Dare To Dream (The Percy Place Series Book 2) Read online

Now two such women were leaving to take up enviable positions as secretaries to society ladies.

  “The chest carries the Dowager’s coat of arms and she wants it to be returned to her – she suggested Miss Ermatrude could use it when she leaves,” Bridget said in a normal tone of voice. “So I’m taking the items belonging to the new woman out of the chest and putting them in this bedroom.” The rooms on the third floor had been turned into dormitories for the women who would pass through the house.

  “It is just as well this occurred.” Verity Watson stepped out of the open door of the bedroom Bridget had gestured towards. “It was only while changing chests that we discovered Erma intended to leave all the new clothing Sarah has made for her behind.” She shook her head in sorrow at this short-sightedness on the other woman’s part.

  “I shall have no need for fancy gowns.” Ermatrude Willowbee appeared in the doorway behind Verity. The stout little woman was scowling. “I am to be a servant.” She put plump little hands on her hips and glared.

  “You are to be employed as secretary to the Dowager Duchess of Westbrooke – not the village fishmonger!” Verity wanted to shake the smaller woman until her teeth rattled. Had she learned nothing in the months that they had lived in this house? “You must start as you mean to go on, Erma.” She did take the woman by the shoulders then and shake her gently. “You will have working hours and time free,” shake, “you must not fade into the background,” shake, “you will perhaps be invited to social occasions by the other employees,” shake, “you must be prepared for anything!”

  “But –” Erma tried to object.

  “Verity is right.” The door across the corridor had opened and two women pushing and pulling a large chest between them stepped out. “I, for one, have no intention of disappearing into the furniture,” said Octavia White-Gershwin, a pretty strawberry blonde. “This is a new beginning for all of us and it is up to us to make the best of it.”

  “As if you disappearing into the furniture were ever a possibility!” Euphemia Locke-Statton said, laughing at her roommate’s comments.

  “I too will be taking up a position as social secretary to a titled lady. I am sure Lady Sutton will be agreeable to us meeting up in our free time.” Tavi stood holding a hand to her back. That chest was heavy. “Perhaps you and I will have the opportunity to go to the theatre some evening, Erma. I will expect you to be dressed to impress – no more little brown mouse.” Tavi had thought that she would be forced to go into service. She had collected an assortment of drab clothing with this purpose in mind. It was only when she came to this house that a world of opportunity had opened before her. She had passed all of the drab clothing on to Erma to be adjusted by the talented young Sarah. The woman did love her greys and browns.

  Georgina stood watching the women she had come to think of as her students.

  “We need to get these chests organised.” Felicia Hyde-Richards, a statuesque blonde, stepped from the bedroom she shared with Verity. “The carriages will be here before we know it.”

  “I am going to dress to meet the day.” Georgina turned away. “We’ll meet up for breakfast, ladies,” she said over her shoulder. “I’ll send Billy and his men up for the chests. Bridget, hurry the ladies along.” Billy Flint and his men were a blessing that came into her life after her husband had left her practically penniless.

  Captain Charles Whitmore had planned to sail away leaving his young wife without servants and with no income to support the house that was her only possession. His plans had backfired on him rather brutally – nonetheless Georgina had been forced to find a way to survive.

  “Yes, madam.” Bridget continued emptying the chest while whispered arguments went on between the others.

  “Good morning, Cook,” Georgina said as she pushed open the door from the stairs leading into the kitchen. “Liam, run down the garden and fetch Billy Flint,” she ordered the bootboy, stepping fully into the kitchen. Billy Flint and his men occupied the carriage house at the rear of the Percy Place property.

  “Are that lot about ready to eat, do you think?” Betty Powell, or ‘Cook’ as she was called, turned from her coal-fired black-leaded range. “I’ve the breakfast meat cooked and warming but I need to see the whites of their eyes before I cook the eggs.”

  Ruth and Sarah hadn’t stopped in their work when their mistress entered the kitchen.

  “I’m about to have Billy move them along.” Georgina stepped over to the long work table that ran along the middle of the kitchen. “I’d kill for a cup of tea.”

  “I’ll join you,” Lily Chambers said, walking into the kitchen.

  “Lily, I thought you’d still be sleeping.” Georgina turned to greet her long-time housekeeper and friend with a smile. She’d hoped that at least one of her old retainers would have the chance for a rest. Betty and Lily – both women in their sixties – should be taking it easy – but what would she do without them? She was less than half their age and was finding the pace of life exhausting.

  “How could anyone sleep with the noise that lot are making?” Lily looked around and had to remind herself not to sigh in despair. The absence of the master had brought peace to this house, but she would never adjust to the lack of trained servants.

  “Ruth!” Lily called to the dark-haired young maid. “Serve Miss Georgina and me a pot of tea at the alcove table.” It was coming to something when the mistress of the house and the housekeeper sat in the alcove off the kitchen for a pot of tea. Gone were the days when they had servants aplenty. “Sarah, run upstairs and give Bridget a hand. There was more talking than working on that landing when I came down.”

  “Tell that lot to hurry up or I’m giving their breakfast to the pigs!” Cook shouted at the disappearing back of the maid. “Ruth, the arse is boiled out of the kettle. I’ll have a cup of tea and all.” She walked over to join the two women at the table pushed into the alcove. “If we’re having this much trouble with only two of them leaving, what will it be like when the next lot leave?” She sat on one of the wooden chairs pulled close to the table.

  “Erma is the problem.” Georgina surveyed the two women fondly. When her husband showed his disdain of her to all of Dublin by passing his mistress off as his common-law wife, what would she have done without them by her side?

  “Never!” Cook and Lily said together in mock astonishment.

  “Yes, she’s trying to leave behind the clothes Sarah made for her.”

  “What a waste! Who does she think those clothes will fit?” Lily shook her head. “Honest to goodness. It was sheer good fortune that those bodices fit her. Sarah had only to refashion the skirts.”

  Sarah Brown, one of the convent orphans sent to this house to be trained as a maid, had proven to be an excellent seamstress. The young girl had spent almost all of her time bent over a sewing machine refashioning the out-of-date garments found in the attics of the house and those that the women themselves had brought with them.

  “It will feel strange without them. Well, at least these two are not going far.” Georgina watched Ruth place a heavy teapot in the middle of the table. The girl then placed delicate china cups and saucers before each woman – sugar and milk were placed close to hand. It still felt strange to her to be served in this simple fashion – had she been spoiled with the abundance of servants that had surrounded her all of her life?

  “Do we have any new information on when the rest of the students will be leaving?” Lily Chambers was feeling her age this morning.

  “Billy Flint has been making enquiries for us,” Georgina told the other two women. “The many sailors on the Dublin docks have information they shared with him about the docks of New York.” She picked up her cup and sipped. “I feel responsible for the women who have been placed in our care. I want to know more of what they might expect when they reach America.”

  “If the docks in New York are anything like our own here in Dublin, you’d be taking your life in your hands if you didn’t know where you were going or wh
at you were doing,” Betty Powell said.

  “That is my fear,” Georgina said. “The American branch of the BOBs will be responsible for the girls when they arrive in New York – but you have seen the docks here – it’s worse than a cattle market – how will they ever be able to find each other in such crowds? I simply can’t imagine it. I travelled in the company of my parents always. We had servants to take care of matters. My father had an agent who advised him about travel. We do not have such a luxury.” Betty was right: the docks were a dangerous place for unwary travellers. Billy Flint had told her of men and women who preyed on young people who arrived bewildered onto the docks seeking new lives – the young people disappeared never to be seen again – many sold into houses of ill-repute. How could she safeguard the young women she was being paid to train for a new life in America?

  “Might Richard Wilson not be able to advise us?” Lily mentioned Georgina’s friend and business advisor.

  “I am afraid America is outside Richard’s area of knowledge,” said Georgina, sipping her tea. “Lady Sutton appears to be the one in the know about America.” Lady Sutton was a member of BOBs, as was the Dowager Duchess of Westbrooke.

  “That woman appears to have a great deal of knowledge about a great many things,” Lily agreed.

  “Can she help you arrange something for the three getting ready to leave us?” Betty Powell had grown fond of the women, who had been willing to turn their hand to anything since they had arrived all of a flutter to this house.

  “Arabella, Lady Sutton, has an acquaintance in an area adjacent to New York. The woman has been approached about meeting the women from the ship and helping them adjust – for a fee of course.” Georgina looked around to be sure no one could overhear what she wished to share with these two women who had been servants to her family since before her birth. “The woman has recently lost her husband – an accident on the railway – I believe.”

  “Poor thing!” Lily shook her head in sympathy for a woman left alone to manage her own affairs.

  “The money offered might be welcome to the poor thing.” Betty too felt sympathy for the unknown woman.

  “Yes, well, I’m afraid that is not the case . . .” Georgina again checked the area. “This woman – her husband wasn’t even cold when she remarried – to a wealthy man prominent in New York society.”

  There were gasps of delighted shock as each woman leaned in to enjoy what promised to be titillating gossip.

  “It seems,” Georgina paused delicately, “the man in question had been a friend to both the husband and wife. He was a much sought-after prize on the New York marriage market – many people despise this woman for catching this man in her coils.”

  “No!” Lily gasped.

  “Well!” said Betty.

  “It seems the marriage was a matter of some urgency according to Lady Sutton’s informant.”

  “No!” gasped Lily and Betty together.

  “Indeed. They offered each other solace of a personal nature.” She ignored the no’s that greeted this titbit. “There may well be a child from their actions – hence the hasty wedding ceremony.”

  “Well, I never!” Betty Powell blushed to think of it.

  “Is this the kind of woman we want to advise our ladies?” Lily asked. “Besides, if this woman has made such an advantageous marriage would she still be willing to help our girls settle in? Surely she would have no need of the money on offer?”

  Ruth looked over at the whispering women in the alcove, wondering if she should ask them if they had need of more tea but reluctant to interrupt.

  “The women who came to us came to learn to live an independent life,” Georgina said with a laugh. “If this woman wants to take them on, I for one would be glad of it. This is obviously a woman who knows how to look after her own interests. Something women like me need to learn.”

  “Well, I never!” Betty Powell stood to fetch fresh tea. She didn’t know what to think of this latest development.

  “The world as we know it is certainly changing,” Lily said.

  “We are all being forced to learn new ways of doing things.” Georgina had been shocked when Arabella told her of this woman. But who knew what had caused the woman to behave in such a fashion? Judge not lest ye be judged, she thought.

  Chapter 3

  “With the best will in the world, Cook, I cannot eat a large breakfast this morning.” Octavia White-Gershwin looked around at the women and one young boy who shared the servant’s dining room with her. She remembered how angry she had been the first time she’d been expected to dine with servants. “I am looking forward to starting work for Lady Sutton, but – the butterflies in my stomach – they are whirling in a most disturbing way. I fear anything I might eat would make a swift reappearance.”

  “Have a slice of toast with your tea, Tavi.” Cook, watching Ruth pour tea from an enormous teapot, advised. “See how that settles.”

  “We were sick with nerves when we found out we were coming to this house.” Bridget pointed to her friends Sarah and Ruth. The three orphans had been given no choice in the matter. One day they were in the orphanage – the next in service. That was their lot in life and they accepted it. However, having come to this house and listened to what these women had been taught here – well, that had changed everything – for Bridget at least.

  “You must be sure to remember all that you have learned here, Tavi,” Verity Watson said. “It will be difficult for you at first. You will be neither fish nor fowl.” She well knew, having spent ten years as an unpaid secretary to her distant relative the Dowager Duchess of Westbrooke. “The upper servants will try to dominate you – put you in your place.” She laughed gently. “I can’t see you allowing such a thing, Tavi, but you will need to make friends among the servants. You cannot walk through life alone.”

  “You must be sure to leave the house in your free time,” Lily Chambers said. “If you remain on the premises there is always some little chore that can be found for you to do.”

  “I will have nowhere to go.” Ermatrude Willowbee was already sick with nerves at the thought of leaving this house. What would she do when left to her own devices?

  “Nonsense!” Euphemia Locke-Statton was heartily sick of the constant moaning Erma indulged in – everyone else almost drowned the woman in sympathy. She was on her own – as they all were – time and past she began to take charge of her own life. They had been fortunate enough to be given the tools to survive in this house. It was now up to each of them to apply what they had learned to their own lives. “You will be based in Dublin for heaven’s sake. There are museums, galleries, theatres, lending libraries and a host of other entertainments that you can visit. There is no need for you to sit alone in your room and wail at the world.”

  “You will be employed by a duchess, Erma.” Felicia Hyde-Richards felt a great deal of sympathy for the poor little mouse of a woman. “I don’t suggest you abuse that privilege but surely you realise that you will be employed by a woman of great distinction, a leading light in Dublin society? That will reflect on you – you need to be prepared to step out of the shadows.” They had been telling the woman the same thing for months.

  Georgina exchanged glances with Cook and Lily. They had done their best by this group – the first of its kind – it was now up to the women to make the best of what they had been given.

  Liam the bootboy shoved food into his mouth, wondering what all the fuss was about – you made the best you could with whatever came at yeh – they should know that – they were older than him.

  The tears flowed freely when it became time for Octavia and Ermatrude to leave. Two carriages stood in the street outside the house on Percy Place. There were frantic squeals as last-minute items were sought. The carriage drivers were anxious to get their charges inside the vehicles. They didn’t like to keep the horses standing.

  Promises were extracted to keep in touch. Erma had assured the women that she would be delighted to become their po
stmistress. She would receive and send on news from all of them. They would keep up to date with each other.

  The remaining group – mistress, servants and students alike – stood on the tall granite steps leading up from the Percy Place garden and waved as the carriages carrying the first two graduates of this strange school into their new lives took off with a whisper of the whip from the carriage drivers. They stood watching until the carriages disappeared from sight.

  “Come – we have much to do.” Georgina waved her hands to encourage the drooping women back into the house.

  They were still staring down the empty road.

  “Ladies, please!” Georgina clapped her hands loudly. “Let us get inside and stop filling the neighbours’ mouths.” The goings-on in this house had become a subject of gossip to the other residents of this terrace of houses. There was no need to supply additional ammunition. She marshalled her troops ahead of her into the beautifully tiled, long hallway of the house.

  “Madam, if I might have a word?” Billy Flint, the young man who was becoming a vital member of this strange household, appeared in the open doorway at the top of the stairs leading down to the basement.

  “Certainly.” She took a moment to lock the door at her back and watched while the others passed Billy Flint and one of his men as they stepped out into the hallway to allow the women to return to the basement.

  “What can I do for you, Billy?” Georgina was making a mental list of the chores she needed to complete this day.

  “The Dowager sent this fella,” Billy jerked his chin at the strange-looking young man who had been sent along with the chest that morning. The man hadn’t removed his hat even indoors. Billy was tempted to pull it off himself but hadn’t yet. The fella didn’t even tip his hat to the ladies – rude. He’d received written instructions to hide him until the two women had left the house. Well, he’d done that. What happened next was up to the mistress. “I’ll leave him with you.” Billy turned and stepped into the stairwell. He pulled the door closed at his back and made more noise than strictly necessary running down the stairs.