James also found he enjoyed talking to Gladys. In fact, he was enjoying their conversation so much that, without intending to, he told her more about himself in ten minutes than he had divulged to anyone since the death of his wife. He also noted that she was clad in clean and tidy clothing and emitted a pleasant odour. Being fastidious himself, these things were important to him, and he was favourably impressed. However, their conversation was suddenly interrupted by a knock at the door.
This time the butler answered and, shortly after, ushered Dolly into the room. “This young lady has asked to see her mother,” he announced.
Before Gladys could speak out, James said, “But I have no idea who, or where, your mother is.”
Dolly pointed to Gladys and replied, “That is my mother, sir, and my name is Dolly.”
James’s attitude toward Gladys suddenly changed. He was not fond of children.
Gladys sensed his displeasure, and all her hopes for the position died.
Dolly apologized, “I am sorry, Mama, but the coachman sent me in. He wants to know if he should wait any longer.”
“You may tell him I will not be long now, Dolly.”
Then before Dolly could leave, James said, “I think we are done, Mrs Pickwick. You may leave now. I am sorry, but you see, I would prefer someone without children. I did enjoy our visit though and feel assured you will find another position, especially with such a glowing report from Lady Sorenson.”
As he was talking, Dolly’s eyes, like most children’s in a strange room, darted this way and that before they came to rest on a painting of a group of young soldiers. Without thinking, she blurted out, “That looks just like the picture we have of my father!” Then she turned and addressed James, “Father was a very brave soldier, and he was killed in a war.”
Without looking at the picture, Gladys scolded, “That’s enough, Dolly. I am sorry, sir, she didn’t mean to be rude.”
“Oh, it is quite all right,” James answered then bent down to Dolly. “One of those soldiers was my young brother, and he was killed in a war too.” James turned to Gladys. “What outfit was your husband with, Mrs Pickwick?”
“He served with the HM 62nd Foot and was just about to receive a commission when he was killed. If he had been commissioned earlier, we would have gone to India with him.”
“Forgive me for asking, but on what date was he killed?”
“He was killed on the twenty-first of December, seven years ago,” Gladys said, then, suddenly feeling tired, took hold of Dolly’s hand and started to leave. “I am sorry, Mr Hornsby; I know that I would have enjoyed working here. Come along, Dolly.”
James never replied or saw them to the door. He remained where he was standing as though in a trance. They were just getting into the coach when he came running out.
“Mrs Pickwick, wait!” he called as he hurried down the walkway and took hold of her arm.
“I was so stunned by your news that I was speechless. It seems that my brother, who was very dear to me, was killed alongside your husband. Please, Mrs Pickwick, you and your daughter must come back into the house.”
“But the coach, I cannot afford to have him wait any longer.”
“Do not worry about it. You and your daughter may return to the parlour and leave it to me. I shall send you home in my own coach presently.”
Gladys’s face lit up, “You mean that—”
James interrupted, “Yes, yes, Mrs Pickwick, you shall have the job; now please do go in. We have quite a few things to discuss.” Gladys practically ran into the house, pulling Dolly along with her.
When James returned, he explained, “In view of the information you have given me, Mrs Pickwick, er, ah, it is Gladys, if my memory serves me correctly, is it not?”
“Why yes, but how did you know that?”
“I believe you knew my brother, or I should say my half-brother, Keith Corkish. He and your husband were the best of friends.”
“Oh, my heavens, you are the brother Keith used to talk about, but he never mentioned that you were half-brothers and had different last names. He was very fond you, I do know that.”
She recalled Keith saying his brother was a bit of fuddy duddy, but a jolly good sport as well. She, Tom, and Keith had spent a lot of time together when she worked at Watt’s Inn. For a time, both men had courted her, and although Tom had won her heart, Keith had remained a steadfast friend.
As she thought back to Keith’s courtship, she remembered him saying he would like to take her to meet his brother in Sandwich, but she had no idea that brother was James Hornsby. If Tom hadn’t proposed the following week, she might have been here this day visiting James as a sister-in-law, instead of applying for a position.
Suddenly Gladys realized that she hadn’t heard what James was saying. “I am sorry, sir, I didn’t hear you.”
“I said that I was very fond of him too. Now, Mrs Pickwick, you may be assured that the job is yours. Keith would haunt me if I were to turn you away. However, there is just one stipulation I must insist upon. It has to do with your daughter.”
“Then perhaps you should address her.”
“As you wish,” James answered. However, when he looked into Dolly’s eyes, he could tell she was not as imperceptive as most children, and what he had to say came out more as a friendly request than an order, “Ahem, Dolly, is it?”
“Yes, Your Lordship?”
“Firstly, I am not a lord, so you may refer to me as ‘Sir’ or ‘Mr Hornsby’. Now that you will be residing in my home, there is one rule that I would like you to remember. You see, I am accustomed to my privacy and, in the past, I have found children to be rather noisy and invasive creatures. Running in the hallway and up and down the stairs is not acceptable, along with squealing and shouting. When I have a few leisure hours, I prefer to spend them in quietude—er, ah, that means undisturbed. Do you understand what I am saying?”
“Oh, yes, sir! I like to have my quiet, ah, quiet, ah—”
“Quietude,” James coached.
“Yes, sir, I like my quietude too!”
James couldn’t suppress a chuckle. Then he turned to Gladys. “Well, now that we have that settled, let me show you your apartment and the rest of the house. I trust your accommodations will be satisfactory. Since my wife passed away, I have been on my own, so I thought it rather absurd to keep up so many unused rooms; therefore, we do not use the west wing except for the basement and the back rooms. I am sure you shall find it less work that way. I know my last housekeeper did.” He said the last sentence with a shrug, and Gladys could not decide if it was a positive gesture or a negative one.
“When do you think you can start, Mrs Pickwick?” he asked as he led them up the stairs.
“Just as soon as I can pack and arrange for a wagon to move us. I have my own horse and shay. Is there any place nearby that I can keep them?”
“There is plenty of room in my stable, and I have an excellent stableman who is most reliable.”
The part of the manor that was being used included the basement kitchen, where most of the baking and cooking took place, a storage room, and several small rooms for the scullery maids and extra help, when needed.
The first floor contained a second kitchen, which had a stove to keep the food warm after it was sent up on the dumbwaiter; a dining area that seated all the servants and was big enough for them to use for their holiday celebrations; and the parlour where James had interviewed Gladys.
The first floor also contained a hallway that led to the front entrance and a great, ornate oaken stairway that flowed down and graciously spread out at the bottom. James said the big doors beside the stairway led to the ballroom and the formal dining room, but he didn’t offer to show them to her, nor did he show her his library, which was on the opposite side of the stairway. James informed her that she could use those stairs to get to the other floo
rs or she could use the narrow servant’s stairs at the back of the mansion.
The rooms in use on the second floor were James’s apartment, which consisted of a sitting room and bedroom, and another apartment that had been Mrs Hornsby’s. That room had a small balcony. A hallway led to the west wing of the mansion and more vacant rooms.
The third floor had two apartments similar to those on the second floor. These apartments would normally be too grand to accommodate a servant, but since James’s previous housekeeper had served his wife’s family faithfully for many years, he saw no reason she shouldn’t spend her last years in comfort and with privacy. Now that she had left, Gladys and Dolly were fortunate in being allotted the same apartment. The other apartment on the third floor was kept in readiness for Horace, James Hornsby’s son, who was working in South Africa.
The rooms on the fourth floor were not as spacious and grand as those on the other floors; nevertheless, they were nicely furnished and had good-sized windows. These rooms housed the cook, her kitchen maids, the butler, and the footmen. The stableman, the gardener, and their families lived in little cottages on the estate, and the stable boys had lodgings in the barn.
Gladys and Dolly were quite pleased with their future home. Their apartment, although not as clean as they would have preferred, was very roomy and had large windows that would let in a lot of light once the heavy drapes were replaced with lace curtains. There was plenty of room in the bedroom for another bed, and the sitting room had a comfortable settee and plenty of room for Gladys’s sewing machine and Dolly’s dollhouse and books.
On the way home in James’s buggy, Dolly said, “Mama, I think Gamby would be happy if he saw where we are going to live, don’t you?”
“I suppose so,” Gladys answered rather sadly, still trying to process the change in their circumstances. James Hornsby’s house was far pleasanter than she had hoped for, and she found her new employer a likable man, but it seemed a bittersweet dispensation for all she had lost. She was, once again, nothing more than a servant.
Chapter Three
Now that she was going to be a housekeeper, Gladys wished she had listened to Andrew and moved into a house big enough to have servants so that she would have learned what a housekeeper’s duties were. She decided to visit Sorenson Hall and ask Lady Madeline for advice. If Lady Madeline refused to help her, she was afraid it wouldn’t take long for James Hornsby to realize she hadn’t told the truth when she said she knew how to run a household.
Lady Madeline’s greeting was somewhat aloof, and instead of providing the information herself, she made it clear that Gladys was now a servant by sending her to the kitchen to talk to Annie, her housekeeper. Gladys wondered if, perhaps, the reason for her Ladyship’s cool manner might have something to do with Lord Sorenson.
When Gladys had found out that her father-in-law had been murdered, and hadn’t changed his will, she was at her wit’s end and had broken down and confessed to Lady Madeline that she was being blackmailed and could not contest the will. Lady Madeline then told Gladys that her father-in-law, Andrew, had confessed to Lord Cedric that he was trying to obtain a divorce so he could marry Gladys. Unfortunately, Lord Cedric blamed Gladys.
Gladys was shocked and she informed Lady Madeline that she had no knowledge of Andrew’s plans, and that if he had asked her to marry him she would not have accepted his proposal. She surmised that Lady Madeline would tell this to his Lordship, and perhaps he would no longer blame her for Andrew’s actions, but it seemed she was mistaken.
Before Gladys took her leave, Lady Madeline did offer an apology, “I am sorry, my dear; life can be so cruel! I wish you and your darling little girl all the best in your new surroundings.”
There was both warmth and sadness in her eyes as she made a point of not including her husband in the offer, making it obvious that he still considered Gladys a wanton woman.
Although no longer a member of high society, Gladys had foolishly expected to remain friends with her Ladyship, so her indifferent attitude was both disappointing and hurtful.
Lady Sorenson, unlike many of the socialites Gladys had met since marrying Tom, didn’t put on airs, and Gladys had always felt comfortable in her company. A few years ago, Gladys had told her Ladyship about a group of Romani that were planning to put on a show at their camp on the outskirts of Dover. Lady Madeline had offered to accompany her and Dolly when they went to see it.
But, now that she thought about it, Gladys realized that at that time she was married to one of Dover’s richest young men. Unlike her situation today, they had both been members of the upper levels of society.
Gladys smiled and thanked her Ladyship as she bid her goodbye, knowing that she might have been obliged to act in the same manner, if their roles had been reversed.
Four days after their visit to the Hornsby residence, Gladys and Dolly, with the aid of Bob Hennessy and his horse and wagon, left Dover to take up residence at Four Oaks.
Gladys was relieved to find that Peter Pickwick had visited the blacksmith’s shop and taken Andrew’s horses and wagons without mentioning Tig or the shay.
“Sure and he must have thought they were yours all along,” Bob reported as he hitched the gelding to the buggy.
Bob’s wagon was big enough to take all their belongings, given that all Gladys could lay claim to were Millie’s two trunks, the sewing machine, Dolly’s dollhouse, Tom’s collection of books, along with Gladys’s treasured copy of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, a few ornaments and other small wedding presents, and three dozen daffodil bulbs that Mr Grimsby had given her to plant along the driveway at Oaken Arms. She had tried to return them, but he insisted she take them with her as a remembrance of him and his wife. Because Peter Pickwick knew nothing of the three velocipedes Andrew had bought at the fair, Gladys took them along as well.
Before she and Dolly climbed into the shay, they stood and looked back at the cottage. “I don’t want to go, Mama,” Dolly said tearfully.
“No, darling, neither do I. Your daddy and I were so very happy here. I feel like I’m losing him all over again.”
“I don’t want to lose my Gamby again!”
“You can never do that, Dolly; he will be in your heart forever, I promise. We shall never forget them. Now let’s get in the buggy and not look back.”
Gladys was thankful that Dolly was young enough to make the adjustment to a life of a commoner without realizing what she had lost. As for herself, she felt fate could not have dealt a worse blow. Just two weeks earlier, everything she had ever dreamed of was coming true, and she was about to be the owner of one of the most prestigious estates in the country. Now she was one step away from being a pauper. Even Tom’s death had, in some ways, been easier to bear.
She failed to consider how poor she had been when she first arrived in Dover and only thought about how unfair it was to have come so far, only to lose it all because Andrew had neglected to sign a paper. The thought that she might have suffered the same fate, even if Andrew had signed the new will, because Peter Pickwick had discovered her true identity, never crossed her mind.
Ever since Andrew had been killed, the sorrow of losing him had suppressed any resentment she felt toward him, but now as they drew nearer and nearer to the Hornsby estate, she couldn’t help but silently curse the man who had been kinder to her than anyone she had ever known.
As before, they used the road leading to the side entrance, but this time they carried on to the servants’ entrance at the back of the home. James was thoughtful enough to have his second footman lend Bob a hand with the unloading. As James watched the men unload, he noticed how few furnishings the young widow possessed, although he was very taken with the three velocipedes. Having been to the fair in London and seen Willard’s invention, he had always regretted not purchasing one.
The fellow had different models to choose from. Although it seemed they were all driven by foot ped
als, James was most taken with the two wheeled models like the three that Gladys had. He couldn’t imagine how one would manage to stay upright on one though.
He also knew how expensive they were and was surprised that Gladys owned three of them. She noticed him admiring them and explained that Andrew had bought them each one, and she told him he was welcome to use Andrew’s anytime.
Knowing that Keith’s friend, Tom Pickwick, came from a wealthy family, James found it puzzling that his widow would be forced to seek employment. But no matter what the reason for her unfortunate circumstance, James felt obliged to help her any way he could because he knew that was what his brother would have wanted.
Besides, unlike his former housekeeper, who always wore drab greys and blacks that blended in with the gloom of the house so well that she appeared invisible, Gladys’s clothes gave off an aura of colour and brightness. When she came to apply for the job, she was dressed in black, but now she wore a pretty blue blouse, a dark grey skirt, and a blue and green plaid shawl tied around her narrow waist like a gypsy. James could easily understand why his brother had found her attractive.
He had often wondered what had happened to Gladys. Kieth had written to him saying how beautiful she was and how he planned to propose to her. Then, he never mentioned her again. James thought how odd it was that that same girl was now going to be working for him. He could tell by the way she talked about Keith that she had been very fond of him, and, because of that, James worried that he might not ever be able to think of her as a mere servant.
“Put everything in my sitting room for now, if you don’t mind. It will be far easier to clean the bedroom if it isn’t cluttered,” Gladys told the men.
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