When Ellen Tucker enters into service at Redfern Abbey, a titled household, she knows how lucky she is. All she wants is to work hard and rise up the ranks. Finding love is the last thing on her mind - and then she meets Master Edward, the Earl's only son. As heir to the Redfern title, Edward is fully aware of his responsibilities and where his future lies. He knows that Ellen, a maid, has no place in that future but he can't fight his attraction to her. As their moments of stolen passion become more intense, Ellen and Edward realise that they need to find a more permanent solution, whatever the consequences . . . In this exclusive digital short story, Catherine King tells a passionate and heartrending tale of a love affair that is determined to survive against all odds.
Release date:
September 27, 2012
Publisher:
Sphere
Print pages:
48
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‘You’re in here with me, Tucker. I can’t say I’m happy about it but I’m charged with keeping an eye on you.’
Ellen gazed around the cream-painted attic room. ‘It’s big, isn’t it?’
‘You have your own washstand. Be sure you make good use of it. How many outfits have you brought?’
‘Three grey skirts and bodices and one black afternoon dress.’
‘You won’t be needing your black for a while yet. You’ve a lot of things to learn before I let you loose in his lordship’s
drawing room.’
‘I’ve done two years at Lady Maude’s,’ Ellen protested.
Simmonds, the head housemaid at Redfern Abbey, glared at her. ‘And one of those things is not to answer back.’
Ellen was immediately contrite. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘So you should be. I might not have been to Lady Maude’s but I have had a proper training with debenture papers and everything
in a titled household. You’re just a local girl, aren’t you?’
‘My mother was a parlour maid here. She married one of the gamekeepers. They — they died when I was little.’
‘Yes, I heard about that. It was the year when it rained all winter and all the farms flooded. A lot of folk went down with
the fever.’
Ellen thought Simmonds sounded quite kindly and she reflected on how different her life might have been if Mother and Father
had not been taken from her so suddenly. The orphanage’s patron was the Earl of Redfern. His wife, the Countess, had visited
from time to time and said a few words to each child. She was a very grand lady. Ellen had not been too miserable there because
she learned quickly how to take care of herself. But she was happier when she was sent out to be a general maid for one of
the tenant farmers. The best part of growing up was Sunday school where she was taught to read and write, and do sums. Her
willingness to work and quick wits were noticed and the vicar’s wife recommended her for a place at Lady Maude’s Training
School for Servants to prepare her for a position in the Abbey. She knew it was an honour and she was lucky. But the teachers
at Lady Maude’s were strict and discipline had not come easily to Ellen.
‘Well, don’t dwell on it now, Tucker.’ Simmonds brought her back to the present. ‘Put your clothes away and come downstairs.
Don’t be long. I want to see how you lay a fire.’
Ellen was confident. She had learned well at Lady Maude’s and was proud to be in service with a titled household. If she worked
hard she would rise in the ranks as Simmonds had and have the independence of a good wage. Simmonds was a few years older
than she but Ellen wanted to be friends. ‘What’s your name?’ she asked.
‘You can call me Tansy up here or in the servants’ hall.’
‘I’m Ellen.’
‘I know.’
Ellen unfolded the sheets and blankets and made up her bed, then hung her clothes in the empty cupboard and put her undergarments
and nightgowns carefully folded in the chest of drawers. An under-housekeeper checked the servants’ bedrooms for tidiness
every day. She watched Tansy concentrating on pinning her afternoon cap in place. It had two lace ribbons that streamed down
her back and matched the lace edgings on her apron. Mother would have worn the same, Ellen thought wistfully, and vowed that
she would be wearing one very soon.
Tansy hurried away leaving Ellen to finish her unpacking and notice how bare her side of the room was. Tansy had hung pictures
and even two photographs in frames. They were of a group of servants in front of a big house that Ellen did not recognise
and she wondered if Earl Redfern’s servants had similar photographs taken here. She put on a brown drill apron over her grey-cotton
housemaid’s uniform and checked in the wall mirror that her plain cap was straight. Then she gave her black boots a good buffing
and clattered along the wooden floorboards of the landing corridor to the back stairs.
Tansy was waiting for her in the housekeeper’s room in the gloomy basement. Three fire-boxes were lined up on the flagstones
outside the door. The head housemaid picked up one and said, ‘Bring the other two and follow me. You can show me how you frame
in the old schoolrooms. Nobody uses them now Master Edward has gone to Eton.’ Ellen trudged up the back stairs again, this
time to the floor below the attics and along another corridor that had a strip of carpet down the middle. The Redfern coat
of arms was woven into the centre of the strip at regular intervals.
‘In here, Tucker.’ Tansy opened one of the wooden panelled doors. ‘Oh! Beg pardon, sir. I believed the schoolroom to be empty.’
She closed the door quickly and leaned against it with wide eyes. ‘Master Edward is in there. We’ll have to go somewhere else.’
‘He’ll want a fire, won’t he? It’s dank up here.’ Ellen heard footsteps on the schoolroom floorboards and the door opened.
‘Come in and get on with your work.’
‘I don’t think I should, sir,’ Tansy replied. ‘Not with you here.’
‘Is that a fire-box?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘These rooms need fires. There’s a definite chill in here.’ Master Edward left the door open, walked across the room and through
another door.
Ellen had put down her fire-boxes and she stood silently behind Tansy, who seemed undecided about what to do. Master Edward
was the earl’s only son and heir to the title. He was away for most of the year and Ellen had imagined him as a schoolboy
. . .
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