Chapter Four
Kate took a deep breath and counted to twenty.
Persuading those twins to get washed and dressed in their Christmas finery was proving a struggle.
She’d been up before dawn to help in the kitchen and now the children were not being helpful.
Mrs Winton had been quite specific about the timing of the entire day and had emphasized that the children must be ready for family breakfast by half past eight.
‘Ouch, you’re hurting,’ Sophie squealed as Kate struggled to untangle the night-time scramble that wound her unruly curls around the brush.
‘All done now,’ Kate said and neatly distracted Sophie with choosing a ribbon. The red silk slipped through Kate’s fingers and fell to the floor. She fought to make it stay in place, but it finally succumbed to her deft fingers.
‘There,’ Kate said, ‘now don’t you look beautiful?’
Sophie twisted and turned in front of the mirror and a smile crept across her face.
One down, one to go, thought Kate and turned to find Simon.
‘Where’s . . . ?’ Kate began and then noticed the tip of a sock peeking out from under the bed.
‘Thomas,’ Kate said. ‘What did you say about present opening time in this house? Always after breakfast, wasn’t it?’
Thomas looked up briefly from his book. ‘Yes, always,’ he replied.
‘So, the quicker we are all dressed then the quicker we can all have breakfast and get to the presents. I bet you’re looking forward to opening them?’
Kate looked away, giving Simon time to emerge from his hiding place.
He appeared at her side, with his bow tie in his hands.
‘Can’t do it,’ he said offering it to her.
‘I agree, they’re awkward things to tie, aren’t they? Here, let me help you,’ she said taking it gently from him.
‘So, are we all ready now?’ Kate asked, looking directly at Thomas who was lost in the pages of King Arthur.
When he didn’t reply, she stood right beside him and repeated her question.
‘Last page,’ he replied, not taking his eyes off his book.
Kate hoped they wouldn’t be late. She would then get the blame for ‘not being mindful of the importance of time’, as Mr Winton put it.
At her insistence they should hurry, the twins hurtled out of the nursery door and collided with their older sister, treading on her new silk slippers and making her gasp and frown with disapproval.
‘Now look what you’ve done, you little monsters,’ she complained. ‘I’ll never get those marks off.’
‘I’m so sorry, Miss Clara. I’m sure I can do something to mend the damage. If you remove them after breakfast and give them to me, I’ll have them good as new, ready for this evening’s party. You won’t need them until then, will you?’ Kate asked.
‘No, she won’t,’ another voice answered.
It was Philip emerging from his room, looking smart in his morning suit.
‘We’re going for a carriage ride and a walk in the country after luncheon and she will need her outdoor shoes for that.
Such delicate frippery as those slippers would spoil in the muddy lanes, am I not right, Kate? ’
Kate nodded. ‘Oh yes, Mr Philip, indeed. They’d get well and truly spoiled.’
‘And we can’t have that can we, Clara?’ He winked at Kate, who let the corners of her mouth release the inkling of a smile back.
Clara drew her skirts up and flounced down the stairs.
‘Come on now,’ Philip said to his siblings, ‘we’re late enough. Pa will be livid and Ma will need to send for the smelling salts if her perfect plans are spoiled. You know how she is.’
Kate whipped the book out of Thomas’s hands as he walked past her. He threw her a puzzled look that said, What’s all the fuss about? He then joined the others, all in his own good time. Kate liked Thomas and Philip very much, particularly Philip.
By the time she returned to the kitchen, luncheon preparations were well underway. The turkey, which had been all trussed up and sitting goose-pimply without its feather coat before breakfast, had now been placed in the oven.
The long kitchen table was weighed down with the principle ingredients of what Mrs B called a ‘proper Christmas dinner’. Orange carrots still attached to their green fringes, creamy white parsnips in a neat row, earthy potatoes and a bowl overflowing with green knobbly sprouts.
‘What are those?’ Kate asked pointing at a bundle of long, spear-shaped things lying amongst the vegetables.
‘That’s asparagus,’ Mrs B answered, thrusting a knife into her hands.
‘A thing you’re never likely to taste at the price they are at this time of year!
Now stop asking questions and let’s get on.
It’s all hands to the pump, if we’re to sit down by one o’clock.
Now get yourself over to that sink and peel those potatoes, thin peelings mind, we don’t want to be left with marbles to roast now, do we? ’
And so, the clattering chaos of Christmas morning began.
Orders were thrown in all directions to: ‘Chop that parsley, slice those onions, stir the bread sauce, something’s burning!
Check that dripping, not too hot mind! Fetch a saucepan, no not that one, get a bigger one.
Kettle’s boiling, top the steamer. Don’t put that there. Saints preserve us!’
This last cry was emitted as Mrs B dropped the burning handle of a pan, spilling the milky contents over the top of the stove and collapsed into her favourite chair, flapping her apron at her apple red face.
Mrs B was in a fluster, the potatoes weren’t boiling quickly enough and the turkey was browning too quickly.
Mrs B shouted instructions that Eliza should get it out of the oven and place it on the side.
The oven range steamed and throbbed with the demands of the feast. As fast as the two girls worked, it wasn’t fast enough and someone had put the gravy browning back in the wrong place and it couldn’t be found!
Kate brought Mrs B a glass of water and a cold compress for her hand and took over fanning her face with a tea towel.
She wondered how the job of nursemaid had miraculously expanded to incorporate kitchen assistant, administer of first aid and general fetcher and carrier.
As Eliza cleared up the spilt milk, Kate remembered that she still had to retrieve Clara’s shoes to remove the stains.
She was relieved that the family present opening would take a while and she could concentrate on helping Mrs B and Eliza.
They still had the task of serving the dinner ahead of them.
By the time she got to eat her own Christmas dinner she’d be ready for bed!
Despite the early mishaps, Mrs B regained her composure and orchestrated the serving of all three courses to perfection.
When the figgy pudding had been flamed and eaten and the coffee served, Kate was instructed to fetch the children’s coats and the family prepared for their carriage ride.
There was high excitement amongst the younger children and she was having trouble getting them to calm down.
The twins were fighting over whose muffler was whose and Thomas said he couldn’t possibly leave without his notebook to record what they saw.
Philip was trying to explain that the carriage would be too bumpy to write and draw and the volume of noise was increasing.
Mr Winton appeared at the top of the staircase and stunned them all into silence with just one word: ‘Stop!’.
Kate and the children waited while he descended the staircase.
Kate felt like she was amongst a group of scared rabbits, faced with a hungry fox.
When Mr Winton reached the bottom he simply walked in measured strides to the silent group.
His voice might have been quiet but his stare and the low, determined tone of his voice made Kate fearful of what he could be capable of if he ever lost his temper.
His controlled anger was enough to make the children obey and they each finished dressing in silence.
Mrs Winton joined them looking a little flustered and Eliza helped her into her fur-edged cape and gloves. As the family moved across the hall, Kate saw Mr Winton take his wife firmly by the arm and say something in a sharp, low voice that she couldn’t quite hear.
A sprinkling of snow blew into the hall when the Winton family finally departed for their ride. Kate shivered and went to help Eliza clear the table, relieved that no further mishaps had occurred.
‘Phew, glad that circus is over, for a few hours at least. We have a bit of breathing space while they’re out,’ Eliza said. ‘Come on, let’s get to it.’
The room was still warm from the huge log fire that they had lit earlier and fed with more fuel throughout the meal.
The silver baubles on the Christmas tree sparkled in the flickering firelight and beneath the tree, the unwrapped presents lay abandoned.
Kate thought for a moment of her own family and what they would be doing now.
A sliver of pale light peeked between the heavy, velvet drapes and shone upon the silver salver in the centre of the damask covered table.
A few scattered crumbs betrayed the speed with which Mrs B’s mince pies had disappeared into the sweet-toothed mouths of the Winton children.
‘Just look at this lot.’ Eliza sighed. ‘Looks like I’m in for another bad case of dish pan hands.
Mrs B makes me have the water so hot! It might leave a sparkle on the crystal but it ruins my lily-white hands.
I’ll just have to wear the best kid gloves to cover them, won’t I, dearest?
’ she added, flipping both her wrists towards Kate.
They both laughed. Eliza then turned her attentions to the bottle of unfinished wine on the table.
Picking it up, she held it towards Kate.
‘Here, ever tasted claret? Take a swig,’ she said.
Kate shook her head, she’d never tasted wine before. ‘I don’t think . . .’
‘Just a little taste. It’s Christmas after all,’ Eliza said. ‘They won’t miss it.’
She swilled out two glasses from the jug of water and poured a little out for each of them.
‘Cheers,’ she said, clinking her glass against Kate’s a little too enthusiastically.
Kate was holding her glass by the stem. It all happened in a breath.
The stem broke and the glass bowl parted company from it, spilling the red wine over the carpet.
Kate watched as the stain spread across the pale green carpet, soaking into the pile.
She knew what red stains could do and immediately panicked.
As she darted through the door towards the kitchen, she ran straight into Master Philip.
‘Where’s the fire?’ he said, stepping back.
‘Oh, Master Philip, I thought you’d all . . .’ Kate said loudly enough so that Eliza could hear.
‘Bad headache,’ Philip said holding his hand to his temple and pulling a face. ‘Came on very quickly, as soon as I heard Aunt Mildred was going to be coming with us, in fact. A constant earbashing only makes a person’s head ache more, don’t you agree?’
Eliza appeared at Kate’s side and asked if she could get him anything. An attempt to stop him seeing the mess.
‘No, thank you. I’m just looking for my pocket handkerchief,’ Philip said. ‘It must have fallen out of my jacket. You know how Mother hates things hanging around.’
He walked past both girls and into the dining room where the damage was in full view.
Kate immediately started to apologize over and over until Philip held up a hand and said, ‘Enough Kate! I can see that an accident has occurred and will, of course, explain to Mother how it was entirely my fault. I knocked it off the table whilst getting a glass of water for my headache.’
‘But Master Philip . . .’ Kate interrupted.
‘Now don’t argue. Please let me deal with it. You do enough for us, Kate. Let me do this small thing for you,’ he replied. ‘I assume you have the right materials to clean this up, Eliza?’
Eliza nodded. ‘Yes. I’ll do my best but there may be a permanent mark,’ she explained as she left Kate to pick up the broken glass.
‘Thank you, Master Philip,’ Kate said. ‘I’m so sorry for causing such a disaster and on Christmas day too!’
‘Just think of it as my little present to you.’ Philip smiled. ‘I need to make sure you stay with us, Kate. You’re ten times better than the last nursemaid we had. I’ve seen how good you are with the twins and Thomas. I mean to persuade my parents to let you go with us in the New Year.’
‘Go with you? Why, where are you going?’ Kate asked.
‘It’s still a secret but Pa has got himself a new position. He’s to be manager of a new bank in London. Not a word to anyone though. Pa wants to bask in his own glory. No doubt Mrs B will have apoplexy but she’ll come around to the idea.’
Kate turned away from him in an effort to hide her reaction to this news.
Her feelings always showed on her face. She had only just got used to being here in Andover, in Woodland House, and now they were moving to London!
London was the city and she wasn’t ready for that!
London was even further away from Micklewell and her family!
‘Don’t look so worried, Kate,’ Philip said. ‘It’s not going to happen right away. These things take time. You’ll get used to the idea. Have you ever been to London?’
She hadn’t but she’d heard stories about the crowded streets, the pickpockets and the drunks lying in the gutters. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go, even if not going with them to London meant finding another job.
‘I’d best get on with the clearing up,’ she said.
Between them she and Eliza managed to get rid of the stain and the broken glass without alerting Mrs B.
‘But we’ll have to tell her,’ Kate said. ‘If we don’t then Mrs Winton will instruct her to replace the broken wine glass and Mrs B will say “what broken wine glass?” and then we’ll be in trouble!’
‘All right, leave it to me. We’ll tell her how it was Master Philip, like he said, so we’re in the clear,’ Eliza replied. Kate was only too happy to let Eliza do the explaining.
As Eliza relayed the details of the accident to Mrs B, Kate found herself wondering what the future had in store for all of them.
Philip hadn’t mentioned anything about Eliza coming to London but this talk of a move was sure to disrupt her plans for the future.
She wouldn’t leave her Tommy, would she?
What would her own dear parents say and how would she tell her sister, Dot?
This was turning into a Christmas to remember in more ways than one.