Death at Dawn - Caro Peacock [48]
‘The driver of the phaeton asks will somebody please come down and help him.’
‘And who may you be?’
‘I’m the new governess, but that doesn’t matter. The phaeton is quite smashed and the cob …’
He clicked his fingers. Two grooms immediately appeared beside him.
‘Bring in the cob and phaeton,’ he told them. Then, to me: ‘Beggs – can he walk?’
I was pleased by this evidence of humanity.
‘The driver? Yes, he’s not badly hurt, he –’
Cutting me short, he turned back to the men.
‘So you needn’t waste time bringing Beggs back. Tell him from me he’s dismissed and to take himself off. If there’s any wages owing, they’ll go towards repairing the phaeton.’
‘But it wasn’t his fault,’ I said. ‘Sir Herbert …’
He walked away. I went and sat on the mounting block with my bag at my feet. After a while an older groom with a kindly face came over to me.
‘Anything wrong, miss?’
‘I’m … I’m the new governess and I don’t know where to go.’
He pointed to the archway where the footman had gone.
‘Through there, miss, and get somebody to take you to Mrs Quivering.’
He even carried my bag as far as the archway, though he didn’t set foot into the inner courtyard on the far side of it.
‘The driver,’ I said, ‘it isn’t at all just …’
‘There’s a lot that’s not just, miss.’
The courtyard I walked into was sandwiched between the stableyard and the back of the house. A low building on the left was the dairy. Through a half-open door I could see a woman shaping pats of butter on a marble slab. The smell of bread was coming from a matching building on the right, its chimney sending up a long column of sweet-smelling woodsmoke. The back of the house itself towered over it all, with a line of doors opening on to the courtyard, one with baskets of fruit and vegetables stacked outside. The dust-covered footman was standing by another door, talking to a woman in a blue dress and white mob-cap. When he went inside, I followed him into a high dark corridor.
‘Excuse me,’ I said to his back. ‘Can you please tell me who Mrs Quivering is and where I can find her?’
He turned wearily.
‘Housekeeper. Straight on and last on the left.’
He disappeared through a doorway. The passage was a long one and the door at the far end was green baize, marking the boundary between servants’ quarters and the house proper. At right angles to it, another door marked Housekeeper. I knocked, and a voice sounding harassed, but pleasant enough, told me to come in.
Mrs Quivering reminded me of the nuns. She looked to be in her thirties, young for somebody holding such a responsible position, and handsome, in a plain black dress with a bundle of keys at her belt and smooth dark hair tucked under her white linen cap. But her eyes were shrewd, twenty years older than the rest of her. She looked carefully at me as I explained my business.
‘Yes, you are expected, Miss Lock. I understand there was an accident on the drive.’
‘I’d hardly call it an accident. What happened –’
‘You are unhurt?’
‘Yes, but –’
‘I’m sorry that I can’t allocate you the room used by your predecessor. We are expecting a large number of house guests shortly and I am having to set rooms aside for their servants. You might share with Mrs Sims, or there is a small room two floors from the schoolroom that you might have to yourself.’
I had no notion who Mrs Sims, might be. I said I’d take the small room two floors up, please, and she made a note on a paper on the desk beside her.
‘I’m sure Lady Mandeville will want to talk to you about your duties, but she’s occupied at the moment. I shall let her know you’ve arrived.’
She rang a bell on her desk and a footman appeared, not the one from the carriage. His wig was perfectly in place, the gold braid on his jacket gleaming.
‘Patrick, this is Miss Lock, the children’s new governess. Please show her to the schoolroom.’
He bent silently to pick