Silver (32 page)

       
Bateman was quick with a solution.

“
Why don’t you see if Silver can accompany you?”

       
Elizabeth eyed him closely, desperately trying to make up her mind if he knew. She had to probe further.

“
I am sure he would be delighted to. Why don’t you pick us up from the turnstile on the London Road at 10 o’clock?”

       
Bateman’s surprised face told her everything she needed to know and as she spun on her heel to return to the department store, there was a spring in her step at the prospect of some fun on the horizon.

As rapt as I was becoming with Mrs. Evesham’s recollections, I had noticed the mantel clock approaching the hour and I had to interrupt her. Though the picture she was painting of my father both honoured and framed his life, I had not yet come to hear about how my mother and he became involved nor what Mrs. Evesham had meant by a uniform.

“
I’m sorry. You must think I had forgotten what you had come to hear. I have not thought about that period of my life for such a time its all coming back to me as if it were only a few years ago.”

       
The older woman shook her head a little sadly and considered me for a moment before beginning again.

             
“Mrs. Evesham, tell me about my mother.”

“Your mother. Yes.”

        She continued looking at me, her eyes flickering over mine as she pondered the next words she would use.

“
It would be a lie to say that your mother and I were friends. She did not like me nor I her. However…,” she raised her voice as I tried to interject, “by the time we parted company, I think it is fair to say, we had a mutual respect for one another and I, for one, owed her a great debt of gratitude.

“
In the first instance, I admit I thought her rather proud and above her station and once I knew that she had an affection for your father, I will admit that I was rather more ‘unfriendly’ than I would usually have been.”

       
My face must not have concealed my confusion but Mrs. Evesham took this for disdain.

“
My dear, things may be different in this new century but in my day, being overly familiar with one’s maids was not to be encouraged.”

“
Maid? I am not sure that I follow.”

       
Mrs. Evesham looked as confused as I felt.

             
“Kate,” she said simply.

“
Katherine,” I corrected out of habit. John had always used her more formal diminutive.

“
Katherine. Kate. Your father’s maid,” she added when I continued to frown.

       
I suppose I had been expecting her to say as much but it was still a shock. Yet, it was such a fitting skeleton in my mother’s closet that I could not help but laugh. Though a surprise revelation, it seemed such a trivial thing in comparison and despite the fact, I felt a small disappointment that my mother had hidden this from me, it threw so much of her character into context that this was quickly eclipsed by a sort of relief. Images of her raced through my mind. She had her own maid, always a useless young girl who would only stay a few years at a time. What had seemed a reluctance to be waited upon, I had always attributed to her being unable to sit still, a sort of nervous agitation. Now I could see that it would have made her uncomfortable.

             
‘’Forgive me,” I pressed my lips together. “I had no idea. Please continue.”

       
Mrs. Evesham seemed oblivious to my shock but continued.

“
Though I had no great regard for her at first, I did not go out of my way to make life difficult. It was Avery who bore the brunt of my plaguing. So I did not know much about her until Avery returned to London after the death of his father.” She placed her hands upon her knees and began the next part of her story.

“
‘It was the end of the summer and things had been,” she paused and looked at me without meeting my eyes before shaking her head. “Things had been difficult,” she decided upon. Though interested in the details I let her continue at her own pace.

“
The news about Toby Silver had come as a great shock to all of us. Though I had never met him, I had envisaged him as a great bear of a man quite the opposite of my late uncle whom I had once heard aunt Georgina describe as being the runt of the Fearncott litter. Avery took the news very well and though terribly upset, he managed to organise for Georgina and himself to return to London that very day. Georgina on the other hand was in a terrible shock. If Avery had not managed the arrangements, there is no doubt she would have remained at Amersham. He came to find me to say goodbye and was surprised to find Kate in my room with me. She had found me an hour earlier in ….” Her voice trailed off and she looked directly at me and blushed. Shaking her head, she stammered for her train of thought.

“
She found me in a…a…a state of upset…and had seen me to my room whereupon she had proved to be a very good listener. You may find me selfish Imogen but there was a lot going on around that time. Toby’s death was sad news but my tears were entirely for myself. Avery had assumed that Kate would return with him and was very surprised when she volunteered to stay. There was not the time for a conversation about it and within a few hours, Georgina, Avery, Cribbs and Helen had left to catch the last train back to London.

“
With Georgina gone, the house seemed diminished but without Avery it seemed cold. As I retreated to my room, I wondered whether I should have insisted on Kate going with them. Some of my usual resilience had returned and I was beginning to regret having opened up to someone, let alone a maid. However, when I opened the door and saw Kate sitting waiting for me on the blanket box, I was filled with a rush of gratitude.

“
She was a good friend to me that day and that I had done nothing to deserve made it much more rewarding. It was a full week before we heard again from Avery and he advised that there was much to be done with his father’s business interests and would therefore not be returning for the foreseeable future. He did not send for Kate and I sensed that this piqued her.

“
Georgina on the other hand, had only been Toby’s fiancée and she was therefore without a role in the proceedings. This did not suit her sense of purpose and she was trying her best to appear the distraught widower-to-be whilst investigating any claim she may have to the Silver estate. My father was no doubt very helpful in assisting her with this.

“
By my usual standards, the following weeks were very dull for me but I was out of sorts and feeling unwell, so it was a welcome relief from being constantly on display. In that time, your mother and I spent quite a bit of time together. Some of the staff had been called to my aunts’ London home and, inside the house at least, we were left only with the housekeeper and a few scullery maids.

“
Though we were far from being friends, we became inseparable, by choice rather than duty.  Of course, being the only lady’s maid she tended to my dressing room, my wardrobe and kept me company on walks but she had such an easy and familiar way about her, I often found myself forgetting entirely that she was staff. Oh, I see how that makes you uncomfortable but it was true my dear. We lost contact over the years so, sadly, I do not know the woman she became, but even as a domestic servant she had character about her. I realised very quickly that I had never had someone within whom I could confide. Agnes, my sister, and I had never been close and we betrayed each other’s confidences as a matter of such course that we had not trusted anything of interest to each other since childhood. My father had no time for matters of little consequence and I had kept other women at an arm’s length viewing them as competitors. With Kate, she had nothing I prized and yet I was always conscious of my own jealous nature around her. Avery clearly had feelings for her and I could see why. She was sweet, quick witted, kind and caring beyond her station. More than that, she made me laugh despite myself and I could not help but like her.

“
So, we made an unsuitable pair for the weeks before Avery returned. When he returned, he returned alone. My aunt Georgina had decided to stay with a friend to escape further attention and where she could ‘recover from the shock.”

       
Mrs. Evesham fell silent and I was still waiting for that moment where she pulled the rug from beneath me but it did not come.

“
I don’t know what more that I can tell you, Imogen.” She glanced at me and then at her fingers which she had been twisting for the last five minutes. It was a nervous gesture and quite at odds with the confident and charming woman she appeared to be.

“
When was the last time you saw them both?” I asked. I wanted to ask what she knew of me, about who I was. If my father was not my father then who was? I wanted to ask but was afraid to know.

             
“After the death of his father, Avery was the sole beneficiary of a not insubstantial sum of money. Whilst setting some of his father’s affairs in order in London, he had also been setting some of his own plans in motion. When he returned to Amersham something about him had changed, he had lost a little weight and become more angular in the face through lack of sleep and he had probably not been eating either. As a result, the clothes that ill-suited him, now ill fitted him too and he was more at odds than I had seen him with his own body.

“
His inheritance allowed him more freedom than ever before and that first evening after dinner he spoke to me in detail. He had laid plans to travel and of course, he had purchased tickets for himself and Kate. He was planning a journey across Europe and along the way he hoped to shed a part of himself. He would start the journey as a woman and return as a man, permanently. As he described the route by which he planned his tour; Ostend, Paris, Lausanne, Barcelona, Seville, I imagined him as a dark field snake coursing across the map, sloughing his old skin as he went, I will admit that I was intensely jealous. Not of Kate but of Avery. Travelling was something I ached to do and it was one of the things that made my imminent marriage more bearable. When he told me the news, I snapped at him and retreated to my room. I could not trust myself to say something I would regret.

“
That evening, he came to me room and I was calmer but no less envious of the position he had found himself. It will seem cruel in the extreme but I would have traded Agnes and my father at that point to have half of the freedom he had access to. He was kinder to me that evening, we had left on such hostile terms it did not sit right with him and he was not inclined to hold his grudge. He listened to me and though I did not beg passage with him, I let it be known that I was open to the suggestion. No doubt your mother had some hand in what followed and by the morning Avery was offering me the chance to travel with him. At first, I could not see how I could but the more I considered it, the more possible it seemed. Why would my father and aunt object to a trip across Europe. Had I not proven, if not falsely, that I could be trusted?

“
And so, we did. There were some objections from my father of course who insisted on a chaperone accompanying us. Avery threatened to abandon the trip and my father, really thought the idea a wondrous opportunity, was quick to agree some terms with Avery. Firstly, we would be required to send regular word as to our progress. Secondly, I was to be home before the beginning of April so that my wedding plans would not be interrupted. Lastly, we could not travel without a man. This could have been my undoing as Avery was beginning to tire of the conditions. Fortunately though, he found someone very quickly, a young man by the name of George Heston. I do not know where he found him but they were already well acquainted. Heston was introduced to my father as a scholar and though he had his concerns as to Heston’s suitability he reluctantly agreed. Within the fortnight and into October we were crossing the channel. By the end of May, I was returning alone having left Avery, Kate and Heston in Milan.

“
By the summer, I was Mrs. Evesham and her I have remained,” she finished simply.

I looke
d at the old woman’s hands which she had, by now, begun to almost turn into knots. For somebody who seemed to revel in the telling of a tale and had so far not been mean with the richness of details, I was surprised that she was so reluctant to fill in the gaps. By her own admission, she had spent almost eight months travelling throughout Europe with my mother and father and, to my delighted surprise, Heston too. Had she also not arrived home a month later than planned and barely in time for her own wedding? So, my mother and father fell in love whilst in Europe? Where did I factor in all of this? I was buzzing with questions. Not just for Mrs. Evesham but for Heston.

       
There was a draught as the door opened cautiously and the face of Mrs. Evesham’s young maid appeared. She was trying to remain unseen and when her eyes lit on mine she coloured and tried to withdraw. In her haste, she hit her head upon the doorframe behind and let out a loud yelp.

“What on earth?”

        Mrs. Evesham turned abruptly in her chair, knocking the table with her foot and causing the teacups to clatter angrily.

       
I had been holding my breath and it was such a comical end to the tension that I could not help but let out a laugh. Having seen nothing at the door, Mrs. Evesham spun around to look at me and, noting my laugh, her own eyes twinkled and she let out her own chuckle.

“
Was that Gemma?” she asked quietly, bending forwards.

       
I nodded, a fresh wave of giggles rising up in me.

“
What impeccable timing! More tea?” she asked me before standing up and going to investigate how the girl fared after her run in with the door. Glancing at the time, I reluctantly declined.