Loving, Living, Party Going (6 page)

'There now I'm very glad,' said Edith, 'I am, honest.'

'Now you girls hurry with that washing up,' said the dreadful voice, 'oh, I see you've some help There's quite a change come over this house I must admit. And don't you start a'wagging of those light tongues. But would you two young ladies like a glass of milk?'

It was Mrs Welch. It was almost unheard of that she should offer refreshment. Kate and Edith could only giggle.

'Mary,' she went on, 'you run and fetch that pitcher from the larder. What I've said over and over is at the age you are you girls don't get sufficient milk My sister writes it's short enough at home.'

'Might it be your sister's little boy who is coming to visit, Mrs Welch?'

'That's so Edith and his name is Albert, same as that Raunce's sick lad. One name less for Mrs T. to remember And if he had been christened Arthur we wouldn't understand what to think would we?
All the men in this place having to be of the same name, whoever heard of such stuff and nonsense.'

They laughed. Then when Edith and Kate had had their milk these two girls judged it best to be gone.

'You can't be sure of her, love,' Edith said as they made their way up the back stairs 'We did leave a bit for them yet but I'm positive she meant us to go really, calling us young ladies did you hear? You know what she is.'

'That's O.K. Edie an' if there were a few plates over it's not our work anyway. I got those sheets from the Gold Bedroom to mend. I wish the people they have to stay would cut their toenails or lie quiet one or the other.'

'Hush dear they'll hear,' Edith said and then went on: 'But have you ever seen such a change in anyone? Why she made herself quite pleasant.'

'Well what if she did the old nanny goat ...'

'Hush love.'

'With that great beard she's got ...'

'Oh Kate you are dreadful you are really. But do be careful, anyone could hear.'

'It's Miss Burch's afternoon out isn't it? Besides who would there be to come our way worse luck.' They had arrived at the door of their room. Kate flung it open. 'There,' she cried, 'look at the great boy you've got waiting inside.'

'What you don't mean Bert wouldn't presume,' said Edith going in. 'Why Kate you are silly there's no one. No,' she went on sitting down on her bed to take off shoes and stockings, 'it's her nephew coming over has softened 'er, that's what it is, love.'

Kate got down by Edith on her bed.

'What would you have said Edie if Bert had been in 'ere?'

'Why I'd've sent him packin'.'

'Would you Edie? Even if I hadn't been along?'

'How d'you mean? Kate, I never heard you speak so.'

Both girls giggled. The sky was overcast so that the light was dark as though under water. The afternoon was warm. It was the first afternoon to be warm since autumn. Though they could not see them the peacocks below were beginning to parade.

'And if it had've been Charley Edie?'

Edith gave a screech then slapped a hand over her mouth. A
peacock screamed beneath but they were so used to this they paid no notice.

'Kate Armstrong what d'you mean?'

'What I say stupid. Suppose you was come alone up here,' and her voice went rising, 'and found 'im waitin' on yer bed,' she ended, with a shriek of bed.

Both gave way at this, collapsed back across the eiderdown giggling. Edith pulled herself together first. 'No,' she said, 'for land's sake have a mind to the quilting Come on,' she added, 'we might as well be comfy' and they both got underneath, lay at ease with pillowed heads.

'Suppose it was Charley,' Kate said again.

'Why I daresn't even look at the man with his queer eyes. Each time I have sight of 'em I can't stop laughing,' Edith said. 'And the strange thing is I didn't ever properly take it in that they was a different colour till the other day. Not after two years and five months here, not till just the other day,' she added.

'You watch out Edie that's a sign.'

'A sign? A sign of what, I'd like to know?' she asked.

'Ah now you're asking,' Kate said. 'I wonder is she married or was she ever d'you reckon?'

'No dear she's only called Mrs like all cooks if you're referrin' to Mrs Welch Whatever made you say?'

'Why nothing. But I wish he was goin' to be older that's all.'

'Kate I'm getting too hot.'

'Take off some of your clothes then silly. Come on with you I'll help.'

'Quiet. There's Mrs Jack's stockings I've got to go over.'

'If you lie on your buttons I can't undo 'em at the back can I?' Kate said Then she tickled Edith to make her shift.

'Mercy stop it,' Edith screamed. 'Whatever are you doin'?'

'You said you was too warm. And struggling like you are will only make you warmer. There.'

'Kate Armstrong I thought I asked you. It tickles Why you aren't pulling the dress off my back surely? Whatever are you at?'

But she made it easier for Kate by moving her body here and there as was required.

'It's only your old uniform,' Kate said and soon Edith was lying almost naked.

'I'll stroke you dear if you like,' Kate said. 'Shut your eyes now.'

'I ought to be going over those silk stockings.'

'If you don't take good care I'll run over you like you was an old pair Edie and darn you in all sorts of places you wouldn't think.'

They giggled in shrieks again at this then quietened down. Kate began to stroke up and down the inside of Edith's arm from the hollow of her elbow to the wrist. Edith lay still with closed eyes. The room was dark as long weed in the lake.

'What if it had been Charley?' Kate asked.

'Why d'you want to go on at me about him?'

'But supposin' it was Edie?'

'Well how would you have acted?' said Edith.

'Me? He would never've had to ask me twice. Not the way I am these days.'

'Oh Kate you are dreadful.' But Edith's voice was low. Kate's stroking was beginning to make her drowse.

Then there was a real outcry from the peacocks. Kate slipped out of bed to look She saw Mrs Jack walking down the drive far beneath with Captain Davenport who was pushing his bike.

'What is if?' Edith asked.

'Just those two again.' Then Edith got up to look. The girls blocked their window, made night in the room.

'What two?' Edith, said her back to the darkness And answered herself. 'Oh Mrs Jack and the Captain. But won't the children be disappointed. I know they was counting on their mother taking them out the little loves.'

'Well they can count on summat else then and so can she very likely,' Kate said.

'Now Kate you've no call to say such a thing.' Edith's voice was truly indignant They could not hear their masters.

'It's not fair You could get one of these,' Davenport was saying.

'Now Dermot,' she replied, 'you've no right to be beastly,'

'But a bike's the only way to get about these days,' he said.

'Darling I've already told you,' she said.

'She couldn't surely object to your having a bike Violet after all.'

'Oh I can't go on like this behind her back,' she announced from an expressionless face but with tears coming into her blue, blue eyes that matched the curtains in her room, 'no I can't Dermot any
longer.' She stopped. She stamped the ground. 'Oh darling,' she said, 'I do wish I could get you out of my system.'

'Now you're upset,' he began. 'By the way,' he went on, 'what's the matter with that footman you've got here? He asked me how the salmon trout were runnin'. I thought everyone in Old Ireland knew it was close season.'

'Dermot you don't mean he suspects anything?'

'Suspect anything? My dear girl I only mentioned it to change the conversation. Good Lord I only meant he seemed a funny sort.'

'And why d'you say you wanted to change the conversation?' she asked.

'Now you're all upset.'

'You don't understand,' she wailed.

'All I meant was I'd rather have him than Eldon,' the Captain said with bitterness. But it seemed that she was not thinking of the servants.

Charley now studied the black and red notebooks each afternoon. In the black he found Mr Eldon had written down peculiarities of those who were invited to Kinalty Castle with a note of the tips received on mentioning those peculiarities. But he did not as a rule spend long over this. There were not many people came to the Castle in wartime.

In the red Charley found Mr Eldon had kept a record of everything he drew under the petty cash account, which was presented monthly to Mrs Tennant. At one end was a copy of each account on which he had been paid. Against every item was an index number. At the other end of this red notebook the leaves were numbered and at least one whole sheet was given over entirely to copious notes on the item in question. Thus with a charge for sashcord of 7s fid in March 1938 which reappeared in September of that year in an amount of 6s 8d and did not recur until July 1939 at 8s 9d, Raunce turned up the page on sashcord to find that hardly a yard had been bought or used in these last three years and that Mr Eldon was reminding himself to charge for more but had not lived to do it.

Once he had got the hang of things and had well studied the amount of corn bought for the peacocks at certain periods, Charley turned to that part which dealt only with the Cellar. By keeping open a Cellar Diary which had also to be shown each month to Mrs
Tennant and by comparing the two, he was able to refer from one to the other. Thus much that would otherwise have been obscure became plain.

For instance it was Mrs Tennant's custom to have on tap a cask of whisky, which had to be replenished at regular intervals by means of ten-gallon jars shipped from Scotland. Not only had Mr Eldon never credited her with the empties, that was straightforward enough, but he had left whole pages of calculations on the probable loss of the volatile spirit arising from evaporation in a confined space from which the outside atmosphere was excluded. He had gone into it thoroughly, had probably been prepared for almost any query. Charley appeared to find it suggestive because he whistled. There was also an encouraging note of recent date to say that no questions had been asked for years.

After the whisky had been blended in cask for a period at a calculable loss it was Mrs Tennant's custom to have her butler bottle it. Mr Eldon had charged her for new bottles every time. There was even a note of his about a rise in the cost of corks which he had not been able to use over again.

What this forenoon halted Charley in the study while on his weekly round rewinding clocks was a reminder in the red notebook to charge 10s 6d for a new spring to the weathervane. This was fixed on top of the tower and turned with a wind in the usual way. Where it differed from similar appliances was that Mr Tennant had had it connected to a pointer which was set to swing over a large map of the country round about elaborately painted over the mantelpiece. Raunce did not know yet how the thing worked. He stood and pondered and asked himself aloud where he could say he was going to fix the replacements if she asked him.

This map was peculiar. For instance Kinalty Church was represented by a miniature painting of its tower and steeple while the Castle, which was set right in the centre, was a fair sized caricature in exaggerated Gothic. There were no names against places.

As Charley stood there it so happened that the pointer was fixed unwavering E.S.E. with the arrow tip exactly on Clancarty, Clancarty which was indicated by two nude figures male and female recumbent in gold crowns. For the artist had been told the place was a home of the old kings.

Mrs Jack came in looking for a letter from Dermot. The carpets
were so deep Raunce did not hear her. He was staring. She noticed he seemed obsessed by the weathervane and turned to find what in particular held him.

When she saw and thought she knew she drew breath with a hiss.

'Raunce,' she said and he had never heard her speak so sharp, 'what is it?'

He faced about, holding himself quite still.

'Why Madam I never heard you. The thing seems to have got stuck Madam.'

'Stuck? What d'you mean stuck?'

'It does not seem to be revolving Madam, and I'm sure the wind is not in that quarter.'

She reacted at once. She strode up to that arrow and gave it a wild tug presumably to drag the pointer away from those now disgusting people lying there in a position which, only before she had known Dermot, she had once or twice laughed at to her husband. The arrow snapped off in her hand. The vane up top might have been held in a stiff breeze or something could have jammed it.

Charley knew nothing as yet about Clancarty. 'It's the spring Madam,' he said cheerful as he took that broken piece from her. 'You noticed the arm did not have any give Madam?'

'Oh get on with your work,' she said appearing to lose control and half ran out. Shaking his head, grumbling to himself, Raunce made his way upstairs.

He made his way smooth down the Long Passage until he found one of the girls. It was Edith opposite Mrs Jack's chamber, doing out this lady's bathroom.

'Hello ducks,' he whispered.

'What brings you here?' she asked as soft.

'Who d'you think?' he answered.

'Get on with you,' she said.

'Look it's like this,' he began. 'This weathervane now. Where's the old works? I mean behind a little door or suchlike there must be a spring to do with some clockwork. At least that's what I'm led to understand.'

She looked disappointed.

'Behind a little door there's clockwork? Whatever's that?' she enquired.

'Don't ask me but Mr Eldon's left a book of directions which makes mention. Here,' he said, 'give us a kiss.' She said no as though she had been waiting to say this. She backed away against sweet primrose tiles. 'No,' she repeated quite loud and decided.

'Whatever's the matter with you these days?' he asked.

'I'm fed up I shouldn't wonder.'

'No need to take it out on me is there? What's up?'

'It's the war most likely,' she said pouting 'I shall have to get me out of this old place.'

'You don't want to talk like that my girl. Why we're on a good thing here all of us. Trust Uncle Charley, he's seen some. There's a war on, the other side. You don't want none of it do you? And there's the grub question. You got to consider that. About this weathervane now. I'll have to find the other one of you then, that's the only thing left for me to do.' He leered at her. 'Where is she?' he demanded.