by Lesley Eames
Lily was carrying a cloth and bucket of water towards the dining room when Mrs Everett returned unexpectedly. ‘Oh, heck,’ Mrs Tibbs muttered.
Lily stood with her head down respectfully.
‘I forgot a magazine I promised to a friend,’ Mrs Everett told Mrs Tibbs. ‘I need you to fetch it. And did I mention that I spilt cold cream on my dressing table? You’ll need to wipe it up and go out for more. Or send Minnie here.’ She waved a gloved hand in Lily’s direction.
‘This is Lily, Madame. Minnie left a year ago and then we had Ada. Lily is the new girl.’
‘So many girls! I can’t be expected to remember them all. Well, Lily, I trust you’ll make yourself useful.’
Lily looked up into her mistress’s face. Mrs Everett was approaching fifty and might have been handsome without the petulant expression and the bright red lipstick that had leaked into the wrinkles around her discontented mouth. ‘I’ll do my best, Madame,’ Lily said.
Mrs Tibbs fetched the magazine then opened the door for Mrs Everett who moved down the steps to a car that was waiting outside. ‘Don’t expect her to remember your name,’ Mrs Tibbs said.
Lily smiled but wondered why so many girls passed through these doors only to move on elsewhere. Within a couple of weeks she had her answer. There was simply too much work. Mrs Everett appeared to think she had a ladies’ maid and a host of other servants at her disposal. Time and again she rang the bell for Mrs Tibbs to go and draw curtains, iron a dress, shop for hair pins, polish shoes, collect stockings, sew on buttons, post letters, clear up spillages and run a hundred other errands inside and outside the house.
It didn’t help that the master was a stickler for mealtimes and tidiness. Mr Everett was a thin-bodied, thin-haired man to whom smiles were alien. Poor Mrs Tibbs was run ragged and was often in discomfort due to the bad veins in her legs.
‘You must let me help more,’ Lily said.
‘You do enough for your six shillings a week, but I’d be grateful if you’d iron Mrs Everett’s dress and take it up to her. My legs need a sit-down before I go up those stairs again.’
Lily often waited on Mrs Everett after that though it didn’t mean that the mistress remembered her name. Mrs Everett called her simply, ‘Girl.’
Lily also began to wait on Mr Everett in the dining room. ‘Did he say anything about me?’ she asked Mrs Tibbs after the first time.
‘No, but take that as a compliment. If he hadn’t liked the way you did things, I’d have heard about it, make no mistake.’
Time off was tricky due to Mrs Everett’s unpredictability. It wasn’t possible to find a day when Lily could see both of her friends together but over the weeks that followed she managed to see Phyllis on one afternoon and Elsie on another.
Phyllis was working in a bigger household but had got into trouble in her first week. ‘Some of the staff were sick so I was sent out to do some shopping. Mrs Pascoe, the housekeeper, had told me which shops she used but I looked around and managed to get the shopping cheaper. I thought she’d be pleased but she accused me of not knowing my place and trying to make her look bad. I don’t like her enough to suck up and try to put things right so I’m keeping myself to myself.’
‘It sounds miserable,’ Lily said.
‘At least there’s a second-hand bookshop nearby and the owner lets me borrow books for a penny each.’
Elsie was simply bored. ‘I spend the day reaching this, reaching that, peeling, scrubbing…’
Despite her heavy workload, Lily decided she was in a better situation than her friends because she’d settled into a comfortable relationship with Hilda Tibbs. ‘I reckon I struck lucky with you, dear,’ Hilda told her when they were taking a precious break over a cup of tea. ‘You’re a hard worker, and careful too. And you never whine.’
‘Have you worked for the Everetts for long?’ Lily asked.
‘Fifteen years.’
‘You’ve always worked in service?’
‘I fancied working in a dress shop when I was young but I needed a place to live and service was a way of getting it.’
‘You didn’t try for shop work when you were older?’
‘I didn’t think they’d want me, to be honest.’
She’d lost her confidence, Lily guessed. ‘Was Mr Tibbs in service too?’
‘Bless you, dear. There is no Mr Tibbs. Never has been. Calling myself Mrs Tibbs is about respect, do you see? I’d like to say I had my chance of marriage when I was younger but it wouldn’t be true. I was never pretty like you, Lily. You may look like a strong wind could blow you over, but you have a lovely face and you move like one of them ballet dancers. Not that I’ve seen a ballet dancer, but I can picture one.’
‘Fifteen years is a long time to be in a job. Especially a difficult one.’
‘I suppose I haven’t been able to face the upheaval of finding something else.’
‘You intend to work here forever?’
Hilda laughed. ‘For a few more years anyway. Then I want to retire and live with my sister. Marion is a housekeeper in Bromley. We’re saving up to buy a little house together in Hastings. That’s what’s keeps me going. The thought of a little house by the sea.’
‘I hope you get it soon,’ Lily said.
Hilda deserved some happiness. Lily felt both affection and admiration for her but she also thought there was something a little sad about Hilda’s life. Not because of the work she did – Lily wouldn’t turn up her nose at any sort of honest work – but because Hilda had lacked the confidence to pursue her dream. Instead she’d settled for second best and pinned her happiness on what might be just a few short years by the seaside if she and her sister lived long enough to enjoy them.
Lily didn’t want to settle for a second-best life and pin her hopes on a future that might never happen. She wanted to enjoy her work and feel she was achieving something with it, however small. At fourteen there was nothing she could do about it yet, but she vowed to take care that her confidence in her power to change her life didn’t seep away as Hilda’s had done.
Affection for Hilda made Lily answer questions eagerly when an inspector from Booth’s came to check on her. Yes, the conditions were good. Yes, she was well fed and well treated. Yes, she had time off and received her wages on time. No, she had no complaints.
The inspection had made Mrs Tibbs nervous. ‘Thank you, dear,’ she said, after the inspector had left. ‘It was good of you to stretch the truth like that, especially about the time off. I wish I could make your time off regular.’
‘I know you do your best.’
The Everetts told Hilda that they’d be home for Christmas. Hilda broke the news to Lily. ‘It’s going to be a lot of work so I’m afraid there won’t be time off for us. I hope you weren’t hoping to go away?’
‘I wasn’t.’ Lily had nowhere to go. ‘I’d like to see my brother and friends at some point over the festivities, though.’
‘I’d like to see my sister,’ Hilda sighed.
*
The Everetts’ son and daughter-in-law came for Christmas. ‘You’re certainly an improvement on the last girl,’ Ralph Everett said, coming down to dinner earlier than expected to help himself to a glass of whisky in the dining room where Lily was setting the table. ‘What’s your name?’
Lily disliked everything about him from his oil-slicked hair and knowing eyes to the arrogant leer of his mouth. ‘Lily, sir.’
‘Pretty name for a pretty girl, what?’
Lily didn’t answer but headed for the door. Unfortunately, he was standing in her way. ‘Excuse me, sir.’
He took a very small step to the side and it was only because Lily was so slender that she managed to slip by without touching him. ‘I’ll see you later, Lily,’ he said, breathing whisky fumes over her.
Shuddering, Lily fled to the kitchen.
‘Oh, dear,’ Hilda said, seeing her face. ‘Mr Ralph?’
‘Horrible man.’
‘He didn’t…’
&n
bsp; ‘No. But the way he looked at me and spoke to me…’
Hilda sighed. ‘I used to wish I was pretty but being plain meant I never had to put up with that sort of nonsense. Don’t worry. I’ll do the waiting-on if you help in here.’
‘There’s too much waiting-on for one person,’ Lily said, concerned about Hilda’s bad veins. ‘I’ll just keep my distance from him.’
‘All right, but let me know if it becomes too much.’
Lily kept out of Ralph’s way, gliding quietly about the house and listening out for him so she could slip away unseen if there was any chance of meeting him alone. He continued to look at her when she served meals but Mr Everett proved an unexpected ally in giving his son a sharp look when Ralph leered at Lily one evening. Lily supposed he didn’t approve of his son showing an interest in a servant.
‘Phew,’ Hilda said, when the working day was over. ‘Time to put our feet up.’
It was time for their own Christmas celebration too, such as it was. Lily had bought lemon verbena soaps for Hilda. ‘Bless you, dear. They’re lovely,’ she said. ‘I hope you won’t be disappointed by my gift to you.’
The gift was a pair of black stockings. ‘Just what I need,’ Lily assured her.
The Everetts went off unexpectedly two days after Christmas, intending to be away for more than a week. Artie had sent Lily another book for Christmas. She’d sent him a small drawing of the River Thames she’d found in a bookshop. It’s to remind you of home when you’re away, she’d written.
But she hadn’t seen Artie since starting work and neither had she seen much of her friends. ‘Do you think I might have some time off now?’ she asked Hilda.
‘I think we should both have some time off. I’m going to invite Marion to visit. I know she can’t stay here but she sometimes stays in a guest house on Webster Road. Why don’t you ask your brother and friends to visit too? I know I said we’re not allowed visitors but we’ve been run ragged these last weeks. In fact, we’re run ragged most of the time thanks to Madame’s fancies so we’re entitled to a visitor or two. We can entertain them down here.’
After a flurry of letter-writing, it was all settled. Marion Tibbs would stay at the guest house for two nights, Artie would stay for one night and, after much counting of pennies, Elsie and Phyllis decided to stay for one night too.
Marion Tibbs came first. Lily found her to be calmer than her sister but just as nice. ‘Hilda writes often and always tells me what a delight you are, Lily,’ Marion said. ‘I can see she’s right and it’s a weight off my mind to know she has you with her. Poor Hilda has had to work far too hard over the years.’
Artie arrived next. ‘Heavens!’ Hilda declared. ‘I wasn’t expecting… Heavens!’
She went on to praise Artie’s handsome appearance, his kind eyes, perfect manners and charming smile but she was obviously a little in awe of him at first. ‘He speaks better than the Master,’ she whispered to Lily. ‘Who’d have thought… Well!’
Who’d have thought what? That a servant like Lily could have a brother who’d pass as one of their so-called betters? But no. Lily wasn’t going to let doubts about their future paths spoil the fact that they were together now.
When Elsie and Phyllis arrived the party began with a delicious meal cooked by the Tibbs sisters and sherry Marion had been given by her employer. ‘Just a sip for you young ones,’ she said.
There were paper hats and party games – charades and consequences – then they all raised their glasses to count down to the New Year. ‘Happy 1914!’
Lily didn’t see Elsie and Phyllis the following morning as they both had to return to work early but she had a long walk with Artie before he left. ‘I’m glad you’re with a nice person like Mrs Tibbs but I hate you working so hard while I don’t work at all,’ he said again.
‘You are working,’ Lily insisted. ‘You’re getting an education.’
Curiosity over what he’d told his friends about her niggled at the back of her mind but once again she held her tongue. People could be cruel and Lily understood how Artie might have to put on an act in order to survive bullying and sneers. Even so she’d be hurt if she learned he’d glossed over her situation because he was embarrassed by her and perhaps even a little ashamed of her. Artie would feel bad about admitting it too. Perhaps it was best for both of them to steer clear of the subject.
A new year had begun. It was a time for optimism. Lily would turn fifteen this year and sixteen the next. Then she’d be able to make her own choices about her life.
FOURTEEN
‘Letter for you,’ Hilda said, smiling.
Lily felt the usual burst of pleasure when she saw Artie’s handwriting on the envelope.
‘Sit down and read it,’ Hilda suggested. ‘You deserve five minutes to yourself after rushing round all morning.’
Lily sat the kitchen table and opened the letter. Artie had won a cross-country race against a rival school which meant Camfordleigh had been awarded something called the Benfield Shield for the first time in seven years. Camfordleigh also had a new headmaster after the retirement of the previous man. Mr Avery was modern in his outlook, and had brought in two younger teachers, including Mr Burrows who taught Artie history.
Lessons aren’t just about kings and queens of old anymore. They’re about recent times. Mr Burrows has also set up the News Society which is a club where we read newspapers and talk about things that are happening in the world. He says that the school may be buried in the countryside but we should still have knowledge of the rest of the world. Mr Burrows has become my favourite teacher.
Fordyce has chipped a tooth. He told Matron he did it tripping up a stair but actually he was sliding down a banister…
Lily was pleased that Artie sounded happy. There was nothing new in her own life but she was trying to read as much as possible. ‘I don’t see why you shouldn’t borrow the Everetts’ books as they never read them,’ Mrs Tibbs had said. ‘Just spread the other books out to cover the gaps in the shelves.’
Lily also read the newspapers Mr Everett tossed into the wastepaper basket after his breakfast, reporting to Mrs Tibbs on odd stories about people and items for sale. Mrs Tibbs shook her head in wonder at some of them. ‘A contraption to straighten noses? Fancy!’
Lily told her about West End shows and London picture houses too. Mrs Tibbs had once been to a revue but she’d never been to the cinema. ‘Moving pictures don’t sound natural. I think they might make me feel seasick,’ she said.
Lily longed to see a moving picture and hoped to persuade Elsie or Phyllis to go to the cinema with her one day. Not that Lily was spending her wages freely. While she had no intention of falling into Mrs Tibbs’s trap of saving for a time far in the distance at the expense of enjoying what life had to offer now, the future Lily had in mind was less than two years away. Having a little money behind her would be very helpful indeed when she moved on from Beeches Mansions.
Hopefully, she’d find work in London so she’d be nearer to Artie during his school holidays. Elsie and Phyllis were keen to go to London too, Elsie being bored in her job and Phyllis actually loathing hers... Phyllis’s housekeeper had turned even nastier after she’d caught Phyllis reading about the suffragettes. ‘Disgraceful women who should know better,’ the housekeeper had raged.
Phyllis wasn’t actually sure she approved of the way the suffragettes had escalated their campaign to window-smashing. She worried that it might be seen as vandalism instead of the acts of thinking people who deserved the vote, but she wasn’t going to admit that to her housekeeper. ‘I think they’re wonderful,’ she said.
‘Wonderful? When they’re causing trouble and trying to turn everything what’s natural upside down? Women are better off at home instead of meddling in men’s matters and stirring up discontent.’
‘I’d like to join them one day.’
‘Then you’ll be saying goodbye to your job here. Suffragettes, indeed!’
Phyllis couldn’t wait to say go
odbye to her job. Lily would be glad to leave the Everetts too, though she felt regret at the thought of leaving Hilda.
‘I’ve never had the knack of making friends,’ Hilda had told her. ‘Chatting to people doesn’t come naturally to me. I don’t know what to say and if I open my mouth, my words come out sharp. But it’s different with you, Lily. You make me feel comfortable. You may be forty years younger than me, but you’re a true friend.’
Lily had hugged her. ‘You’re a great friend to me too.’
At Easter Lily saw Artie only once before he left London to accompany Mr Alderton on a tour of English cathedrals. ‘It’ll be interesting to see places like York and Durham which I’ve never visited before but I don’t suppose I’ll have as much fun as Fordyce, who’s sailing around the Isle of Wight, or Mr Burrows, who’s travelling around Europe by train. He’s the history teacher I mentioned. He’s very interested in the politics over there and feels he should go there now in case there’s trouble later.’
‘Trouble?’
‘Kaiser Bill and his sabre-rattling,’ Artie explained.
‘That’s been going on for years.’ Even back in Bermondsey Lily had seen children fighting with toy swords as they pretended to be the Kaiser.
‘Mr Burrows thinks Germany is spoiling for a fight. But don’t worry, Lil. He’s not suggesting it’s going to happen soon, and Britain might not get involved anyway. He just thinks he should see Europe while he can. My holiday won’t be half as exciting but at least I won’t be scrubbing floors like you.’
Artie’s guilt was taking hold again. ‘Send me a postcard,’ Lily said, to give the conversation a more cheerful turn.
He sent her three postcards from his travels and Lily treasured them.
When Artie next wrote he was at school again and playing cricket but trying to work for his end of term examinations.