108. An Archangel Called Ivan (7 page)

“How do you know that?” she asked.

“They comes and they goes and it’s a real joke as to whether them children’ll ever ’ave any education for more than a few days.”

He laughed before Arliva could answer and went on,

“The last one stays for only two weeks. As ’er be leavin’ ’er says, ‘I’m goin’ away and I’ll be glad to get back to civilisation. All of you down ’ere look as if you comes from Noah’s Ark’.”

“Well, that was rude,” Arliva remarked.

“That ’er ’ad some reason for sayin’ it,” he said. “We’re all a bit behind the times and this ’ere part of the country be very dull for someone as young and pretty as you be.”

“Now you are depressing me before I have even arrived,” Arliva retorted.

The porter laughed.

“I’m ready to ’elp you when you goes back and you ’aven’t got that much luggage to start with.”

He did not wait for her to answer, but pushed his trolley ahead.

Arliva saw outside the station was what her mother had always called a ‘dog cart’. It was suitable for children and was usually drawn by one rather slow pony.

There was an oldish man with grey hair in it who climbed out and touched his cap politely when the porter arrived with Arliva.

“’Ere she be,” the porter said. “I guessed as soon as she stepped out of the train she be the one that you was a-lookin’ for.”

“Good afternoon to you, miss,” the older man said politely. “His Lordship ’ears you was comin’ on this train and sent I to meet you. My name be Archie.”

Arliva held out her hand and he took it with rather an air of surprise.

Then she tipped the porter, who said in a whisper that could easily be heard,

“Don’t you let ’em bully you and you get your own way.”

“I will certainly try,” Arliva smiled.

She stepped into the dog cart and Archie picked up the reins.

They drove off rather slowly as she noticed that the pony drawing it was somewhat fat as if he had not had enough exercise.

There was a small village by the station in which she thought that there was an obvious shortage of larger middle class houses.

As they drove by, the cottages were not prosperous, looking like those on her father’s land and most of them were in need of a coat of paint.

They drove on through what was obviously a very small town and were almost immediately into what anyone might say was the real depths of the country.

The lanes they were travelling along were narrow and in great need of repair and the cottages were few and far between.

And then they seemed to be driving for a long way without passing through a village.

Archie appeared to be concentrating on his horses, so Arliva felt that it might be a mistake to ask questions.

However, when they had gone for over a mile, she did ask him,

“Does his Lordship own many horses?”

“’E used to ’ave a lot and fine they were when we first had ’em, but them as be left are gettin’ old and, as there’s only the young children to ride ’em, they don’t have enough exercise and that be the truth.”

“Well, I love riding,” Arliva said, “so I hope you will be able to mount me.”

Archie looked at her in surprise.

“You likes ridin’?” he questioned, “but most of the Governesses who comes ’ere are afraid of ’orses and then fussed when the children were out ridin’.”

“Well, I certainly am not a fusspot,” Arliva said, “and, as I want to ride myself, I hope that you will tell me which are the best and fastest horses his Lordship has in his stables.”

Archie laughed.

“Oh, well, one never knows just what to expect and you’ll certainly be a surprise to the grooms.”

Arliva thought it wise not to answer this.

They drove on in silence until they entered a village that seemed to be larger than any she had seen previously.

The cottages were thatched and in the centre was a Norman Church and there were also two or three small shops.

She was just about to ask if this was where Wilson Hall was located, when they turned in through some large gates with a lodge keeper’s house on either side of them.

The drive was long, but at the far end she could see a house.

Her first impression was that it looked very pretty, and then, as the dog cart drew nearer, she realised that it had an almost grim frontage.

Then she saw the flowers on either side of it and she knew that it was definitely the country she had longed for when she was cooped up in London.

But there was indeed something missing although she could not explain to herself.

Archie drove the dog cart to the front door, which opened as they arrived.

She saw, standing at the top of the steps, there was a butler and she thought it was like coming home.

It was exactly as the old butler, who had been with her father for so long, would stand waiting for the guests to arrive and the door was opened to welcome them before their carriage came to a standstill.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” Arliva said to Archie, “and the flowers are lovely.”

“They ought to be good flowers at The Hall,” he said. “We used to win every prize at the Flower Show when we ’ad one.”

Arliva knew from the way he spoke that the Flower Show no longer existed.

But there was no chance to say anything more.

As she climbed down from the dog cart, an elderly footman in uniform which was too big for him, as he had shrunk with age, came to carry her case into the house.

She walked up the steps and the butler, who had not moved from his position since she had first seen him, said,

“Good morning, Miss Parker. I hope you’ll enjoy staying here with us at Wilson Hall.”

Arliva held out her hand and he looked at it in surprise before he shook it.

Then he said,

“His Lordship’s resting at the moment, so I’ll take you up to the nursery.”

Arliva thought that he should say ‘the schoolroom’, but she did not make any remark as he went ahead of her up the stairs and she was followed by the elderly footman carrying her suitcase.

As she expected, when they reached the first floor, they climbed another flight of stairs up to the second where she was quite certain that the nursery, as the butler called it, would be situated.

It was in fact very much the same as she had had when she had been very small.

She then supposed that the children, who now had a Governess rather than a Nanny, were still isolated in the nursery.

She was not mistaken.

The butler opened the door into what was obviously a large comfortable room, but still a nursery with a rocking horse near the window.

A boy on the floor was playing with tin soldiers, while the twin girls, who were remarkably like each other, were seated in a large chair each holding a small doll in their arms.

They all three looked up when Arliva appeared.

Then the butler said,

“Here she is. She has arrived safely as we expected and you’ll have to show her round the house and tell her all the things she has to know now she’s come to look after you.”

The children did not seem very enthusiastic at the idea, which did not surprise Arliva.

“Thank you very much,” she said to the butler, “and can I see where I am expected to sleep so that I can take off my hat and coat.”

As she spoke, an elderly woman, who she realised must be the housekeeper, then came up the stairs, breathing heavily on every step.

“You knows I hate havin’ to hurry up these here stairs,” she puffed.

“I forgot, Mrs. Lewis,” Evans the butler said. “But you’ve managed them better than you did yesterday.”

“They’ll be the death of me sooner or later,” Mrs. Lewis grumbled.

She turned to Arliva and looked her over before she remarked,

“You’re a touch younger than I expected, but then we’ve had all sorts here as I suppose Mr. Evans told you.”

Arliva held out her hand.

“I am delighted to meet you,” she said. “And I am so sorry you have had to climb up all these stairs to do so.”

The housekeeper seemed almost taken aback at the courtesy, but shook her hand and replied,

“I’ll show you to your room and, if there’s anything you wants, then, of course, you asks me.”

Arliva said nothing but followed her into what she thought was very much a nursery bedroom with blue and white chintz curtains.

She hoped the bed would be comfortable, but rather thought that it would not be.

Breathing even more heavily than the housekeeper, the elderly footman brought her case up the stairs and put it down with a bang against one of the walls.

Then Mrs. Lewis suggested,

“I expects you’d like your luncheon now after the journey. The children usually have theirs at one o’clock, so it should be upstairs at any moment.”

“Surely it would be much easier for them to have it downstairs,” Arliva said. “It must be an awful nuisance for the household having to come up and down these stairs so often.”

Both the butler and the housekeeper looked at her in astonishment.

“The Master eats downstairs,” Evans told her.

“And so do you,” Arliva added with a faint smile. “If the children are not welcome in the dining room, I am sure that there must be another room which would make it far easier than having to take the food up so many stairs.”

Evans and the housekeeper looked at her as if she had proposed an uprising.

“But the young people have always had their meals in the nursery,” Mrs. Lewis managed to say at last.

“That was when they had a Nanny,” Arliva replied. “But once they are with a Governess then they should be downstairs. If not with their parents, then in a room which is easier for the staff and better for them to learn how to behave as young ladies and gentlemen.”

Evans and Mrs. Lewis exchanged glances of sheer bewilderment.

“I never thought of that,” the housekeeper admitted eventually.

“Nor did I,” Evans agreed. “But then it does seem common sense. The Missus complains to me day after day coming up all these stairs. You knows yourself it’s bad for your heart.”

“That be true enough,” the housekeeper said.

“Well, think it over,” Arliva suggested, “and now I should get to know the young people I am to teach. But, as I can see how sensible and wise you both are, I am sure you will understand that, while a Nanny expects one thing, a Governess expects something quite different.”

“It will certainly be easier for Mrs. Briggs to hurry up with luncheon if it was served downstairs,” Evans said, as if the idea was still moving in his brain.

“If they are not allowed in the dining room,” Arliva suggested, “put the food in another room and there must be plenty of suitable rooms in this big house. Then we will come down as soon as it is one o’clock.”

She glanced at her wristwatch as she spoke.

“That will be in about twenty minutes and please tell your cook that I am very hungry.”

“I’ll tell her and I thinks what you says will save us a lot of trouble,” the housekeeper said. “I’ve complained over and over again that these stairs’ll be the death of me.”

“Just think what a trouble that would be,” Arliva remarked. “Surely his Lordship entertains a great deal and there must be rooms on the floor below where the children would realise that they have grown out of the nursery and into the schoolroom. We would be far more comfortable than if we had to keep climbing a mountain every time we came in through the front door.”

“She’s right!” Evans agreed. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself. There be all those rooms in the West wing that you were saying yourself was rotting away because no one ever uses them.”

“That be true enough,” Mrs. Lewis agreed, “and it’d certainly save the housemaids who are beginnin’ to hate the stairs as much as I do.”

“Well, let’s move later on,” Arliva proposed. “I hate long flights of stairs and I feel depressed in a nursery. Please be kind and give us a schoolroom and bedrooms on a floor where, if the children make a noise, they will not disturb anyone.”

Arliva paused before she went on,

“Now I must go and meet them and I feel sure that you will help me in every way you can.”

She then went through the nursery door, leaving the butler and the housekeeper staring blankly at each other.

The children were where she had last seen them and she sat down in a chair on the other side of the fireplace to where the two girls were sitting.

“I am so hungry after my long journey,” she said. “When we have had luncheon, which I hope will be very soon, I want you to take me to see the horses. I understand that your grandfather has some fine thoroughbreds and I love horses.”

The little boy looked up in amazement.

“You want to see the horses!” he exclaimed. “But the last Governess we had, and the one before her, used to try in every way to stop me riding because she said it was dangerous.”

“I rode very fast and big horses when I was your age,” Arliva replied. “I want to ride again and the first lesson you all have to learn is to ride well and then to jump well.”

“We have never been allowed to jump,” one of the girls piped up. “They told us that it was risky and we were forbidden even to go over the small jumps.”

“Well, I am a jumping Governess!” she answered. “I want to ride and I want you to ride with me. How can we go all round the estate except on a horse?”

All three children gave a whoop of delight and ran to her side.

“Do you really mean we can go riding every day?” the boy asked.

“If there are horses, of course we can,” Arliva said. “I like riding very fast, so you will have to keep up with me.”

The children looked at each other and gave a gasp.

The girls no longer seemed interested in their dolls and the boy pushed his soldiers to one side with his foot.

“Then have you ridden lots and lots of horses?” he asked.

“As soon as I learnt to walk, I learnt to ride,” Arliva told them. “As I love horses, one of our lessons will have to be to look for pictures of horses many of which are now very valuable.”

“There are some pictures in the library,” the boy, whose name was Johnnie, replied to her, “but we are not allowed to touch them.”