I wasnât a lady, and just as sure Iâd never be one.
D OWNSTAIRS
âShe never!â gasped Sarah. Her big eyes grew huge. âFancy you letting her talk to you like that!â
âWhat choice did I have?â I said, shrugging.
âWell I can tell you Iâd not want to be a maid in India,â Sarah said, âif thatâs how they talk to their servants.â
âAnd then there are all the diseases.â
âSnakes.â
âUgh!â
I was sitting in my favourite room â the maidsâ sitting room â my friends curled up on the sofa next to me. There was always a scramble for it. Bits were bursting out of the arms and the back was worn dark and shiny, but it was the only comfortable seat there was. A fire had been lit in the grate and weâd dragged the sofa up close to it. I could hear a voice singing in the scullery. Young Ivy was still there, up to her elbows in soapsuds. She could sing, I thought. I smiled wryly when I thought of the entrance she had made earlier.
Here we could say what we liked, safe from the watchful eyes and ears of the upper servants. They never came in here. Barrett ruled the servantsâ hall and you didnât dare talk about your betters there. Not that we thought the family upstairs was better than us. Only different.
I drew up my knees under me. âSheâs all right, I suppose,â I said grudgingly. âSheâs just not used to our ways. Actually, I feel a bit sorry for her.â
âI canât think why,â said Sarah. âSheâs rich, isnât she? Sheâll never have to work, like the rest of us.â
âBut sheâs no older than me and sheâs come all that way to live with a family she doesnât know.â My dad would never send me halfway round the world to live with strangers. Sometimes I just donât understand posh people.
âItâs Miss Arabella I feel sorry for,â Sarah said, as if I hadnât spoken.
âYou feel sorry for Arabella!â I looked at her in astonishment. âWhatever for?â
âSheâs the young lady of the house, isnât she? Sheâs coming out this year. Now sheâs got to share her big moment with a cousin she doesnât know. I wouldnât like that.â
How did Sarah learn all this?
âSheâs a haughty creature, that Miss Arabella,â said Maisie. âGives you the run around. Will do her good.â
âMiss Clementine is quite different,â put in Ellen. âLovely manners. Such a sweet child.â
âSheâll change. Arabella was sweet at that age,â said Maddie. Sarah and I exchanged a glance. We didnât agree. We all loved little Miss Clemmie. I couldnât imagine her ever changing.
But Maddie knew the family better than we did. Sheâd been here longer than all the rest of us.
âShe asked me to put aside some carrots for the horses,â said Maisie. âShe told me sheâs taking Miss Penelope to the stables tomorrow. Apparently Miss Penelope loves riding.â
I saw Sarah blush. You only had to say the word âstableâ or âhorseâ to Sarah for her to blush. I knew that it was Fred, one of the stable hands, that she was thinking of. Theyâd known each other almost since childhood â like Sarah and me â and everyone knew that they were hoping to marry, when they could afford to.
I smiled looking around at my friends. I wished I didnât have to attend on Miss Penelope. Iâd been much happier when I was just a housemaid. The work was hard, and the hours long, but there wasnât so much of that bowing and scraping I hated so much. âYes, Miss Penelope. No, Miss Penelope.â And most of all I hated being called Baxter! But you had to put up with it, Mam had told me. Iâd not wanted to go into service, but Iâd had no choice. Maybe there were other choices for girls now, but I didnât