Athenia's Choice (ON HOLD)

Athenia's Choice: Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

As much as I liked the Beaumonts, we didn’t always share the same views. They had unsuccessfully pawned, then sold nearly all of their furniture, so they could have enough money for expensive finery to wear.

“Rumours about our shabby living quarters will be deemed not so true if we still dress like ladies and sirs,” Ida told me, while I was secretly disagreeing, as comfortable living was much more my top priority than the latest fashions. Who cared what other people thought of me?

Ida frequently cursed her grace, Queen Victoria, for not removing the ban against pawnbrokers that James I had introduced all those years ago. She had almost been caught dealing with an illegal pawnbroker!

*****

Careful not to wake Cordelia, the morning after our disagreement, I put on my Sunday best outfit from Mrs Carlston and set off to work at the Laytoff household. The minute I arrived, they tried to persuade me to take up lodgings with them, since the children were dreadfully behaved before bedtime. I politely refused.

I found out just how naughty the Laytoff children were. They were also highly irritating. James would not respond to anything I asked him, whilst Annie and Susanna ran around shrieking their heads off. Blatantly, I saw that I was not suitable for this job. I hated the endless reprimanding, the scolding I had to do if they behaved like ‘improper young children’, and the constant attention I had to dote on them.

They were a very demanding bunch, wanting me to arrange their frills and fancies. “Miss Mary-Jane!” They clamoured almost every single second. After so much running around, my feet became rather weary, but at least I could sit down in the nursery. Oh lord, the nursery was magnificent!

There were thousands of china dolls, rows and rows of them, with their own sets of tiny clothes. A splendid rocking horse sat in the corner, with real hair and a leather saddle, and for James there was a wonderful miniature train which ran around in circles on a track that bordered the whole room. The room itself was large and painted vivid yellow, with spinning tops, hoops, and a croquet set scattered across the floorboards.

Then, when I was not in that wonderful room, there were the other servants, who I had to deal with. They mostly ignored me, but Tallulah the kitchen maid, and Mrs Brown, the laundry maid, took to whispering behind my back whenever I entered a room they were in. I stuck my nose in the air; as if they could hurt my pride.

*****

“So how was it?” Ida questioned when I arrived back at the Beaumont household. I gave her a withering look.

“Treacherously, immensely, un-indulgently horrific,” I exaggerated, flopping down into one of the wooden chairs, which creaked nastily. Ida gave a small laugh, but then looked guilty.

“Have a care, and don’t speak so ill of your employment, which you’re lucky to have. Surely it will get better.”

“Anyway, where’s Charles?” I wondered, as I realised the house was rather silent.

“Out and about,” Ida responded vaguely, looking away as she said so. There were more flickers of guilt in her eyes. Was there something she was not telling me?

I became very concerned when Charles did not return home that night.

“Where is he?” I asked fearfully.

“Oh, some nights he goes places with a friend of his,” Cordelia piped up. A ‘lady friend’, I thought bitterly, jealously poisoning my body and making my eyes narrow. No, of course not, he clearly liked me... didn’t he? After all, he had taken me out once.

Because of my early start to work, I did not see if Charles returned home before sunrise that morning. The children were even more unbearable than yesterday. I was thankfully allowed to take them out for a stroll, since they were very restless. I let Annie and Susanna venture into the dressmaker’s, where they cooed over elaborately designed ball gowns. James rolled his eyes and continued sucking his thumb. Honestly, he was a bit of a wet blanket!

When I took the Laytoffs home, the girls chattered away to their mother about how they had to have those ‘soooo exquisite’ dresses in Trestle + Sunflower.

“How do you know about such gaudy dresses?” Their Mother gasped.

“Miss Mary-Jane showed them,” James told her, which surprised me that he was actually talking, However, it was only to get me in trouble with Lady Laytoff, for taking her ‘precious darlings’ into an ‘unapproved site’. You would think that I had shoved them into a pub with a reputation for brawls, the way she lectured me!

*****

Cordelia and Ida met me on my way home from work, as they needed to go to the bakers and butchers. I noticed Ida paid for the smallest quantities of meat and bread possible. Obviously, Henry Beaumont’s funeral had drained away more of their money than I thought.

Charles was home when I arrived, and I ran over to him, excited but reproachful.

“Where did you go? I was worried about you.”

“You are too much of a worrier, Ath- Mary-Jane. I was merely at a friend’s,” Charles sighed. I nodded, and Ida went to prepare our evening meal. Cordelia hadn’t been fibbing; he had been with a friend. After eating, we played endlessly boring games of noughts and crosses on an old grey sheet of paper.

I had made the choice of coming back to the Beaumonts for the sake of apologising to them,  yet I had seemed more contented in Pembury, and they had not even wanted to hear my apology. I decided not to venture into Charles’ room that night. I curled up with Cordelia instead, singing ourselves to sleep...