Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
I went back to the chafing dishes, because under one was English sausage, bacon, and black pudding, and I’d vowed to myself I was going to stuff as much of that in my face as I could while I was in the country. And for the four days I’d been there, I’d succeeded in besting this challenge.
I wasn’t about to fall down now.
After I filled my plate, I returned to my seat, seeing Prudence had a coffee cup aloft and was staring blankly across the room.
I didn’t know whether to leave her to her thoughts or ask after them.
When in doubt with a plate of food in front of you…
I started eating.
It was the right choice.
Prudence jolted and then said, “Sorry. Miles away. Thinking about the attics and hoping we find Aunt Harmony’s letters from Charlie there.”
“Were you able to find a journal of hers?” I asked before taking a bite of sausage.
Oh yes.
Yum.
“No. Though, we did find Marie’s. And Harmony’s sister, Unity’s.”
That made my heart skip a beat, because Marie was Saint’s wife and Harmony’s mother.
“Really?”
She smiled thinly at me. “Just to warn you, I had a quick scan, and Marie didn’t say much of anything, ever. Just a few lines in each entry, mostly about household things, meals they had, etc. And I don’t think Harmony shared her love affair with her sister. Then again, Unity was much younger. She couldn’t have been more than thirteen at the time. Probably not a planned pregnancy. So also probably not a confidante.”
“Well, I’ll have a good look to make sure.”
“Of course.” Her smile grew without bad news to impart. “It must be terribly exciting to embark on a new book.”
“Best feeling ever.”
“I’m so excited to be a part of it, even a small one.”
“I love that we get to share this too,” I agreed genuinely. “So I’m going to eat up so we can get started.”
Prudence watched me cut off another bite of sausage and said, “I’m just going to get one more sausage.”
I didn’t blame her.
In fact, I thought that was the perfect plan.
We started below stairs, an area of an estate like this I always found just as fascinating as what sat on top of it.
And at The Downs, it was no different.
There was the vast kitchen (modernized, but it still had the bones of antiquity to it). The buttery, pantries, a comfortable staff lounge, and Prudence unlocked the storage rooms to show me where they kept their crystal, china, silver and booze safe. There was also a laundry area, and a massive linen cupboard we spent some time in because, call me a freak, I found all the tablecloths, runners, sheets, coverlets, quilts and throws fascinating.
Fitzgibbons had an office down there, as did Patsy, the housekeeper, who was also Fitzgibbons’s wife.
Those two were the only live-ins, and Prudence shared that Battle had completely renovated what used to be the servants’ quarters so they had a rather large apartment (an area, obviously, Prudence didn’t show me) that not only had its own entrance off the north side of the house, but also a private terrace and garden.
This space was needed, apparently because, Prudence told me, they had three kids, two of whom lived in the village, all of whom were married, had children and came calling frequently.
The staff included Cook, a woman Prudence’s and my age whose name was actually Emily, who I met during the tour.
I also met Amelia and reacquainted with Mary, both maids, and Scotty and Harry, who lugged, served, ran errands and did handyman work, but I got the impression they were also there to provide security.
Don’t ask me why I had this impression, maybe it was because they were both tall, fit, alert, and just gave off that vibe.
And last, the lawns and parkland were overseen by a gardener, but Prudence informed me that Chastity did all the gardening, not only in the gardens, but also the greenhouse.
For that big of a house, it didn’t seem like that big of a staff.
But the book I was writing was about modernization and how that shifted the world on its axis.
Including having the effect of blurring the lines of the haves and have-nots as many more people had many more opportunities to make a lot more money. But on the other hand, with telephones and vacuums and cars and gas stoves and washing machines and lawn mowers, it made having a vast staff who needed to offer copious manual labor obsolete.
We moved to the ground floor, and Prudence started in the south wing, introducing me to sitting rooms (the most formal of them an exquisite study of greens and cream), a couple of salons, a morning room, the library, Battle’s study with its door closed (we skipped that, and not only because I’d already seen it), and at the very end, a fantastic armory.