We’ve always had it the other way. Why do you put the milk in last?’
‘It’s polite, the proper way,’ Nanny said. ‘Some say as it makes a difference to the taste. They do it that way upstairs.’
‘Oh well, I suppose it won’t kill us,’ Jessie said and laughed. She was pleased to see a flicker of a smile in Nanny’s eyes.
There was a knock at the door and Alice popped her head round.
‘I’ve brought sheets,’ she said. ‘I’m making up beds in all the guestrooms, because we’ve got company coming for the weekend. I’ll leave you to it then. Are you feelin’ better, Nanny?’
‘Yes, thank you, Alice. It was nothing much. I’ll be up and about in a day or so.’
‘Right then. See you later, Jessie.’
Nanny frowned as she went out, then picked up a thin slice of bread and butter, dipping it in the egg. Her hand trembled slightly but she managed to get the tasty morsel to her mouth and ate slowly.
‘Is it all right?’ Jessie asked as she dipped again.