The Passions of Bronwyn (2 page)

CHAPTER TWO

Wyn settled into the life of the house.  It was hard work in the kitchen.  She had to get up at six o'clock, wash and dress and make sure her hair was tied neatly back beneath her cap. Her bed had to be made properly and she had to be downstairs at work within half an hour of waking to start her first task of the day which was to bring the kitchen range up to a good heat to boil the water for early morning tea for the other servants. Then it was the worst job as far as she was concerned, she had to empty the chamber pots of all the female servants and wash them around with a vinegar soaked rag, this job always made her gag and she thought that it was just as well she had to do it before breakfast.  She then had to clean the kitchen, pantries and scullery. Her duties were physically demanding and never stopped during the day. Her last tasks before she went to bed were cleaning the kitchen floor, stoves, sinks, pots and dishes.  She always felt very tired but wasn’t unhappy.  Her life had more peace in it because there was no worry about Henry hurting her or her sisters.

Wyn liked the mornings best when she had to be dressed in a clean apron for morning prayers in the Main Hall, as this was the only time she ever went upstairs.  She looked forward to this as it gave her a chance to see William who had become a good friend since she had arrived. She did manage to have a break after lunch for an hour.  She and William would stand outside the back door and talk and laugh.  He made her life surprisingly happy.  Her duties would then carry on until the servant’s supper at half past nine when she was free until she had to go to bed.

Wyn had been working in the house for three years and it was getting harder to think about how her life had been in Wales.  She and William had become closer and they spent as much time together as possible.  One night, as they were standing outside looking up at the stars he looked intensely at her and said, ‘I really want to kiss you.’ 

‘Oh, I couldn't,’ she exclaimed, ‘it wouldn't be right.’

‘No-one can see,’ he said, grabbing her hand as she passed in front of him to retreat back into the kitchen. He pulled her into his arms, put his hand under her chin and lifted her face to look at him.  As he gazed down into her eyes she couldn't resist him any longer.  As he bent his head down, she let her lips brush gently against his. She'd never been kissed before and didn’t to know what to expect. Kissing William felt so good. His lips were soft yet demanding, and his tongue gently tickled her lips. She opened her mouth, allowing him to deepen the kiss as he pulled her closer to him. He let his hands wander, one hand taking out her hairpins, allowing the brown locks to tumble down her shoulders, while his other arm wrapped itself around her slender waist pulling her closer. She shivered as the kiss went on, frissons of pleasure rippling through her body. Oh, it was wrong to kiss him, but it felt so right.  William suddenly pushed her off his lap as Betty came out of the kitchen door. Wyn sighed in disappointment as she hadn't wanted it to end. Betty looked at them both and shook her head.

‘You know if Mrs Davis finds out you’ll be in big trouble,’ she told them, ‘servants are not allowed to do that sort of thing.’ 

‘I don’t see why not,’ William said, ‘we are people with feelings too.’ 

‘Just be very careful,’ Betty warned them.

That night in bed Wyn turned to Betty and asked her if she had ever been in love.  Betty looked at her and replied, ‘no I haven’t and I don’t want to be.  It always leads to trouble mainly for the woman.  Don’t get carried away and let a man touch your body anywhere.  If he does, it could get you into deep trouble and don’t believe he will marry you either.  That’s how they get you.  They promise marriage but it’s never true.’ 

‘But I really like William,’ Wyn sighed, ‘he makes me feel all tingly and funny.’ 

‘Oh go to sleep, I’m so tired,’ replied Betty.  ‘It’s another busy day tomorrow.  The family have guests coming for the house party and we’ll be very busy in the kitchen.  Mrs Davis will be shouting and hollering.  She’ll be after you too.’

The next evening there were several carriages drawing up outside the front door at regular intervals.  The door was opened by William who was dressed in his finest uniform of dress coat and pumps.  Mr Carter, the butler, then took their hats and coats and conducted them to the drawing room where Mr & Mrs Brompton were waiting to receive them.  Mr Carter then served them with a glass of sherry before they were shown to their rooms. The guests had brought their own maids and valets with them and they were let in the kitchen door by Betty.  Mrs Danvers then led them up to the first floor where they were shown to their masters and mistresses rooms.  The servants also had a small room next to them.

Wyn could hear the giggling of the women and the loud voices of the men from her vantage point on the stairs to the kitchen.  She and Betty had been busy from first light helping Mrs Davis in the kitchen and were now sitting exhausted with a cup of tea. 

‘I’m done in,’ Betty exclaimed.  ‘I’m so glad I’m finished until after dinner.’ 

‘Yes but isn’t it exciting?’ commented Wyn, ‘I love seeing all the lovely clothes and jewellery the ladies are wearing and doesn’t Mrs Brompton look beautiful?’ she asked Betty.  ‘Yes,’ Betty replied, ‘but did you see the looks Mr Charles was giving that tall lady in the red satin?  Her husband certainly noticed. Now that could make it exciting.’

The gong sounded for dinner at 8.00 pm precisely. All the guests then went into the dining room led by Charles Brompton and the most important female guest, Lady Hetty Porchester who was the lady in red satin that Wyn and Betty had noticed Mr Charles looking at earlier.  Hester Brompton brought up the rear with Sir John Porchester who wasn’t taking his eyes off Charles or his wife. 
After dinner the Ladies had gone into the drawing room for coffee for a short time while the men had their port.  After that the real entertainment of the night had started.  They were all playing cards. It was one of their favourite pastimes and was taken very seriously. Charles Brompton loved to play Baccarat but unfortunately for him, was not very good at it.  That night he lost a lot of money.

Wyn and Betty had been told to help with the clearing of the table and the washing up of the dishes.  The guests had already left the table so they went into the dining room to find a total mess.  Some of the guests had got a little over excited and had started throwing food at each other. 

‘That’s all we need at this time of night,’ said Betty, ‘it’s going to take us hours to sort this lot out.’ 

‘Come on,’ Wyn said, ‘the sooner we start, the sooner we finish.  Look at these plates, don’t you think they’re lovely?’  The whole dinner service was made of delicate china with a gold stripe around the rim and flowers in the middle. 

‘Right at this moment, I don’t care what the plates look like, I just want to get out of here,’ replied Betty.  Two hours later they had finished and were sitting in the kitchen relaxing with a cup of tea before they went to bed.  Mrs Davis was sitting in a chair dozing in front of the fire when the door opened and William walked in. 

‘You should hear the noise coming from the drawing room.  I think someone has lost a lot of money at cards. There’s a lot of shouting that someone had been cheating,’ he said.  ‘I reckon you should get to bed.  There’s going to be trouble tonight and I don’t think you girls should be downstairs when it starts.’ 

Sure enough, just after Wyn and Betty went to bed they heard a lot of doors banging and men shouting at each other.  They could also hear the quiet voice of Hester Brompton trying to calm things down.  Eventually they heard footsteps heading up the stairs as everyone retired for the night.  The house went quiet. 

‘That sounded like an interesting party,’ Wyn remarked, ‘I hope everything is alright now.’  She was just dropping off to sleep when she heard a scream coming from one of the bedrooms.  The house was suddenly full of noise with people running along the corridors.  ‘What do you think has happened Wyn?’ asked Betty. 

‘I don’t know, Wyn replied.  ‘Try and ignore it and get some sleep, it’s nearly time to get up already and I‘m still tired.  It’s nothing to do with us.’

The next morning they went down to the kitchen to start work to find Mrs Davis already in the kitchen.  ‘Sit down she told them.  Did you hear all the noise last night?’  They both nodded. 

‘It was because Mr Brompton accused Mr Porchester of cheating at cards and in return Mr Porchester accused Mr Charles of trying to seduce his wife,’ she informed them.  ‘After everyone went to bed Mr Porchester sneaked into Mr Charles’s room and tried to strangle him.  Fortunately for Mr Charles, Mrs Brompton was in the room with him.  She was the one who screamed.’ 

‘Where are they all now?’ asked Wyn. 

Mrs Davis replied that the house party had ended early and everyone would be leaving shortly. 

‘The Porchesters have already gone,’ she said.  ‘No-one wants to involve the police.

CHAPTER THREE

Although Charles Brompton owned a very large sugar plantation in Jamaica that gave him a very respectable living, he had lost a lot of money recently and after the events of the previous night Hester had decided that the only way to save him and the London house was by taking him to the country straight away.  There had been too many witnesses to what had gone on and she was very concerned that they would be ostracised by London Society, anyway. She did not want to lose the house or anymore of the servants.  Times were hard for below stairs staff and she didn’t want them homeless without a job because of her husband’s gambling habit.  She summoned Mrs Danvers and told her to get the household ready to leave the next day.

The next morning was chaos with staff running all over the house.  Mrs Danvers was shouting orders at all the housemaids and Mr Carter was shouting instructions to all the footmen.  It was relatively calm in the kitchen.  Mrs Davis was packing a few items she felt they would need that wouldn’t already be in the country house.  Betty and Wyn were packed and ready to go.  They were just sitting having a last cup of tea waiting to leave. 

‘Alright,’ said Mrs Davis, ‘get yourselves upstairs, the coach is here to take you to the station.’ 

Betty and Wyn were feeling really excited to be going.  William had told them they would have a lot more spare time there.  They were piled in the coach with all the luggage. ‘Blimey,’ exclaimed Betty, ‘look at all this stuff.  How long are we going for?’ 

They were soon at the station.  It was very busy with people shouting and rushing around.  William was there to greet them and showed them into their compartment in the train.  As they were servants they obviously didn’t travel first class but Mr Charles had made sure they had their own carriage. 

‘We’ll be there in about two or three hours,’ said William, ‘so make yourselves comfortable.  Mrs Davis will be along shortly with food for the journey.’ 

‘Which carriage are you in?’ asked Wyn. 

‘I’m with the other footmen two carriages down,’ replied William.  ‘See you when we get there.’

Mrs Davis appeared with packed lunches for them just as the train started to move. 

‘I’m in here with you two,’ she said, ‘so behave yourselves.’ 

The two girls looked out of the window at the scenery flashing past.  It was hard to see much at times because of all the steam.  Betty marvelled at the countryside she was seeing.  She was a London girl and had never been outside the city before.  The time went past very fast and they were soon coming into the station. They were met by a groom from the house.  His name was Frank Cooper and he looked very happy and friendly.  He had a ruddy red face with hair nearly the same colour.  He was very thin but the girls could see he was quite muscular with sun darkened skin.  He came up to them whistling and gave them a smile. ‘Your carriage awaits,’ he told them, ‘don’t worry the luggage will be picked up separately, you just come with me.’  Wyn. Betty & Mrs Davis followed him to where there was a horse and trap waiting for them.  They all clambered in but Frank had to help Mrs Davis up. 

‘Where are we?’ asked Wyn. 

‘We’re near the village of Ripplesdown,’ replied Frank.  ‘The house is just the other side of the village, it won’t be long now.’

It was late in the afternoon when they finally went down a deep narrow lane and saw the house shimmering in the late afternoon sunlight.  It was a grey-stone mansion with large chimneys and a pond with a small fountain at the front.  It was surrounded by fields and there was a stream running through the nearest one.  There were cows in the field and ducks swimming in the stream.  Wyn was captivated by the sights around her and for the first time started feeling slightly homesick.  Frank drove the trap round to the back of the house and they all jumped down.  They were met at the back door by Mrs Danvers.  She told them to go into the kitchen and wait until she was ready to show them their rooms.  When Mrs Danvers was ready, she took Wyn and Betty on a mini tour of the house.  They looked inside a couple of rooms opened mouthed.  They had never seen anything like this before.  The house in London was opulent but this was much, much better.  They walked into the drawing room of the house which was decorated with rich tapestries. The wall coverings were made of leather and Mrs Danvers told them they had been there since 1862.  There were Dutch paintings in the Dining Room and the library had over 5,000 books and was used by the family to gather in before and after lunch or dinner.  It was a wonderful south-facing room with views towards the fields and hills.