A Steeplechase For Love Read online

  Her father laughed heartily, but he realised that his darling daughter was talking sense.

  He had enjoyed teaching her enormously and it had delighted him when she grew older to find that Helsa was extremely intelligent. She wanted to learn more and more as he had when he was young.

  Every penny he could spare went on buying books, which he read and discussed with his daughter and he often thought that other children would not have been advanced enough for such discourse.

  The result was that Helsa at eighteen was not only outstandingly beautiful, as her mother had been, but she was also unusually intelligent and extremely well educated.

  The Vicar had sat back in his chair before he said,

  “Now you know I always listen to what you have to say to me. Tell me more about this idea of yours of letting out The Hall.”

  He was not feeling very optimistic, but he felt that he must give his daughter a free hand.

  She wrote to every letting Agency in London which she thought might produce an interested client who would want, if only for a short time, to rent a large house in the country.

  To her surprise and delight she received a number of encouraging letters in return.

  Two people had arrived the next week to look at Irvin Hall, but unfortunately both of them had decided it was far too big for their requirements

  Apart from anything else they would not have been able to afford the enormous staff that would be required if they rented The Hall.

  It was useless for Helsa to try to maintain that they had managed with very few servants and she had to admit that all the State rooms were closed and so was one entire wing of the enormous house.

  Then, by what Helsa believed to be an undoubted miracle, she heard from one of the largest Agents.

  He wrote saying that he had received a request from a certain Lady Basset who was looking for a large house in the country in which she could throw large parties during the summer.

  Helsa had felt when she first decided to advertise that it would be an advantage that they were near London.

  She learnt when she visited the head of the Agency that Lady Basset wished to entertain – it would be mostly at weekends – in a very grand style.

  Everything then moved so incredibly rapidly that Helsa really felt breathless at the end of it.

  Lady Basset was willing to pay what she and her father thought was a very large rent for the house and the grounds.

  It was all so exciting that they were half afraid the whole idea was just a mirage.

  They were given instructions as to what was to be ready for her Ladyship’s arrival and these multiplied day after day.

  First she required a butler and four footmen – that was comparatively easy as Robinson had been at The Hall for so long and he could find exactly the sort of young men he would need in the village for the footmen.

  Mrs. Cosnet, the cook, was thrilled to be told she could have two assistants and a scullion in the kitchen.

  Her husband had always looked after the garden and he learnt that he had to make the lawns and flowerbeds round the house look as beautiful and well-kept as they had been when he was a boy – and it did not matter how many youths he employed to make this possible.

  In fact the great house began to sound as if it was filled with bees and the walls seemed to vibrate with the activity inside them.

  Helsa had gone to The Hall every day to see what more was needed and if the whole place could be ready by the time Lady Basset arrived. It seemed an impossible task.

  In addition her Ladyship had ordered a secretary to manage everything for her and it was just by luck that a former schoolmaster who had retired four years earlier was available.

  Mr. Martin was an intelligent man and although he was now too old to teach children, he was delighted at the thought of being secretary and manager to Lady Basset.

  He was made responsible for paying the wages of all the employees and took full control from the moment he arrived. As he knew everyone in the village personally, he helped Helsa choose the best.

  “You cannot employ that man,” he would say. “I remember as a boy he was extremely stupid and always did everything wrong. In fact I found him unteachable and I don’t suppose he has improved much now he is older!”

  Helsa had laughed, but at the same time she had accepted his advice and followed it.

  Finding a suitable lady’s maid for Lady Basset was, however, much more troublesome.

  They were informed that her Ladyship possessed a great number of clothes and required someone who could wash, clean and iron them all, indeed someone who would make certain she always appeared smart and dressed as if she was ‘a Queen’.

  Mr. Martin and Helsa had both smiled at this last instruction, but equally they knew that this was one of the more difficult problems to be solved and in record time.

  It was Helsa who had thought of the daughter of a doctor in one of the neighbouring villages.

  Mary Emerson was one of her friends and she had always been adroit with her needle. In fact the things she made for local bazaars and for people at Christmas were outstanding.

  “You can hardly expect Miss Emerson to take the place of a servant,” Mr. Martin commented cautiously.

  “It is only for a short time and anyway I think she would rather enjoy the experience,” Helsa countered. “I will drive over later this afternoon and try to persuade her. Otherwise we may have to admit to Lady Basset that you cannot solve that particular problem.”

  “I hate being defeated,” Mr. Martin retorted.

  “So do I,” Helsa agreed. “But you cannot always expect to find a fairy under a toadstool!”

  Mr. Martin laughed, but he had agreed that Helsa should at once try to see if her friend would oblige, if only to give themselves time to find someone else.

  When Helsa drove over to see Mary, she found, as she had expected, that her friend thought it would be a very amusing challenge.

  “It will certainly be a new experience for me,” she said. “I would love to see the really smart clothes I am told are worn in London. They are certainly something, Helsa dear, you and I will never be able to afford.”

  “Not unless we marry millionaires, but I do think the dress you are now wearing, Mary, is really lovely and I know you made it yourself.”

  “I found the material put away in the attic where it must have been lying for at least twenty years or more,” replied Mary. “As it is very pretty I made it up for myself and it has proved most useful.”

  “It is very becoming,” Helsa added, “and you are so brilliant with your needle. I often think, although perhaps I should not, that you are wasted on your village.”

  “Well, I cannot imagine anyone else will want me to sew for them – unless of course it is Lady Basset.”

  “Then you will do it, you will really do it!” Helsa cried. “You are an angel, Mary, and I cannot tell you how grateful Papa and I are. Everyone has been so kind and it is going to make such a huge difference to us, even if her Ladyship only stays for three months let alone six, as they are suggesting at the moment.”

  “Are they really?” Mary remarked. “I wonder why she wants to rent The Hall.”

  “For big and important parties. We are having a tremendous job as you can imagine, getting all the State rooms cleaned up.”

  Helsa paused before she explained,

  “My grandfather apparently never used them when he was old, because, as you may remember, he seldom had people to stay.”

  Mary nodded her head.

  “So,” Helsa continued, “they have remained there, waiting for this moment when they can burst back upon an astonished world.”

  “I always thought the State rooms were lovely,” said Mary, “and I want to sleep in them myself.”

  Helsa looked at her reproachfully.

  “Why did you not say so? You could have slept in The Hall for a night or two when you came over to stay with me.”

  “And cause all that trou
ble for one young girl. You know only too well what your grandfather would have said and to tell the truth I was so much happier with you at the Vicarage.”

  “I always loved having you, Mary, and at least we have been able to enjoy a good laugh, however difficult things have been.”

  “They have been difficult for us too,” sighed Mary, “as soon as Papa gave up his practice. He was really not strong enough for it. If people were ill at night they had either to die or wait until the morning before he could get to them.”

  “Well, I am sure that if Mr. Martin has anything to do with it, he will make sure that Lady Basset pays for her comforts and an excellent lady’s maid is surely the greatest comfort anyone could have.”

  “I have often thought that, and I am afraid, Helsa, that you and I are most unlikely to ever have a lady’s maid of our own.”

  “We will just have to take it in turns to wait on each other – ” “That is certainly an idea,” agreed Mary. “But if I ever marry, I would not want you to see too much of my husband. You are too lovely, Helsa, and I am certain, if we are ever allowed the chance of meeting exciting people, every man will fall in love with you as soon as you enter the room.”

  “Now that is the sort of thing I dream about,” Helsa replied, “and which I know will never happen.”

  “But we must get married sometime – ” There was a silence before Helsa answered her,

  “We will find it extremely difficult to find the sort of young men we read about in novels in this part of the country.”

  In fact she could not recall any young man being attentive to her or who had even found her pretty since the age of ten.

  However, at this moment that did not matter.

  What was important was that she had now found a lady’s maid for Lady Basset.

  “You must come over before she arrives,” Helsa suggested, “and see that I have everything you require in the bedroom and the dressing room next to it. I expect she will bring masses of clothes with her.”

  “I do hope so as I very much want to see the latest London fashions and I would suppose that is where Lady Basset is coming from?”

  “I am not quite certain,” replied Helsa. “The letters I saw were rather vague, and Mr. Martin had the idea she has been abroad. That is why she has not come herself to view The Hall.”

  “Well, I hope her dresses are really smart,” Mary said, “so that after she has left we can copy them. Then we can dazzle the stags in the Park and the birds in the trees!”

  “I am certain they will be very appreciative,” Helsa smiled.

  They kissed goodbye after arranging for Mary to come over to The Hall at least two days before Lady Basset arrived.

  *

  In fact Helsa knew now as she walked in the garden that Mary should be arriving this afternoon as she had told Mr. Martin already that they would go up together to The Hall.

  She walked round the small garden she had always tended herself just as her mother had done and beyond the lawn and the flowerbeds there was a herb garden that Mrs. Irvin had made almost perfect.

  It contained, Helsa had always believed, a greater number of different herbs than any other garden she had ever seen or read about.

  ‘I wonder if I could persuade Lady Basset to buy some of the creams I have made exactly the way Mama did?’ Helsa asked herself.

  She gave the herbs to poor people in the village for free and they never had the slightest idea that they might offer to pay for them.

  Just occasionally when the richer folk in the County needed help, they would come to see her mother and they would consult her as to which herb would be best to cure their suffering, and naturally they paid for the creams she made for them.

  Mrs. Irvin had always told them that if they were kind enough to pay for the herbs and creams, the money would go into the Church fund for those who were sick.

  And her husband was exceedingly grateful for the help it gave him.

  ‘Now things are totally different,’ Helsa thought, ‘but perhaps we can charge someone who is very rich for the creams. That will at least pay for the pot and the hard work I put into it.’

  Then she laughed at the idea.

  She thought that, just like the villagers, a stranger would automatically assume that anything that grew wild need not be paid for in hard cash.

  She turned away from the herb garden to walk back to The Hall.

  Then she saw Mary running towards her.

  She was early and Helsa thought it would be fun to have time to talk to her before they went up to The Hall.

  Then as Mary drew nearer she knew something was wrong.

  “You are early, Mary,” she said, as they reached each other.

  “Oh! Helsa! Helsa! I have some terrible news to tell you. I know you will be angry, but I don’t know what I can do about it.”

  “What has happened?” Helsa asked apprehensively.

  “Papa has just had a letter from my grandmother to say that she is very ill and she needs him. He wanted to leave this afternoon, but I told him I must see you first.”

  Helsa drew in her breath.

  “Do you mean you have to go with him?”

  “You know that I must. Papa’s eyes are too weak for him to drive alone. Also he gets tired very easily. As you know it is a long way to my grandmother’s house and I have to take him there and, of course, bring him back.”

  For a moment Helsa could not speak and then she muttered,

  “Are you really saying, Mary, that you cannot be lady’s maid to Lady Basset?”

  “I cannot see how I could leave Papa alone with Grandmama who only has one old servant to look after her. He said when he received the letter that she really ought to have someone in attendance night and day.”

  Because Helsa did not speak, Mary went on,

  “He will try to find a nurse, but you know they are almost unobtainable. In any case very many of them are ghastly, they drink and generally upset the household.”

  Helsa knew this to be only too true.

  There had been a host of stories of how badly the nurses had behaved, even when wounded men desperately needed their attention.

  “I am sorry, I am so very sorry,” Mary sighed, “but I have to go with Papa. I know I am letting you down, but there is really nothing I can do about it.”

  “No, of course you can’t,” agreed Helsa, “and I will find someone, somehow, to take your place.”

  “You know that we have thought of everyone in the neighbourhood and there was actually no one suitable. I am so devastated at letting you down, Helsa, but as Papa says, ‘family must come first’.”

  “Yes, indeed it must, Mary,” answered Helsa, “and I would feel the same if I was in your position.”

  “I knew you would understand,” said Mary. “Now I have to hurry back and please, please forgive me.”

  “Of course I do. Don’t worry I will find someone – even if I have to do it myself.”

  She was speaking lightly.

  Then as she helped Mary back into the carriage she thought it was surely ‘a true word spoken in jest.’

  She knew only too well that there was no one in the neighbourhood who could play the part of a lady’s maid and certainly not in the way Mary could.

  In fact the only possible person capable of taking her place was herself.

  As Mary drove off, Helsa waved until she was out of sight.

  Then she wondered if she was being ridiculous.

  She really could not play the part of a servant, even though a lady’s maid’s position was rather grander than a housemaid’s.

  She recalled when her grandmother and grandfather were alive that only a lady’s maid was permitted to eat in the housekeeper’s room – otherwise that prestigious room was kept exclusively for the housekeeper and the butler.

  When guests arrived, their lady’s maids, valets and coachmen were always well catered for and accommodated in the staff quarters.

  The guests’ servants would
always eat their meals in the housekeeper’s room and not in the servants’ hall and Helsa had often laughed at this convoluted formula with her mother.

  “It’s a good thing we do not have to be so grand in the Vicarage,” she would say. “Otherwise I suppose Mrs. Wilson and her husband would sit alone in the kitchen, while the other servants would have to sit in the scullery!”

  Her mother had laughed.

  But by the time she died, the number of servants at the Vicarage had been drastically cut down.

  Yet it had always seemed there was more chatter and laughter coming from them than from the dining room!

  Mary had driven away saying how sorry she was, but that she would be back as soon as she possibly could.

  Helsa knew now she had the difficult task of going up to The Hall, and she would have to tell Mr. Martin that one of their most important servants for Lady Basset had unexpectedly been called away.

  She was certain that, if Lady Basset was so rich, she would be very annoyed if there was no experienced attendant provided for her.

  In fact it seemed rather strange that she would not be bringing her own lady’s maid with her.

  Why should she want to come to a strange house with nothing but strange servants?

  Helsa thought there must be some reason for it.

  Mr. Martin had already written to the Agents to say that everything was arranged as requested by Lady Bassett.

  It took her less than five minutes to walk from the Vicarage across the Park and into the garden of Irvin Hall.

  Because the vast house belonged to her family, she had often thought how lucky she was to have such luxury near her own small home.

  She had always been permitted to take whichever books she wanted to read from the library – as long as she put them back in the same place.

  It was difficult for her to realise that The Hall now belonged to her father, but no one knew better than Helsa that it was utterly impossible for them to live there.

  How could they keep anything so enormous clean and pay the servants who would be required to do so?

  All the same it was now her father’s home and she had known it intimately ever since she was very small.