Nanny Diaries 3 - Pride and Prejudice

High Society

Easter came and went in similar fashion for me. I was only a week out of the nursery myself and still under discipline, but I was helping Annie every morning and evening at least, and then spending the rest of my time with Mama and Mummy, socialising and generally playing at being a grown-up. It was not perfect, I would have preferred not to still be under such strict discipline, but all maidens were closely watched, I realised, and the basic fact was that I was doing what I wanted to do, which was look after my sisters and be part of the family. For the girls, and particularly for Camilla, the weekend was quite quiet. We spent a fair amount of time in church, because it was clearly an important time of year, but as the weather was terrible, the eight of them spent a fair amount of time in the nursery. Despite her strange mood, and rather worrying comments about moving on, Annie was working hard on Camilla, and had managed to avoid paddling her, which we were both pleased about. I had no deep affection for the former Karen Davenport, but no dislike either, even if she had made fun of me at times, because she was a perfectly adequate nanny. However, I felt sorry for the situation she found herself in, and wished that Mr Ellesmere was not being quite so brutal with her and, by all accounts, her poor mother. I had heard enough about Madeleine Davenport's legal problems, and the resulting financial disaster which had landed at her door, to know that it was not her fault. Her husband's business meltdown was all his doing and other than being named as a director of a myriad of companies, some of which it appeared she had never even heard of, she was not involved in his activities at all. But bad things had been done in her name, and as he had disappeared off the face of the earth, she was left liable.

Around the dinner table, especially when it was just the three of us, Colin Hughes spoke quite openly about his knowledge of the situation, which his bank was involved in, acting for Mr Ellesmere in an attempt to minimise the huge amounts of money he had to spend to keep his sister out of jail, and the more I heard about Mr Ellesmere, the less I approved of him. Colin almost certainly agreed, but on the Monday night, Easter Monday, I learned a little more about the hierarchy of Meadvale.

"I have never really met any of the Ellesmere family before, Papa." I commented, after Colin had suggested that they were very influential within the community. It was true. I had only met the youngest daughter, Annabel, when she was helping with my bible class, and before I took my vows, I was fairly sure that I had never even heard the name. Nicola had told me that we were too liberal to be on friendly terms with them, but I did not really believe that my sister had got that entirely right, because the Hughes family were very well thought of. But Papa was in agreement with his daughter, in a way.

"We are talking about the real elite here, Daphne." He sighed, sitting back in his chair as I took a dainty bite of my salmon. "Richard lives on the edge of the village...on his own estate which is as big as Meadvale itself...so, you wouldn't see the Ellesmere ladies walking in the park...they can exercise in their own grounds!"

"So, they are very rich, then, Papa?" I asked, innocently. "But so are you?"

"I am not even in the same league as Richard...I work for the bank, and I am very well paid of course, and I own a few shares, along with the rest of my family...but Richard owns half of the bank, and he is Reformist royalty to boot, as his maternal grandfather was Pastor Richard Winstanley, our founder, who he was named after. You may get a glimpse of such people up the front in church, but they are very choosy who they mix with..."

"Our elders are all fine people...pious and committed to the doctrine." Helen pointed out and her husband nodded, agreeing with her.

"Extremely so...they insisted on the purge, as people are now calling it, after our darling Nicola...well, I think we all know too much about that little disaster. My career took a bit of a hit last year, which moving back to the village is only just starting to repair. Helping Richard with Camilla is a bit of a test of my loyalty...and our piety...and it's a bit like coming to the attention of the royal family."