The Butler

by Danielle Steel

  “What am I supposed to look at?” she asked. They were both still shocked to have lost Francois, and Joachim had been checking on her a lot, to make sure she was all right. They were both doing the best they could to get used to it. He had been a benevolent force in both their lives, a truly kind and loving man. And Joachim knew how lonely she was without him.

  Joachim pointed to the newspaper. It was a fairly large ad for a butler school in England.

  “That?” She looked surprised and he nodded. “Butler school? Why would you want to do that?” It sounded like another dead end to her, like all the jobs he had had since he’d dropped out of the Sorbonne.

  “I don’t know. I’m not sure I do. But it sounds like fun, at least for a while anyway. Like a part in a movie.” He was twenty-five years old, and wanted a job that was fun, and so far none had been. He had no passions, like his mother’s love of art, or Francois’s. All he had was a bright mind, the strength of youth, and the fact that he spoke four languages, which wasn’t unusual in Europe. Many people did.

  “You don’t need a part in a movie,” she said, frowning. “You need a real job, a career, something you’ll want to do at forty or fifty. Why would you want to be a butler? What gave you that idea?”

  “The ad makes it sound interesting. You learn to run a fine home, have a supervisory position over other staff, how to take care of silver, fine porcelain, and antiques, and impeccable service, how to serve at table. It sounds like a very varied and responsible job.”

  “Those days are gone,” she reminded him. “Everyone had formal staff, in full uniform, in Argentina when I was a girl. I’m sure no one there does now. And I don’t think anyone has a butler here either.”

  “They have them in England. That’s where the school is. The course lasts six months, it might be fun.”

  “Would you want to work in England?” She was surprised. He was so Latin by nature. He’d been in France for eight years by then and was at home there.

  “I don’t know where I want to work, or what I want to do. But I’ve got time to spare. I’m only twenty-five, Mom. I can afford to waste six months of my life, especially now, thanks to Francois.” He was frustrated by his own lack of direction, but nothing interested him and there was nothing he wanted to do.

  “I don’t think he intended the money for you to study for a job you’ll never want.”

  “Maybe I will want it. Maybe being the head man in a grand house would be interesting.”

  “You need to do more in life than learn how to set a table,” she said sternly.

  “I don’t think I’d mind a life of service. I kind of like the idea of keeping people’s lives in good order. I wouldn’t mind that at all, especially if the house is impressive. I have nothing else to do at the moment, and shoving furniture around at the auction house has no future either. It’s a laborer’s job. I don’t like leaving you, though. I could come home on weekends, while I’m taking the course.”

  “Don’t worry about me, I’m fine,” she said bravely. She wasn’t fine, but she thought that eventually she would be. And she didn’t want to stand in his way or be a burden to him. She just thought that being a butler sounded like a crazy idea with no future.

  “I’ll call them and see what they have to say,” he said, and didn’t mention it again for the rest of lunch. They went for a walk together that afternoon, as she used to do with Francois on a Sunday afternoon, strolling in the park. She didn’t say it to Joachim, but now she had to adjust to one more person she loved missing from her life. It had happened to her much too often. Joachim thought the same thing, as he tucked her hand into his arm, and they walked along in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts. She was thinking of Francois, and Joachim was silently mourning his stepfather and his brother and musing about butler school again. It sounded like a crazy idea to him too, but he had nothing else to do, and a lifetime ahead of him, with no set career plan. It might be amusing for six months. And nothing else appealed to him at the moment. Growing older was just no fun without his twin brother and hadn’t been for eight years. He had always thought that Javier would settle down once he got out of his teens, and they would be close again. And instead, he had disappeared.

  Chapter 2

  When Joachim went to London to visit the butler school two weeks later, he was surprised by how seriously they took themselves. He had asked a friend in Paris who was a desk clerk at the Crillon to check out the school for him. The friend had reported that people in the catering department had heard of it, although they’d never hired anyone who’d trained there. They said the school was respected, but mostly trained people who wanted to work in fancy homes for fancy people, usually in England. So at least it was known and reputable. The question for Joachim was whether that was what he wanted to do when he grew up. And his mother had a point. Did he want to work in England? The weather there was even more miserable than in Paris, nothing like Argentina. He still missed the warm weather and atmosphere in Buenos Aires. South America had a style and energy to it and an innate joie de vivre, a kind of lively, sexy undertone that he had encountered nowhere in Europe. Maybe a little bit in Spain and Italy, but he still preferred Argentina, even though he didn’t plan to go back there. He lived in France now. He didn’t want to leave the only relative he had, his mother, to go back to live in a country with a brother he hadn’t seen in eight years, and probably never would again. Now that Francois was gone, Joachim didn’t want to abandon his mother, and leave her alone at her age. But the chilly formality of England didn’t seem too appealing either.

  He went to the school and met with the admissions director. She was a thin-lipped, formal, uptight woman, who had him fill out a long questionnaire about his life experience so far, and why he thought he wanted to be a butler. She told him the school itself occupied two floors of a small house in Knightsbridge. There were proper classrooms, and a conference room set up with an enormously long dining table, where they practiced formal table settings and formal service. The students were all men, they wore white tie and tails in class, and were impeccable. Personal grooming was part of the course. Joachim thought it was funny, like a costume party. But no one else thought it was amusing. He was the only foreigner in the class. The other students were all English.

  There was another room set up with every kind of silver serving piece imaginable, which students had to learn to identify infallibly. There was a class on the selection of proper wines, with regular tastings. There were seminars on running staff, and the proper hierarchy in a large formal house. There were still enough of them in England to make the school viable. And there was a class dedicated to running weekend house parties. In spite of wanting to laugh and make fun of it, Joachim was impressed after his visit. This was clearly a life choice, and a career, not simply something one did as a filler between odd jobs. It took concentration, skill, intelligence, and dedication.

  The head of students Joachim met with was a tall, dignified, fierce-looking man, who had served in two of the great homes in England for thirty years, and had come to teach at the school when he retired. He explained that in the old days, young men started as hall boys in their teens and worked their way up to footman, then first footman in charge of the others, under-butler, and eventually butler. And by the time they reached the top, they knew their job inside and out. Nowadays, staffs were smaller, there were fewer opportunities to train, and they could learn in the school in six months of intense, diligent study what might have taken them ten years to learn in the past. After that, they needed experience on the job to practice what they’d learned.

  The school also offered a placement service for their graduates, much the way the Norland College for nannies placed their trained nannies, in their case, after a three-year course, with classroom and hospital training. The course for butlers was much shorter, but no less intense. They didn’t need the medical skills or hospital training that for
mal nannies did, but there was much to learn to become a butler. In the current world, butlers were expected to know more than they had previously, since they were often expected to take on additional duties as well, and the entire house staff might come under their supervision. It sounded daunting, but intriguing. Joachim submitted his application, and spent two more days in London, staying at a small hotel. He went to museums, visited the Tower of London and Madame Tussauds, ate fish and chips, and the hottest curry he’d ever tasted in his life. London seemed like fun. He’d been there before, but never on his own. He had visited the city with Francois and his mother when he was younger. The weather was bitter cold the whole time he was there to visit the school, but Joachim didn’t mind. London seemed much more exciting than Paris, busier, and more alive.

  He thought about it when he got back to Paris. It was a relief to get back to a familiar city, even to his tiny studio apartment, but it was his home. He called his mother that night and told her about the trip to London and his visit to the school.

  “They take it very seriously,” he said, still surprised by it. “I kept wanting to laugh at some of the things they told me. They probably won’t accept me. Most of the students are older than I am, have previously been in domestic service, and were very intense about it.” But she could hear that part of him had liked what he saw. It was a career she wouldn’t have thought of for him, and she wished he wanted to go back to university, maybe for a teaching degree, but she knew he didn’t want to. “There’s a whole class on how silver should be polished.” She smiled, remembering her father’s house when she was a girl. They had had a very snobbish German butler and many servants. It was quite formal too. And then, from one day to the next, it was all over, and everything was gone.

  * * *

  —

  Much to Joachim’s surprise, he was accepted at the butler school. Then he had to make a decision. After a week of debating, he decided to meet the challenge, and try it. He accepted the place they offered him. The money Francois had left him made it easily affordable. For others, it was a financial stretch, and they had saved in order to pay for it.

  He was sent a list of the clothes he had to bring, including formal livery, which he could purchase in London. There was an advanced class for anyone who wished to work in a royal household. That sounded interesting to Joachim, but he considered it an unlikely possibility for him. He wasn’t even sure if he’d finish the six-month class. He accepted the place offered him anyway, sent in his tuition, and showed up at the school on the appointed day. He had to go to London a few days early to find lodgings. He got a room in the home of a woman who took in boarders. It was actually nicer than his studio in Paris, and close to the school. He arrived at the school the first day in white tie and tails, with several notebooks in his briefcase. It was much more straightlaced than the Sorbonne had been. Every move he made was closely observed and corrected the moment before another student made a mistake.

  There were times during the six months that Joachim wasn’t sure he would last. Sometimes the whole curriculum seemed utterly absurd in the modern world. It felt like an anachronism. There were a few times when he was bored, but not many. For the most part, his classes were interesting and a challenge. He enjoyed learning about fine wines, the best cigars, and proper table service. Table settings he had to measure with a ruler were the hardest part. He always left out one thing, and absolute flawless perfection was vital. The hierarchy of guests was stressed and had to be learned, along with titles, as well as the hierarchy of the servants, who outranked whom and who had to be seated where, even in the servants’ dining hall. There were a million rules to learn and follow. There were no exceptions, and the attitude of the instructors was rigid and unforgiving, but Joachim was surprised that he genuinely enjoyed it, and when he did something right, it felt like a real accomplishment. At the end of the six months, he graduated with excellent recommendations from his teachers. There was satisfaction in it, because it hadn’t been easy. His mother was fascinated by everything he told her, and how much he was obviously happy there. She couldn’t understand why he would want to be a servant, but he had definitely been prepared for the very highest caliber of the job, and he took pride in what he’d learned.

  The school placed him in his first job with an earl who had a house in London, an estate in Norfolk, and a castle in Scotland. He was hired as an under-butler, with a large, somewhat disorganized staff. But he found them fun to work with. The earl was massively in debt and put all three properties on the market within a year, and Joachim was out of a job. But he had excellent references from the head butler and his employer.

  Joachim went to a high-end London domestic employment agency after that, and with his training at the school and a year’s experience working for the earl, he landed a job as under-butler in the London home of the Marquess of Cheshire. The family had an estate in Sussex as well, with a butler there too. Their homes were beautifully maintained. They were distant cousins of the queen and the most elite members of the aristocracy came to the parties they frequently gave. Joachim learned a great deal while he was there. He honed his skills, and when the head butler retired four years later, Joachim became the head butler in the London house at thirty-one. He ran the staff with an iron hand by then and could spot a flaw in the table settings from a mile away. His understanding of the social hierarchy and etiquette was flawless. He was a perfectionist, and took pride in how well he did his job. And his discretion was legendary as to whatever he saw at house parties, among family or guests.

  Joachim was equally discreet about his own life. The family he worked for was always his priority and his job. His personal life came last. There were brief affairs, when he had time, with domestics in other homes. He never dallied with the staff that worked for him, told no secrets, and although he liked pretty young women, he never made long-term promises or became too deeply involved. He felt he needed to remain a bachelor to do justice to his job. And he had little time for friends. It was a solitary life, which he accepted as part of his chosen career.

  The Cheshires were quite old by the time Joachim was in charge. And the marquess needed considerable care when he fell ill. Joachim had a deep affection for him and frequently assisted him himself, although there were nurses to do it. The marquess was particularly fond of Joachim and trusted him. Joachim had been in the job for seven years when the marquess died. His children asked Joachim to stay on, continue to run the London house, and oversee the care of their mother, who had dementia by then. Joachim felt great concern for her and stayed for nine more years. He had been with them for sixteen years in all. The marchioness had finally died three months before. The children decided to sell the London house and the Sussex estate. Neither home suited their lifestyles, and they didn’t want to employ the huge staff that houses of that size and age required to maintain them. Their parents’ lifestyle didn’t suit them, and they didn’t want the burden or expense of great houses. They preferred to live more simply, and the family fortune was getting thin by then.

  Joachim had helped them close both houses, sent the pieces they wanted to their homes, and helped arrange a massive auction at Sotheby’s for the rest. He had just finished and left for Paris before his trip to Argentina. He was staying with his mother in Paris, for a breather before returning to London to look for a new job. After sixteen years with the Cheshires, he felt he had earned a break, and it seemed the perfect time to go to Buenos Aires, after having dreamed of it for years.

  There had been no news of Javier for many, many years. Another foray with a detective had confirmed all their worst fears. There was no doubt now. Javier was deeply embedded with men who ran a drug cartel, had been in and out of jail a few times, and was beyond their reach. They had no access to him, but Joachim still wanted to go back, see his own friends if he could find them. If he learned anything more about his twin, he could at least tell his mother. Joachim had no hope of seeing Jav
ier, but they were always hungry for news of him after nearly twenty-three years of silence, interrupted only by upsetting rumors from old friends every few years.

  Quite remarkably, Liese was still working, still hunting down major works of art, and returning them to their original owners or their heirs whenever possible. She was eighty-one now. She was physically a little slower, and looked frail, but her mind was as sharp as ever. She had been a widow for seventeen years, as long as Joachim had been working in England.

  She was surprised when he told her he was going to Argentina for a visit. He was forty-two now, and they had left when he was seventeen. She no longer wanted to go back herself. She was content to stay in France. Paris was her home now, not Buenos Aires.

  “Who do you even know there by now?” she asked him.

  “The boys I went to school with. I still get Christmas cards from some of them. It might be nice to see them, one more time.”

  “Are you looking for Javier?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him, and he hesitated.

  “Maybe. I always have fantasies that our paths will cross again one day. We were so close as boys. And even when he started to change as a teenager, he was still my brother. He still is.”

  “I was always afraid he would take a bad turn and head in the wrong direction. I should have made him come to Paris with us,” she said sadly. It was one of her few regrets. She didn’t have many and had led a good life. She was proud of Joachim. He was a decent, upstanding man, hardworking and honorable, and a good son. She was sorry he hadn’t married and had children of his own, but he always said that marriage and a family were not compatible with a life of service, if you did it right and were truly dedicated to your employers. He had certainly put his heart and soul into his work for the past seventeen years. It had in fact turned into a satisfying career for him, and he was supremely capable. He didn’t seem to be unhappy about being single and without children. Liese worried sometimes that the trauma of losing his brother had made him unable to attach to anyone. He never discussed his personal life with his mother when he came to Paris to see her, which he did as often as he could, sometimes even if he could only come for a day. But with her work, she was busy too.