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‘No, Mum, I don’t think that.’ Abigail didn’t. She wouldn’t look down on anybody who did a cleaning job. Why would she? Her take was that everyone was born to do different things; it was just a twist of fate that some people were born into families like the Somervilles and some were not.
‘I’ll do it.’ She wanted to snoop around inside their house – of course she did – but in fact, she was also doing it for her sister. She didn’t want Emily to lose her position if it was that important to her. ‘Will they mind if someone is standing in for Emily?’
‘I’m sure they won’t. I’ll phone the housekeeper and explain. I think she will just be relieved it hasn’t been left to her to find someone else.’ There was a pause. ‘Just a word of advice, though. I’d avoid Lord Somerville’s son. His daughter, she’s lovely. She’ll speak to anybody, even if you are just a cleaner. She won’t mind you standing in for your sister, I’m sure.’
‘I see.’ Abigail got the impression that Lord Somerville’s son, the future Lord Somerville, was the worst kind of snob, looking down on people from his pedestal. She got the impression that this was what her mother was trying to say in a diplomatic way, not wanting to put her off doing Emily a favour. Abigail decided that if she was going to take on the cleaning job, she had better avoid him, otherwise she might just say something if he treated her like a servant instead of staff. The last thing she’d want to do was risk losing her sister her job.
‘So, when would I start?’
‘I’m afraid it’s tomorrow morning.’
‘Okay,’ Abigail said slowly. ‘I’ll get in touch with Lili and see if she wouldn’t mind picking me up in the morning.’ Abigail knew Lili would be travelling out of her way to pick her up, but she’d just have to figure something else out for the rest of the week.
‘Great. In the meantime, I’ll talk to the housekeeper. If there’s any problem, I’ll let you know. You report to her. Go into the servant, I meant staff entrance round the back. I’m sure Lili will point you in the right direction. It’s a nice little number in the mornings, just some hoovering and polishing in the study, and a few other rooms. The housekeeper will show you the ropes.’
Thinking of how she would get into work, Abigail asked, ‘How many days is it, by the way?’
‘Just three days a week. They’re quite coveted, the positions there. To be honest, I think Emily only got a look-in because of Luke.’
‘Luke? What do you mean? He doesn’t work for the Somervilles now – does he?’ The last Abigail had heard, her brother worked at Sizewell B.
‘No, of course not. He’s good friends with Lord Somerville’s son.’
‘Really?’
‘You must remember him. He was among Luke’s school friends who used to come round to our house after school.’
Although she had been popular at school because she knew a lot of boys in the year above, in the sixth form she hadn’t been on the lookout for a boyfriend herself. There was one boy she remembered who had wanted to ask her out – one of her brother’s friends. Whether that had been Lord Somerville’s son, she couldn’t care less. She hadn’t been interested in local boys. Unlike her brother, her focus had been on getting her qualifications and leaving for university.How ironic,she thought,that I ended up meeting a local boy in London.
She hadn’t known that Lord Somerville’s son had gone to the same school, but then it was obvious he would have; it was the best fee-paying school in the area.
Abigail turned around when she heard a creak on the stair. Gerald opened the door from the inner hallway and walked into the lounge, smiling at her.
‘Mum, I’ll hang up now, but unless I hear otherwise, I’ll be at Somerville Hall on Monday.’ She caught her stepdad raising his eyebrows, wondering what was going on. ‘Yes, I’ll let you know if I have any problems getting there, but I’m sure I won’t. Don’t worry, I’ll phone her later and check.’ Abigail had just tripped over her own fib. Her face flushed bright pink. ‘Oh, yes, right, silly me, I forgot I was seeing her this afternoon.’ Abigail rolled her eyes. ‘Yes, Mum, I’ll let you know how I got on.’How hard can a little cleaning be?she thought.
Before she ended the call, Abigail quickly asked her mum what she knew of the Somervilles. Not much, as it turned out. Like Gerald, she’d heard of them, but that was about it. ‘I expect Emily would have to have been there longer to get any juicy gossip about the family,’ she said. To which Abigail responded, ‘Is there anything you can tell me about them, however small?’
Abigail listened to the answer and then ended the call after wishing Emily a speedy recovery – although she was hoping it wasn’t too speedy, as she was interested in exploring the house.
She was surprised by what her mum had just told her. It turned out there hadn’t just been two new-born babies in the local cottage hospital the night of the Great Storm – there had been three. Lord Somerville’s son had been born that night too, and the saddest part was that he too had lost a parent – his mother had died in childbirth.
