Chapter 3
The carriage ride, despite stopping for an overnight stay at a coaching inn halfway, still seemed incredibly arduous.
She was traveling post-chaise, and the horses had, by necessity, needed to be changed every fifteen miles. That had meant a change halfway through each of the two days of travel. Still, it was a mail coach and was, as were all mail coaches, rather overloaded with mail and the assorted passengers that it was never designed to take.
Having absolutely no means whatsoever at her disposal, barring a few pounds that she had taken from her bedroom when she had finally quit her home for the last time, Georgette had baulked at the idea of the cost of traveling post-chaise. However, Mr. Winstanley at the registry office had immediately informed her that the Duke of Draycott always paid the traveling expenses of the governesses.
As the carriage bumped along, Georgette could not help thinking that the Duke of Draycott must have paid out an awful lot of money for mail coaches in the last six months, particularly if the other governesses had also come from London.
Initially, there had been three other people on the inside of the coach with her when they had first set off from Piccadilly. None of the original three remained by the second day of travelling, each leaving the coach at one of the planned stops to change the horses. However, others had embarked upon their own journeys from those stops, and Georgette felt herself somewhat exhausted from what seemed to her to be almost perpetual introductions to people she had no desire to get to know.
In truth, it was not simply because she did not wish to know anybody, but rather that she did not wish to explain where she was going and why. It was almost as if she feared the scorn. Even people of lower class seemed to look down upon a person who had fallen in fortunes. A young lady of her obvious breeding setting off on a long journey to become a governess in a great house would clearly fit the category perfectly. Without explanation, all in her company would instantly know that she had become suddenly impoverished, and she could not bear it.
At first, the idea that she would be so very far away from London had quite unsettled her. It was almost as if Georgette would, at intervals, forget that she would have no home to return to there, even if she did go back to London.
In the end, she simply tried to think of it in another way. At least if she were not working in London, there would be very little chance of happening upon an acquaintance she had known in better times. More than once, Georgette tried to imagine the horror of being the governess in the house where one of her former acquaintances had arrived as a visitor. In truth, her sense of humiliation would have been complete in such circumstances.
At least in Oxfordshire, she knew nobody, and nobody knew her. And she need not explain to a single person about her former life and what had happened to change everything. She would simply be the governess; anonymous and isolated.
By the time the coach had come upon the immense driveway which would eventually lead to Draycott Hall, Georgette was the only remaining passenger in the post-chaise. In truth, Georgette would not have realized that they had entered the estate of Draycott had the driver not called down to her. She could see no house as yet, only vast woodlands and green fields everywhere. She had even seen a river flowing across the land and had felt the bump of the carriage as it had gone over the bridge which traversed it.
It was not until the driveway dropped down a little and they found themselves in a clearing that she saw the house for the first time. At that moment, Georgette was glad that she was alone inside the carriage, for she gasped audibly.
Georgette had never in her life attended such a place. Whilst she had been a minor member of the aristocracy, still, her father did not have the sort of connections that would have led either of them to so grand a place.
From her vantage point, Georgette could see Draycott Hall in all its glory. It was truly the most enormous mansion she had ever set eyes on, and she now rather wondered quite how only fifty servants could service such a building.
And, much apart from the great woodlands of the estate itself, Draycott Hall was set in the most beautifully landscaped grounds she had ever seen.
Georgette almost pressed her face against the window as if it would somehow give her a better view. Set in the very center of the vast and immaculate green lawns was a great stone fountain of the most immense proportions she had ever seen. The central feature of the fountain was a great stone column with circular platforms, ranging from large at the bottom to very small at the top of the column. The water itself seemed to come from a finial at the very top of the column and slowly trickled down into the first of the circular platforms, overflowing that and flowing into the next. And on it went until all the platforms were filled and the water spilled over into the base of the great stone fountain itself. For a moment, Georgette busied her mind entirely with quite how the thing must work.
She realized, of course, that the source of the water must come from a much higher place, relying upon gravity to force the water up through a pipe of some sort inside the stone column and out the finial at the top. Of course, she had seen the river running across the land and thought that it must surely wind around the back of the great estate to higher ground behind. Still, the work which must have gone into the creation of such a thing must have been truly involved.
Although there was much countryside surrounding London itself, Oxfordshire seemed to be really rather rich in greenery. And the estate itself, the very grounds of Draycott Hall, seemed to contain more countryside than she had ever imagined herself to have been comfortable with. In truth, Georgette had always very much been a town dweller, loving London more than any place she had ever been. Quite how she would do now in the country was beyond her.
They traveled for several more minutes before finally drawing up to the great gravel apron which seemed to surround Draycott Hall on all sides. The post-chaise drew up on the west side of the mansion without hesitation of any kind; clearly, the driver was no stranger to the estate and very likely drove the mail there on a regular basis.
“Well, you are finally here, Miss Darrington,” the driver said with a cheery smile as he opened the door for her and gave her his arm to help her out.
“Thank you kindly,” Georgette said with a frozen smile. As much as she was grateful to her driver, her nerves had rather begun to overtake her.
“I daresay you will get used to it,” he said with a knowing nod and smiled at her so kindly that Georgette felt a little wave of emotion. “It is certainly a very fine place.”
“Thank you,” Georgette said and smiled this time with a little more warmth. “How very kind of you. And I daresay I will get used to it in time.”
“Right, well I will take your trunk down first, and then I will come back for their mail,” he said with a smile as he disappeared around the back of the carriage to unstrap her large wooden trunk from the back plate.
With the driver distracted, Georgette took a moment to look around her. Standing in front of so large a building she felt tiny and insignificant, her fears getting ready to overwhelm her. As beautiful as everything seemed to be, surely this would never feel like home. And, as large and as luxurious as she thought her own home had always been, it was as nothing to this very fine estate.
For an awful moment, Georgette wanted nothing more than to climb back into the carriage and tell the driver to take her far, far away. She was almost overcome with a sense of dread and the certain knowledge that she would never, ever like the place. She did not want to meet its master, nor any of its servants. In truth, at that moment, she did not even want to meet her infant charges. Georgette simply wanted to run.
Quite without knowing she was doing it, Georgette began to walk backwards and forwards a little on the spot almost. It was as if her feet were making ready to take flight, and she felt almost unable to stop herself.
Hearing the driver groan as he shouldered the heavy trunk, Georgette knew that she would have to get a firm hold of her senses immediately. Taking a deep breath, she smoothed down her skirts, straightened her spine, and held her chin up. Above all things, she must not creep into that house with her head down as if she were ashamed of herself.
“Oh, thank God for that. Here comes one of the footmen,” the driver said, smiling at the smart young man dressed in full livery who was approaching to provide assistance. “This is surely not your job, but I shan’t turn the offer down,” he went on and laughed.
“I do not mind a bit of heavy lifting now and again,” the footman said and smiled back.
“Thank you kindly,” Georgette said, keen to let the young footman know that she was grateful for his assistance.
“Think nothing of it,” he answered in rather a flat sort of tone, certainly flatter than the one he had used for the driver. “Shall we?” he added, more to the driver than to Georgette, but she followed them nonetheless.
As she followed the two men down the side of the west wing of Draycott Hall, she very quickly realized that she would be entering the building via the tradesmen’s entrance. Quite whether she would always be expected to enter thus, she could not tell.
When Georgette saw a woman of rather stern appearance in a stiff looking and plain black gown approaching her, the importance of which door she entered through seemed to leave her. She could not help thinking she had more imminent concerns.
“Miss Darrington, you have arrived at last,” the woman said rather harshly. “I am Mrs Griffin, the housekeeper here at Draycott Hall.”
“How very nice to meet you, Mrs Griffin,” Georgette responded as brightly as she could manage, hoping her nerves were not showing through the facade of calmness.
“I shall first take you through to meet Mr Pearson, the butler, and then you shall be shown the entire below-stairs area. Not that I suppose you will be spending a great deal of time here,” she said, seeming rather keen to show her displeasure. “But, nonetheless, it is wise for you to know where you are going if you need to come down here for anything.”
“Yes, wise indeed,” Georgette said, still brightly but certainly not keen to engage the woman any further. She would simply listen to what she was being told and look at what she was being shown. Too much of an attempt at conversation would very likely not be wise at that moment.
The housekeeper turned sharply on her heel and began to walk away, and Georgette, having almost to run to catch up with her, hastily followed along behind. They took several turns down numerous corridors, all of which seemed to have doors running off them. For the life of her, Georgette thought that she would struggle to find her way back to the entrance if the housekeeper left her at that moment.
As they continued to walk, the housekeeper keeping up her rather extreme pace, Georgette simply concentrated on the clipping of their heels against the immense gray flagstones of the floor. The walls of the corridor were also stone, and there seemed nothing of softness to absorb the sound of their boots on the floor. Everything seemed to echo just a little.
Finally, they turned at the end of another long corridor and, seeing a door in front of them, Georgette rather thought the butler would be found there. In truth, she felt a little angry already that she was being brought before the butler as if she were simply something to be inspected. She wanted to shout and scream that she had lived all her life with a butler of her own and that she would not be belittled in such a way. However, Georgette knew that there was no point.
She was a governess because she had nothing, and everybody there would be very aware of the fact. All she had to recommend her were an exemplary education and good breeding, the very things that would set her apart from the rest of the staff and leave her without friends or company of any kind, she felt sure of it.
“Enter,” the butler said rather grandly when the housekeeper knocked loudly upon the door.
Mrs Griffin pushed the door open and walked in, leaving Georgette to trail along behind her. Georgette almost laughed at the whole thing; they seemed to have a little hierarchy below stairs with the butler and the housekeeper clearly seen as the Lord and the Lady in their particular little domain.
Georgette could not help thinking that it did not matter where you were, or what circumstances you were in, somebody somewhere always wanted to be at the top of things. Somebody somewhere always wanted power over others regardless of the class and social status of the group. So, perhaps people were not so very different after all.
“This is the new governess, Mr Pearson,” the housekeeper said stiffly.
“Is it indeed, Mrs Griffin?” the butler said, turning his head to coolly survey Georgette.
“My name is Miss Georgette Darrington,” Georgette said levelly, fully determined to effect a proper introduction rather than simply be introduced as the new governess.
“Very good,” the butler said, seemingly a little taken aback. Presumably, he thought himself to be most intimidating, and it very likely worked wonderfully on the rest of the staff. Georgette made a silent promise to herself that it would never, ever work on her. “Well, I am Mr Pearson, the butler.”
“How very nice to make your acquaintance, Mr Pearson,” Georgette said, suddenly rather keen to give a display of her firm grasp on modern manners.
“Likewise, Miss Darrington.”