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Authors: Sadie Jones
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of their overcoats, scarves, hats and all the other monochrome garb of the journeying. Now she could see them more clearly, snatches of red from a dress, ivy-green on a man’s waistcoat – other colours – gradually began to show themselves.
And then, quietly, one of them spoke. She was a pale young woman, ash-blonde hair drawn back from a homely, round face, the skin of which had the same sallow hue as her hair, and there was a gappy, lumped, black woollen muffler bound thickly about her throat, as if to keep her head on her shoulders.
‘We’ve been sent here first,’ she said. ‘We are ever so grateful you’ll have us… Will you?’
Her eyes met Emerald’s pleadingly, so that Emerald was embarrassed all at once – simply by being Emerald, in all her vigour, standing before this creature.
‘Of course,’ she said, adding lamely, ‘You poor things. Do follow us.’ And she turned smartly, took Clovis’s warm hand in hers and led the procession back to the house.
The feeble crowd trailed after them as the whole group made their way towards Florence and Smudge in the doorway.
And so, with many exclamations of welcome and comfort, the slow survivors were guided into Sterne.
With Clovis dispatched on Levi to fetch back Robert and Stanley, the women were grouped around the butcher’s block in the pantry. It had seemed the best place to have a private discussion.
‘Perhaps the wounded were taken off by ambulance,’ suggested Emerald.
Fresh blood, pink with rinsing, ran from the block between the women. There were shelves on all four sides, crammed with jars, meats, labelled tins, jugs (covered), terrines and all manner of delicious-smelling foodstuffs.
‘It’s almost six already! Did anybody say when the people from the Railway might arrive and relieve us of them?’ asked Charlotte.
‘I’m afraid not.’
‘Will they be taken to another train?’
‘I don’t know, Mother! Ask Clovis when he gets back; he was the one who spoke to the porter.’
‘I thought he was a guard.’
‘Whatever he was, he was the one who sent them all here,’ said Emerald firmly; ‘and he, presumably, had some plan as to their removal. We can’t leave them in the morning room forever.’
The passengers had been deposited in the morning room with Myrtle, who was under instructions to light the fire – an inconvenience, as the morning room’s was the one fire in the house unlaid, it being the afternoon.
(‘The morning room indeed,’ she’d said. ‘Why can’t they all be put in the barn until the Railway sort out their own difficulties? Don’t see why the family has to be burdened, not with them all so muddled and wandering; it’s not reasonable. And me all on my own. I’ll wring Pearl’s neck on Monday.’
But still, she had heaved the ash out and the coal in , and lit the slender kindling once more, watched all the while by the gloomy passengers, who stood about her in their overcoats, whispering to one another.
‘Have they never seen a housemaid before? Wallpaper a shock to them?’ raged Myrtle to herself, toiling. But her rage had subsided directly upon leaving the room. In fact, as she attended to her usual, very pressing duties, she found she forgot about the uninvited guests in the morning room altogether.
The Suttons, likewise, had been deposited at the other end of the house – once, that is, Ernest had been dissuaded from examining each and every passenger for injuries. Having not spoken more than a word or two to any one of the family, he was a fountain of verbiage when offered the possibility of in-the-field medical rehearsals. Herded away by Charlotte, he had been forced to content himself with passing between them asking, ‘Any faintness? Any pain? Sir? Madam? Light-headedness?’, before at last accompanying his sister to the library, at which point Emerald and Charlotte had made their excuses and escaped to the pantry to discuss necessities.
‘If we can just give some appearance of
And then, quietly, one of them spoke. She was a pale young woman, ash-blonde hair drawn back from a homely, round face, the skin of which had the same sallow hue as her hair, and there was a gappy, lumped, black woollen muffler bound thickly about her throat, as if to keep her head on her shoulders.
‘We’ve been sent here first,’ she said. ‘We are ever so grateful you’ll have us… Will you?’
Her eyes met Emerald’s pleadingly, so that Emerald was embarrassed all at once – simply by being Emerald, in all her vigour, standing before this creature.
‘Of course,’ she said, adding lamely, ‘You poor things. Do follow us.’ And she turned smartly, took Clovis’s warm hand in hers and led the procession back to the house.
The feeble crowd trailed after them as the whole group made their way towards Florence and Smudge in the doorway.
And so, with many exclamations of welcome and comfort, the slow survivors were guided into Sterne.
With Clovis dispatched on Levi to fetch back Robert and Stanley, the women were grouped around the butcher’s block in the pantry. It had seemed the best place to have a private discussion.
‘Perhaps the wounded were taken off by ambulance,’ suggested Emerald.
Fresh blood, pink with rinsing, ran from the block between the women. There were shelves on all four sides, crammed with jars, meats, labelled tins, jugs (covered), terrines and all manner of delicious-smelling foodstuffs.
‘It’s almost six already! Did anybody say when the people from the Railway might arrive and relieve us of them?’ asked Charlotte.
‘I’m afraid not.’
‘Will they be taken to another train?’
‘I don’t know, Mother! Ask Clovis when he gets back; he was the one who spoke to the porter.’
‘I thought he was a guard.’
‘Whatever he was, he was the one who sent them all here,’ said Emerald firmly; ‘and he, presumably, had some plan as to their removal. We can’t leave them in the morning room forever.’
The passengers had been deposited in the morning room with Myrtle, who was under instructions to light the fire – an inconvenience, as the morning room’s was the one fire in the house unlaid, it being the afternoon.
(‘The morning room indeed,’ she’d said. ‘Why can’t they all be put in the barn until the Railway sort out their own difficulties? Don’t see why the family has to be burdened, not with them all so muddled and wandering; it’s not reasonable. And me all on my own. I’ll wring Pearl’s neck on Monday.’
But still, she had heaved the ash out and the coal in , and lit the slender kindling once more, watched all the while by the gloomy passengers, who stood about her in their overcoats, whispering to one another.
‘Have they never seen a housemaid before? Wallpaper a shock to them?’ raged Myrtle to herself, toiling. But her rage had subsided directly upon leaving the room. In fact, as she attended to her usual, very pressing duties, she found she forgot about the uninvited guests in the morning room altogether.
The Suttons, likewise, had been deposited at the other end of the house – once, that is, Ernest had been dissuaded from examining each and every passenger for injuries. Having not spoken more than a word or two to any one of the family, he was a fountain of verbiage when offered the possibility of in-the-field medical rehearsals. Herded away by Charlotte, he had been forced to content himself with passing between them asking, ‘Any faintness? Any pain? Sir? Madam? Light-headedness?’, before at last accompanying his sister to the library, at which point Emerald and Charlotte had made their excuses and escaped to the pantry to discuss necessities.
‘If we can just give some appearance of
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