she’d go, ‘Oooh… Oooh, I don’t know what’s going to become of her.’ Lucky for her she never lived to see, I say, because that would have broken her heart even if the other didn’t.
The night before she left, we were sat up in the kitchen with our cocoa and Mrs. Mattie said to me, ‘I’ll tell you something, Ada. When I saw those children standing round Master Freddie and him bleeding on the ground like that, my first thought was it was a game gone wrong. Even when Miss Childers told me how they’d come there, I still thought they must have run away and left him, and only come back after, when Jenny fetched them. I didn’t know what to do… and the things Miss Georgina said to me.’ I asked her what they were, but she wouldn’t tell me, only that Miss Georgina said queer things. She said, ‘I never suspected it was Jenny till the policeman said it must be. Because it wasn’t like her, Ada. She was a gentle little soul.’ That was it, really, what she said. But I thought: Well, then, I wasn’t the only one.
Anyway, there I was, all on my own. Holding the baby, as they say. Mrs. Mattie said, ‘You’re a good girl, Ada, mind you take care of yourself.’ She looked across at the study window, where Mr. Lomax was, and she said, ‘There’s nothing to do for him, poor man, he’s beyond saving, but you look after Miss Georgina. She’s never had a chance, poor lamb.’ She said it like it was her own family, not her employer: ‘You look after her, Ada.’ We were both stood in the driveway with her trunk, waiting for the station cart and I was thinking: Oh, please don’t cry, whatever you do, don’t cry, because she was looking up at the house and I could see her eyes were a little bit pink. I knew that if she cried Iwouldn’t be able to stop myself. When the cart come, she reached out and touched my hand: ‘God bless you, Ada.’
I was blinking to stop the tears coming. It was a sunny day, so I told her, ‘The sun’s gone in my eyes.’
Then the horse started up and off she went to the station. I stood there till I couldn’t see the cart anymore and then I took myself back to the kitchen. I sat down beside a short little cupboard and rested my head and arms on the marble top because it was cool. That’s when I thought: I won’t ever get married. I knew it in my heart. I was only twenty-three. Not that I had time to sit and think about that or anything else, there was too much to do to try and look after the two of them. But don’t go thinking, oh, she sacrificed herself, or anything like that, because there wasn’t no Prince Charming knocking on my door. There were thousands during the Great War who lost the boys they were going to marry and they were the ones who made sacrifices, not me. I felt sorry for those poor girls, but by the time the war broke out I wasn’t a girl any more. My brother Charlie was killed on the Somme. He was twenty-nine and I’m five years older, almost to the day. Very young for a man to die, but a woman in her thirties, if she hadn’t got herself a husband by then, she was well and truly on the shelf and no chance that any man would take her off it, especially not in those times.
Anyway, you don’t want to go getting sentimental about me. But I swear it, you wouldn’t think it was possible that two people could live in the same house and never meet, yet that’s what happened with Mr. Lo-max and Miss Georgina. She must have been fifteen years old when Mrs. Mattie left and I never saw her from one day’s end to the next. She wouldn’t come near the kitchen, so I used to take her meals upstairs on atray. Half the time she wasn’t in her room, either, so I’d just leave the food there. She’d put the dishes back outside her door when she was done and I’d take them down with me when I went up with the next lot. She was like a wild thing, really, just left on her own apart from a woman that came in to give her a few lessons. Even when Master Edmund was
The night before she left, we were sat up in the kitchen with our cocoa and Mrs. Mattie said to me, ‘I’ll tell you something, Ada. When I saw those children standing round Master Freddie and him bleeding on the ground like that, my first thought was it was a game gone wrong. Even when Miss Childers told me how they’d come there, I still thought they must have run away and left him, and only come back after, when Jenny fetched them. I didn’t know what to do… and the things Miss Georgina said to me.’ I asked her what they were, but she wouldn’t tell me, only that Miss Georgina said queer things. She said, ‘I never suspected it was Jenny till the policeman said it must be. Because it wasn’t like her, Ada. She was a gentle little soul.’ That was it, really, what she said. But I thought: Well, then, I wasn’t the only one.
Anyway, there I was, all on my own. Holding the baby, as they say. Mrs. Mattie said, ‘You’re a good girl, Ada, mind you take care of yourself.’ She looked across at the study window, where Mr. Lomax was, and she said, ‘There’s nothing to do for him, poor man, he’s beyond saving, but you look after Miss Georgina. She’s never had a chance, poor lamb.’ She said it like it was her own family, not her employer: ‘You look after her, Ada.’ We were both stood in the driveway with her trunk, waiting for the station cart and I was thinking: Oh, please don’t cry, whatever you do, don’t cry, because she was looking up at the house and I could see her eyes were a little bit pink. I knew that if she cried Iwouldn’t be able to stop myself. When the cart come, she reached out and touched my hand: ‘God bless you, Ada.’
I was blinking to stop the tears coming. It was a sunny day, so I told her, ‘The sun’s gone in my eyes.’
Then the horse started up and off she went to the station. I stood there till I couldn’t see the cart anymore and then I took myself back to the kitchen. I sat down beside a short little cupboard and rested my head and arms on the marble top because it was cool. That’s when I thought: I won’t ever get married. I knew it in my heart. I was only twenty-three. Not that I had time to sit and think about that or anything else, there was too much to do to try and look after the two of them. But don’t go thinking, oh, she sacrificed herself, or anything like that, because there wasn’t no Prince Charming knocking on my door. There were thousands during the Great War who lost the boys they were going to marry and they were the ones who made sacrifices, not me. I felt sorry for those poor girls, but by the time the war broke out I wasn’t a girl any more. My brother Charlie was killed on the Somme. He was twenty-nine and I’m five years older, almost to the day. Very young for a man to die, but a woman in her thirties, if she hadn’t got herself a husband by then, she was well and truly on the shelf and no chance that any man would take her off it, especially not in those times.
Anyway, you don’t want to go getting sentimental about me. But I swear it, you wouldn’t think it was possible that two people could live in the same house and never meet, yet that’s what happened with Mr. Lo-max and Miss Georgina. She must have been fifteen years old when Mrs. Mattie left and I never saw her from one day’s end to the next. She wouldn’t come near the kitchen, so I used to take her meals upstairs on atray. Half the time she wasn’t in her room, either, so I’d just leave the food there. She’d put the dishes back outside her door when she was done and I’d take them down with me when I went up with the next lot. She was like a wild thing, really, just left on her own apart from a woman that came in to give her a few lessons. Even when Master Edmund was
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