3: An Under Housemaid
The talk at dinner that night was all about the disaster that had engulfed the Atherton family, and what Walter was to do, since Bea Franklyn had jilted him, now that he was not to be an earl. No one spoke to Tess, beyond the minimum that politeness decreed. What was there to say? She was not responsible for her father’s misdemeanours, but her presence was a constant reminder of him. As soon as Aunt Caroline led the ladies away from the dining room, Tess slipped away to see her mother.
Lady Alice still spent virtually all her time secluded in her private sitting room, one of the round tower rooms at a corner of the castle. She had emerged for the family meeting only because her brother had ordered her to attend, and as soon as she was released, she returned to her sanctuary, having sworn she would not emerge until her husband’s murderer was caught. She was deeply offended by Captain Edgerton, too, who had as good as accused her of murdering her own husband.
Malling, Mama’s personal maid, admitted Tess with a low-voiced admonishment. “Don’t distress her ladyship, Miss Tess. I’m sure you wouldn’t, and she’ll be pleased to see you, I know, but don’t mention the murder.”
Mama sat straight-backed on a small sofa, the only light in the room being a candelabrum set behind the chair where Malling was mending a shift or nightgown. From the window, the sun’s dying rays gave the room a ghostly glow.
“Miss Tess, my lady,” Malling said.
Mama turned her sightless eyes towards the door, looking at a point somewhere beyond Tess’s left shoulder. “Tess! Come in, my dear. Were you at this dreadful meeting today? You understand what has happened? But you must not think badly of your father over this. I am sure he did not know… he could not have realised… he never intended such unfortunate consequences. It was a misunderstanding, I am sure. He must have believed he was ordained, or he would never— He was not a bad man, Tess, and you must never think ill of him.”
Tess hardly knew how to answer her. How was it possible tobelieveoneself ordained if it were not true? She had heard the story many times of how her father had encountered the late Lord Rennington by chance as they both travelled north. Snowed up at an inn, they had fallen into friendship and the earl had brought his new friend north to be chaplain at Corland, and how could he have done so unless the man had told him he was ordained? And his first act was to marry Aunt Caroline and Uncle Charles, knowing full well that he was not an ordained clergyman, and everyone knew a marriage was invalid without a proper parson. And then to say nothing before Walter was born. Six children altogether, all illegitimate, the entire inheritance in disarray, and all because of her father. Yet somehow, her mother clung to the fiction that he was a good man.
And yet to her, perhaps he was. They had always been a loving couple, so wrapped up in each other that there had never seemed to be room for Tess. She had felt superfluous to their perfect intimacy, beyond their notice, somehow. Mama’s condition made her dependent on Papa for so much. He helped her with food at dinner, he read to her for hours at a time, wrote letters for her, walked or rode with her, or simply talked to her. They never tired of each other’s company, and there was no room for a child in such an arrangement.
Tess had never resented their closeness. There was a freedom in being so often overlooked. Aunt Caroline had kept an eye on her when Tess was a girl, but the prospects for a chaplain’s daughter were so different from the futures laid out for her own daughters that gradually even Aunt Caroline had forgotten her. There was no season in town to arrange for Tess, no eligible match to look out for, no useful connections to invite her to stay in a house with marriageable sons. So Tess had felt free to make her own friends and arrange her own future with Tom Shapman, whose manly body and warm kisses set her shivering all over.
“Mama, it is a little awkward for me here just now, under the circumstances.”
“Dear Tess! It is not as if anyone blames you for this… situation.”
“No, indeed, but it is difficult for the family to speak freely before me. I thought I might go down to Helmsley for a couple of days, to see about more mourning clothes. I could stay with Susan Bullock.”
“Bullock? Oh, the grocer’s daughter.”
“Mr Bullock retired from his trade more than twenty years ago, Mama. He died last winter, if you recall, so Susan is still in mourning.”
“Then she will not encourage you to attend any unsuitable engagements?”
“No, indeed. She lives very quietly with her aunt now. She would be company for me, however, and perhaps a little shopping would cheer me up. If you can spare me, of course. I should not wish to leave you if you have need of me.”
“No, no, I am no company for a girl of your age, not at present, and Helmsley… you cannot get into trouble at Helmsley. It will do you good to get away from home for a while. Do not rush back — stay over the Sabbath, at least. I confess, I do not like you going down to Birchall on Sundays, now that we cannot use our own chapel. You are bound to meetthat manthere, and there is a danger that you will be drawn back into his sphere. You have not seen Shapman lately, have you? Other than at church, that is?”
Tess pretended to think about it. “I believe I passed him outside the parsonage one day. He bowed, I made the smallest inclination of my head, he moved on.”
“Well done! You must do nothing to encourage him. How presumptuous to think that we should ever allow you to marry a man like that, a man of trade, earning a living with his hands. You are not a great heiress, but you are the niece of an earl, and that should mean something, after all. But I dare say he mistook your natural friendliness for something more, and is now mortified by his mistake. Let us hope that is all in the past, and your father, in his wisdom, has taken steps to ensure that you are never again importuned by anyone so unworthy.”
Tess could not quite see the matter in that light, but there was never any point in arguing with her mother, so she merely said, “May I have the carriage tomorrow, to take me to Helmsley?”
“Of course. And you will have Betty and Harold with you, so you will be quite safe. Remember to take one or other of them with you whenever you go out of doors.”
“Of course, Mama.”
Her trip thus approved, Tess left to tell Betty and Harold of the delight in store for them, and to order the carriage.
***
Susan Bullock was a well-rounded girl of twenty-three, who had admired Tess ever since their accidental meeting over the same ribbon at the haberdashery. For some years now, Susan had been Tess’s friend and confidante, offering a place to stay when she needed to escape from home, and a place to pretend to stay when she wanted to go adventuring. Mostly, her adventures had involved Scarborough and the slightly rakish air of a seaside town. This adventure was more serious.
“I am going to try to find my fortune,” Tess told her friend, as they sat in the best bedroom, the one always assigned to Tess. “It is not at Corland Castle, so it must be at the house at Pickering.Myhouse, in fact, although my trustees will not allow me even to go there. But I am going to go, despite them, to see what I can find.”
“Ooh, Tess, you’re so brave!” Susan said, wide-eyed. “I should never dare! But what will you do? You can’t just walk up to the front door… can you?”
“I am not sure yet,” Tess said with a frown. “However, if it is left to the lawyers nothing at all will be done, so I must find a way to get inside. The widow who lives there must have callers. Friends, perhaps. I shall befriend her.”
“How clever you are!” Susan said.
