Authors: Jean Stubbs
‘We are perhaps forgetting,’ said Charlotte thoughtfully, ‘that though Mamma is withdrawn and unlike herself, she must be well aware of this problem. She would not intrude upon any of us. Perhaps she would be glad to leave, but cannot think where to go, and has not the will nor the energy at present to apply herself to the problem.’
William’s zest for fresh challenges was as sharp as ever.
‘I have the answer!’ he cried. ‘Mrs Dorcas needs not only a new home but a new interest in life. Caleb and I have purchased a large area of land at Upperton, between Belbrook and Snape, in which we plan to build a model village. On this site is a farm I was going to pull down. Old, small, and lacking any convenience. Instead, I shall persuade her to re-make it to suit herself. She shall mark out her ground, borrow my work-men, use my materials. I place it at her disposal, in fact. She can have everything she likes from me — except ready money. That is a commodity I notoriously lack!’
‘Nay, I’ll see her right for money,’ said Dick at once, though his entire property was not worth one corner of Snape Foundry.
‘She has money of her own, from Aunt Wilde,’ Charlotte pointed out. ‘Unless, of course, it is all invested in iron!’
‘No, she was remarkably strong-minded on that score,’ said William ruefully. ‘Our friend Mr Hurst advised her against putting all her eggs in my basket. He regards me as a risky if highly profitable enterprise. So most of her small fortune is invested safely — which means that it brings in less than half the dividends she has been drawing from Belbrook and Snape!’
‘Is that why you left Nicodemus’s firm?’ Charlotte asked curiously.
‘Oh, not at all,’ said William, imperturbably good-humoured. ‘He has every right to advise his clients as he thinks fit. But Hurst and Hurst is only a small family firm, suitable for a market town. Potter and Shawcross of Preston suit me better, and work upon broader lines.’
‘Well, I’d sooner be sure than sorry, speaking for myself,’ said Dick frankly, ‘and she’s got nowt but her bit of brass, now Father’s gone.’
‘Anyway, let us return to the matter in hand,’ Charlotte said wisely. ‘I think Willie’s solution is best. Are you to approach her, Willie?’
‘Are you saying that I should, Dick?’
‘Aye, you’re the talker, Will. I’m no hand at saying owt.’
‘Then shall we consult her now, at Quincey Place?’ William asked. ‘And tomorrow afternoon I can take her over to Upperton, and Ellis Field will come with us. Then we’ll sup at Kit’s Hill in the evening, Dick, and work out the plans.’
‘Aye, right you are!’ said Dick, astonished at the rapidity with which his problems were being solved. ‘But suppose as she don’t like the idea? I shouldn’t want her to think as I were pushing her out. Father wouldn’t have wanted that, neither.’
‘Yes, do take care not to hurt her, Willie!’ Charlotte cautioned.
‘Oh, hurt her, fiddlesticks! The notion will fetch her alive again. And we have the summer before us. Let Mrs Dorcas but think that she will be in her own home by Christmas, and we shall see a new woman. Besides, I shall offer the welfare of the future villagers to her, as another bait!’
‘But will Zelah not wish to take care of your people?’ Charlotte asked.
‘Why, Zelah will have her nursery to rule for the next ten years, by which time Mrs Dorcas should have had enough of Upperton’s problem! Well, if you think not, then she shall discuss the village plans with Ellis Field.’
‘But will Mr Field want that, Willie?’
‘They will all work very well together,’ he said cheerfully, but there was an obstinacy in his countenance which forbade further objections on her part. ‘Come, Dick, unless you want to ride home in the dark!’
‘Nay,’ said Dick, leaving his sister’s parlour with relief, ‘you’ll run ten mile afore I’ve set out, our Will! I’ve never knowed anybody like you, except our mother!’
He shook his head from side to side, and chuckled, looking so like Ned for a moment that the other two were silenced, remembering.
‘I thank you both heartily,’ said Dick, shaking their hands. ‘I can’t frame what I feel, but I’m beholden to you. If ever I can do owt you’ve only to let me know. Me and Alice!’ He was free. He said quietly, ‘We could get wed come Christmas.’
William clapped him on the shoulder. Charlotte kissed his cheek and hugged him.
‘I never asked how Zelah was, neither,’ Dick reproached himself. ‘Coming in full of trouble, and thinking nowt of other folks. How’s the lass keeping?’
‘Oh, she is great with child, and very well. Come and see her for yourself. We think it will be a son this time.’
‘So long as she’s safe,’ said Dick, and silenced them again.
He turned his unfashionable hat round and round in his big hands.
‘We planted ‘taters in Sluther, and turnips in Breakneck!’ he said, and paused again.
‘Wilts do summat else for us?’ he asked, shame-faced, shifting from foot to foot. ‘Wilta tell Mother about Alice and me, our William?’
*
‘I found, upon consulting the title-deeds, that your particular piece of land at Upperton was called
Bracelet
, Mrs Dorcas,’ said Ellis Field.
He was in full flight, taking this small project in his course, as it were, after an excellent supper.
‘And
Bracelet
means “a broad meadow”. Of course, we think of the word as an item of jewellery. What harm in that, we might well say? Shall the house not be a jewel when we have done with her? We shall knock down the out-buildings, of course. Build on a kitchen, to take away the four-square appearance, and give more space. Put a small conservatory at the side which faces south. Knock down the wall between the present parlour and kitchen and make one long living-room, and enlarge the windows at either end. Then you have a house large enough to accommodate a guest or two, as well as yourself and a small staff, Mrs Dorcas.
‘With regard to the land around it, there is no need to call in our excellent Mr Stirling — our sterling Mr Stirling! Ha, ha! — no, no. Any labourer could dig and lay out a garden for you in a week or two. A handkerchief of lawn with a border of rose-trees at the front; a little kitchen garden sufficient for your wants at the back. You yourself have an artistic, an unerring eye for what is needed, ma’am. Shall we keep the trees on the far side? I think we shall! Noble plants, and such useful windbreaks in this wild country. Later, if you wish, we could lay a flagged path, make a pretty arched bower, put a small statue on a pedestal — something of that sort.
‘And now we come to the name of the house. Upperton Lodge? Too heavy. Honeysuckle Cottage? Too sugary. Arbour Farm End? Nonsense! This is a new beginning, ma’am. Simply, we would suggest —
Bracelet
! … ’
And he bowed very low, as to a very great lady.
*
‘I’ve fetched your chocolate myself, Mrs Howarth, begging your pardon, because I wondered if I might have a word with you,’ said Nellie, and closed the parlour door behind her.
‘Sit down, my dear,’ said Dorcas.
Her hair was whiter, her back thinner and more rigidly straight, but the quick keen way in which she looked over her spectacles indicated some degree of recovery.
‘It’s about you leaving, ma’am, and Mr Dick getting wed,’ Nellie began.
Dorcas folded her hands and inclined her head.
‘And it’s about me and — Tom Cartwright!’
Dorcas’s smile was delightfully questioning. Nellie’s glance confirmed her hopes.
‘Aye, well, I shall feel proper daft telling folks, after all this long while,’ said Nellie, smiling, busy smoothing her immaculate apron, ‘but Tom and me wanted you to be the first to know we’re getting wed, Mrs Howarth. We’re neither of us spring chickens. I’m nodding at fifty, and he’s seen the last of sixty, but we suit each other, and if anybody wants to laugh they’re welcome! We’st slip off, quiet-like, one morning, and parson’ll do the rest.’
They were both so pleased with the news that they half laughed at one another.
‘Oh, but we must think of your wedding, too, Nellie,’ said Dorcas.
Half a dozen kindly little plans came to mind. Particularly as Dick’s wedding-breakfast had nothing to do with her, but was being triumphantly hatched by Mary Braithwaite-Wharmby, up at Windygate.
‘That weren’t all I come to tell you, ma’am,’ said Nellie, urgently heading her mistress away from the subject. ‘Tom and me have both been at Kit’s Hill longer than anybody. It’s forty year come Michaelmas that Mr Ned rode down to Garth, and lifted me up to the saddle and fetched me back here as a kitchen-maid, to help my poor Mam as’d been left a widder wi’ ten childer to feed. And he took Tom on as stable-lad long afore then, and trained him as a carter … Mrs Howarth, we don’t want to stop here when you’ve gone.’
Dorcas’s face lost its radiance. Her plans faded.
‘Oh,’ she said, quite downcast, ‘but I had thought you would take care of Dick and Kit’s Hill for me.’
‘Mrs Howarth, excuse me if I’m speaking out of turn, but Kit’s Hill as you and me have knowed it is gone a’ready. It went wi’ you and Mr Ned, ma’am. Now it belongs to Mr Dick and Miss Alice, and it’s their turn, not ours. I’ve nowt agin Miss Alice. She’s a grand
lass
in the dairy, and she’ll make a grand wife. But I canna start all over again wi’ a bit of a lass of eighteen as my mistress, and watch her change Kit’s Hill to suit herself. I know she’s planning to turn your parlour back into a storeroom, for one thing! And I couldn’t abide that! She’d be better off wi’ Susan. They’re much of an age, and they’ll sort it out between them. But Tom and me, we’re your servants, Mrs Howarth. Not theirs. Mrs Howarth, Tom and me want to come wi’ you to Bracelet.’
So many expressions flitted across Dorcas’s face that Nellie did not know which to count upon. Joy, doubt, astonishment, hope, concern, trouble, bewilderment.
‘My dear Nellie,’ she said slowly, shyly. ‘I had not thought to take any of you with me. I would have trained up a girl from Garth, perhaps two girls. For then they would keep each other company.’
‘If it’s the wages, ma’am, we don’t mind taking a cut. We’d be doing a lot less work, and we’ve both got a bit put by in us stockings.’
‘No, no,’ said Dorcas hurriedly, almost ashamed that Nellie should think her capable of cutting corners in this way. ‘It is not the wages. I had not thought of setting up a proper establishment.’
‘But who’d look after your horse and trap, ma’am?’
‘Mr William said they would stable it, and bring it out to me whenever I sent word.’
‘But who’d do your garden, ma’am, and mend things about the house?’
‘Mr William said they would lend me a gardener and handyman whenever I needed one.’
‘Well, a married couple only needs one bedroom, same as two maidservants,’ said Nellie firmly. ‘And though Mr William and Mrs Zelah grudge nobody nowt — there might come a time when you sent, and there wasn’t somebody there. As my owd Mam once said, “There comes the day when folks stops feeling sorry, and starts to think about themselves first, last and foremost!” Think on, ma’am. The three of us’d manage well enough without Kingwood Hall!’
For though she was proud to be connected to the great, she saw no reason why her mistress should go a-begging.
‘I have no stable, you see, Nellie.’
‘That Mr Field’d think up a stable in five minutes. I’ve heard him on about Bracelet, often enough,’ said Nellie, not to be outdone.
She nodded her head up and down vigorously. She thought the architect a trifle too precious, but of his enthusiasm and ability she had no doubt.
‘Nellie dear, give me time to think,’ said Dorcas confused. ‘It is not what I should have planned. Oh, I am so pleased for you and Tom. But would you not be better off at Kit’s Hill?’
‘Well, ma’am,’ Nellie replied, rising, ‘Tom and me is leaving Kit’s Hill any road. We’ll give Mr Dick and Miss Alice fair warning, and look elsewhere, if so be as you don’t want us. But if you canna think what’s right for you, Mrs Howarth, then think what Mr Ned would’ve said in the same place!’
With that Parthian shot, she bobbed a curtsey and left the room, head high, and mistress of the field for once.
But the architect will have to design and build a new stable now, and that will be further trouble and expense. And what should the three of us do at Bracelet, particularly with winter coming on, and the village unbuilt as yet? So isolated from Kit’s Hill. It would be easier to manage on my own, with two girls who would talk together. Rather than have three lonely old people.
Three lonely old people? Don’t talk so daft, Dorcas! Tom and Nellie’ll be that taken up wi’ each other you’ll be lucky to get a cup of tea out of them. And there’s a regular new household for you and Nellie to set up at Bracelet. And Tom’s got enough on, wi’ t’stables and t’garden and a new wife, at his age! Lonely? You won’t have five minutes to turn round, you’ll see. And our Will’ll build up that village in no time. Now, if you were in poor Mattie Gregson’s clogs, wi’ no husband, no brass, no sense and six small childer, you’d have summat to grouse about! As it is, you’d best shift yourself, my lass, if you want to be in Bracelet afore Christmas!
Nellie and Tom had been installed at the new house a week previously, to make sure that the rooms were aired, the garden tidy, the stable ready, to receive their mistress and her horse and trap. This was in the nature of a honeymoon for them, and they exchanged many a smile across the scrubbed floors, and a hearty kiss or two as they folded the blankets.