The Passions of Bronwyn (13 page)

‘What’s wrong?’ Betty asked her. 

‘It’s from the new Manager of the plantation in Jamaica,’ Wyn told her.  ‘I think it’s my half-brother.  He’s thanking Mr Brompton for giving him the chance of starting a new life with his family in Jamaica because he never wants to go back to Penarth in Wales where he comes from.  There’s only one Henry Williams from Penarth.  I wonder if he’s told my parents where he is, not that I really care, he can go rot in hell as far as I’m concerned.  At least I know where he is, he can’t touch me from there.’

They went through a few more mundane letters until Wyn suddenly shouted, ‘here it is, I’ve found an address for Mary’s family.’ 

‘Oh that’s good,’ exclaimed Betty, ‘they’ll finally know what happened to their daughter.  It was so cruel of Mr Charles to go along with his brother and keep it all a secret.  I wonder what would have happened if she’d given birth to a live baby,’ she pondered. 

‘I dread to think,’ replied Wyn, ‘he couldn’t have kept her and a baby hidden down there forever, someone would have noticed eventually.  Let’s take this to Mrs Brompton.  She’ll be relieved that she can put an end to this whole unhappy story.’ 

They went along to the drawing room where Mrs Brompton was having coffee and knocked on the door.  Come in they were told.  They went in and handed the letter over to Mrs Brompton. 

‘I think this is what you wanted,’ Wyn told her. 

Mrs Brompton looked at it and said ‘yes it is.  That’s very good, once Dr Jenkins has finished I can arrange for Mary to be taken back to where she belongs for a proper burial.  I would like all of you to attend with me.  I know Hampshire is quite a long way from here but it can be arranged.  Would you be willing?’ she asked them. 

‘Oh yes,’ they both replied, ‘we’d like to say goodbye to her even though we never met her, it’s so sad how she ended up’. 

‘Was there anything else of interest in the letters you were looking through?’ Mrs Brompton added. 

‘There were just some from people who owed Mr Charles money and who he owed money to,’ Wyn said.  Mrs Brompton just sighed and told Wyn to bring them to her later. Wyn nodded as she and Betty left the room. 

‘I feel quite sorry for her,’ Betty said as they walked back down to the kitchen. ‘Fancy having a husband like Mr Charles.’ 

Wyn shuddered and said,’ no thanks, I’d rather not have one ever than have one like him.

‘Or his brother,’ Betty added.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

It was a few days later that William answered the door to find The Right Honourable Frederick Huxley-Chadwick standing outside.  William let him in and showed him into the downstairs reception room.  ‘Please take a seat,’ he told him, ‘I’ll let Mrs Brompton know you’re here.’  He then went up to the study where Mrs Brompton was dealing with her correspondence. 

‘The gentleman you were expecting is sitting in the downstairs reception room,’ he told her.  Mrs Brompton slowly finished the letter she was writing before she turned at looked at William. 

‘Please take him up to the drawing room, offer him some refreshment and tell him I’ll be with him shortly.’  William nodded and went back down to the reception room. 

‘Please come this way,’ he asked Frederick Huxley-Chadwick, ‘Mrs Brompton will be with you shortly.’  Once he had sat him in the drawing room he offered some refreshment. 

‘Get me a coffee,’ he was told. 

‘Yes sir,’ William replied strongly as he walked out of the room.  ‘What a rude man,’ he remarked to Wyn when he entered the kitchen.  ‘He wants a cup of coffee, make it with dishwater or I’ll spit in it,’ he said. 

‘You can’t do that,’ Wyn exclaimed. 

‘Watch me,’ was the reply. 

Wyn made the coffee but looked away as she gave it to William so that she didn’t see what he did with it.  William took it up to the drawing room. 

‘I’ve got better things to do than sit here,’ Mr Huxley-Chadwick said as soon as William walked in.  ‘Tell Mrs Brompton I do not like to be kept waiting.’ 

As William turned to leave the room Mrs Brompton walked in. 

‘It’s alright William,’ she said, ‘you can leave now.’ 

William smiled at her sympathetically and walked back downstairs.  ‘Phew!’ he exclaimed as he walked into the kitchen, ‘I don’t envy Mrs Brompton having to talk to him.’ 

‘Don’t you worry,’ Wyn told him, ‘I’m sure Mrs Brompton can hold her own against him.  After all he owes her a lot of money.’ 

‘Oh yes, I’d forgotten that.  That’ll take him down a few pegs.’

It was about an hour later that the bell rang from the drawing room.  William went up and opened the door. 

‘Show Mr Huxley-Chadwick out and then come back up here,’ Mrs Brompton asked him.  William looked at him, he was a different man than the arrogant one who had entered the house.  He now had a pasty pale face and was very subdued,   Oh dear someone’s had a shock he thought to himself.  Serves him right.  He took him downstairs and showed him out of the door.   Good riddance William thought. William then went back upstairs to where Mrs Brompton was waiting for him. 

‘There’s going to be a wedding,’ Mrs Brompton told him.  William looked at her shocked.  Mrs Brompton laughed and said ‘No, not me, I wouldn’t marry that awful man.  He has a son, Harry, who is much nicer than his father.   Catherine has known him since they were babies and has always liked him.  They are more like brother and sister but I’m sure that will change.  Anyway it’s all agreed and Catherine is lucky that any decent man will marry her in the circumstances.  Please ask Ned to have the motorcar outside the front door at ten o’clock tomorrow morning as I will be travelling to Surrey to let Catherine know the situation.  Oh, and ask Mrs Davis to come and see me after lunch as there is to be a reception next week to announce the engagement and she will have to provide a buffet.’

William ran down the stairs, burst into the kitchen and said, ‘you’ll never guess what is happening now.’ 

‘Judging by the way you just burst in here, we must be on fire at least,’ Mrs Davis said.  She, Wyn, Betty and Ned were all sitting at the table drinking tea.  What on earth is it?’ asked Mrs Davis.  William told them everything Mrs Brompton had told him.  ‘Oh my,’ exclaimed Mrs Davis, ‘that poor girl, fancy having no choice in who she marries.’ 

‘Yes but she does know him well,’ William said.  ‘Mrs Brompton said they’ve known each other since they were babies, it’s better than having to marry a stranger I would have thought.’  He turned to Ned, ‘Mrs Brompton wants you to have the car outside the front door tomorrow morning at ten o’clock to take her to Surrey to see Miss Catherine, she will be away overnight so you will be staying there and, Mrs Davis, she wants to see you this afternoon after lunch as there is to be a reception next week to announce the engagement.’ 

At that moment the bell from the drawing room rang again. William stood up to answer it.  ‘She’s obviously forgotten something,’ he said as he walked out of the door.  Entering the drawing room he found Mrs Brompton slumped on the floor.  He ran over to the bell and rang it urgently several times.  Down in the kitchen Wyn and Betty looked at each other, ‘I’ll go,’ Wyn said and she ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs. 

‘Bring smelling salts,’ William told her as she ran in the door.  Wyn turned, ran back along the hall to Mrs Brompton’s bedroom and grabbed the smelling salts from the bedside cabinet.  Then she ran back to the drawing room where William had picked Mrs Brompton up off the floor and put her on the couch.  Wyn waved the smelling salts under Mrs Brompton’s nose.  After a couple of minutes Mrs Brompton started coming round.  ‘What happened?’ she asked groggily. 

‘You fainted,’ William told her, ‘how are you feeling now, should we call for the doctor?’  ‘No,’ Mrs Brompton replied, ‘no doctor, I’m alright now.  I think it must have been the stress of dealing with someone like that nasty Frederick Huxley-Chadwick, he’s not the easiest of people to deal with, but I soon took the smirk off his face.’  She smiled at them and said ‘it’s alright I’m fine now, help me up.’  When William helped her stand up she said ‘I’m actually very happy that Catherine will be settled. It’s a shame he will be her father-in-law but I think he’ll come off worst as she’s not an easy person to deal with either.’

The next day Ned had the car outside the front door promptly at ten o’clock.  As Mrs Brompton was walking out of the front door she suddenly turned to William, who was showing her out.  ‘Oh my,’ she exclaimed, ‘I’ve forgotten to ask Wyn and Betty to get Catherine’s room ready for her as she will be coming back with me.  They also need to get one of the guest rooms ready as I think my sister, Constance, will be coming back with me and, as she never travels without at least one maid and a chauffeur, there will also need to be two servants rooms ready.’

‘Don’t worry Mrs Brompton,’ William told her. ‘Everything that needs doing will be done by the time you get back.’  Once the car had gone William went back into the house and told Wyn and Betty what Mrs Brompton had said. 

‘Well at least we’ve got a whole day to get the rooms ready,’ said Wyn, ‘come on Betty let’s go up and see how much needs to be done.  When they had gone upstairs William thought to himself, hmm, now’s my chance to have a good look at the basement room and see if I can do something to get it in a fit state for me and Wyn to use.  He went down to the kitchen first to see where Mrs Davis was.  As he walked into the kitchen he could smell the lovely smell of fresh baking.  Mrs Davis was standing at the table kneading bread dough.  ‘Get away with you now she told him, I’ve not got time for chatting.’  William smiled and left. 

He looked all around to make sure no-one was looking, then opened the basement door and went down the stairs.  He had already hidden all the equipment he needed to clean the room in a small cupboard under the stairs which he now retrieved.  Since the Coroner had finished with the room William had kept the key in his pocket so it was easy for him to open the door.  He went in and cleaned the room from top to bottom giving special attention to the bed frame because he knew Wyn was going to be a bit squeamish about lying on it after what had happened to Mary.  Once he had finished cleaning he removed all the cleaning materials, locked the door and went up the back stairs to the attic room.  He had seen some old mattresses up there when they were doing the house search.  He looked at them carefully and selected the best looking one.  Taking it back down the stairs he had to duck suddenly behind a door as he heard someone coming along the landing.  The person was coming nearer and he thought, oh no, I’m going to be seen, how do I explain the mattress.  Just as the footsteps got to the door he was hiding behind, he heard a voice shouting, ‘Betty come quick, I need your help.’  The footsteps stopped and started going back the other way and William breathed a huge sigh of relief.  That was close he thought, it would have spoilt the surprise if Wyn had seen me but what I would have told Betty I don’t know.

William quickly took the mattress down to the basement managing to avoid any other shocks.  He put the mattress on the bed and thought, well that looks alright, I don’t think Wyn will complain about the room now.  I just need to find some bedding and then it will be ready for our little love nest.  Ooh I can’t wait he thought putting his hand down and touching his now erect member.  His need got more urgent and he undid his trousers and pulled his erect cock out.  He was imagining what he and Wyn would be doing on the bed and his hand started moving up and down getting faster until he came with a groan.  When he had recovered he adjusted himself with a smile and thought, next time it will be for real with Wyn.  He locked the room and put the key back in his pocket.  When he got back up to the kitchen Wyn was just coming in with some dirty bedding that she had taken off one of the beds upstairs.  ‘Where are you taking that?’ William asked her.  Wyn gave him a strange look as he didn’t normally ask her about household things but answered, ‘it’s going into the wash house so it can be washed, why are you asking?’ 

‘I just wondered,’ he told her while thinking to himself, well that’s no good, I don’t want dirty bedding.  He looked around and saw they were alone so he pulled her towards him and gave her a passionate kiss.  Wyn kissed him back and forgot all about his interest in bedding.  When William groaned and finally let her go, Wyn smiled at him and said ‘I’ve got to get back to changing beds, I haven’t got time for messing about with you.’ 

‘Can I help you with anything?’ William asked. 

‘Well actually, I’ve got to move one of the beds so you can help me with that if you like,’ she replied. 

‘Come on then, show me what you want done,’ William told her.  Wyn led the way upstairs to one of the servant’s rooms. 

‘In here she said, ‘I need it moved from this room down to the next floor.’ 

William got hold of one end of the bed while Wyn carried the other. When the bed was in the room William asked, ‘where’s the bedding kept? I’ll help you make the bed.’ 

Wyn went to the cupboard in the hall and took out all the bedding they needed.  Ahh, that’s where it is William thought, I’ll wait for the right moment and take some downstairs.  When they had finished in the room William turned to Wyn and asked, ‘is there anything else I can help you with?’ 

‘No,’ replied Wyn, ‘it’s nearly lunch time so I’ve finished for now.’  When Wyn had disappeared down the stairs William quickly nipped back to the cupboard and got out all the bedding he needed.  He ran down to the basement room and put it on the bed.  I’ll make that later he thought.