Story: A Lady and Her Maid. Chapter 3.

Chapter 3

Stag Head Manor was not overly large. The ground floor, a parlour, a study, a library, two reception rooms, a dining room, kitchens, the maid’s accommodation adjoining the kitchens. A wide staircase leading from the long hallway to the upper floor. A master suite and four guest rooms, the latter seldom used. Attics and cellars for storage but nothing more. The late Lord Summerfield’s wealth had enabled the modernisation of the property which benefited from a central boiler for heating and hot water, and gas lighting. Stag Head Manor was not difficult for one competent maid to provide service for.

During the previous week, when Lady Summerfield took the apron, her maid had prepared a rota for her daily duties. It was only to be for a week so there were many omissions, which Jennifer was now revising. No different to Jennifer’s own rotas, along with additional daily duties, weekly and monthly tasks were now to be included in the maid’s work. Jennifer would not burden her maid with the extra work immediately and would introduce these to her schedule over the coming weeks.

Jennifer, like her mother before her, had been in service from an early age and had been taught well. The instilled mantra from those formative years being to ensure that each task was completed in a timely manner, sticking strictly to the rotas prepared for the household. A good maid never took to her bed before all the day’s work had been completed. This discipline had served Jennifer well. What was good for her will be good for the new maid.

Being such a good maid Jennifer had benefitted from the attentions of a philanthropic family in whose service she was previously employed. Taught to read and write and encouraged to adopt good manners and clear speech, she had always been more than comfortable in polite society. Strangely, above all else, these attributes were key to Jennifer securing her position at Stag Head Manor and they would serve Jennifer well in her new role of Mistress of the Manor.

Friday morning and Jennifer was all prepared to speak with her maid with the contract sat on the study desk. With the call bell tape pulled to summon the maid, within a short time a knock on the door followed and Maud entered and curtsied.

“You called for me, Madame.”

Jennifer pointed to the chair she had positioned in front of the desk.

“Take a seat, Maud.”

Sat opposite her Mistress, smoothing down her apron, Maud looked at Jennifer attentively.

Jennifer took a breath. She would need all her confidence to conclude this matter. Her Mistress had organised this, but in the cold light of day, would she still be enthusiastic to sign herself into the service of her own household?

“Before Lady Summerfield left on her travels, she organised the preparation of a contract for you that I have here before me. Being that I am now Mistress of Stag Head Manor it falls to me to conclude this matter with you, to have your contract signed. You have the makings of a good maid, Maud, and ,given that you continue to provide good service to your mistress, once your contact is signed, your position of maid here at the manor will be secure.

However, before we proceed, Lady Summerfield wished to indemnify her previous maid from certain arrangements that she made before she left. You are familiar with her hand and will need to sign this on her behalf. That won’t be a problem, will it, Maud?”

Jennifer handed her maid the simple letter she had prepared for Lady Summerfield’s signature along with an inked pen:

"I, Lady Constance Summerfield, have agreed to become my maid’s maid at Stag Head Manor in the name of Maud Williams for a period to be determined by my maid. I do so in full knowledge of consequence and indemnify such maid from any and all responsibilities in this matter."

Constance smiled. It was only what she had agreed and could understand her maids wish to cover her backside. All was progressing well. She did not want to disturb things for the sake of a signed note.

“I will do my best, Madame. I do know Lady Summerfield’s hand.”

The proud signature of Lady Constance Summerfield was added to the letter and it was handed back to Jennifer.

“Thank you, Maud. Now back to the business in hand.”

The contract motioned across the desk towards her, Constance stared at the document - her contract of service, Maud Williams’s contract of service that her attorney had prepared on her instructions. Official, stamped by the Notary, in every detail the same to the one previously prepared for her maid Jenny.

Constance’s excitement was palpable, and Jennifer continued.

“Sign both copies, Maud.”

There was a little hesitation and Jennifer looked straight into her maid’s eyes.

“Well, Maud? Sign.”

Constance, her hand slightly trembling, reached across to receive the reinked pen. Since sending off her instructions to her attorney, and then seeing his envelope earlier in the week, her wild irresistible imaginings, in anticipation of such a ceremony, had her squirming in delight. Constance scrawled the pen across the parchment leaving her mark in the name of Maud Williams. Signing herself into the service of her maid, into the service of Stag Head Manor, her own home, becoming officially her maid’s maid. was even more delectable than her imaginings.

Jennifer turned the contracts around and blotted the signatures.

Maud Williams, contracted maid to Stag Head Manor, Fourteenth of May, 1898.

Jennifer smirked and gathered the signed contracts. Her Mistress had actually done it. Not only had she signed the letter of intention and indemnity but her own maid’s contract. If Jennifer had any lingering doubt about her Mistress's sanity, they were dispelled. The woman was surely mad.

Maud, filled with a sense of euphoric emotion, stumbled to her feet and with her gaze lowered meekly curtsied. She had done it. All her connivance had come to fruition, she was truly her maid’s maid now. Her maid holding a signed contract to endorse just that and for as long as her maid wished without recourse. The exquisite feelings, engendered by her willing abandonment of past privilege and position, and her capitulation to the will of her maid greater than all her collective imaginings. How long to be kept a maid was of little thought or consequence, she was her maid’s maid now and that is all that filled her thoughts.

“Thank you, Madame. Will there be anything else Madame requires?”

Jennifer stared at her once Mistress, Lady Constance Summerfield, now officially her maid, Maud Williams, and smiled. It was remarkable, before all this nonsense began, before her ladyship offered to help around the manor, Jennifer could not have begun to imagine what now stood so servile before her. Yes, it was Lady Summerfield, she knew that, but really, the way she now looked in her maid’s uniform and her demeanour... Who would consider that she was, or indeed ever was, the Mistress of Stag Head Manor? Who, Maud, this girl looking so natural in her apron?

“No, Maud. That will be all for now.”

Another curtsy and Maud went back to her work for the day. New additions were made to her rota: scrubbing, mopping and then polishing the hallway tiles.

Jennifer had not used her privilege to pry the previous week, but things were different now and she reconciled her investigations, by virtue that she would be the Mistress of the manor for some time.

Jennifer rummaged through the drawers and with keys in her possession opened the cabinets viewing the various files within. All very neat and orderly: trade bills, the accounts ledger, bank details, deeds to the manor, a raft of papers from the late Lord Summerfield’s businesses filling a full cabinet. Jennifer found her own file and smiled reading the notes Lady Summerfield had written regarding what she required for the position, a tick having placed by each. Bright, reading and writing skills, well spoken with good bearing. Jennifer found it odd there was little mention of her actual role of being a maid, apart from, 'qualified and competent maid' at the bottom of the list.

Jennifer would need to put Lady Summerfield’s signed letter somewhere and dropped it into her own file. Jennifer giggled labelling a new file for Maid Maud and putting the contracts inside. Jennifer then remembered what Lady Summerfield had said to her, after she had signed her own contract: "This copy goes to the Notary to officially register you, so the authorities are aware you are the maid here at the Manor." Why not thought Jennifer mischievously, one copy of Maud’s contract neatly folded and placed into an addressed envelope, Jennifer laughed licking a stamp and placing it in the corner of the envelope, which was now sat on the desk ready to be posted.

The repeated ringing of the bell at the main door disturbed Jennifer from her delving and she entered the hallway to see Maud on her hands and knees by her bucket staring up at the door.

“Maud, answer the door!”

Maud hesitated. She could not be seen like this, dressed like she was, doing what she was!

The bell continued to ring, and Jennifer strode past her maid and opened the door wide. The kneeling maid at her scrubbing in plain view.

“Sorry to disturb, Miss. Packages from Linwood’s, the drapers.”

The young man held out some paperwork, which Jennifer read, before turning to look down at her maid. An order placed by Lady Summerfield for maid’s uniforms.

Jennifer was annoyed that Maud had not answered the door and surprised that she had actually ordered new uniforms for herself. Having signed the delivery note she turned back to Maud

“On your feet Maud. These are for you. Take these packages to your room! NOW, GIRL.”

Maud slowly stood and sheepishly walked past her Mistress to the door to collect the parcels.

The delivery boy helped get the parcels inside and whispered to Maud.

“Your Mistress sounds a bit of a tyrant. I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of her.”

Maud said nothing placing the parcels inside and just offered a weak smile when the young man left.

Jennifer, her annoyance calmed, smirked at her maid fumbling with the packages. The episode at the door had served good purpose. Maud had been seen and not recognised for anything other than the maid she was.

“Well, Maud, it would seem Lady Summerfield ordered new uniforms for you before she left, and I look forward to seeing you wearing one later. Get them to your room then get this hallway finished."

Maud curtsied.

“Yes, Madame.”

Maud, her embarrassed blushes dissipating, started to move the packages to her room, a smile broadening on her face. She had been seen, seen by a stranger down on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor, taken to be nothing other than the maid she was. The way her Mistress had spoken to her, ordered her, raised her voice to her in front of the delivery boy. Jennifer, her maid, made the perfect Mistress.

Back in the study Jennifer continued her exploration of the drawers and cabinets. Jennifer had tried numerous keys on a particular large drawer inside the largest of the cabinets without success. Eventually finding a single key at the back of the small side drawer of the desk, Jennifer smiled opening the stubborn drawer.

Jennifer just stared at first, then spent over an hour reading and studying what she had found in the drawer. It was no wonder her Mistress had been a quick learner in the work of a maid. Jennifer had never seen so much information, never knew most of it even existed. Thumbing through the Linwood catalogue she noted the ringed items of uniform, if these are the ones she had ordered, Jennifer was surprised. Traditional and restrictive, not of the more modern design with a practical and generous cut. Jennifer raised an eyebrow seeing two ringed items at the back of the booklet and chuckled. Really? The educator, the punisher?

The titles of the various publications found in the drawer were quite explanatory. "A maid’s role." "Supervising your maid." "Contracts and indentures." "Kitchen tasks, Equipment, and its use." "Dusting and polishing." "Laundry tips." "Fabrics and their pressing." "Repair and patching." "Soaps and cleaning product, how to apply." Jennifer smiled opening up a book titled, 'Mistress’s guide to vocabulary,' much amused at some of the phrases. Common language and slang used by the uneducated and an explanation for the mistress. Picking another well-thumbed if not slightly dog-eared booklet from the back of the drawer Jennifer again chuckled. "Discipline and control, the making of your maid." Her Mistress had obviously spent time reading this! Placing everything back in the drawer and locking it. Jennifer sat back in her chair considering what she had discovered and pondered how long her mistress had harboured thoughts and made plans to be aproned. She had certainly done her research, but why?

Theory and practice are somewhat different, and Maud was realising this very fact finishing the buffing of the hallway tiles. The scrubbing, mopping, laying the polish then buffing to a sheen had proved most arduous. It would be a fortnightly task on her new rota, not something she would be looking forward to.

Maud was stood surveying her work when her Mistress stepped out from the study and stared at her without a word. It was a strange expression making Maud feel quite awkward. Eventually the uneasy silence was broken.

“Maud, what a lovely job you have made of the tiles, not easy to achieve such a gloss. Now clear these things away. I would like to see you in your new uniform that Lady Summerfield purchased for you. Bring me tea on the terrace when you are dressed.”

Maud curtsied.

“Yes, Madame.”

The brushes mop and bucket swilled and returned to the cupboard along with the polish and buffer, Maud entered her room and smiled at the packages by the side of her bunk. Feverishly opening each in turn she removed what were Jenny’s garments from the rail of the wardrobe and the drawers and replaced them with her own new attire. Stripped of the old uniform she started to dress. The underwear crisp and clean she swirled her heavy petticoat around her ankles before sitting on her bunk to pull on her coarse hosiery. The high-necked dress with its many buttons was a snug fit, its newness offering a comforting restrictive feel. 

Maud stared at the shiny boots before slipping her feet into each and tugging the laces tight. Shaking out her apron Maud sighed softly pulling the yolk over her head then tying the tapes into a perfect bow. Her hands were shaking pulling the cap onto her head. Everything was a perfect fit. Maud looked at her reflection in the small mirror standing back for a better view. Her hair, it spoiled the look. Removing her cap, she scrapped her hair back tight against her head the best she could. It was just too thick and long. A maid would never have hair like she had. Maud pulled her cap back on and walked out into the kitchens. The tea soon brewed, and her Mistress's tray prepared, she walked slowly to the terrace. A curtsy and the tray laid before her Mistress Maud stood back with her hands across her apron.

Jennifer looked her maid up and down and smiled.

“Well, Maud, quite a day for you. You must be very pleased now that you are officially the maid here at Stag Head Manor. Your contract signed and new uniforms, which I do like by the way, very domestic. Lady Summerfield made a good choice with that. However, I was not pleased when you refused to open the door this morning, that must not happen again or there will be consequences for you. Why did you do that? Tell me honestly.”

Maud swallowed hard before speaking.

“Miss I, I did not know who it was. I didn’t want to be seen like I was, doing what I was, to be recognised.”

Jennifer sipped on her tea.

“Indeed, recognised? Recognised for what MAUD? For the maid you are? Who could doubt your position here at Stag Head manor? Look at you! You are the maid, nothing more nothing less and you are to remain a maid, until I decide otherwise. You will be recognised by callers to the Manor but only for what you are, a maid and nothing more. There will be no more of that nonsense. Do you understand? Well, do you?"

Her Mistress was right, the delivery boy instantly recognised Jennifer to be the mistress of the manor with way she was dressed and spoke. And she herself was seen to be nothing but a maid. Who would bother to look beyond the uniform of service?

“Sorry, Madame. It won’t happen again.”

Jennifer refilled her cup.

“Good. I do not what to hear that bell ring more than thrice every again. Now back to work, don’t get behind with your rota.”

“Yes, Madame.”

 

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