Easterleigh Hall by Margaret Graham Read Free Book Online Page B

moment Jack returned. The thought that she could see where they would be warmed her, for there was little else that would up in this freezing ice house of an attic. There was a fireplace, but it was devoid of coal. She was unsurprised. Why would Bastard Brampton waste his coal on servants?
    She searched the beautiful landscape for a moment longer but there was no sign of Easton, no sign of Auld Maud and its glowing slag heaps, hidden as it was in the folds of the hill. But it was there. By, it was there all right.
    She clattered down the stairs in her turn, and into the warmth of the kitchen. She brought her recipe bible with her. Mrs Moore looked up. ‘Good, you’ve had the sense to bring your recipes and I’ll be familiar with those, I daresay. Our Miss Manton’s a good teacher, I’ll say that.’ She was rubbing her eyes again and Evie hoped she’d wash her hands before she started cooking. ‘I taught her, you know. I was her mother’s cook. But that bairn, Grace Manton, taught me a thing or two as well. It seems a hundred years ago.’
    Evie nodded. ‘I can imagine.’
    Mrs Moore stared. ‘You can imagine I’m a hundred years old?’
    Evie laughed, then saw that Mrs Moore was definitely not joining in. ‘No, I didn’t mean that, I just meant that it’s a long time to be cooking.’ She snapped her mouth shut. She was on a hiding to nothing.
    Mrs Moore tapped her book. ‘I think you’ve dug a deep enough hole for yourself, don’t you?’ She peered over the top of her glasses. Evie nodded. ‘Quite deep enough, Mrs Moore. I can hardly see the sky from where I’m standing. By, I must be a pitman in disguise.’
    There was a moment’s silence, then Mrs Moore laughed. ‘Away with you, pet. Perhaps we’ll get along. Now, we’ve had a change, young Evie, since you came for your interview. As you know, Charlotte the assistant cook was no better than she ought to be and had to leave, so you keep your legs together if you don’t mind, and now her Ladyship has taken it upon herself to move Edith the kitchen assistant over to second under-housemaid. So, sorry but you’re to do kitchen assistant as well. There’s your list of duties.’ She removed her spectacles and pointed with them at two pages of writing that lay next to the mixing bowl on the table, opposite the middle range. ‘Seems she feels economies must take place.’ Her face was grim. ‘Not that I would think there are many of them economies going on upstairs, thank you very much.’
    Evie clutched her recipe bible tightly. Kitchen assistant as well as assistant cook? She said nothing, but walked to the list. It started with lighting the furnace at 5.30 a.m. and don’t forget the fender, plus scrubbing the kitchen floor, waking Mrs Moore with a cup of tea and also Mrs Green and Mr Harvey. It moved on to cleaning any copper pans left over from the night before – though they should not be left, if you don’t mind, Mrs Moore had added. This cleaning of the copper would be done to assist Annie. Evie was to cook the servants’ breakfast, and help Mrs Moore with the upstairs breakfasts, before doing every conceivable chore anyone could dream up and then some more. She would also prepare the vegetables for the upstairs meals and cook all the other meals for the servants.
    â€˜I can’t do all of this and draw breath,’ she said, placing her book on the table, crossing her arms and bracing herself as she had seen Jack do so many times.
    Mrs Moore looked up at her. ‘Neither can you, bonny lass, so we’ll muddle along together, you and I with young Annie in the scullery until they see sense. These gentry, you know, protect their stomachs like they protect their fortunes. We’ll just have to make a few economies of our own and they’ll come to heel.’ She winked. ‘They say we have to fade out