As Damien drove them into the village Tuesday morning, Kate watched for Vivien, as promised. It wasn't her place to judge the girl, except to know she was a decent, if unreliable, worker.
Spotting Vivien and her walking stick with her sister and her sister's children, Damien halted the horses as he’d done yesterday.
“I’d like to climb down to speak with the sister. Remember to post those letters, please.”
Damien patted his pocket to indicate he had them. Kate hadn’t received any replies from Ana Marie’s daughter last time she wrote, but she hoped she’d conveyed a sense of importance this time. Knowing the Jamesons came from the same town as Ana Marie. . . Kate didn’t know why it mattered. It just did.
Rob helped her down. Vivien had her flirtatious eye on handsome Damien, but he merely kept the restive horses in check, leaving Rob to do the honors and assist Vivien to the passenger bench.
“Why don't the two of you hop in with Rob and Lynly?” Kate suggested to the rather sullen pair watching. “There's room. I'll walk with your mother.”
So much for giving up the compulsion to help everyone.
Like the silent beast of burden she seemed to be, Mrs. Jameson began walking even before her children scrambled into the carriage. Kate hurried to catch up.
“How are they faring in school?” she asked, assuming all mothers liked to talk about their offspring.
“Hate it,” she replied. “They's too old and orter be working.”
That was not the conversational direction she'd hoped to take. “They might find better positions if they can read and write and do sums.”
Mrs. Jameson shrugged her thick shoulders. “They's too stupid, like their da.”
Kate fumbled uncertainly in the face of such scorn. “Well, I suppose, if Mrs. Russell believes they cannot be taught, there might be a place in the scullery and stable for them. Give them a little time. They might learn to enjoy school.”
The older woman grunted. “Need food in their bellies more than books in the brainbox.”
Quelling her horror, Kate sought the opening she needed to find out more about this family. “Did they not attend school in. . . Worcester, I believe it was?”
“Worked the fields, like theys should.”
Nonplussed, Kate tried again. They were almost at the top of the hill. “I thought perhaps you moved to Gravesyde for better opportunities.”
“One way of sayin’ it.”
Giving up on politeness, Kate asked flat out, “Our guests the other night said Miss Vivien worked on their costumes in Worcester. They were dismayed when she left. Shall I tell them you're here?”
Was that a flicker of alarm in Mrs. Jameson’s dull eyes?
“No,” was all the seamstress said, before picking up speed and entering the manor without waiting for her children.
Well, that was curious. Waving Damien off, watching the Jameson pair drag themselves up the schoolroom stairs, Kate hugged Rob and Lyn, then sent them up after the others. She followed them up as far as Lavender's office.
The modiste, of course, was already there. “Isn't it awful about Mrs. Young?” Lavender cried the instant Kate entered. “She was so very clever the other day! Do we have anyone to replace her?”
“Vivien would like the position,” Kate said dryly, removing her own wrap and bonnet since no footman guarded this door.
Lavender laughed. “The gudgeon is better off here, dealing with ladies who can afford her extravagant notions.”
“She can't meet eligible men here.” Kate hung up her outerwear. “She has a lot to learn. Can she do numbers? I just spoke with her sister, and the family appears uneducated.”
“I hadn't really noticed.” Lavender glanced up from her paperwork. “Most of our workers have learned to use the measuring tapes. Mrs. Young could count and took care of the button inventory. But writing in a receipt book? Do we ask?”
“Yes, perhaps we should. Instead of simply choosing somebody, we'll ask them to apply for the shop position,” Kate suggested. “We can take pages from one of those old receipt books Walker dumped in here, hand them out, ask them to write the date, their names, and maybe do a sum of some sort?”
“And then leave the papers with me,” Lavender said in satisfaction. “If there is more than one application, I'll test further.”
Kate could only hope the choice was someone pleasant to work with. She hadn't ever meant to be a clerk, but she could see the advantage in someone educated setting up a store. Really, education opened so many more opportunities. She'd have to talk to Verity about the Jameson children.
