‘Yes, missus,’ Pearl answered soberly and with a bow of her head that set the feathers on her hat dancing, the woman swept gracefully from the room.
‘Cor, she were posh, weren’t she?’ Susan whispered enviously as they watched the woman climb into a beautiful horse-drawn carriage. ‘Are you an’ Eliza really goin’ to work fer ’er?’
‘It looks like it.’ Pearl gulped.
Susan giggled as she mimicked the woman, trying to copy her accent. ‘Ho your electrocution is appalling!’ But then becoming serious she said sadly, ‘I shan’t arf miss yer, though. I kept finkin’ we might be found a place togevver but never mind. This place can’t be that big so we’re bound to see each uvver from time to time, ain’t we?’
They put their arms about each other until Miss Walker approached them to tell Pearl, ‘Well, you and Eliza have certainly fallen on your feet there if you keep your noses clean. That was Mrs Forbes, the wife of the richest man for miles about. They have a beautiful house right on the banks of the river on the other side of the town and Mr Forbes owns at least half of the town by all accounts.’
‘Really?’ Pearl was shocked.
‘Really,’ Miss Walker assured her with a smile. ‘But now run back to your room and pack your things. Someone will be coming to pick you up very shortly and you don’t want to get off on the wrong foot by keeping them waiting.’
Pearl gave Susan one last hug. Then, hoisting Eliza to her feet, she led her back to their room.
Shortly before lunchtime as they sat ready and waiting with their small bags on their laps, a horse-drawn cart arrived to take them to their new place of work. A lot of the children who had arrived with them had already left, mainly the boys who had been snaffled up as farmworkers, but sadly Susan was still there waiting to be chosen.
‘You look after yersen’s now,’ she said with a catch in her voice as she gave Pearl a quick hug.
Miss Walker ushered them outside and introduced them to the tall man who was waiting for them.
He grinned at them. ‘I’m Will Masters. I work for Mr and Mrs Forbes in the stables. Hop on, girls, and I’ll have you back in no time.’
Pearl noticed the way his eyes seemed to linger on Eliza for a moment, much as Mrs Forbes’s had done, but she didn’t have too long to think on it because it was time to say goodbye.
Miss Walker gave them both a quick kiss on the cheek and Pearl managed to give Susan a last wave and then they were off, clip-clopping along to the next chapter in their lives.
Chapter Twelve
F
or a while they rode along in silence and soon found themselves on the main road that led through the town. Pearl was shocked at the size of it. She had imagined it would be a very makeshift kind of place with little more than log cabins and ramshackle buildings dotted here and there, but in fact it seemed to have everything. There was a smart-looking barber’s shop with a long red-and-white striped pole fastened above the door and next to that was a butcher’s displaying all manner of meats on big marble slabs in the window. There was a lady’s dress shop with elegant gowns on mannequins in the window, and a menswear shop that seemed to sell everything from socks and cravats to smart suits. The wonderful smell of fresh-baked bread wafted out to the street as they passed the bakery, and over the road from that was a fishmonger. There was a bank and a post office as well as a general store and a hardware shop, and Pearl realised that the place was nowhere near as uncivilised as she had expected it to be. Admittedly it wasn’t as busy as the London streets she was used to, but even so there were a fair number of people going about their business, and the air and streets felt cleaner. Some of them were very fashionably dressed while others looked like farmers’ wives or women out shopping for food for their families.
‘So, from London, are you?’ Will asked as he urged the horse along, interrupting her thoughts.
‘Yes,’ Pearl told him.
‘Hm. Lost your folks, did you?’
Pearl was too embarrassed to tell him that her mother had abandoned them to the workhouse so she merely nodded. Eliza was cuddled close to her, holding her hand as if her life depended on it, and Pearl gave her a reassuring squeeze.
‘It’s much busier here than I thought it would be,’ she told Will.
He nodded. ‘Oh, this place is thriving. We’ve got quite a good little community going here now. The master, Mr Forbes, owns a lot of the larger businesses hereabouts. He owns the sawmill as well as a number of the smaller shops in the town, but his biggest building is his shipping business. He owns most of the ships that sail in and out of here and has a huge shipbuilders’ business on the banks of the river not far from the house.’ He smiled as he motioned to the densely wooded areas around them. ‘As you can see there are trees everywhere you look so he makes a fortune in timber alone. The lumberjacks cut them down and then the wood is transported all over the world.’
‘Is he a nice man?’ Pearl dared to ask.
Will looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘I’m not so sure nice is how I’d describe him,’ he answered as honestly as he could, flicking a lock of his thick, fair hair back from his forehead ‘He expects a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wages, but he’s not bad as bosses go.’
‘And what about Mrs Forbes?’
Will smiled. ‘Now she is a true lady,’ he informed her. ‘Although she’s not been too well for a while. There was a tragedy in the family last year and she’s only just started to get out and about again.’
Pearl longed to ask him what had happened but didn’t quite dare to.
He went on, ‘The master is a fair bit older than her and he worships the ground she walks on so he’s been worried sick about her. No, I doubt you’ll have any trouble with her or the master if you do your work and keep your head down. It’s the son as you have to worry about. Master Monty.’ He scowled as Pearl looked at him enquiringly.
‘Oh? What’s wrong with him then?’
‘He’s a cocky little sod!’ As soon as the words had left his lips, Will looked guilty. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have sworn in front of you girls, but just the thought of that lad can get my back up. He’s been spoiled rotten by his mother. His father tries to keep him in check, admittedly, but the young tyke treats the staff like dirt and I’ve come close to landing a thump on his chin more than once, I don’t mind telling you – although I’d rather you didn’t repeat that.’
‘Of course not.’ Pearl grinned. She liked Will and felt that she had possibly made at least one new friend in her soon-to-be home.
They drove on in silence for a while as Pearl looked about with interest at the surroundings. There were so many new varieties of trees to look at as well as flowers – not that very much of anything grew where she’d grown up. One plant in particular that grew in small, spiky purple clusters beneath the trees caught her eye and she asked Will what they were.
‘They’re the floss flower, or ageratum. They attract a lot of butterflies and insects,’ he explained.
‘And why do those trees over there look as if they’ve got snow on their branches?’
Will looked towards the copse of trees she was pointing at. ‘Ah, they’re the cottonwoods. They shed thousands of tiny seeds that collect on the branches in clumps that look like snow.’
Pearl was beginning to realise that she had a lot to learn about this brand-new country she had come to. They had come to the outskirts of the town now and were passing beneath trees that blotted out the sun and formed a canopy above them when Will told her, ‘We’re almost there; you’ll see the house and the Grand River in a minute.’
Pearl leaned slightly forwards, gripping tight to the edge of the narrow bench seat, keen to get a glimpse of their new home and suddenly they came out into the sunshine again and Pearl smiled as a lovely house loomed into sight. It was set well back from the road down a long driveway and looked like some of the grand houses she had seen in London. It was made of brick with two wide, smooth marble steps leading up to two massive wooden doors
in the centre of the building. Above was a decorative portico supported by two marble pillars, while on either side of the door, tall windows framed by heavy drapes glinted in the sunshine. A couple of men were hard at work scything the smooth green lawns that surrounded the house, and here and there flowerbeds ablaze with colour were dotted.
Will glanced at Pearl’s face and seemed to guess what she was thinking. ‘It’s impressive, isn’t it? It was built with bricks from the master’s brickworks some years ago when he an’ the mistress first came here, an’ no expense was spared. An’ if you think the outside is nice yer should see the inside! The mistress has had things brought from all over the world to furnish it. There are handmade rugs from Turkey, furniture from France and paintings by famous artists. O’ course us outside workers don’t get to look inside very often but if you’re going to be working in the house, you’ll see it all.’
The horse was approaching the portico now and Will urged it around one side of the house into what she realised was a large yard with stables. Beyond that she could see an orchard and what looked like a vegetable garden. Crisp white sheets were flapping on a clothesline strung across the yard and once Will drew the horse to a halt she hopped down before turning to help Eliza.
‘Go into that door there and Mrs Veasey the housekeeper will sort you out.’ Will pointed across the yard.
Pearl gave him a nervous smile and thanked him for fetching them, then watched as he led the horse away. He was so nice and she would have liked to ask him a little about himself but she didn’t dare, not till she got to know him a bit better at least. Then she squared her shoulders and gripped Eliza’s hand. ‘This is it. Let’s go an’ meet our new gaffers, eh?’
The door was opened as they approached it by a large, rosy-cheeked woman who asked, ‘Are you the two new girls who’ve come to work here?’
When Pearl nodded, she ushered them into the largest kitchen Pearl had ever seen. On an enormous scrubbed table that ran down the centre of the room was some pastry that the woman had clearly been rolling before she answered the door.
She dusted the flour from her hands and, after wiping them down the front of a voluminous white apron, she asked, ‘So you’re Pearl and Eliza, are you?’
Pearl nodded; her mouth dry.
‘So which is which? I believe it’s Eliza that’ll be helping me in the kitchen.’
‘This is Eliza,’ Pearl piped up, as she gently nudged the girl forward.
The woman frowned. ‘Is it now? And can she not speak for herself then, hinny?’
The woman had an accent that Pearl had never heard before. As Pearl would later discover she was from South Shields in the north of England.
Eliza suddenly started to cough and crossing to the sink the woman filled a glass with water from a large pitcher and carried it back to her. ‘Get some of that down you, lass,’ she urged as Eliza took it from her and she looked at Pearl again with a question in her eye.
‘Eliza’s quite quiet, an’ she hasn’t been too well,’ Pearl explained in a small voice.
‘Hm, well sit yourselves down at the end of the table there an’ I’ll get you both a bite to eat till Mrs Veasey comes to tell you what will be expected of you.’
The girls obediently did as they were told, and soon the cook placed two plates full of fresh-baked bread and lumps of cheese in front of them, along with two glasses of milk. ‘We have our main meal in the evening but this should keep you going till then,’ she told them, then went back to rolling her pastry.
As they ate, Pearl examined the room. On the wall behind her was the largest dresser she had ever seen full of china cups, plates and dishes that were so fine she could almost see through them. An enormous range stretched almost the length of the other side of the room, and next to that was a cosy inglenook fireplace with a worn leather wing chair and a stool set at the side of it. On the wall overlooking the garden was a large enamel sink and a huge wooden draining board, and everywhere was so clean Pearl felt she could have eaten her dinner off the floor.
Behind Eliza a green baize door led into what Pearl assumed was the main house. They had almost finished their meal when it swung open and a middle-aged woman in a smart pale-grey bombazine gown appeared. She had a chatelaine about her waist from which numerous keys dangled and her fair hair was swept up into an elegant pleat on the back of her head.
‘Ah, you’ve arrived. Good afternoon, girls. I am Mrs Veasey, the housekeeper. Excellent, I see Cook has fed you. So if you would like to bring your bags, I’ll show you where you will be sleeping and explain your positions to you.’
Pearl hastily rose from her seat, dragging Eliza with her. Clutching their bags, they followed the woman through a door at the end of the room that Pearl hadn’t noticed, and up a flight of very steep wooden stairs that set Eliza coughing again, and was difficult for Pearl with her leg. She was trying not to limp; this seemed like a great opportunity and she didn’t want the woman to think she wasn’t capable.
Eventually, they came to a very long landing with numerous doors leading off it and, pointing to the end one, Mrs Veasey told them, ‘That will be your room. You’re lucky that you’ll be able to share.’
When she threw the door open, Pearl and Eliza stepped past her into their new bedroom. She guessed that they were in the loft space as one side of the ceiling sloped but as she peeped through the window she gasped with pleasure.
‘Oh, Eliza, look, down there. It’s the river that Will told us about. But just look how wide it is! It’s almost as big as the sea. We could perhaps go for a swim in it on our days off.’
The woman frowned and shook her head vehemently. ‘I don’t think that is such a good idea. Please don’t ever say such a thing in front of Mrs Forbes.’
Pearl stared at her for a moment and the woman relaxed again. ‘Right, I’ll leave you both to unpack, then come down to the kitchen and I shall sort out some uniforms for you.’ She inclined her head and left in a rustle of skirts, closing the door gently behind her.
‘Phew, what was all that about?’ Pearl mused, although she didn’t really expect an answer. Eliza rarely spoke nowadays unless she had to. ‘She were fine till I mentioned swimmin’ in the river, weren’t she? I wonder why that was?’
As she looked around at their bedroom, she was pleasantly surprised; although it wasn’t large, it was clean and cosy. There were two iron beds with pillows and blankets neatly folded on the end of each one, and cream muslin curtains fluttered in the breeze at the open window. A large chest of drawers stood at the end of one bed, while a mahogany washstand with a pretty flowered jug and bowl was at the end of the other one. Between the beds was a small table on which there was a tallow candle in a brass candlestick.
‘I think we’re goin’ to be all right ’ere, Liza,’ she said happily as she began to bundle their meagre possessions into the drawers. ‘But now let’s go down an’ see what these here uniforms we’ve got to wear are like, eh?’ With an encouraging smile, she took her sister’s hand and they made their way to the kitchen to begin their duties.
Chapter Thirteen
P
earl discovered that she was to have two uniforms. One for cleaning out the hearths before lighting the fires first thing in the mornings and for doing housework, and the second much prettier one for answering the door and serving tea and coffee to Mrs Forbes’s visitors.
‘The last maid left because of Master Monty’s bullyin’. He near broke the girl’s spirit and she went eventually,’ Mrs Drew, the cook, told Pearl later that afternoon as they enjoyed a tea break.
‘How awful,’ Pearl said, glancing at Eliza, who was peeling potatoes at the kitchen sink for the evening meal. ‘Did she run away?’
‘Huh!’ Mrs Drew huffed. ‘No, she didn’t, God bless her. She went back to her parents, even though she needed the work, the poor little lass!’ Then, realising that she had probably said too much she stood up and said sharply, ‘But that’s enough of that. We’d best get back to work. You can go th
rough to the dining room and set the table for the evening meal. There’ll be three people dining tonight and you’ll find the tablecloth, cutlery and everything you’ll need in the big sideboard in there.’ When Pearl looked dismayed, she frowned. ‘Did you hear me, girl?’
‘Y-yes, Cook,’ Pearl answered falteringly. ‘But the thing is . . . I ain’t never laid a posh table afore. We only ever had spoons at home.’
‘Oh, Lord help me! Come on and I’ll show you.’
As the cook led her into the hallway, Pearl’s mouth fell open. The walls were covered in a rich, damask wallpaper and hung with beautiful gilt-framed pictures and mirrors. The black and white tiles on the floor were so shiny that she could see her face in them, and multi-coloured rugs were scattered across them. The dining room was even more luxurious, and Pearl gasped. ‘Cor! I reckon I’ll be scared to touch anythin’ in here, it’s all so grand!’
Cook grinned. ‘I don’t know about touch anything; you’re going to have to get used to cleaning it all, my girl. But now, take note of what I’m doing.’ She took a snow-white linen cloth from a drawer on the long mahogany sideboard and threw it across the matching table, around which twelve chairs were arranged. ‘There will only be the family dining tonight so we’ll just set three places at one end,’ she told Pearl as she deftly placed the table mats on the cloth and withdrew a handful of gleaming silver cutlery. ‘This knife and fork is for your starters, see? Next to that goes the knife and fork for the main course, and you put the soup spoon and the dessert spoons like so.’
Pearl scratched her head in bewilderment. There were so many of them and so much to remember.
‘Next you put out the wine glasses and the water glasses.’
In a surprisingly short time, the woman had the table laid as she wanted it and she smiled with satisfaction as she asked, ‘Got it?’
Pearl chewed on her lip uncertainly. ‘But how do they know which is which?’
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