THE EVENING MEAL was prepared by Eliza and an ever-grumbling Miss Grimm from a goose, owned, killed and plucked by a neighbouring farmer. It would be accompanied by a mixture of vegetables collected by the equally disgruntled butler from a walled garden belonging to the house and apparently tended by a part-time gardener who was not paid for his services but allowed to use the plot to supply his own large family.
The cooking utensils in the kitchen were old and in a bad state and there was a dire shortage of such things as spices, cooking fats and even butter. When Eliza asked for salt for the potatoes she was given a jar with only a thin sprinkling of the condiment in the bottom.
In sheer exasperation, Eliza said, ‘Surely the Trevelyan family isn’t so poor that it can’t afford salt? Even the poorest household in the land would have more than this!’
‘The wealth, or otherwise, of the Trevelyan family is none of your business, my girl. You get on with what you need to do and hope they leave enough left over to keep you from going to bed with an empty belly.’
‘If I thought they were going to eat it all I’d have mine first and tell ’em we’d been given a one legged bird!’ Eliza made the comment in a jocular manner, but Mrs Grimm had no sense of humour.
‘You’ll do no such thing! You may be able to do what you like with that woman you work for, I doubt if she has any more breeding than a servant girl herself. Master Hugo never did have any taste when it came to women, but in this house a servant knows her place.’
‘It seems to me it must be a hiding-place,’ Eliza retorted, ‘and a very good one too. It doesn’t look as though there’s been a servant around the house for months – years even. As for Miss Alice, she’s the sister of a rector and her father was something very important in a cathedral, a Bishop, or a Pope or something and I’m her lady’s maid, not a kitchen slavey. I’m only doing this here because I don’t want her going hungry, she’s not used to it. But I’m not staying in this kitchen listening to you saying things about her. I’ll leave you to get on with the cooking and tell Miss Alice why!’
‘Oh, no you won’t!’ As Eliza wiped her hands on her apron, Miss Grimm moved to block the kitchen doorway. ‘You’ll stay here and do whatever needs doing. You’ve got far too much spirit for a girl in service, but you’re loyal to your mistress and there’s no fault in that. If what you say is true she’s got a better background than others he’s brought to Helynn.’
‘Captain Trevelyan’s brought women to the house before, and you think she’s like them?’
‘One night, when he’d been drinking, he boasted that there was always a woman to warm his bed in India and it’s something he’s got used to, but if you think I’m being disloyal to my employer by telling you this, then you can think again. I owe Hugo Trevelyan nothing. I was taken on by Mr Albert, Hugo’s father, and the late Mrs Trevelyan, bless her soul. It was Master Hugo’s ways that put her in an early grave and turned the mind of his father, him and the death of Miss Isabella, their daughter – although she was nearly as wild as her brother.’
Eliza’s show of spirit seemed to have tapped an unexpected well of humanity within the severe exterior of the housekeeper and she continued, ‘I’ll be glad when Master Hugo returns to India and the house gets back to normality again, or as normal as it can ever be with poor Mr Albert the way he is. Fortunately, there are only a few days left before he goes and I doubt whether we’ll ever see him again. He’s already milked the estate so dry we’ll have even more of a struggle keeping things going than we have had these last few years.’
Eliza listened to Miss Grimm in increasing alarm. It was quite evident that Helynn Manor and its occupants were in as penurious a state as it appeared to be, but it was what had been said about Captain Hugo Trevelyan that she found particularly disturbing.
‘Miss Alice would never have come to Helynn had she known all this about him. The only reason she agreed to come here was she felt beholden to Captain Trevelyan because he probably saved her life when the pony pulling the trap she was in bolted. He managed to stop it before it reached a sharp bend in the lane where it would have certainly overturned. She’s led a very sheltered life and is nothing like any of the women you’ve been talking about. Do you think she’s in real danger? What can I do?’
‘You can do nothing right now, it will be dark very soon with no moon tonight. Get on with the cooking and feed them all, but when you go upstairs and help your mistress to dress for dinner warn her about Master Hugo. He will be alright while we are about, but when the meal is over and we are sent away he will begin drinking heavily, no doubt trying to persuade your mistress to join him. The best thing she can do is leave him on some pretext, go to her room and lock herself in. There are strong bolts and it’s a stout door.’
Giving Eliza an appraising look, she added, ‘The trouble is you are a pretty young girl, Eliza, and I’ve seen by the way Master Hugo looks at you that he is fully aware of that. If he can’t have your mistress then he’ll come after you and the doors of the servants’ rooms are flimsier than the others. You’ll need to be on your guard.’
Eliza went cold at her words, it was as though time had gone into reverse and she was back at the home of Lady Calnan, fearing the unwelcome advances of her employer’s husband.
Was history about to repeat itself and take away the happy life she had enjoyed during the three years since she had been cast ashore as a shipwrecked convict on the Cornish coast?
When dinner was almost ready to be served Eliza left the now almost friendly Helynn housekeeper in charge of the kitchen and went in search of Alice.
She was in the sitting room and seemed relieved to see Eliza, readily agreeing to her suggestion that she should accompany her to her room and help her dress for dinner.
Once in the room, Alice said, ‘I was so relieved to see you, Eliza, Captain Trevelyan took me for a walk around the garden and made some amorous and highly improper advances. I was quite upset but when I insisted we return to the house he took me to the sitting room and tried hard to persuade me to drink with him. I declined, but it certainly never influenced his drinking. He had a great deal and I fear he will be quite drunk – dangerously so – by the time we have finished dinner.’
‘You are probably right.’ Eliza told Alice what the Helynn housekeeper had said about Captain Trevelyan; his women, his habits, and her suggestion of what Alice should do when he began to drink heavily.
Alice was horrified. ‘This is terrifying, Eliza, I realise now how stupid I was to come to Helynn knowing so little about him, but he seemed such a gentleman. He fooled Reverend David too, he would never have allowed me to come here had there been even the slightest hint of Captain Hugo’s true character. Oh dear, I wish we were able to harness up the pony and trap and return to Trethevy right away, but it would be utter folly to attempt it now, in the dark, but we will leave first thing in the morning. In the meantime there is no question of you sleeping in a servant’s room. You will sleep in this room and we will bolt the door against him. It is always possible, of course, that Captain Trevelyan’s father can do something about him, but he still has not put in an appearance and I find that most disturbing.’
‘He has something seriously wrong with him,’ Eliza explained, ‘Miss Grimm said his mind had been turned by the goings on of Captain Trevelyan. I don’t know exactly what she means by that, but it doesn’t sound as though he is in any state to do anything.’
‘That is certainly not reassuring,’ Alice agreed, unhappily, ‘but if he does not join us for dinner I will demand to be taken to him.’
Alice was aware that although she spoke with her usual authority, it was no more than empty bravado. She was in a very difficult situation – and probably a most dangerous one. There was no possibility of her and Eliza leaving that night, with or without the goodwill of Captain Trevelyan.
Aware that Eliza knew this too, Alice added, ‘If Captain Trevelyan refuses to take me to him you and I will come up here, bolt the door and leave Helynn at the first opportunity in the morning.’
As Alice finished talking, her glance went to the bedroom door which was now closed – and she gave a gasp of dismay.
‘The door, Eliza … look at the door. There are no bolts, somebody has removed them! We have no way of keeping anyone out. What is going on, Eliza? What is happening to us?’