Once Hetty knew what had occurred she looked horrified. ‘So, will we all lose our jobs when the house is sold?’ she asked in a small voice. Her mother relied on the wages that Hetty gave her since her father had died the year before.
Emmy shrugged, looking thoroughly miserable. ‘I don’t know what will happen yet but I assume so,’ she admitted, adding quickly, ‘Although I shall do all I can to persuade Mama to keep you on.’
‘And where will you live?’
‘With Uncle Bernard and Aunt Sybil at Crossroads Farm, I presume, but I’m not sure yet,’ Emmy admitted. ‘We’ll know more when Uncle Bernard comes back today. But will you keep what I’ve told you to yourself for now, please, Hetty?’
‘Of course,’ Hetty promised. ‘But I’d best get back to work, else Mrs Parrot will ’ave me guts fer garters if she finds I ain’t doin’ me job.’ She gave Emmy’s hand an affectionate squeeze and hurried away, hoping that she hadn’t already been missed.
It was late afternoon before Bernard appeared looking pale and grim-faced. Hetty showed him into the drawing room and rushed away to fetch the mistress, who joined him minutes later, telling Hetty, ‘Fetch a tray of tea immediately.’ There was no please or thank you but then Hetty had long since stopped expecting any.
‘Well?’ Dorcas wrung her hands as she stared at him expectantly as if she were somehow hoping that he had managed to make the whole nightmare situation go away.
He joined his hands behind his back and told her gravely, ‘It appears that there is nothing to be done. The situation is so bad, in fact, that after speaking to Mr Lansdown I have had to ask Mr Davidson to lay off the workers immediately. There isn’t even enough money to pay their wages. I will, of course, pay them the money they are owed up to now but I can’t afford any more than that, so I’ve instructed Mr Lansdown to put the house and the business up for sale as soon as possible. Meanwhile he will be arranging for bailiffs to come in and see what there is of worth in the house so I suggest you decide what you wish to take with you and have it removed, otherwise they could be seized and sold off too.’
Dorcas’s head wagged from side to side in shocked denial. ‘But what is to become of me and the girls?’ she wailed.
He took a deep breath. ‘I’m sure you will be quite comfortable in the cottage I told you about and of course I won’t see any of you starve, although the girls are quite old enough now to seek positions.’
‘Positions?But they have been brought up as young ladies. What could they possibly do?’
‘Become a governess or a nanny?’ He sighed. ‘I’m sure we’ll think of something and you do still have the small inheritance that our grandmother left to you, I presume?’ When she nodded he tapped his fingers on the table. ‘Good, good, that should keep you for some time if you live frugally. But now I really must go; I have my own farm to run without having to worry about your business as well,’ he ended abruptly. ‘I shall set some of my men on to repairing the cottage immediately and hopefully it will be ready for you to move into next week. Good day.’
After he’d gone, Dorcas sat in a daze. It was as if all her worst nightmares had come true and now, somehow, she was going to have to come to terms with it. She would have to speak to the staff too. If there was no money to pay the staff at the brickworks there would be no money to pay the household staff either.
The girls joined her within minutes of their uncle leaving and it was Emmy who asked, ‘So what is happening, Mama?’
‘It’s very bad news, I’m afraid, Emerald.’ Her mother never shortened her name. ‘Even worse than we feared, and so I wish you to ask Hetty to get all the staff together tomorrow morning. I just can’t bring myself to speak to them this evening. We will be losing the house and the business as your uncle predicted, and there is no money to pay the staff, so I have no choice but to let them go. We will then be going to live at Crossroads Farm, probably within the next week before the bailiffs come in.’
‘Ugh!’ Abi grimaced. ‘How will webearliving with Aunt Sybil?’
‘We won’t exactly be livingwithher,’ Dorcas informed her in a small voice. ‘Your uncle is having a cottage on the estate prepared for us .?.?. we shall live there.’
‘In acottage?’ Abi gasped incredulously. ‘But wecan’tdo that .?.?. everyone will laugh at us and who will cook and clean for us?’
‘According to your uncle we shall be doing most of our own cooking and cleaning,’ her mother told her and Abi began to cry. ‘Although I may be able to keep just Hetty on to help if she is prepared to work for less than she’s getting now.’
‘Us!Cook and clean? But I don’t know how!’
‘Then we shall have to learn, shan’t we? If Hetty agrees to come with us we can’t expect her to do everything,’ Emmy said, ever the practical one. ‘And at least we’ll have a roof over our heads, which is more than can be said for some poor blighters!’ She was heartbroken at the thought of the staff losing their jobs. How would they manage?
‘Emmy – mind your languageplease!’ Dorcas snapped. ‘We haven’t even moved yet and you’re talking like one of the peasants already!’
Choking back a sob, Dorcas lifted her skirts and raced towards the stairs. Abi and Emmy watched her go with their mouths hanging open. It seemed that the times ahead were going to be very dark indeed.
Chapter Five
‘What’s happenin’ then, miss?’ Hetty asked tentatively later that evening after tapping on Emmy’s bedroom door. ‘The mistress ’as asked me to get all the staff gathered together in the hallway tomorrow mornin’ at ten.’
Emmy stared at her with tears in her eyes. ‘I’m afraid we’re going to have to let all of the staff go, Hetty,’ she said sorrowfully. ‘My uncle has promised to pay the wages that have been earned up to now but beyond that .?.?.’ She spread her hands in a helpless gesture. ‘But at least Mama has agreed to keep you on .?.?. if you’ll take a slight cut in wages, that is, and if you want to come?’
Hetty’s vigorous nod was her answer and Emmy was grateful for that at least. ‘Good. The bailiffs will be coming in very shortly, apparently, and Uncle Bernard has told Mama to put aside anything she wants to take. We’re to live in a cottage on his estate, it seems, so we won’t be able to take any of the big furniture. Just necessities like beds, a sofa, pots and pans, I should think.’
‘We can do better than that,’ Hetty declared comfortingly. ‘The mistress has some very expensive trinkets in her china cabinets. I can filch some of them away an’ you’ll get a good price for ’em, I’ve no doubt.’
‘But isn’t that dishonest?’ Emmy asked worriedly.
Hetty laughed and gave her a wink. ‘The bailiffs won’t miss what they don’t set eyes on, so leave it wi’ me.’
