name was Amelia Thayn. After a long look at Sally, during which her eyes filled with tears, she nodded. ‘Lady Bright, I am no expert with clothing. I am a governess.’
‘I know that. I have never had a dresser before. I suggest that we will figure this out as we go along. And if you wish to keep looking for governess positions, while you are working for me, I have no objections.’
‘You would do that?’
‘Of course she would. My wife is kindness personified.’
Sally looked at the door, where her husband stood. So are you, she thought. ‘It seems only logical,’ she told Miss Thayn. ‘I know you would rather be a governess, but these are hard times.’
They settled on a wage, and Sally left Miss Thayn there to collect her thoughts while she spoke with the employment agent about an upstairs maid, a downstairs maid, a maid of all work and a laundress. He promised to select the best he had and send them to her tomorrow. When she returned to the antechamber, the governess was ready to go.
‘I owe a shilling to the landlady at the Mulberry Inn,’ she said, keeping her voice low, as red spots burned in her cheeks. ‘There is also the matter of…of several books I have pawned.’
At least you were not sleeping in churches, Sally thought, as they stood in the antechamber, as close to tears as her newest employee.
Admiral Bright came to her rescue. He handed several coins to Miss Thayn, who stumbled over her gratitude. ‘Call this a bonus for coming to work in a den of iniquity! Settle up your affairs and come to the registry by nine of the clock tomorrow. This post chaise will conduct you and our other female workers to our house. You will be in charge.’ He turned to Sally. ‘My dearest, explain our home to this nice lady while I talk to the coachman.’
She did and was rewarded with a faint smile. ‘The house is being painted, but it will require more paint in more rooms, I fear,’ Sally concluded, as the admiral returned to them and helped them into the post chaise. ‘Now we will take you to the…the Mulberry, you say?’
‘I can walk there, I assure you,’ Miss Thayn said.
‘What, and not allow us to puff up our consequence?’ Bright said. ‘Really, Miss Thayn!’
Subdued into obedience by the admiral’s natural air of command, which Sally knew she could never hope to alter, should she be given that task, Miss Thayn unbent enough to lean back in the chaise. She closed her eyes and gave a long sigh that sounded suspiciously like profound gratitude.
They deposited Miss Thayn at the Mulberry and listened to more profuse thanks. When they started east towards the coast, they passed a shabby inn rejoicing in the name of the Noble George. Sally took her husband’s hand. ‘Please stop here a moment.’
The admiral leaned out the window and spoke to the coachman. ‘Now what, my dear?’ he asked. ‘It must be something clandestine. You’re looking rosy again, Lady Bright.’
‘Charles, you are the limit,’ she said. ‘When I was looking so hard for work myself, I came here to ask if they needed kitchen help.’ She put her hands to her warm face. ‘The landlord was a horrible man. He leered at me and told me if I wanted to work in his kitchen, he would turn out his little pots-and-pans girl and make room for me, if I wanted to supply other…services.’
‘Bastard,’ the admiral said mildly. ‘I’m only being so polite because you really don’t want to hear what I’m actually thinking. Shall I call him out and hit him with my hook? A few whacks and he would be in ribbons.’
‘No! I want to hire that child to help Etienne. No telling what other demands that odious man has placed on her.’
‘How old do you think she is?’
‘Not above eight or nine.’
‘Good God. I’ll go in with you,’ he said, his face dark.
He did, glowering at the landlord in probably much the same fashion he had cowed faulty officers, during his years as admiral. Sally felt considerable satisfaction to see how quickly the man leaped to Admiral Bright’s mild enough suggestion that he produce the pots-and-pans girl immediately, if he knew what was good for him. As she waited, and the landlord hemmed and hawed, and looked everywhere but at the admiral, Sally reminded herself never to get on the ugly side of her husband.
When the girl came upstairs, grimy and terrified, she seemed to sense immediately who would help her, and slid behind Sally, who knelt beside her. The landlord tried to move forwards, but Charles Bright stepped in front of Sally and the scullery maid.
‘That’s far enough,’ he said. His voice was no louder than ever, but filled with something in the tone that made the landlord retreat to the other side of the room.
Slowly, so as not to frighten the child, Sally put her hand on a skinny shoulder. ‘I am Lady Bright and this is my husband, Admiral Sir Charles Bright.’
The scullery maid’s mouth opened in a perfect O. She gulped.
‘I have been hiring maids to work in my house. I need a scullery maid, and think you would suit perfectly.’
‘M-m-me?’ she stammered.
‘Oh, yes. You might have to share a room with another maid in the servants’ quarters. Would that be acceptable?’
‘A room?’ she asked, her voice soft.
‘Yes, of course. Where do you sleep now?’
The little girl glanced at the landlord and moved closer to Sally. ‘On the dirty clothes in the laundry,’ she whispered.
Sally couldn’t help the chill that ran through her spine. In another moment, Charles was beside her, his hand firmly on her shoulder.
‘We’ll do better than dirty clothes,’ he said. ‘What’s your name?’
She shrugged, and scratched at her neck. ‘General, they called me Twenty, because they thought I wouldn’t live too long in the workhouse.’
Sally bowed her head and felt Charles’s fingers go gentle against her neck.
‘We’ll find you a good name, Twenty,’ he said. ‘Will you come with us? Don’t worry about him. Look at us.’
‘I’ll come,’ she whispered.
‘Excellent,’ he said. ‘Now, is there anything you want to fetch from your…from the laundry room? Lady Bright will go with you, if you’d like.’
‘Nuffink,’ was all Twenty said. She tugged at her over-large dress and patted it down with all the dignity she could muster. ‘I’m ready now.’
‘Very well, my dear,’ Charles said, his voice faltering for only a split second. ‘Go with this extra-fine lady to the chaise out front. I will have a few words with your former employer. Go on, my dear.’ He glanced behind him at the landlord. ‘I promise not to do anything I will regret.’
That worries me, Sally thought, If you thrashed him, I doubt you would regret it. She shepherded the scullery maid into the street, quickly boosting her into the chaise,
