The children had left, albeit reluctantly, to go to the school room; Lizzie was on her way to see Madame Duponte for the final fitting of her dress for Saturdays' party; now only Lady Margaret and Lord Smallwood were left in the morning room.
"Margaret, I require your help with something. It concerns the Bates family who live in one of the miners' cottages."
Lady Margaret looked up at Lord Smallwood, she was very used to his requests for help when dealing with the families of his workers but she had never heard of the Bates family before. "Are they new to the village?" she asked.
"They've been here about six months or so. The father works at the mine and by all accounts he's a very good worker. Works hard, earns a good wage too, but unfortunately for the family he also spends a lot at the Inn buying ale for his cronies. It's just that yesterday I happened across the two youngsters, twin boys they are, a little younger than Martin. Young rascals should have been in school but the mother can't be watching them all the time, apparently she has to take in work in order to make ends meet. After speaking to the boys I felt they were good lads at heart, just need a bit or direction in their lives. Oh! and I don't think they'll play truant from school again, I think they've learned their lesson." He declined mentioning the incident at Daggers Wood with Martin and Becky, he didn't want to worry her unnecessarily, or so he told himself.
"What I would like you to do is go to the vicarage and ask Mrs Montague about the mother. Find out what sort of character she is, and if you think she's suitable you could perhaps offer her work at the Hall. What do you think?"
"Of course Tobias," she smiled, "I'll just have to see cook about this evening's menu and then I'll see what I can do." And with that they both went their separate ways, Lord Smallwood to see his Estate Manager and Lady Margaret to see Betsy.
An hour later she was on her way in the carriage to visit Eliza Montague at the vicarage. Their friendship went back a long way, as far back as the day she first came to Smallwood Village as a young bride. As the carriage turned into the drive Eliza saw it though the window and was waiting at the door when it stopped.
"Why, what a lovely surprise," she exclaimed, "come on in."
"Thank you Eliza, but as usual, I've come to enlist your help yet again."
"Well come in anyway, we'll have a cup of tea and you can tell me all about it. You know that I'm always happy to help if I can."
Eliza's maid brought in a silver tea set with flowered china cups and saucers, she served them both with tea and biscuits and then left the room.
Lady Margaret began, "What do you know of a Mrs Bates from the miners' cottages?"
"In what way? I know that she has twin boys aged 10 - (young devils are always playing truant from school) - has a husband who likes his ale - (a bit too much if you ask me) - and she has a job finding the wherewithall to feed them - (always looking for work to make a few extra pennies) - without her I don't know what would become of those boys, the father's no use whatsoever."
"Yes dear, but what about her, what is she like? Is she of good character? Is she a pleasant sort of person?"
"I think you should go and see for yourself Lady Margaret, I'm sure you'll be very surprised with what you find."
"Well, if you say so." She finished her tea and thanked Eliza graciously. Outside the carriage door was held open for her and the step had been put down ready for her to board, and once comforably settled in they set off to Pit Lane and the miners' cottages.
She remembered these cottages being built all of 25 years ago, to house some of the mine workers and their families. They were brick built, "two up and two down", and were some of the best workers houses in the district. The tenants all worked at Smallwood Mine and paid a very minimal weekly rent to live in them, however, if any of them happened to be dismissed he not only lost his job, he lost the house also, which meant not only himself but his family found themselves without a home. It was the same all over, the farm and estate workers all lived in "tied cottages" which meant they were tied to the job and when the job went the house went with it.
The carriage pulled up in front of number four and her driver helped Lady Margaret alight. Her knock was answered almost immediately by a small, pretty, young woman who looked no more than twenty-seven in years. It was obvious that she was indeed very poor but Lady Margaret was taken aback by the pleasantness of her.
Mrs Bates looked up at Lady Margaret and her mouth dropped open, she was unable to speak from surprise and all she could do was hold the door wide open and frantically bob up and down as Lady Margaret invited herself in.
The first thing Lady Margaret noticed was the smell - it was a clean, fresh smell and as she looked around she saw it was spotless in this little cottage. Some wild flowers had been arranged in a painted bottle and placed in the centre of the table. The table was covered with a snow-white tablecloth which was edged with the most delicate of crocheted borders. She hadn't seen work like this except in grand establishments like the Hall.
"Did you do this Mrs Bates?" She asked, touching the tablecloth gently.
"Yes, mum," she replied, bobbing up and down.
"What is your first name?"
"Jenny, mum" and she bobbed up and down again.
"It's alright Jenny, you don't need to keep bobbing up and down like that, we're both going to get dizzy if you carry on. Now tell me, have you any other hidden talents besides sewing?"
"I likes to clean and I can cook a good stewpot, but nothin' as good as the pie we got from the Hall yesterday."
Lady Margaret didn't ask, "What pie?" because she suspected it had something to do with Tobias as did one of her wicker baskets, full of fruit, which was sitting on the window ledge.
"Well I have a proposition for you Jenny. I would like to offer you some work up at the Hall starting tomorrow. This weekend there is to be a large party at the Hall and cook needs some help in the kitchen, what with all the extra work involved, and then there will be the waiting on of our guests during the party, and then of course the cleaning afterwards. Have you ever had experience in service before?"
"Oh yes, mum. When I was twelve I started work as a tweenie at one of the big houses in Newcastle."
"Well then, what do you say to coming and working for me up at the Hall?"
Jenny looked dejected, "Oh mum, I'd love to, but I can't leave the boys, they need me."
Lady Margaret could see the disappointment in her face and was determined to do something about it.
"Alright," she said, "you can work during the school hours until the weekend, then on Saturday you can bring the boys up to the Hall with you. They can stay with the gardener and his father, I'm sure they'll love helping in the gardens. And, what's more, they can stay overnight at their cottage. Old Tom will love having children around the house again after all this time."
"Why thank you mum," said Jenny, bobbing up and down again, "what time do you want me tomorrow?"
"Come at eight in the morning to the back of the Hall and go to the kitchen door, I'll tell cook to expect you. Now I must get back, there's such a lot of organising to be done."
"Thank you so much mum", said Jenny, "You won't be sorry, I'll show you." And she stood on the doorstep watching the carriage until it disappeared around the end of the lane towards the Hall.
She felt so happy as she closed the door, she couldn't believe it. Then the boys came running in "Mam, guess what, we're all goin' on a trip, Lord Smallwood is sending the hole class to Liverpool and we're gettin' a train and goin' all the way to Manchester......." Said Jimmy.
".... and back" finished Jack.
She put her arms around them, "And that's not all - on Saturday you're going to the Hall and spending the weekend with the gardener. You can both help in the gardens and maybe you'll meet your two new friends again. You'll be spending the night in the gardener's cottage and then on Sunday afternoon we'll bring you home."
"You mean we're 'avin' an 'oliday?" asked Jimmy.
"At the Hall?" Asked Jack, making a great efford to sound the 'H'.
"Yes", said Jenny, "Things are lookin' up for this little family of ours."
The twins looked adoringly at their mother, "We luv you mam." They said simply.
"Yes, well don't you let me down, do you hear?" She said smiling at them.
"Course not," they said and ran outside excitedly. Where had she heard that before?
Jenny's only problem now was telling Jack senior about Lady Margaret's offer of work, which could herald probems. "Well," she said to herself, putting her hands on her hips and setting her chin in the air defiantly, "if he don't like it, he can lump it!"
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