Caroline did not know what, particularly, the lady looked for, but she suspected it was something very buttoned up and somebody willing to come to Lady Easton if she noted the least thing out of line.
A woman of twenty-two years, native to Brighton, was finally hired that afternoon. Her name was Bemmy Smith, which Lady Easton had at first thought too unusual a given name to put up with. She was mollified, however, in discovering that the maid’s real name was Jenny but her younger brother never could pronounce it as a child and had called her Bemmy. The name had stuck. Lady Easton, being an eldest sibling herself, had been very sympathetic to the idea. And then, on further conversation, Lady Easton was convinced that Bemmy had just the right attitudes about things.
Conveniently, the maid was eager to start that very day and so Lady Easton had led her to Caroline’s room and made the introductions, then had left them alone to get started on whatever needed doing.
As soon as the door closed, Bemmy hooked her thumb toward it and said, “She’s a bit of a dragon, ain’t she? She wants you guarded close and careful. I spun her a marvelous story ’bout my strict habits. One thing I know is to give a person what they are outright telling you they want to hear. So I did.”
“Then,” Caroline said slowly, “do you say you arenotstrict, after all?”
“How should I know?” Bemmy said. “I’ve never been a lady’s maid. We’ll just see how I go on. I never did think of myself as a strict sort of person, but then who can say? The feeling might steal over me as I settle in.”
“But Bemmy,” Caroline said, thoroughly confused, “if you’ve never been a lady’s maid, why did the agency send you?”
“What agency?” Bemmy asked.
“Mrs. Brown’s Employment Agency,” Caroline said. “They sent all the other women.”
“So that’s where they came from,” Bemmy said, nodding and looking for all the world as if a great mystery had been solved.
“Yes,” Caroline said, “that is where they came from. If you did not come from the agency, where didyoucome from?”
“It was like this—I was lounging round the Steyne and I noted them women comin’ and goin’ from the house and I finally asked one what she was doing. She told me all about it, thinking she had the lead on the hiring. As she rattled on, I started thinking that acting a maid to a lady sounded pleasant so I knocked on the door and told that stern fella who opened it that I was arrived for the position. He never did blink over it.”
Caroline attempted to parse what Bemmy was saying. She’d never been a lady’s maid and had been wandering around the park and noticed the women coming and going, and then had…just strolled in.
“Your lady was fascinated to hear ’bout the time I stopped a certain young miss from an unfortunate elopement, draggin’ her back into the house with my own two hands,” Bemmy said. “She liked that one terribly good.”
“But, there really was no young miss or unfortunate elopement?”
Bemmy shrugged. “There probably was one sometime and somewhere, thoughIwasn’t there for it. Oh, and I told her of another young miss caught mooning over a groom and how I slammed the door shut on that flirtation. She nodded ever so approvingly over that story.”
Caroline heaved with laughter. The situation was absurd. Oh, how her father would be amused by it.
She took a deep breath and said, “I cannot imagine what Lady Easton will say when she discovers you were not sent by the agency.”
“Why should she discover it?” Bemmy asked, looking truly confused.
“Well,” Caroline said, “for one thing, Lady Easton will tell the agency who she hired when she sends over the fee.”
Bemmy snorted. “Don’t you worry ’bout that,” she said. “I know Lacy Brown well enough, that old fishwife. I’ll send one of my brothers over to see her and apprise her of the situation. She’ll take her fee and lips buttoned.”
“I see,” Caroline said, delighted with the maid’s ingenuity. “Now, Bemmy, if you are going to pass yourself off as an experienced lady’s maid, we have quite a bit of work to do.”
Bemmy nodded enthusiastically. “I don’t mind hard work and I pick things up quick. Just tell me how I’m to handle that sour-face downstairs in the hall and we’ll be right as raindrops.”
“That is Mr. Bramley,” Caroline said. “Perhaps, until you acquire more experience, say as little as possible. That would probably go for everybody except for me, for now.”
Bemmy pointed at her head with her index finger, which Caroline supposed signified she was committing the advice to memory.
After an hour of discussion, Caroline thought they might actually carry off the ruse. It turned out that Bemmy was the eldest of a large family and an expert at sewing and polishing and generally keeping her brothers and sisters well turned out. She was all confidence that she could do something with Caroline’s hair, and if not, Caroline could manage that herself.
Of course, there were some new things that Bemmy had not thought of, such as sleeping in the servants’ quarters and eating with the staff and waiting for a bell to be rung to know when she was wanted. However, she took it all in stride and claimed it would be an adventure.
Caroline could not say if Bemmy would have an adventure, but she was fairly certain she was in for one herself. For all that, though, she was rather delighted with Bemmy Smith of Brighton.
*
Lady Easton hadgone to lie down after taking Bemmy to Caroline. She had fretted a good deal about the possibility of finding just the sort of lady’s maid she looked for in Brighton, but all fears had been laid to rest. Bemmy was of the dragon variety of maids and she was certain the woman would come to her if even a toe were to inch out of place.
