settling on the ground. The light was being squeezed out of the lowering sky as dusk descended rapidly. Charlie took hold of the girls’ arms and hurried them across City Square in the direction of Commercial Street where the café was located. As they turned into the street they all three stopped abruptly, staring into the windows of Harte’s department store, captivated by what they saw. The windows had been dressed for Christmas and they were dazzling in the gathering twilight, filled with twinkling coloured lights and glittering scenes depicting different fairy tales. One window was devoted to Cinderella, showed her arriving at the ball in her shimmering glass coach, another to Hansel and Gretel, who stood outside the gingerbread house, and yet a third paid tribute to The Snow Queen in all her icy glory.
‘How beautiful they are,’ Audra murmured, lingering a moment longer than the other two, thinking of High Cleugh and the glorious Christmases of her childhood.
‘Yes, aren’t they just,’ Gwen said, tugging at her. ‘Come on, lovey, the snow’s really coming down now. We’re going to be soaked before we know it.’
Gwen tucked her arm through Audra’s and kept up a continual stream of conversation as they walked down Commercial Street, living up to her reputation as a chatterbox. Charlie, trudging along on the other side of Audra, interjected a few comments, but Audra remained silent – and reflective.
She was suddenly feeling mean and uncharitable for having had such unkind thoughts about Charlie, who was harmless really, and meant well. All of the Thorntons meant well, and they had all been very good to her. Mrs Thornton was forever telling her to consider The Meadow her home, and she had even turned the little box room at the end of the second-floor landing into a bedroom for her. Mrs Thornton had insisted she keep a few clothes there, and when she had visited Gwen in November she had left behind some toilet articles and a nightgown, which she would be able to use tonight.
Next week she was coming back to Horsforth to spend Christmas with Gwen, and she was well aware that the Thorntons would make her feel like a part of the family, truly one of them, as they always did. They had such a wealth of generosity and kindness in them. And I’m very ungrateful, Audra chastised herself. She knew how much it would please Gwen if she were nice to Charlie, and so she resolved to be pleasant to him, but without leading him on, giving him the wrong impression. He must not misunderstand. That would be disastrous. And after the holidays she was going to explain to Gwen, in the gentlest and kindest possible way, that she was not looking for a husband.
It was a very cold morning. Icy.
Perhaps it would turn out to be the coldest day of the winter after all, Audra thought, just as the gardener had warned yesterday when she had been returning from her walk. He had put down his wheelbarrow and looked up at the sky, narrowing his eyes and sniffing, as if he had a way of divining such things in this arcane manner.
And then he had made his prediction. ‘Yer’ll be nithered ter death termorra, Miss Audra. T’weather’s coming in bad from t’North Sea. Arctic weather, mark my words, lass.’
She had never been to the Arctic Circle, but she did not imagine it could be any colder than her bedroom at this moment. It was freezing, and it seemed to Audra that her nose, peeping over the bedcovers, had turned into an icicle. An Arctic icicle.
She slithered further down in the bed, hunching the covers up over her shoulders, almost obscuring her face entirely, revelling in the warmth of the quilt. It was filled with the down of the eider duck; Mr and Mrs Bell had purchased a baker’s dozen of these quilts when they had been on holiday in Munich several years before.
Mrs Bell had told Audra this when she had come to work at Calpher House, had gone on to explain that the sheet under the quilt was the only other piece of bed linen required. Irène Bell had also cautioned Audra not to wear her thick flannel nightgown, but to discard it in favour of a cotton garment. Although she had nodded her understanding, she had not been absolutely certain that she really understood at all. But later that night, at bed time, she had done as she had been bidden earlier in the day, and within ten minutes of being in bed she had begun to feel a lovely sensation of warmth permeating her whole body. The heat generated by the quilt was extraordinary, something quite amazing to Audra, and she realized that Mrs Bell had been correct about the cotton nightie. Anything else would have been far too hot. She smiled to herself now, remembering her first night here, and then swivelled her eyes to the clock on the mahogany chest as it began to chime. It was only six but this did not surprise her in the least. She was accustomed to awakening at this hour. It was an old habit left over from her years at the hospital in Ripon. Fortunately the routine was not so rigorous here at Calpher House, and she could stay in bed until seven, even a bit later if she wished.
Audra had truly come to cherish this dawn hour when all the family were asleep and no one was about except for the servants downstairs. She thought of it as her own special and private time, enjoyed the luxury of lingering in her downy cocoon, without having the need to rush, idly drifting with her diverse thoughts…and sometimes day-dreaming about the future.
And the future seemed decidedly rosy to Audra on this December morning of 1927.
Certainly the years stretching ahead could not be any worse than the five years which had preceded her arrival at Calpher House, she frequently told herself these days. Naturally optimistic, she always looked at things in the most positive way, anticipating the best. She also expected the best from people, despite her distressing experiences with her Aunt Alicia Drummond. Burying the dreadful hurt she had suffered at the hands of that inhuman woman, she would remind herself that not everyone was cruel, selfish or dishonest, that the world did have its ample share of kindly folk. And the Bells and their staff at Calpher House had helped to reinforce this belief in Audra. She had been made to feel welcome from the very first day, and she never once forgot how fortunate she had been to find such a congenial place to work.
It was exactly one year ago today that she had started here as the nanny.
From the first moment she had stepped into this house Audra had felt as if she belonged here. It was as if she had returned after a long journey to a place she had always known. In a way it had been like coming home…home to High Cleugh. It was not that Calpher House resembled her beloved former home; as houses they were entirely different in architecture and furnishings. What she had found so familiar, had recognized with such clarity, was the presence of love within these walls.
For the most part, it was the happiest year that Audra had spent since her mother had died and tragedy had struck their little family.
She fitted in well at Calpher House.
Because of her upbringing, her disposition and personality, everyone found her a pleasure to be around, and she was popular upstairs and downstairs. The Bells were kind and considerate; the servants treated her with a deference and respect that was marked by friendliness.
After years of frugality and spartan living at the hospital, she was now surrounded by enormous luxury and comfort, the likes of which she had never known even at High Cleugh, where money for anything other than the real essentials had been fairly scarce most of the time. All of their pleasant little extras had come from Uncle Peter.
The Bells were successful, affluent people and they could afford the very best. And because of Mrs Bell’s generous nature there was an overabundance of everything.
Wonderfully delicious meals emerged from Mrs Jackson’s amazing kitchen. She was a gourmet cook, and Audra also got a chance to taste such delicacies as pâté de
