An Indelicate Situation (The Weymouth Trilogy) (10 page)

The
very
nervous assistant took a deep breath an
d eyed Mrs William a little warily. He appeared
most loath to allow t
he boat out of his possession
for a fee that would quite obviously result in a whopping loss
for him
, but he could also see that both Master William and his mama were equally determined to prize it from him and that
for the sake of his nervous system he should capitulate now, before it got too late.

‘You’ll ruin me, ma’am, and that’s the truth,’ he admitted, stroking his chin ruefully. ‘But I can see that the little
lad has set his heart on the boat
and I’m not a hard hearted man. Hand me your five shillings and he can take it away with him right now.’

Will was getting restive. Until now Maggie had held him firmly by the hand, but Mrs William just then passing her own parcel to her to hold once more
as she found and parted with her crown
, Will
seized
his opportunity, tore himself from her
,
pushed his way past the assistant’s thin torso and headed straight for the desired boat in its decorative position at the rear of the
extremely
cluttered counter.

‘William, come
here
. Come here this
instant
, you naughty boy.’

But Will had other ideas. Knocking the other, less desirable, toys from their places in order to reach the
prized
schooner he grasped it greedily and pulled it from the shelf. A tin soldier clattered noisily to the floor, his comrades
-
at
-
arms knocked all ways on the counter like
so many pins, obviously quite incap
able
of withstanding
the
guerrilla
attack so unexpectedly made upon them. A glass stand shattered as it followed its master to the ground. A box full of marbles, foolishly placed in what the assistant had mistakenly thought a place of saf
ety, was next to leave its sa
n
ctuary
nearby
. By this time Will
appeared to be
quite enjoying the rumpus his stampede was creating
and he now began systematically
to
clear the remainder of the counter of anything he could reach.

‘William, William, stop that this
instant
. Miss Owens, put that parcel
down
and go to stop him. He will destroy the whole
shop
unless you can get him to the door.’

Maggie tried manfully to catch him but William was
determined and
a
s
slippery as an eel and it actually took the combined efforts of herself, the extremely nervous assistant and Mrs William to surround him and
trap him in a corner before his
rampage was finally over. Sadly, in so doing, William dropped his prize on the floor
and Mrs William,
pushed off balance by the
cramped situation in which she found herself
, was quite unable to prevent hersel
f from stepping immediately upon
it
. Yes, Mrs William stepped upon it a
nd
straight away
– to the horror of everyone then assembled in the little shop –
she
had
the
anguish of
hearing an almighty crack
,
and of
seeing its delicate mast and rigging breaking away
entirely
under
the
considerable weight of her
regrettably
mighty boot
.

A sudden hush descended upon the toyshop
-
a
sudden hush which was immediately afterwards destroyed by a loud wail emitted from little Will and an almost equally loud wail emitted from Mrs William as that young
gentle
man kicked her viciously in the shin.

‘You horrible woman,’ shrieked Will, hitting out at her with all his might. ‘You horrible woman. I hate you
-
you did that on purpose. I saw you stepping on it. You have trampled it underfoot and have broken the mast right off.’

At great risk to his personal safety, the
ex
cessively
nervous
assistant bent down to ret
rieve the now sorry
-
looking article
from beneath his customer’s feet. He looked at her steadily as he did so
and handed it up to her
.

‘I hope you will be able to mend it again, ma’am
,’ he said
, and marched them
quickly and
determinedly
over
to the door
.

Whereas Mrs Stav
eley, who had contributed
well
over
half of the money required to purchase the house in
Grosvenor
Place, could only be afforded one room to herself on the second floor of the building
,
and her son, whilst he remained her guest,
grudgingly
allowed the
small
est
guest bedroom next door
at a rental which would not have disgraced the very best room that
Scrivens’ Boarding House
had to offer
, Mr Wright and his family occupied the whole of the
remainder of the hou
se with the exception of a tiny
, cupboard
-
like room at the rear of the first floor
,
overlooking the yard
,
which had been allocated to Maggie as her own personal chamber. The children were housed across the corridor from Mrs Staveley on the second floor –
the twins in two small rooms of their own and the younger c
h
ildren in the nursery next door
-
ostensibly to enable the remainder of the first floor to be taken over by
the
schoolroom
and the larger guest bedroom
but more likely to enable their papa and mama to achieve a good night’s sleep
in their comfortable suite
a
t an acceptable distance
from their noisy
brood
.
Officially, of course, Mrs Staveley also had free rein over the public rooms on the ground floor but since her removal to Weymouth
she
had very soon determined on the pleasantness of her apartment on the top floor, with its
splendid
view
over the waters of the bay
,
when compared to the rowdy downstairs accommodation
with its view o
ver
the road
. So she
had already
got much into the habit of remaining upstairs unless she had particular reasons for going out.

The situation of Maggie’s chamber, di
rectly to the rear of Mr Wright
’s personal dressing room, and sharing a wall with it, provided her with many a delightful yet agonising moment
of imagination
as
she could hear the gentleman clatter
ing about – opening and closing drawers a
nd door
s – as he
washed and
robed himself in the mornings and disrobed himself at night.
S
he was constantly
mindful of him sleeping
not three yards from her
self
  – and not only because of the gentle snores emanating from his charming wife
reclining next to him
in their giant double bed
. The thought of him
so close to her
quite robbed her of sleep for hours.

Despite her normal reluctance to vacate her room, it appeared that Mrs Staveley had
decided that it would be only polite to accompany her niece on a return visit to Miss Brewer a little way along the Esplanade,
for
on the Friday after the dinner,
at about a half after two
,
she was to be seen in her
best visiting clothes ventur
ing
slowly and
rather stiffly
down the staircase
to the ground floor of the house
.
She sat herself down patiently in
the drawing room whilst the lady of the house settled her bonnet at just the
required
angle in front of the
alcove
mirror in the
hall.
Mrs Wright
was
actually fe
eling
a little out of curl at
Mrs Staveley’s
inconsiderate decision
to join her on the visit
. After all
, it had entailed her in getti
ng a servant to organise a
chair for the old lady, who would have been quite unable to walk the few hundred yards
to Gloster Row
on her own
, and the c
hair, of course, would cost
at least a sixpence, which she felt that she could very ill afford
to waste
.
Maggie had just released little
August
a into the capable
and most welcome
hands of a music master
. A
ccording to her loving mama she was destined to
blossom into
a maste
rful harpist
as she grew up
, an instrument o
n
which Maggie sadly had no exper
tise
whatsoever
. A
master had therefore most reluctantly been sourced from amongst the best that Weymouth society had to offer
,
albeit at a gratifyingly reduced fee in recognition of the testimonials that Mrs William had so kindly hinted that she might be prepared to provide amongst her extremely wide and genteel acquaintance throughout the
rest of the
town
in return
. Maggie
was
just
returning
to resume
her own
work
in the schoolroom
when s
he passed Mrs Wright in the hall.

‘Oh, Miss Owens.’

Mrs Wright had
just been reassuring Mrs Staveley about something or other when she spotted Maggie
behind her,
in the mirror.

‘Miss Owens, I believe I left my green reticule in Aunt Staveley’s room this morning when I went in to suggest that she accompany me on
my
visit today. Would you be so kind as to fetch it for me?
I need to await the appearance of the
chair
.
I think you will find it on the small stool by the door.’

Maggie was a little taken aback. She was not often accosted by Mrs Wright and she was not normally expected to run errands for the family. However, knowing that it was the housemaid’s afternoon off that day and thinking that the other servants may be busy on other things she happily agreed to do so and ran up the two flights to Mrs Staveley’s room in order to effect the commission. She opened the door a little nervously. She had never had cause to visit Mrs Staveley’s room before and it felt
a bit
like forbidden territory. However, she knew that the lady herself was already downstairs and had presumably granted permission for the reticule to be sought, so she slipped into the room and looked about for the stool that Mrs Wright had described to her. The stool was there all right, just as the lady had
intimat
ed, but there was no sign of a reticule, green or otherwise. Maggie looked quickly about the rest of the room. Everything was neat and tidy. There was nothing out of place. There was certainly no stray reticule. A little puzzled, Maggie left the room and made her w
ay back down to the hall
.

‘I’m sorry, Mrs Wright, I could not see the reticule in Mrs Staveley’s room at all. Are you sure you left it there?’

Mrs Wright
hardly looked at her.

‘Oh, not to worry
, Miss Owens – I have found it here after all. I thought I had left it there but obviously I had not.’

A little annoyed that her employer had not even the manners to thank her for her effort, Maggie left her to her own devices and
resumed her original mission back to the
sanctuary of the
schoolroom.

Although she generally taught – or attempted to teach – the twins throughout the day, that particular afternoon was turning out to be somewhat different from usual. Will
had been excused the schoolroom for once
, having caught some nasty infection from another child of his acquaintance on a brief visit to him earlier in the week, and with Augusta safely
ensconced
with Mr Hayward
Maggie actually found that she had an unexpected and very welcome hour all to herself. The feeling of perfect freedom was delicious
,
and though she had half planned to spend the time in preparation for some further lessons she managed to convince herself of the absolute ne
cessity of purchasing
some extra materials with which to embellish them.
The decision reached, the choice of supplier was easily made. As well as serving its main function
of lending books to the literate
Weymouth
public Harvey’s library, a five minute walk along the Esplanade, also stocked all nature of interesting treats and trinkets
. Together
with the added attraction of providing a pleasant walk along the busy sea
-
front it was the obvious place to go.