Read Online A Woman of Influence by Rebecca Ann Collins - Free Book Online

ask a different question.
    "Tell me, before you came to work in these parts, what did you do and where did you live?"
    This time Alice, having contemplated for a while, spoke very quietly. "We lived in Blessington, ma'am. It's a small village not far from Ramsgate. I used to work as a kitchen maid in one of the big houses up there. It was hard work--up at five and working all day until everyone else was in bed, but they fed us well and gave us a clean room to sleep in. The lady of the manor, Mrs Bancroft, was very kind--she let me keep Tom with me, so long as he got into no trouble."
    "Why did you leave? Or were you sent away?" asked Becky suspiciously.
    The girl looked horrified. "Oh no, ma'am, I was not. I did leave on my own account, ma'am, because it was not possible to go on working there."
    "Why not? Was the work too hard? I thought you said your mistress was a kind woman."
    "Indeed she was, ma'am, and it was not the hard work--I am quite used to hard work, and I have no complaints about the mistress or the work; it was..." She tried and failed to get the words out and had to be persuaded.
    "You must tell me, Alice, what was it made you give up a place in a household where you and your son were comfortably lodged and you had paid work for as long as you wished. There must have been a reason. I could make enquiries and find out, of course. The Bancrofts must be well known in Kent, and my sister Mrs Burnett, who has lived in this county all her life, is certain to know the family or someone else who does. I could ask her to make enquiries..."
    The girl reacted immediately. "Please, ma'am, don't do that. I do not wish to do or say anything that will make trouble for Mrs Bancroft. She was very kind to me--to both of us. But I could not stay, ma'am. It was impossible."
    "Why?" Becky persisted, beginning to get a sense of what was to follow. "What was the problem?"
    There was a long pause, and the answer when it came did not surprise her. "It was one of the gentlemen, ma'am, a good friend of the master's. He used to stay at the house whenever he came down to Kent, and he began to pester me. I think I escaped his attentions for a while, only because of Tom clinging to my skirts; he was scared and wouldn't leave me, not even when he was bribed with sweets or money. He even got a clip over the ear once for refusing to go away.
    "But one night when Tom was asleep, he came down to the room I shared with the scullery maid, having waited until she had gone out. He was drunk and tried to force himself upon me. I fought him off, but I was very afraid; I screamed, and the cook heard me and came to my rescue, ma'am.
    "On the very next morning, I told Mrs Bancroft I wanted to leave; I think the cook had already told the housekeeper, and Mrs Bancroft said she knew what had happened. She said she was sorry to lose me, but she didn't try to stop me. I think she knew she couldn't protect me, ma'am. The gentlemen had gone out very early that morning to shoot on a neighbouring manor, and I got away before they had returned."
    Appalled though not shocked, for she had heard many such tales and not all of them had ended as well, either, Becky did not doubt her story. There were many men who thought that any young servant girl who took their fancy was fair game, and some hosts who were willing to turn a blind eye.
    "How did you get away?" she asked.
    "The hay cart, ma'am. Mrs Bancroft paid me my full wages for the month, even though it was a few days short, and she gave me some more money to pay the carter, and he took us all the way to Wingham."
    "And when you got there, where did you live?"
    "Nowhere, ma'am. We needed the money for food. I couldn't afford to pay for lodgings, so I had to work, and most places would not take you in with a child, unless he could work too. So we've been working the farms and hop fields, sleeping in barns and outhouses ever since," she said simply.
    Alice sat with her hands in her lap, resignation written upon her