“Who says I didn’t? Good night, Lady Caitrin. My dear, beloved wife Catty.”
8
They slipped out of the house before dawn. It was a cold morning, everything was coated with a heavy dew, and Caitrin shivered as she climbed into the car and quietly eased the door shut. Hector pulled out the choke, pressed the accelerator pedal once, and whispered, “Pray Victoria starts first time.”
Caitrin nodded. “Come on, Victoria, or the Ashtonthorpes will not be amused.”
The engine fired, hesitated, and roared into life. Hector engaged first gear and let the car roll away.
“That is guaranteed to wake up every Ashtonthorpe right back to old Liverpool Claude.” Caitrin giggled and slipped into a “posh” English accent. “This is all rather cloak-and-daggery. A jolly jape, what ho, Jeeves?”
Hector changed gears and switched on the headlamps. With only one on the driver’s side working, as required by blackout regulations, and covered, except for a tiny slit, little light escaped, and it barely illuminated the driveway. Windscreen wipers smeared dirt crescents across the glass.
“I can’t see a damn thing,” Hector said.
“Fortunately, there’s nothing to see. Look out, a deer!”
Hector braked, and Victoria skidded to a halt.
“It’s not a deer, it’s a Wendy,” Caitrin said and opened her door. The Ashtonthorpes’ maid Wendy, pinned to the darkness by the feeble headlamp light and clutching a pillowcase stuffed with her belongings, looked scared and ready to run. Caitrin got out of the car and went to her. “Wendy, what on earth are you doing out here?”
“I’m going home, Madam,” she said, her chin tilting and with an edge of defiance to her voice. “I mean it this time and no stopping me. Not changing my mind.”
“Where’s your home?”
“Ipswich.”
“You’re a long way from home.”
Wendy nodded, barely, and shivered.
“Aren’t we all, I suppose, and your feet are soaking wet,” Caitrin said and took the girl’s arm. “Hop in the car. We can at least take you away from here.”
Wendy climbed into the rear seat, Caitrin sat in front, and Hector pulled away. There was silence until they reached the end of the driveway and turned onto the road. The day was getting lighter. Wendy was motionless. She seemed even to have stopped breathing and clutched the pillowcase to her breast as though it were her only protection against the world. It was.
Caitrin turned to face her and said, “Were you going home or escaping?”
“Madam?” Wendy was startled by the blunt question.
“Don’t call me madam; we’re all girls here,” Caitrin said and poked Hector. “Except for him, and he’s just the driver and doesn’t count.”
Wendy darted a glance at Hector, who looked suitably chauffeur-aloof.
“It’s all right, Wendy; we were escaping that dreadful place too,” Caitrin said, and that opened the floodgates for Wendy.
“It’s not fair. I had to do everything, I did,” she said, swiping at her nose with the back of a hand. “There was five servants when I started and they all left and it was just me at the end to do everything.”
“There used to be a lot more than five,” Hector said.
“Not now there ain’t.”
“Good for you for deciding to leave. What are you going to do when you get home to Ipswich?” Caitrin asked.
The question seemed to baffle Wendy, and it took her some time to answer. “What would I really like to do?”
“Yes.”
“I know it sounds silly, but I always wanted to be a lorry driver and go all over the place. See things I haven’t seen before, things I just heard talked about.”
“Why didn’t you?”
That question too was difficult for her. “Can I whisper?” she said, leaned forward, and whispered in Caitrin’s ear before she could reply.
“That’s the past, it’s ancient history, and there’s so much time ahead of you,” Caitrin said and patted the girl’s hand. “You can still be a lorry driver if you want. With this war going on, the country needs all the lorry drivers it can get, male and female.”
“I don’t know if I could do something like that. You could.”
“And why not you?”
“I’m just a maid.”
“I was a maid once too,” Caitrin said.
“You were?”
“I was indeed.” Caitrin squeezed Wendy’s arm. “You can do it if you really want to.”
Wendy looked as though she wanted to believe her.
