‘Pearl, go through to the kitchen,’ she ordered. ‘And let’s get the rest of you into the drawing room by the fire.’
Pearl immediately did as she was told, taking Eliza with her, and although Mrs Veasey looked surprised, she didn’t comment.
‘It’s nice to have you back,’ Cook said warmly when they first entered the room, but like Mrs Veasey, she looked mildly surprised to see Eliza in there. The mistress had barely let the girl out of her sight before they’d gone away, so she wondered what had changed.
Pearl dragged Eliza over to the warmth of the fire, aware that Freda, who was peeling vegetables at the table, was glaring at them. There was one person who certainly wasn’t pleased to see them back. Even so she forced a smile as she said, ‘Hello, Freda, did you have a good Christmas?’
Scowling, Freda kept her eyes firmly fixed on the potatoes she was peeling. Now that the family were back it would mean a lot more work again, and she wasn’t too happy about it. ‘Yes, we did,’ she mumbled.
‘Good, and have you seen anything of Susan or Nick?’
‘How was I supposed to get out in this weather?’ Freda snapped. ‘Cook said as no one were to venture outside unless it were strictly necessary. It’d freeze yer to death in no time out there.’
‘Yes, I suppose it would,’ Pearl said distractedly as she began to take off her outer clothes. The feeling was just beginning to return to her fingers and toes now and they were throbbing.
Freda glanced at Eliza thoughtfully and asked, ‘So what’s she doin’ in ’ere? I thought the missus kept ’er close.’
‘Oh, er . . . I’ll explain later.’
Pearl saw Eliza’s face fall, but she had no need to explain as it turned out because minutes later Mrs Veasey came back into the room to tell them, ‘Mrs Forbes has just informed me that Eliza will be working in the kitchen again from now on and she has other duties in mind for you, Pearl, which she will explain to you later.’
Ignoring the gloating look that flitted across Freda’s face, Pearl answered, ‘Yes, Mrs Veasey.’ The housekeeper was clearly pleased to have her mistress back.
It was almost an hour later when Pearl was summoned to Mrs Forbes’s bedroom. Despite the atrocious weather, Mr Forbes had ventured out to inspect his sawmill, and she found her mistress lying on her bed fully clothed. Mrs Veasey had plied her with hot sweet tea, but it clearly hadn’t done much good as yet. She still looked ghastly and her face was the colour of bleached linen.
‘Ah, Pearl.’ Her voice was as weak as a kitten’s.
Unsure what she should say, Pearl simply nodded as she crossed to throw some coals on to the fire blazing in the small grate.
‘I was wondering if you’d mind helping me get undressed,’ the woman went on. ‘I’m still not feeling too well and think I’ll lie down for a few hours.’ As she spoke, she swung her legs over the side of the bed, as Pearl wiped her hands on her dress and went to fetch her mistress’s nightdress and dressing robe. ‘Actually, I also wanted to ask you how you would like to become my lady’s maid full-time? You did a wonderful job while we were in London and although Mrs Veasey has always helped me dress for special occasions, I find I quite liked being pampered. What do you think?’
After finding out about the deaths of her family and the atrocious sea journey, Pearl had had little to smile about for some time but now, she positively glowed with pride. ‘I’d love that, ma’am,’ she told her with a wide smile. It was a huge step up from being a housemaid, and she could hardly wait to see Freda’s face when she found out. She wasn’t going to be happy with the new arrangement at all.
‘In that case, as soon as the shops are able to open again, we must see about getting you some more suitable clothes,’ her mistress told her, as Pearl eased her gown over her head and began to unlace her stays. ‘Something a little more fitting for your new position, I think. And perhaps when you’re not needed Mrs Veasey could start to teach you how to manage the household accounts. She’s been talking of returning to England to her family for some time now and even though you’re still very young, it would be nice, if or when she does, if you could step into her shoes without me having to train someone else. I’ve already put the idea to her and she thinks you would do very well.’
Pearl nodded enthusiastically, wondering if the day could possibly get any better. Just this time yesterday she had feared for their lives and now here she was back on dry land with a promotion she could never have dreamed of. Susan and Nick would be so pleased for her when she told them, although she was convinced Freda would not be any too happy about it, but that added to her excitement. Freda was such a jealous, spiteful girl, although she seemed to have Cook wrapped around her little finger.
Minutes later she helped Mrs Forbes back into bed and, after crossing to close the curtains on the snowy landscape, she picked up the clothes Mrs Forbes had been wearing to take them down to the laundry. They smelled disgusting, although that was hardly surprising considering how seasick the woman had been.
‘There’s just one thing, ma’am.’ Pearl paused at the door, the smile gone now as she asked, ‘Now that Eliza is to be working in the kitchen again, where is she to sleep?’ Before the trip to London she had had her own pretty little room close to Mrs Forbes but she clearly wouldn’t be allowed to sleep there now.
‘Oh . . . I hadn’t thought of that.’ Mrs Forbes frowned as she leaned back against her lace-trimmed pillows. ‘I think perhaps you could ask Mrs Veasey to find her a room in the servants’ quarters with you.’
Pearl nodded. ‘In that case would you mind very much if she were to share with me? I have Freda in with me at present but I’m sure she would much rather have a room of her own.’
Mrs Forbes stifled a yawn and waved her hand impatiently. ‘Yes, yes, that will be fine, providing Freda doesn’t mind.’
Pearl hurriedly left the room and headed for the kitchen, where she found that Cook had gone for a short lie-down while the meal was cooking.
‘So, little Miss Eliza ain’t in favour wi’ the mistress no more then,’ Freda gloated with a nasty grin, the second Pearl entered the room.
Pearl bit her tongue to stop herself from retaliating. ‘Actually, now that she’s better, the mistress just thought she would be able to return to her kitchen duties,’ she answered calmly. ‘Which, I’m sure you’ll agree, will make it much easier for you if there are two of you to help Cook. It also means that Eliza will be joining us upstairs, so I wondered if you’d like to have a room of your own so that Eliza can share with me again?’
Freda just shrugged, so Pearl went on, ‘Of course if you’d rather stay where you are . . .’
‘No . . . no I’ll ’ave me own room,’ Freda said hastily.
‘Good. But there’s something else I need to talk to you about. The mistress just told me that she wishes me to become her lady’s maid.’
Freda was so shocked that her mouth gaped and she almost dropped the cup she was holding. ‘You! A lady’s maid!’
‘That’s right.’ Pearl stood across the table from her. ‘I shall be starting straight away.’
‘Yer jammy devil,’ Freda said jealously. ‘I swear if you fell in the Thames you’d come out wi’ a pocket full o’ fish! How did yer manage to smarm yer way round ’er to bring that about?’
Pearl was getting heartily sick of her attitude by then, so she answered cryptically, ‘The same way you smarmed round Cook to become her blue-eyed girl, I suppose.’
And with that she turned on her heel and flounced off to her room, taking Eliza with her.
Freda followed a short time later to find all her belongings placed neatly on the landing outside the door of the room Mrs Veasey had allocated to her. Muttering, she snatched them up and, striding into her new room, began to throw them into the drawers.
No one ate much that evening as they were still feeling quite unwell and just wanted a good night’s sleep.
‘Eeh, I don’t know why I went to all the bother of cooking,’ Cook grumble
d, as the food was returned from the dining room virtually untouched. Mrs Forbes hadn’t even bothered to come down but had requested a tray be sent up to her room.
‘So how long does this weather last here?’ Pearl asked. She was longing to see Susan and Nick again, but knew that she wouldn’t be allowed to go until the conditions had improved. No one could survive for long in that snow.
‘It all depends,’ Cook told her. ‘It could be over in a couple of weeks or it could last for months. I’ve known us be completely snowed in here for weeks at a time.’
Pearl sighed glumly. It looked like she was going to have to be patient.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I
t was the middle of March before the thaw came, causing floods as the Great River came dangerously close to bursting its banks as the snow melted into it.
Pearl couldn’t help thinking of back home in the springtime. In England, the spring flowers would be pushing their way through the earth and delicate green buds would be unfurling on the trees. Thoughts of England always made her think of her sister Amy, and she wondered how she was faring. Other than that, though, Pearl was content. She had settled well into her new job and much preferred having Eliza as her roommate, although she still had to endure Freda’s spite during the day. There had been no shortage of food thanks to Cook. The large pantry was always stocked with fruit and vegetables she had pickled during the warm weather and the smoke house was full of preserved meat hanging from large hooks in the ceiling. As the ships also still brought in fresh supplies on a regular basis, none of them had suffered – apart from Mrs Veasey, who appeared to have taken a turn for the worse again and was at present confined to bed.
‘I just can’t understand what’s wrong with her,’ Mrs Forbes said to Pearl one morning as she was brushing her hair – Pearl was quite good at it now. ‘The doctor is at a loss too. All he can do is recommend a tonic, but that doesn’t seem to be doing her any good at all, poor soul.’
Pearl nodded. ‘She doesn’t seem to be getting any better,’ she agreed. It was her who usually took up food to the poor woman – not that she was eating much now, so Cook had begun to prepare nourishing chicken soups to try to tempt her. ‘And she’s so weak,’ Pearl went on. ‘I’m making sure that she has as much liquid as she can manage but even that is making her vomit now.’ She could have added that she had seen traces of blood in her chamber pot when she took it away to empty it too, but she didn’t want to worry the mistress any more than she already was. Only that morning the pains in Mrs Veasey stomach had been so bad that it had taken Pearl all her time to wash and change her, and more worrying still was the fact that over the last couple of days she seemed to have been having mild seizures. She was forgetful too, but Pearl supposed that this was because she was in so much pain.
‘I wonder if putting her aboard a ship and getting her to a hospital in England would help?’ Mrs Forbes mused as Pearl began to pin up her hair.
Pearl shook her head. ‘To be honest, I don’t think she’d survive the journey in the state she’s in now, ma’am,’ she said sadly.
They all missed Mrs Veasey, but Pearl, in particular, wished she would get better, if only for Eliza’s sake. She had hoped that once they got back from England Mrs Forbes would take an interest in Eliza again, but as yet that hadn’t happened and Eliza had gone back into her shell. Cook seemed to have little patience with her, which didn’t help the situation, although Freda could still do no wrong in her eyes and got away with murder. The second Cook left the room, Freda would make Eliza do the jobs that she should have done. It hadn’t been so bad while Mrs Veasey was up and about as she had made it abundantly clear that she had no time for Freda and wouldn’t stand for her spiteful ways, but now that she was ill, Eliza’s life was worse than ever. But then, Pearl thought, Mrs Veasey had frequently criticised Eliza for trying to get out of doing her fair share of work, so maybe it wouldn’t have made much difference. Because of this Pearl visited the kitchen as often as she could, but she couldn’t be there all the time and she wished there were more she could do to help her little sister.
Her thoughts were interrupted as Mrs Forbes told her, ‘I was thinking the roads might be safe enough to venture into town today. We could visit the dressmaker and get you measured for those new gowns I promised you.’
Pearl’s face lit up. She was now thirteen years old and the dresses she owned were becoming dangerously tight across the chest, as well as being far too short. ‘That would be lovely, ma’am. Shall I ask Will to get the carriage ready for us?’
When Mrs Forbes was dressed, Pearl skipped downstairs with a happy smile on her face wondering if there might be time when they went into town to pay Susan a quick visit. It had been such a long time since she had seen her and she missed her. She entered the kitchen to find Eliza down on her hands and knees laboriously scrubbing the kitchen floor and the smile instantly slid from her face.
‘Isn’t that your job?’ she asked Freda coldly.
The girl grinned. ‘It were till she got set on,’ she said scathingly. ‘But seein’ as she’s younger than me it should be ’er as does it now.’
Pearl’s hands clenched in frustration. She knew that if she were to complain to Cook she would take Freda’s side, and seeing as Mrs Veasey was so unwell there was nothing she could do about it either. Not that Pearl thought she would have. For some reason she had never seemed to take to Eliza either. With a toss of her head, she snatched her cloak from the back of the door and crossed the yard to the stables to find Will.
He was in the stalls rubbing one of the horses down, and Pearl stood for a moment enjoying the smell of fresh hay before telling him that his mistress wanted the carriage brought round.
‘Right you are,’ he said cheerfully. ‘It’ll do ’em good to get out for a trot. Poor things have been penned up in here for far too long. But then we all have. Just leave it with me an’ tell Mrs Forbes I’ll have the carriage round the front in a jiffy.’
‘Thanks, Will.’ As Pearl hurried across the yard, she found Eliza throwing the dirty water out.
‘Are you goin’ out?’ the girl asked enviously as she swiped her wet hands across the front of her apron and Pearl felt a pang of guilt as she looked at Eliza’s rough hands. Hers were as smooth as silk now and she wondered at how their situations had changed so quickly.
‘Yes I am, as it happens. Mrs Forbes wants to take me into the town to get me measured up for some new dresses.’
Eliza pouted as she glanced down at her own drab work dress, then with a shrug she walked back inside without another word. Pearl hurried after her, relieved to see that there was no sign of Freda.
‘Look, I’ve been saving my wages and by Christmas I’ll have saved enough to buy you a new dress too,’ she said, hoping to cheer her sister up. But Eliza merely sniffed and went about her work, without so much as looking at her sister again.
Half an hour later, Pearl and Mrs Forbes set out for the town and Pearl felt light-hearted to be free again. It had been a very long, hard winter, far worse than any she had ever experienced back home and she couldn’t wait for spring to arrive. The roads were still slippery with slush and the horses had to tread carefully but eventually they reached the town all in one piece, much to Will’s relief. He was always afraid that one of the horses would hurt their legs but thankfully they had managed the journey admirably.
‘Give us about an hour, please, Will,’ Mrs Forbes instructed him, and doffing his cap he clambered back on to the carriage and urged the horses on.
Pearl and Mrs Forbes spent a pleasant half-hour with the dressmaker, choosing patterns and material for two new gowns, after which the kindly little woman had measured almost every inch of Pearl. By the time they were finished, Pearl was beaming and could hardly wait for them to be made. One was to be a fine silver-grey wool for the colder weather and the other dress would be made from a lemon-coloured cotton trimmed with a darker braid that would be perfect for the warmer weather. They would both
have full skirts and Pearl knew that she would feel like a real lady when she wore them.
‘Right, we’re all done here,’ Mrs Forbes said after glancing at the clock. ‘And we still have at least half an hour before Will comes back, so if there’s anywhere you want to go, by all means do. I still have a few things to get but I’ll meet you back here.’
It was the ideal opportunity to visit Susan, so Pearl set off for the bakery with a spring in her step. The smell of fresh-baked bread met her the second she stepped through the door and to her delight her friend was laying out a batch of fresh loaves on the counter. Susan glanced up as the little bell above the door tinkled and she beamed when she saw who it was.
‘Pearl! Eeh, I’ve missed yer that much!’ She was round the counter like a flash and before Pearl knew it, she was being enveloped in a bear hug that almost squeezed the air out of her.
‘I’ve missed you too.’ Pearl laughed as she finally managed to hold Susan at arm’s length. Thankfully there was no one else in the shop and the baker was busy in the kitchen, so Susan could steal a few moments to talk to her.
‘Oh, I’ve got so much to tell you,’ Susan told her. ‘Fer a start off Miss Walker who brought us here is gettin’ married in June to that nice Mr Briggs, who come over wiv the boys. Nick told me . . . he called in t’other day an’ he’s now working at Mr Forbes’s boatyard an’ lovin’ it. He’s stayin’ at the ’ome we stayed in when we first got ’ere fer now but ’e seems a lot ’appier than he was workin’ fer the farmer. But that’s enough about what’s been goin’ on ’ere. Tell me all about yer ’oliday in London.’
And so Pearl told her about her promotion to lady’s maid and that Eliza was now working in the kitchen again. Then, with tears in her eyes, she told her about the death of her family. Susan clucked her tongue sympathetically and gave her hand a little squeeze. Finally, she told her about how poorly Mrs Veasey was.
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