“Rosie,” I said, “this is incredible … and wonderful too. What happened? I always knew you were no ordinary parlourmaid.”
She put her fingers to her lips. “Later. It wouldn’t do for my maids to know too much. So just at first we’ll talk about the weather and the little things ladies discuss when they pay friendly calls.”
The tea was wheeled in on a trolley by a different maid from the one who had opened the door for me. Rosie eyed the tray with expert eyes.
“Thank you, May,” she said kindly but dismissively.
I felt laughter bubbling up within me.
Rosie poured the tea and then said: “Now … We’ll keep our voices low. Servants have a way of listening at doors. Don’t I know it!” She winked at me in the old manner. “I’m not complaining. I like them to talk with servants at other houses. It’s the best sort of information agency you can get. Friends don’t know what goes on in families like servants do.”
“Do explain everything, Rosie.”
“I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time. I didn’t like you to think I’d just walked out and you coming back in all your Cleopatra clobber.” She laughed. “I’ll never forget the sight of you with that snake thing round your neck. You looked a treat. I said to myself, ‘My word, Miss Caroline … she’s got what it takes.’ They’ll be after you like flies round the honeypot. You’ll have to make sure you’re the one that gets the honey … not them.”
“Rosie, what is all this about?”
She poured out more tea and looked at me with her head on one side.
“You’ve grown up now, Caroline,” she said, “and I know what’s happened. You’re not the heiress everyone thought you’d be. You’ve got a bit, but not much.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Gossip, dear. It was the talk of the town, wasn’t it? That great, good man dying … him who’d looked after all the Fallen Women.” She was consumed with laughter. “That’s the bit I like,” she went on. “And so he ought … considering he might on one or two occasions have tripped them up.”
“What do you mean, Rosie?”
“Well, I’m coming to that. I couldn’t have told you before … though I wanted to, on account of you thinking I might have let you down that night. You’re on your own now. You’re not one of the protected ones. You’ve got to know about things … life and all that. I figured that now all the wool should be pulled away from your eyes. You’ve got to look at what they call stark reality.”
“I agree with that. I’ve been a fool … ignorant … dreaming away … making everything look so lovely and quite different from what it really is.”
“That’s how most of us are, love, when we start out. But we’ve got to grow up and the sooner we start doing it the better for us. You remember when I was working at the house … the parlourmaid with a difference, eh? Well, the difference was that I didn’t want to be a parlourmaid all my life. I had plans and I had the face and the figure and the brains to make my ideas work. I had to be in London. I had to have somewhere to live. I had to be right in the center of things. So those nights … once a week … I used to go to Madam Crawley’s in Mayfair. It was a beautiful house, very pleasant … the most expensive in London … or one of them … and she wouldn’t take anybody. Now this might shock you a bit, but as I said you’ve got to face up to life. I used to go to Madam Crawley’s to, er … entertain gentlemen.”
She leaned back to look at me and I felt the colour slowly flow into my face.
“I see you understand,” she said. “Well, these things go on, and there’s all sorts in them … people you wouldn’t expect. Do you know I earned more in a few hours at Madam Crawley’s than I did in a whole year in service. I worked it out. I was once as innocent as you used to be. I’d been in service from the time I was fourteen. There was the master of the house who took a fancy to me. He seduced me. I was too frightened to say anything. And after that I met someone in a teashop and she told me how she went on and how she was saving to make a life for herself and perhaps get married and live decent ever after.”
“I understand, Rosie, I do.”
“I knew you would. There’s always rights and wrongs of any situation. Nothing’s all good … nothing’s all bad. I learned a lot, and I saved money … quite a tidy bit. I had plans to retire by the time I was thirty, say. Then I’d be very comfortable … but I had a windfall, and it’s that I want to tell you about.”
Coming in addition to everything else that had happened so recently this left me quite bemused. I should have guessed something like it of course … those evenings out, those fine clothes … everything pointed to it. But perhaps that was how it seemed now that I knew. I was sure no one else in the house had had any notion of how Rosie spent her nights out.
“I was doing very well,” she went on. “I had my nice nest-egg.
And then there was this night. Oh I could almost die of laughing thinking of it. Caroline, are you sure you understand … that you want me to go on?”
“Of course I do.”
“Well, you’re a big girl now. Cast your mind back to that night. There you were … all got up as Cleopatra. I was to open the door for Olivia and then nip round to the back and let you in. It was one of my nights out, remember? Well, as soon as you’d left for the ball I went out. I had to be back by eleven. Old Winch and Wilkinson were very sharp on that. They would have liked to stop my jaunts but I wasn’t having any of that. They didn’t want to get rid of me. I was a good parlourmaid. The mistress and master liked me to be seen by the guests. The right sort of parlourmaids are a very important part of a well-run household.”
“I know that, Rosie. Do get on.”
“Well, on that night when you were at the ball, I went to Crawley’s. Madam said, ‘There’s a rich gentleman coming tonight. One of our best clients. I’m glad your visit coincides with his.’ She shook her head at me and said, as she was always saying, ‘I could put such good business in your way, if you would live in.’ But I wasn’t for that. I wanted my freedom to come and go and once a week is all a girl needs at this sort of game. I had a beautiful silk dressing-gown which I used to receive my gentlemen in. There I was with nothing on but that and I went into the room where I found my gentleman. And there he was stark naked … lying on a bed waiting for me. I stared at him. Who do you think he was?”
“I can’t guess. Tell me.”
“Mr. Robert Ellis Tressidor, pioneer of good causes, saviour of fallen women, advocate for the poor unemployed.”
“Oh no! It couldn’t be.”
“Sure as I’m sitting here. He just sat up in bed and stared at me. I said, ‘Good evening, Mr. Tressidor.’ He couldn’t speak, he was so dumbfounded. His confusion was terrible. I even felt sorry for him. He was trembling. I doubt anyone’s ever been caught so red-handed, you might say. It was his face that was red. And I didn’t wonder at that. I reckon he could see the headlines in the paper. He said, ‘What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be a respectable parlourmaid.’ That sent me into hoots of laughter. ‘Me?’ I said. ‘It’s clear what I’m doing here, sir. The funny thing is what are you doing here, Mr. Protector of Fallen Women. Helping them to fall a bit farther?’ I was scared really and when I’m scared I always fight hard. Not for a moment did I doubt that he was in a worse position than I was. I was there in my dressing gown. All he had was the sheet to cover him up. It was the funniest thing I ever saw. Me … the parlourmaid standing there and him the high and mighty, one of God’s good men, lying naked on a bed.
“He calmed down a bit. He said, ‘Rosie, we shall have to sort this out.’ All very cajoling, equals now, none of the master and parlourmaid. He was a very frightened man. He said, ‘You shouldn’t be living this life, Rosie.’ ‘Should you, sir?’ I asked. ‘I admit,’ he replied, ‘to a certain weakness.’ That made me laugh. Then I saw the possibilities and I said, ‘I could make things very difficult for you, Mr. Tressidor.’ He didn’t deny it. I could see he was thinking … hard. It was in his eyes. Money, he was thinking. Money straightens out most things and he was right about that. ‘Rosie,’ he said. ‘I’ll make it worth your while.’ And I said, ‘Now you’re talking.’