The following morning when they met in the estate office, Henrietta said, ‘You’ll be far more useful here, Daisy, than becoming a waitress in the mess on some RAF or army camp, or working in a factory. We’ll undoubtedly get an exemption for you, if it comes to it, because I’m sure that very shortly there are going to be demands from the Ministry of Agriculture for us all to grow more food and this is where we’ll come in. We have a lot of land that can be utilized.’ She laughed. ‘Even the croquet lawn, if necessary.’
‘Granny, do you think we should involve Jake more?’
‘In what way?’
‘With our plans. He’s head gardener, so it’s going to affect him if we extend his vegetable patch, as I’m sure we must.’
‘But don’t forget he’s head groom too. He has a stable lad under him now and two boys in the gardens, but—’
‘Then don’t you think he should have a cottage on the estate now as befits his position instead of living above the stables?’
‘I do indeed, Daisy.’ Henrietta laughed. ‘I ask him every year on the day we celebrate his birthday.’
‘Midsummer Day, because no one knows his actual birthday – not even him.’
‘Exactly, but his reply has always been the same and I expect it always will be.’ She imitated Jake’s broad Lincolnshire accent as she added, ‘“I likes living in the stables. I need to be near me ’osses.”’
They laughed together, but it was done fondly when thinking about the man who had been part of their lives for many years – in fact, for the whole of Daisy’s life and more.
‘So,’ Henrietta continued, ‘let’s start planning what we’re going to do.’
They spent the rest of the morning happily poring over maps of the grounds and estate lands and making notes for the future. As the gong sounded for luncheon, Henrietta rolled up the maps. ‘You know, I think we’ll lose one or two of our workers to the war, especially the single young men.’
‘I expect so, but there may be a few school leavers in the area looking for work and maybe one or two older men who’d be able to do the lighter jobs on a part-time basis, perhaps.’
‘And then, of course, there’ll be the land girls.’
Daisy giggled. ‘If they arrive in droves, it’ll cause a stir.’
‘Alice, will you join Daisy and me in the office?’ Henrietta said the next morning as they were all finishing breakfast. Robert had already disappeared to open the surgery and Edwin had retired behind his newspaper in the parlour. ‘Daisy and I have several ideas we’d like to discuss with you.’
Alice’s eyes widened. ‘Me?’
‘Yes, you, my dear.’
‘But – but I don’t know anything about running the estate. Surely, if you want another opinion, it should be Father or Robert.’
‘This isn’t about the estate as such, Alice. It’s what I would like us to do to help the war effort that I wish us to discuss and who we can get to join us. I know you help Robert and Conrad with their paperwork, but I’m sure you could find a little time to help us, couldn’t you? Would you just ask Sarah to bring some coffee into the office and I will explain everything?’
Still mystified, Alice shrugged, did as she was asked and then followed her mother-in-law and her daughter into the office.
When they were all seated, Henrietta stirred her coffee and murmured, ‘I don’t expect we’ll be getting much more of this soon. They’ll be starting all sorts of rationing.’ Then she seemed to shake herself and bring her thoughts back to the matter in hand.
‘First of all, I intend to set up a branch of the WVS here in the village. I’ve been in touch with our local organizer and she’s all in favour of the idea.’
‘There’ll be one in Lincoln, won’t there?’
‘Very likely, but I want one here. One that I can run myself.’
Alice and Daisy did not dare glance at one another. ‘Go on, Granny.’
‘I also intend to offer my services as a billeting officer for the village. As we know, the evacuation of children and young mothers with babies has already begun. The first trainload of children arrived in Lincoln last week from Leeds, so I fully expect that very soon we shall be asked to take our share here in Doddington. And I am well placed to know who can take how many children, and so on, far better than an official from the city.’
‘That’s true, but you shouldn’t be taking on so much, Mother.’
Henrietta smiled winningly. ‘That’s why I need your help – both of you. I want us all to join the WVS and I’m also going to ask Mrs Cooper, Mrs Nuttall, Peggy and, of course, Betty, who works here too. And then there’s Kitty’s mother, Mrs Page.’ She paused for a moment before adding, ‘What do you think about your mother, Alice? Would she join us, do you think?’
‘I think she’d love to, but just whether my father would allow it, I’m not sure.’
‘Mm. I’ll have to see what I can do, then. Would they take an evacuee, d’you think?’
Now Alice shook her head. ‘I don’t think he’d agree to that.’
‘He might have to. There’s going to be such a thing as compulsory billeting. He might not have any choice.’
Alice smiled weakly. ‘Mam would love having youngsters about the place again, but I’m not sure I’d want to put any children with him anyway.’
Henrietta laughed. ‘There is that way of looking at it, Alice. Anyway, are you happy for me to approach the other ladies I’ve mentioned and to ask them to join us?’
‘Of course,’ Alice and Daisy chorused. Then Alice added, ‘I think we should include Florence Everton, if you’re agreeable. She and I have become good friends since she arrived.’ Her face clouded for a moment. ‘I think she misses being able to be useful in the community. Calls on her expertise as a midwife don’t come very often in the village.’
‘I’d’ve thought she and Conrad would have started their own family by now,’ Henrietta remarked.
For a moment Alice looked uncomfortable and Henrietta, always astute, added, ‘Ah, perhaps that is a subject best not gone into, is it, Alice?’
Alice bit her lip and nodded. Florence had confided in Alice that the greatest sadness in their lives was that she and Conrad could not have children. ‘We’ve had all sorts of tests and nothing is wrong with either of us, but it just doesn’t seem to be happening. But, please Alice, don’t say anything to anyone. I don’t want us to be the subject of gossip or of pity.’
Alice had given her promise and she would not break it even to members of her own family.
‘So,’ Henrietta went on now. ‘We’ll certainly include Mrs Everton in our group but we’ll do it properly. Get them all to join the WVS and wear a uniform. That gives them a bit of authority.’
Alice and Daisy looked at each other and could no longer hide their laughter.
‘What?’ Henrietta glanced between them. ‘What have I said?’
‘Nothing, Granny. Honestly. I think we’re both imagining Mrs Cooper strutting about the village in her uniform.’
Now Henrietta joined in their mirth just as a knock on the door came and Wainwright entered.
‘Excuse me, Madam, but I wondered if you would have time to have a word with Kitty?’
‘Of course, Wainwright. Please send her in.’
Kitty Page, who had been working at the hall since she’d left school, starting as a scullery maid, had by now been promoted to housemaid. She had grown into a very pretty seventeen-year-old, with her blond curls tucked neatly under her lace cap. Her apron, over her black housemaid’s dress, was spotless and she bobbed a quick curtsy as she entered the room. It was not something that Henrietta had ever demanded of her staff, yet the girl always performed it of her own accord whenever she encountered her mistress or Edwin.
‘Now, my dear, how can I help you?’
‘I don’t want to interrupt you, ma’am, but I would like your advice, please.’ Henrietta inclined her head and the girl continued. ‘I wouldn’t want you to think I’m ungrateful for you giving me a job here. I love working here, but my mam says that next year, when I’m eighteen, I might be called upon to do war work . . .’
‘And being my housemaid wouldn’t be classed as helping the war effort, would it?’ Henrietta finished for her.
Kitty nodded. ‘So that’s why she told me to see you to ask if you thought I should volunteer for something particular, so that I won’t just get sent – well – anywhere. It’s what Luke has done – chosen to enlist to be a fighter pilot – and Harry intends to volunteer for the RAF in January, after his eighteenth birthday.’ Kitty’s words came out in a rush now. ‘He wants to fly bombers.’ Her glance went to Daisy. ‘He – he saw them being made at Brooklands, Miss Daisy, didn’t he?’
‘Yes,’ Daisy was obliged to agree. ‘Oh dear. I expect his parents blame me – and Aunty Pips – for taking him there and putting the idea into his head.’
‘No – no, miss, they don’t. They say we’ve all got to do our bit and if that’s what Harry wants to do, then it’s all right with them.’ For a moment her voice trembled and there were tears in her eyes.
Softly, Alice said, ‘You’re very fond of Harry, aren’t you, Kitty?’
The girl nodded and said simply, ‘I’ve loved him for as long as I can remember, Miss Alice. I don’t think he feels the same way about me, though he’s always very kind to me, but then he is to everyone. And – I do know he’s a bit of a flirt with all the girls.’
There was a short silence until Henrietta said briskly, ‘So, have you thought of anything you’d like to do?’
Kitty took a deep breath. ‘My dad’ – Kitty’s father had worked on the estate’s farm all his working life and the family lived in one of the tied cottages situated in the village opposite Len Dawson’s workshop – ‘says that if some of the young men go from the farm, you might have to have land girls come here.’
‘That’s true.’
‘So, I was wondering if I could become a land girl and work here on your farm?’
‘I think,’ Daisy put in, ‘that if you were to apply to the Land Army, you’d have to go where they sent you, Kitty.’ She glanced at her grandmother. ‘But couldn’t we employ her and then an exemption can be applied for?’
‘Ye-es, I think we could. I’ll look into it. I’ll find out what the regulations are. Who actually has to apply and so on. Are you sure that’s what you want to do, Kitty? Work on the land?’
‘Oh yes, madam. I’m a country girl. I would hate to work in one of them factories in the city. But, of course, I’d go there if I had to.’
‘Leave it with me, Kitty. I’ll see what I can do. Now, can you do something for me?’
‘Of course, ma’am.’
‘I want you to take a message to several of the ladies in the village.’ Henrietta ticked them off on her hand. ‘Mrs Cooper, both Mrs Nuttalls, Mrs Dawson, Mrs Everton and your mother – and could you also find Betty Cooper and let her know too. Would you ask them if they could please come to the hall to see us tomorrow afternoon at three o’clock?’
Betty was Bess’s daughter and sister to Peggy. After losing her sweetheart, Roy Dawson, at the Somme, she had never married. Now she worked at the hall as lady’s maid to both Henrietta and Alice.
‘Yes, ma’am. I’ll just tell Mrs Warren and then I’ll go right away.’ The girl bobbed another curtsy and hurried out of the room to find Mrs Warren, who had been the family’s housekeeper for a long time.
As the door closed behind her, Henrietta sighed. ‘I think we are going to lose one or two of the younger members of our staff. Thank goodness Mrs Warren, Cook and Wainwright are all too old to be called up.’
‘There’s Jake,’ Daisy reminded her. ‘He’s not too old, is he?’
Henrietta’s smile widened. ‘No, but I intend to make sure he gets an exemption too. We can’t possibly manage without Jake.’