Chapter 11

When I reached the servants' hall, everyone had left apart from a young lad. He had a full plate of food in front of him, and I guessed he'd been running an errand while everyone else was eating.

‘Hello, I'm Mags,' I said.

‘Sam,' he said, pushing a fork into his stew.

‘Do you know when Mrs Willis will be back?'

He said with a mouthful of food, ‘She went to visit Mrs Marshall on the farm.'

‘Oh,' I said. He didn't intimidate me, being younger and with an earnest manner. I pulled up a chair opposite him and smiled.

‘She'll be back shortly, I'm sure,' he said.

‘Who should I report to then?'

He pulled a face. ‘Elsie, I suppose.'

‘She didn't do much to help me, I'm afraid,' I said, but regretted the words as soon as they came out of my mouth. The past few days had been exhausting both physically and mentally, but I should know better than to talk about one employee in front of another, especially on my first day. They could be firm friends for all I knew.

‘That's because she was after your job, and got turned down, didn't she? It's understandable really.'

‘Yes, it was rather awkward.'

He shovelled the stew into his mouth as if it were his last meal. Nobody seemed to have taught him table manners and he was bound to end up with indigestion.

‘What do you do?' I said.

‘I'm a hallboy. I run errands, pick up after everyone else. You know how it is.'

‘Yes. My father was a hallboy once, before he became a carpenter. How old are you?'

‘Fifteen.'

‘Do you like working here?'

‘My parents are poor and what with rationing and Dad's health problems leaving him unable to work, it helps if I live here and get proper meals.'

‘I expect they miss you though?'

He nodded, wiping gravy from around his mouth with a handkerchief. ‘And my brother has gone to fight in the war, so my mam has been feeling sad without her boys.'

‘I'm sorry to hear that, Sam.'

‘I cycle into the village to see them on days off.'

‘Do hallboys really sleep on a mattress in the hall?' I recalled my father telling me about this and how cold he'd been at night.

‘I was doing that but, when Mr and Mrs Willis got married last year and moved into Rose Cottage, I got the butler's pantry at night because Mr Willis wanted me to guard the silver. It's nice and warm in there what with plenty of logs for the fire. Mr Willis has been good to me.'

I had my own luxurious room and my tasks were bound to be less physically demanding than Sam's. Sometimes hearing about another person's life made one grateful for their situation. Especially when that person seemed so happy with their lot, as Sam did.

‘Mr Willis sounds like a kind man. Why is everyone so unfriendly towards me, Sam?'

‘We don't usually mix with the likes of you, miss,' he said.

Despite having been warned about servant hierarchy by Betty, I hadn't expected it to be entirely true.

‘Oh?'

‘Her ladyship's old lady's maid only spoke to the senior servants and looked down on the likes of us.'

‘I won't be like that,' I said.

He lifted his eyebrows. ‘You're up there, and we're down here, and that's that,' he said, using a hand to make his point.

Pouring myself a glass of water from the jug on the table, I said, ‘I used to be a shopgirl, and am not used to such nonsense.'

‘My cousin says shopgirls think they're better than us servants.'

There was no winning this game. We sat there in silence until Sam finished eating and then he got up and put his plate on the side.

‘Time to report for duty,' he said, heading for the door. ‘I'll see you later, miss. Oh, look, Mrs Willis is back. I'll tell her you're here.'

Mrs Willis came into the servants' hall, and I stood up.

‘You must be Margaret,' she said.

‘Yes, ma'am.'

‘Why don't you come with me.'

I followed her into the housekeeper's parlour. It was a cosy room with a round table and a window looking onto the gardens behind the house. A fire roared in the hearth. I could only aspire to having a room of my own like this one day, although my ambition was not to be a housekeeper. I didn't want to work in service for any longer than I had to, especially as most female servants ended up as spinsters. Although Sam had said Mrs Willis was married to the butler, which sometimes happened. She gestured for me to sit by the fire, taking the chair opposite.

‘So, Margaret, you're Lady Violet's new lady's maid. You'll report to me, and the usual standards of behaviour are expected here at Gatley Hall.'

‘I understand.'

‘That means no friendships with lower servants, no relations with male servants, including those who are visiting with their masters. You know the drill,' Mrs Willis said.

I nodded.

‘I understand Elsie has shown you to your room?'

‘Yes. It was rather awkward,' I said.

Mrs Willis sighed. ‘Such is life. Unfortunately for Elsie, you are more qualified for the role. Let's go and meet her ladyship, shall we, Margaret?'

Mrs Willis led me along the passageway and through a door into the main house. We came out in a cloakroom, off a grand hall, and the marble flooring was most impressive, with black and white tiles. The fireplace was imposing, with a mantelpiece decorated with a pair of blue and white vases and candles, a portrait of a man whom I presumed to be Lady Violet's husband, Charles Wentworth, the Earl of Elmbridge hanging above. We passed the sweeping staircase and Mrs Willis led me along a corridor to a library with walls crammed with books, and tables dotted around, covered in framed photographs. Lady Violet sat by the fire, protected by a screen, reading a book with a glass made from crystal in her hand.

‘Miss Bartlett is here, your ladyship.'

‘Do come in and sit down,' she said, gesturing for me to sit opposite her. Mrs Willis left the room, and we were alone.

‘Thank you, your ladyship,' I said, attempting a curtsey as I wasn't quite sure what was expected from me.

‘You will address me as milady, and I shall call you Maggie.'

I preferred Mags or at least Margaret, but wasn't in a position to argue.

‘My mother-in-law seems to have appointed you without consulting me, but, seeing as we are working with a limited pool currently, I shall not make a fuss about it. From what I've heard regarding your experience at Taylor and Stone, and judging by your well-turned-out appearance, I shall hope for the best.'

‘Thank you, milady,' I said.

‘This afternoon I'm hosting drinks for people in the local community, and you'll need to select suitable attire for me to wear; elegant and smart but, at the same time, understated. You can start preparing while I finish reading this chapter. Mrs Willis will assist.'

‘Yes, milady.'

I went to find Mrs Willis, who led me up the main staircase, a privilege indeed, and along a corridor to Lady Violet's bedroom. From there we entered her boudoir. She helped me select a cream silk blouse and navy-blue pencil skirt with black shoes.

‘Milady will give you a key to the safe and ask you to select any jewellery required.'

Mrs Willis left me alone and, before long, Lady Violet came into the boudoir. I laid out her clothes on a chair and she dressed. She was a beautiful young woman with blond hair and a slender yet curvaceous figure; what one would call an English rose. It was evident that she was well aware of this as she admired her appearance in the full-length looking glass on the wall, turning to study her reflection from different angles, pressing her lips together.

‘This outfit needs something else. Be a dear and get my emerald brooch from the safe, will you, Maggie?' she said. ‘It's in a red box from Ellis and Son.' She opened a drawer in her writing table and reached inside for a few moments before taking out a key. Pressing it into the palm of my hand, she said, ‘There's a false bottom in that drawer and if you ever need the key in my absence, just press the button at the back.'

I went to the wardrobe and located the safe under the piece of red velvet shown to me by Elsie earlier, and found the red box from Ellis and Son, the writing in gold letters, amongst a heap of other jewellery boxes. Lady Violet had plenty to choose from, as was to be expected for a woman of her rank. Lifting the lid, I gasped on seeing the most beautiful oval-shaped brooch with an emerald in the centre, encircled with tiny diamonds. It must have been worth a small fortune. I passed her the brooch, and she pinned it to her blouse.

‘This is my favourite piece, and I have jewels worth far more. It was a gift from my mother on my wedding day and so it has sentimental value. My grandmother wore it when she met Queen Victoria. My grandfather owned a railway company and his friend, Prince Albert, would visit with the queen on occasion.'

It was a beautiful brooch and with a lovely story to go with it. I doubted I would ever own anything so exquisite. Girls like me simply didn't acquire such items.

‘It is very beautiful, milady,' I said.

‘Maybe one day I might let you borrow it for a special occasion, as I did for my former lady's maid at a servants' ball. I shall miss dear Sophie, poor thing having to go and work in a factory. This war is obliging us all to do things out of the ordinary.'

Lady Violet's daily life didn't seem to be impacted by the war and I doubted she was suffering much. I couldn't imagine her lending me any of her jewellery to wear.

‘Indeed.' I gave her back the key to the safe and put away the clothes she'd been wearing before getting changed.

When I'd finished, she said, ‘That will be all for now, Maggie.'

‘Very well, milady,' I said.

Dismissed, I left her boudoir and took the servants' staircase back to the below-stairs quarters. Mrs Willis brought me some mending to work on in the laundry room; a combination of items with a button to be sewn on a footman's uniform, and a rip in one of her aprons to be repaired. This was to keep me occupied until her ladyship provided me with things to do.

Later on, Mrs Willis invited me into her parlour to eat supper with her, Mr Willis and the cook, Mrs Downside. Nobody spoke while we spooned vegetable broth into our mouths, and the thought of spending every mealtime with these people, who were perfectly pleasant but the same age as my mother, was a daunting prospect. Would I get to spend time with any of the younger servants? After supper, I carried on with the mending until Lady Violet dismissed her guests at midnight. Then I was summoned to put her clothes and jewels away, and brush her hair before styling it into a plait. I selected a silk nightgown, as directed, and passed it to her. A white blouse needed pressing as she would be taking tea with the dowager the following morning. I took the blouse down to the laundry room and used the iron before carrying it back upstairs to keep in my wardrobe until the morning.

It had been an exhausting day, adapting to my new surroundings, and I was still coming to terms with Elsie's attitude towards me. If she had any influence on the opinions of the other servants, then life could be difficult for me at Gatley Hall.