And so Emmy, Abi and their mother had started going from room to room looking for suitable furniture to take to the cottage.
‘Imusthave the mahogany sideboard,’ Dorcas said in the dining room the next morning. ‘It’s so handy to put all the food on when we entertain.’
Emmy’s eyes stretched wide as she stared at the enormous piece. ‘But we don’t even have a dining room in the cottage,’ she pointed out. ‘There’s just a kitchen-cum-living room and a small parlour. We would never even get that through the door!’
‘Oh dear.’ Dorcas clutched her throat as if she couldn’t breathe, sure that she was trapped in some sort of a nightmare. ‘Then what about my escritoire? I had that shipped over from France shortly after your father and I were married and I’ve always been so fond of it.’
Emmy eyed it doubtfully. She really didn’t think there would be much need for it any more, but seeing as it was only small, she supposed they could find a corner for it, although she would much rather have taken something a little more practical.
‘Very well.’ She nodded to one of the men her uncle had sent to help with the furniture removals and he stepped forward and lifted it as if it weighed no more than a feather.
‘We ought to be getting the beds out next,’ Emmy said practically. ‘Although we won’t be able to take the four-posters – we’d never get them through the cottage door. I’m afraid we’ll have to take some of the beds from the servants’ quarters. They’re so much smaller.’
Now it was Abi’s turn to look horrified. ‘Yousurelycan’t expect us to sleep in beds that the servants have slept in,’ she gasped.
‘Well, it’s either that or sleep on a mattress on the floor,’ Emmy snapped and Abi promptly burst into tears.
Emmy let out a deep breath. This was turning out to be even harder than she had thought it would be and they had barely started yet.
It was Hetty who stepped in quickly to say, ‘But youcantake all your nice beddin’ an’ linen, miss. I’ll start to pack it up now, shall I?’
Emmy flashed her a grateful smile as Hetty hurried away to make a start on it.
Within an hour the cart was fully loaded and Emmy went with the driver to show the men where to put things in the cottage. In fairness, it was looking much better now. Jake had done a grand job of clearing all the weeds from the front garden and with the tulips and daffodils now on show and the windows sparkling in the sunshine it looked quite pretty. Hetty had been there until late the evening before blackleading the grate, and with smoke lazily drifting up into the blue sky it felt warm when they entered. Hetty had also spent hours cutting down some curtains she had found in the attic at Astley House to fit the cottage windows, although she hadn’t had time to hang them as yet.
Truthfully Emmy didn’t know how they would have coped without her. She had worked tirelessly, even cooking the meals when she got back at night, although she must have been extremely tired. Now she got the men to place the large dresser they had brought from the kitchen against one wall in the cottage kitchen, then while they carried the beds in, she began to unpack the china and put it on the shelves. Her mother had insisted they should bring all the best gilt-edged china and it looked slightly out of place in the humbler abode but Emmy supposed it didn’t matter if it made her mother feel a little more at home. She was just finishing that job when Jake strode in and he noticed instantly that Emmy looked worn out.
‘Where are Hetty and Abi?’ he asked, glancing around.
Emmy snorted as she swiped a stray lock of hair from her face. ‘Hetty is busy packing back at the house and Abi is having a full-blown tantrum,’ she informed him with a sigh.
‘And your mother?’
Emmy shrugged. ‘Doing nothing to help as usual.’
‘Right, then it’s up to us to get this place sorted,’ Jake said kindly, removing his jacket and rolling his sleeves up. ‘Now tell me what room you want these boxes in.’
The men had already unloaded the first lot from the cart and had gone back to the house to collect some more. While they were gone Jake and Emmy carried all the boxes into the right rooms. Jake then found a hammer and began to fix some nails into the back of the bedroom doors where the women could hang some of their clothes.
‘Not quite the expensive armoires Abi is used to,’ he commented and Emmy grinned.
‘She’ll just have to get used to it then, won’t she?’ she replied.
Soon there was nothing more they could do until the men returned with the next load so they went out into the garden and sat down on the bench Jake had found beneath a tangle of undergrowth.
‘Unfortunately, I have to return to medical school in a couple of days,’ he told her regretfully. ‘I wish I could have been around a bit longer to help you settle in.’
‘You’ve done more than enough already,’ Emmy assured him. ‘You must be coming close to the end of your course now?’
He nodded. ‘Yes, it’s my final year, unless I decide to stay on longer to train as a surgeon, but I’m not planning to.’ His desire to become a doctor had been a bone of contention between him and his father. His father had hoped that as Jake was the oldest, he would train to take over the running of the farm one day – Jasper certainly didn’t show any interest in doing so, or doing anything else for that matter – but Jake was set on becoming a doctor.
‘You wouldn’t believe the sights I’ve seen,’ he told her. ‘As part of my practical training I worked at the poor hospital in London for a few months last year and that decided me on what I want to do. The poverty there is unbelievable. Why this’– he spread his hands – ‘would be like a palace to some of the poor beggars there. They die like flies in slums because they can’t afford to call a doctor, and they’re the people I want to help.’
‘I think that’s a really admirable thing to do,’ Emmy said. ‘And I’m glad you stuck to your guns. I shall have to think of something I can do now too. I thought perhaps I could try for the post of a governess or a home tutor.’
‘But surely you’ll stay here with your mother?’ Jake raised his eyebrow.
She shook her head. ‘No, Mama will have a small amount to live on but it won’t run to keeping me and Abi, especially not in the style Abi is used to. As soon as I’m happy that Mama has settled in, I shall start to look around for a post.’
