‘Mrs Wicksted, Miss. Have some jam with them, do. Miss Trenton now,’ she shook her head. ‘We all thought she’d eloped with Sir Clement. A very pleasant gentlemen, and that was the opinion of us all. Sent down compliments on my cakes, he did, the time Miss had him in for tea.’
‘Did many gentlemen come to visit her?’ I asked.
‘Not so many as other young ladies have, not to the house. His lordship doesn’t encourage it.’ She looked disappointed, presumably missing the opportunity to produce fancy meals for visitors.
‘There’s that Lord Welney,’ a male voice chipped in. A pair of footmen had come to lounge in the doorway. ‘He’s got a thick skin and isn’t put off by his lordship huffing and puffing.’
‘What is he like? Did Miss Trenton favour him?’ I asked. Lucian had managed to efface himself thoroughly in his shadowy corner and the two footmen couldn’t have been aware he was there, because I suspected they wouldn’t be very forthcoming with an earl in the room.
‘If I was his lordship I wouldn’t have trusted him as far as I could chuck him, not with a pretty young lady I wouldn’t,’ one of them said. He was a foxy-looking youth, all red hair and sharp features. ‘He tipped too well.’ The other man, older and darker, grunted in agreement.
‘But wouldn’t you be pleased about that?’ I asked, puzzled. ‘What is wrong with him being generous?’
Addressed directly, the dark footman came right into the room. ‘It’s like this, Miss. If Sir Clement comes and brings a bouquet and wants me to make sure Miss Trenton has it before anyone else’s that day, then he might slip me a borde, even a bull if she’d been to a ball and there were lots of flowers expected. Sixpence or half a crown,’ he translated when I opened my mouth to ask.
‘Or if she was going for a walk that afternoon he might do the same for me to tell him which park she was going to and what time. None of that’s any harm, she’d have a married lady with her, or her friends or one of us. But that Lord Welney, when he started coming here he gave us both a sovereign and not for doing anything neither. Just buying us, I call it. Then if he wanted anything it was always a couple of bulls, or a half sov even.’ He shifted uncomfortably. ‘His lordship’s not the easiest gentleman to work for, but he’s fair and I ’spose I can’t blame him for being strict about Miss Trenton, and I don’t like coves what try and buy me.’
‘But you took his money?’
He grinned, unrepentant. ‘I reckon he’s got plenty if he throws it about like that.’
‘And Miss Trenton was happy?’ I asked. There were a crowd of them now. Cook and the little kitchen skivvy, the two footmen, a lad I assumed was Boots and a pair of maids in crisp, lace-trimmed aprons. Not, fortunately, the butler, who would doubtless have stopped the gossip in its tracks.
‘She was crying the other day,’ one of the maids volunteered. ‘I was dusting and I went in the little sitting room she uses in the mornings and she was on the sofa having a good sob. It wasn’t my place, but I gave her a clean handkerchief and said, There, there, Miss, and asked if I should fetch her maid to her, but she blew her nose and thanked me in that pretty way she has and said I wasn’t to say anything. But when I went out she said, I am all right, Kit
ty. And then in a whisper, all to herself, like, My heart is breaking, that is all.’
‘That’s the day his lordship said she wasn’t to see Sir Clement any more,’ the other maid chipped in.
So, Arabella was in love with Sir Clement, or at least fond enough of him to weep when he was forbidden to call on her. ‘Was there anyone else?’
‘Well, she was very much admired, of course, being so pretty, so there were lots of callers, even if his lordship wouldn’t have them in,’ Kitty said. ‘Mainly the young gentlemen. I don’t know all the names though and they usually came in a gaggle, like.’ She grinned. ‘The young ones are a bit bashful. But I don’t think any of them were that serious, not yet, anyway. They do the pretty with all the young ladies because it’s the done thing. You know?’
‘There’s Lord de Forrest. That’s with two rs,’ said the foxy footman and they both sniggered. ‘His lordship never objects to him calling and he’s an old family friend, though Lord de Forrest is a bit older than our gentleman. But he can’t have wanted him for Miss Trenton, not if he’d heard the rumours.’
‘What’s so amusing about him?’ I asked to a background of more sniggering.
‘Well, he’s forty if he’s a day and he’s, um…’ Foxy shot Cook a doubtful glance.
‘Not interested in women?’ I suggested.
They all looked scandalised. ‘Er, no, Miss.’ The dark footman was obviously groping for some polite way to put it. ‘If he was a horse, Miss, he wouldn’t be much use for stud work, if you see what I mean. Er, so the rumours say.’
‘How on earth would you know that?’ I demanded and everyone studied their feet, or remote corners of the kitchen. ‘Especially if Lord Cottingham doesn’t.’ Or perhaps he did and was relaxed about him visiting because he didn’t think he was a threat to his little sister.
‘Clubs, Miss. We all belong to them, the male staff, that is,’ Foxy explained. The maids rolled their eyes. ‘And valets talk to each other and butlers and footmen do too – we all exchange information about employers because then it helps people looking for new positions, or stops someone applying to a place that’s not good to work in. It only takes one gentleman coming home a bit bosky and saying to his valet he was in a bro… a place of ill-repute, that is, and that the girls were talking about another gentleman and describing his, well, problems, and it gets around.’ There was a muffled snort from Lucian’s corner, but luckily none of them seemed to notice it.
The dark footman sauntered across to the dresser and poured something into a glass. ‘You put that milk back, John Peters,’ Cook snapped. ‘You get three good meals a day like everyone else and I’m not having you snacking on vittles between times. The housekeeping only goes so far, you idle scamp!’
He coloured-up and shot her a look, but poured back the milk. ‘I’m thirsty.’
‘Then drink pump water like the rest of us. That’s free.’
And how close is your cess pit to the pump, I wonder? I made a mental note to only drink boiled water wherever I was in this time. I had forgotten cholera, let alone all the other things floating about in the water supply.
I dragged my mind back to the matter in hand. ‘So, there is Sir Clement who is definitely interested, and Lord de Forrest who might be, but is highly unlikely to attract a young lady, and Lord Welney, who is of dubious intentions and a flock of young men who haven’t made up their minds,’ I summarised. ‘And Miss Trenton thought herself in love with Sir Clement.’
‘That’s the sum of it, Miss.’ Cook gestured at the kitchen maid. ‘The kettle’s boiling, girl. Hurry up and wet the tea.’