The sound of the cart rattling along the uneven lane leading to the cottage brought an end to the conversation and soon they were busy unloading it again. Hetty had sent drawers for the bedrooms, a small table and four wooden chairs for the kitchen as well as a gilt-legged sofa for in front of the inglenook fireplace.
‘I bet Mama insisted that should come,’ Emmy commented wryly as the men carried it inside. It looked completely incongruous in the small kitchen-cum-sitting room but Emmy put it in position just the same. Dorcas had also sent a number of fancy gilt-framed mirrors and oil paintings, and after glancing at each other and grinning, Jake fetched the hammer and nails and began to hang them on the walls. Next, Emmy hung the heavy velvet curtains that Hetty had painstakingly altered at the windows, and suddenly the place was looking quite cosy. The next job was making the beds up with clean sheets and blankets and by the time they’d finished, they were both exhausted.
‘I think that’s enough for today,’ Emmy said wearily as she wiped the sweat from her brow on the sleeve of her dress. ‘Once again, thank you so much for all your help, Jake. I wouldn’t have got half as much done on my own.’
They walked back to the farm side by side where they parted and Emmy went on her way to Astley House.
She entered the hall to the sound of shouting and, hurrying into the drawing room, she found Abi and Hetty in the middle of a heated row.
‘Sorry, miss,’ Hetty apologised the second she set eyes on Emmy. ‘All I did was ask her to pack the clothes she wanted to take with her and she laid into me.’ Hetty looked exhausted. ‘The trouble is, I can’t do everythin’, as I’ve just pointed out!’
‘Why not – you’re the servant, aren’t you?’ Abi said rudely.
‘Aye, I am,’ Hetty shot back. ‘But I’m not bloody superhuman an’ I’ve been on me feet since the crack o’ dawn same as yer sister has while you’ve been sat on yer fat idle arse!’
Abi gasped as she clutched at her throat. ‘Why .?.?. howdareyou speak to me like that, you .?.?. you littleguttersnipe!’ she shrilled.
‘Abi, that’squiteenough!’ It was Emmy’s time to shout now. ‘I willnothave you speaking to Hetty like that, do you hear me?’
Abi sniffed and lowered her head but there was no apology forthcoming, although she did at least shut up – for now at least.
‘Right .?.?. I suggest you go and do as Hetty suggested and don’t forget we have limited space in the cottage.’
With a defiant toss of her head, Abi gave Hetty one last glare and flounced from the room as Emmy apologised for her sister’s behaviour.
‘It’s all right, miss.’ Hetty sighed wearily. ‘This ain’t easy fer none of you but it seems to me you’re the one havin’ to organise everythin.’
‘But I’ve had your help and Jake’s. I couldn’t have done it on my own,’ Emmy pointed out, noting how tired Hetty looked. ‘And someone has to do it.’ She dreaded to think what would have happened if she and Hetty hadn’t got stuck in, the clock was ticking and tomorrow they would have to move out whether the cottage was ready or not, which spurred her on to keep going. Deep down she just wanted to lie down and cry or spend every minute of the day looking for her father but she knew that wouldn’t have been practical.
‘Well, there’s a cottage pie in the oven,’ Hetty informed her. ‘So let’s call it a day for now and get something to eat, eh? I dare say you’ve had nothing.’
It was only then that Emmy realised how hungry she was and while Hetty went to fetch the meal, she quickly laid out the plates and the cutlery in the dining room.
‘Cottage pie,’ her mother remarked scathingly some minutes later when they all sat down to dinner.
‘Yes, cottage pie and very nice it looks too,’ Emmy said sharply as she served it up. ‘And we can thank Hetty for it. If it wasn’t for her, we’d probably be sitting down to bread and cheese.’
Her mother sniffed. She was used to at least three far grander courses but she ate everything on her plate just the same.
‘There will be four of us sitting down to eat after today,’ Emmy pointed out. ‘Once we’re at the cottage we can hardly eat without Hetty joining us, especially as she will no doubt have cooked it.’
Dorcas looked horrified at the very idea but seeing the fierce look on her daughter’s face she wisely said nothing. Instead, she took a scrap of lace handkerchief and began to sniffle into it again. ‘I still can’t believe we’re going to be reduced to living in a labourer’s cottage,’ she whimpered. ‘And at my brother’s mercy.’
‘But you won’t be.’ Emmy had already heard quite enough and her patience was growing thin. ‘As Uncle Bernard pointed out, we’ll have to find jobs once we’ve settled in. Your inheritance won’t be enough to keep us all.’
Abi opened her mouth to protest but she too quickly clamped it shut again as she saw the murderous look on Emmy’s face. Instead she and her mother watched in silence as Emmy loaded the dirty pots on to a tray and carried them away to the kitchen.
She’s got another think coming if she thinks I’m going to go out to work, Abi silently fumed, and excusing herself she went off to sulk for what would be the last night in her own bedroom. After this evening she and Emmy would be forced to share a room and it didn’t bear thinking about.
Chapter Eight
‘Is the last load ready?’ Jake asked early the next morning when he and some of Bernard’s workmen arrived with the cart.
Emmy nodded. ‘Yes, it’s all piled in the hall.’ She had stayed up late the night before collecting together everything her mother had insisted they take, and she was so tired she didn’t feel as if she had been to bed.
As Jake glanced down at the fine Turkish rugs rolled up on the hall floor ready to be loaded on to the cart, he raised a questioning eyebrow.
Emmy shrugged. ‘I know what you’re thinking, they’re hardly what you’d expect to see on the floor of a cottage, but Mother insisted.’
