Story: The Education and Rehabilitation of Miss Caroline Drake. Chapters 8-9.

by Jackie J

Chapter 8

Five months had passed since they had first set sail and clearing the docks the party of Lady Drake hugged. It had not been the most pleasant of sailings for the last part of their journey home, but they were all save on dry land now. Lady Drake had business to attend in London with the banks and bid farewell to her travelling companions, Lord and Lady Stokes and the company accountant, Cecil Browning.

Deeds and share certificates needed to be deposited at the bank and Gwendoline was anxious to know what carnage her profligate step- daughter had caused with the family finances whilst she had been away. Leaving the bank, Gwendoline retained a degree of disbelief and smiled, deposits outweighed withdrawals, by a considerable amount. Spending had been rather frugal. A large withdrawal two days after she left but not excessive and a similar amount two days ago, but the rest of the withdrawals, small amounts in line with the household budgets Mrs Dillon ran. Hardly anything, in fact nothing from the salons, drapers, jewellers, high end fashion houses, café’s, travel? How extraordinary she thought? Lady Drake had expected to be met by the debris left by a tsunami of Caroline’s reckless spending but nothing, nothing at all.

Her letters had not been answered, not that she expected them to be, she had been travelling extensively around her late husband’s global interests and it could be that mail got lost or is still following her trail. Two weeks spent in London with her friend, in contrast to the hustle and bustle of her travel, allowed her to relax and prepare for her return to Longwater. Cecil Browning had agreed to escort Lady Drake from London to her estate and duly arrived promptly. 

Story: The Education and Rehabilitation of Miss Caroline Drake. Chapters 6-7.

by Jackie J

Chapter 6

A lathered steaming horse, with its saddle removed, edged into its stall and a long- cloaked figure headed into the rear entrance of Clegg Hall. Breathless from a hard five- mile ride Abigail stripped off her boots, jacket and jodhpurs and thrust herself under the sheets of her bed. She knew Caroline was at Longwater, she just knew she was. Having grown up with Caroline and spent many days at Longwater she knew the manor intimately, every entrance and passage. Games of hide and seek with Caroline, over their younger years, leaving little of Longwater manor unexplored.

The adrenalin, that had driven her back to Clegg Hall, dissipating in her system Abigail laid on her bed staring up at the ceiling, her eyes filled with questioning worry. What to do, who to tell? What was she doing, is doing? Bella? Bella, that was Caroline and no mistake. Her hair was short, very short and wearing a maid’s uniform? she was scrubbing the hallway, actually down on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor?  And that other maid, shouting at her? Caroline’s voice, squeaky and the way she spoke? Oh, my goodness, what has happened to her? Abigail could not help but nervously chuckle to herself. Caroline Drake of all people, a maid? She should have done something, said something, but what? 

Having found her way unseen to Caroline’s rooms, hoping to find her there, she had heard a raised voice on the ground floor. Creeping to the end of the landing and stood at the top of the stairs she had peered down and that is when she saw what she had. Abigail had stood transfixed by the spectacle below, Caroline Drake in a maid’s uniform, a Longwater manor maid’s uniform, scrubbing the hallway tiles being berated, and called Bella, by a common maid. Begging the maid in a strange squeaky voice not to tell Mrs Dillon, her own housekeeper, that she had tipped her bucket? Hearing more voices, and fearful of being discovered, Abigail had hidden and waited for what seemed an age before climbing back out of the window through which she had entered Longwater. Confused, angry, perplexed it was now dark and Abigail having walked her horse stealthily through the back bushes jumped on its back and rode like the wind into the night.