The Swan Maid. Dilly Court

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СКАЧАТЬ that no one else wanted to do. He nudged Lottie as he went to offload the luggage.

      ‘Save us a slice of bacon,’ he said, grinning. ‘I’m starving.’

      She nodded. ‘I will, if I can.’

      He dashed forward to catch a carpet bag thrown from the coach roof by the guard, resplendent in his livery of scarlet and gold. Trotter was a regular on this route, and Lottie had observed that he liked to show off his strength in front of an appreciative audience. She looked up and, sure enough, the other chambermaids, May and Ruth, were leaning over the balustrade on the top floor, waving their cleaning cloths in an attempt to attract his attention.

      Jem followed her gaze. ‘You’re a randy old goat, Trotter,’ he said, chuckling. ‘How do you do it, mate?’

      Trotter’s answer was to hurl a leather valise at Jem that almost brought him to his knees. ‘Cheeky devil.’ Trotter flexed his muscles. ‘You could learn a thing or two from me, son.’ He turned and waved at the maids before leaping to the ground, and swaggering off in the direction of the taproom.

      ‘You’d best get that lot indoors before Mrs Filby sees you,’ Lottie said hastily. ‘She’s already given me a clout round the head that made me see stars.’

      Jem tucked two smaller cases under his arms and then lifted the heavier bags, one in each hand. ‘She’d have to stand on a box to reach my head, but she punched me in the bread-basket last time I made her mad. She’s a nasty piece of work, and that’s the truth, but we’re better than her, Lottie. Keep that in mind, my girl.’ He strolled off, whistling.

      Lottie looked up, but May and Ruth had vanished, and a quick glance over her shoulder revealed the cause. Mrs Filby was standing in the doorway, scowling at her. ‘Don’t loaf around doing nothing, you lazy little slut. Get on with your work.’

      ‘How does she do it?’ Lottie muttered as she hurried into the scullery to take up where she had left off. ‘She’s got eyes in the back of her head.’

      ‘Talking to yourself, are you? That’s the first sign of madness.’ Ruth edged past her, carrying two dangerously full chamber pots. ‘You’d think the horses had pissed in these. I was all for emptying them over the balustrade, but May stopped me just in time.’

      ‘That would have taken Trotter down a peg or two,’ Lottie said, laughing. ‘He wouldn’t have been so cocky then.’

      Ruth backed out into the yard, taking care not to spill a drop. ‘Maybe I’ll be in time to have a few words with him before the coach leaves. It’s me he fancies, not May.’

      ‘I expect he’s got a wife and half a dozen nippers at home. I’d watch out for him if I were you, Ruth.’

      ‘I will, don’t you fret, ducks.’ Ruth stepped outside, leaving Lottie to finish her unenviable task.

      That done, she returned to the bedrooms, and made them ready for the next occupants. When she was satisfied that Mrs Filby could find nothing to criticise in her work, she went downstairs to help Cook prepare the midday meal.

      Jezebel Pretty did not live up to her name. She was tall, raw-boned and ungainly, with a lean, mean face and a fiery temperament. She had served a two-year sentence in Coldbath Fields prison, commonly known as The Steel, for inflicting grievous bodily harm on her former lover, and had been employed at the inn for almost a year. Lottie, Ruth and May had often spoken about her in the privacy of the attic room where they laid their heads at night, but it was not the fact that the Filbys had taken on an ex-convict that shocked them. What they found hard to believe was that anyone as patently ugly as Jezebel could have found a man who fancied her in the first place, or one who was foolish enough to take on a woman whose volatile temper simmered beneath the surface, erupting every now and then like a volcano.

      Even so, Lottie had discovered a different side to Jezebel. Not long after the cook had started work at the inn, a small mongrel terrier had got in the way of one of the mail coach horses. The poor creature had been flung up in the air and had landed on the cobblestones in a pathetic heap. Jezebel had happened to be in the yard, smoking her clay pipe, when the accident occurred, and Lottie had seen her rush to the animal’s aid. She had picked it up and, cradling it in her arms like a baby, carried it into the kitchen. Lottie had followed, offering to help and had watched Jezebel examining the tiny body for broken bones with the skill of an experienced surgeon, and the tenderness of a mother caring for her child.

      Despite two broken ribs and several deep cuts, Lad – as Jezebel named him – survived, and they became inseparable, despite Mrs Filby’s attempts to banish the dog from the kitchen, or any part of the building other than the stables. Lad, quite naturally, had developed a deep distrust of horses and he refused to be parted from his saviour. Jezebel, who was a good cook and worked for next to nothing, was the one person Mrs Filby treated with a certain amount of restraint and respect, and Lad was allowed to stay.

      Lottie entered the kitchen and received an enthusiastic greeting from the small dog, who seemed to remember that she was one of the first people who had shown him any kindness. Having been flea-ridden and undernourished when he first arrived, he was now plump and lively, with a shiny white coat and comical brown patches over one eye and the tip of one ear.

      ‘Where’ve you been?’ Jezebel demanded. ‘The bullock’s head is done and the meat needs to be taken off the bone, and the vegetables need preparing to go in the stew. I’ve been run off me feet. I was better off in The Steel than I am here.’

      ‘I would have come sooner, but I had to wait on in the dining parlour and I hadn’t finished the bedchambers, but I’m here now.’

      ‘And where are those two flibbertigibbets? I suppose they’re making sheep’s eyes at that fellow Trotter. My Bill was just like him until I spoiled his beauty with my chiv. Trotter had best look out, that’s all I can say.’

      Lottie lifted the heavy saucepan off the range. She knew better than to argue the point with Jezebel. It was easier and safer to keep her mouth shut and get on with her work; that way the long days passed without unpleasantness and everyone was happy in his or her own way. She had learned long ago that it was pointless to bemoan the fate that had brought her to The Swan with Two Necks. Born into an army family, her early years had been spent in India, and when her mother died of a fever, which also took Lottie’s younger brothers and sister, she had been sent to England with a family who were returning on leave, and left with her Uncle Sefton in Clerkenwell. A confirmed bachelor, he had little time for children and Lottie had been packed off to boarding school, although her uncle had made it plain that he considered educating females to be a total waste of money.

      She had received a basic education until the age of twelve, when she returned home to find that her uncle had married a rich widow. Lottie’s childhood had ended when her new aunt, supposedly acting with her niece’s best interests at heart, had sent Lottie to work for the Filbys. It was just another form of slavery: she worked from the moment she rose in the morning until late at night, when she fell exhausted into her bed.

      ‘Are you doing what I told you, or are you daydreaming again, Lottie Lane? D’you want to feel the back of my hand, girl?’ Jezebel reared up in front of Lottie, bringing her back to the present with a start.

      ‘Sorry, ma’am.’

      ‘Get on with it, or you’ll get another clout round the head, and I ain’t as gentle as the missis.’ Jezebel stomped out into the yard, snatching up her pipe and tobacco pouch on the way. Lad trotted at her heels, growling and baring his teeth at the horses.

      Lottie СКАЧАТЬ