Back in Service by Rosanna Challis Page A

wearing an odd little smirk on her face, and for a few moments there was an awkward silence between the two young women, broken only by the light clatter of cups on saucers as they finished their tea.
    Finally, Hetty decided to take the initiative. ‘How long have you been here, Jane?’ she asked politely.
    ‘Just six months, miss. There was another girl before, but she proved… unsatisfactory.’
    ‘And how do you find it here?’
    Jane’s beautiful eyes darkened slightly. ‘Very good, thank you, miss.’
    Hetty knew she was being given a stock reply, the answer the girl thought she wanted to hear. ‘Jane, you need not pretend to me.’ She drew her chair closer to hers. ‘I have been in your position, too, as you know. And please call me Hetty when we are alone. There is no need to be so formal.’
    ‘Thank you… Hetty. Well, I must say, I found it all very strange at first. I came from a house that was more… well, more ordinary.’
    ‘There have been strange goings-on within these walls, Jane, make no mistake,’ she said grimly. ‘And I have been both privy and party to them. But let me hear your impressions of the staff and family, beginning with Lady Alice.’
    ‘Well, Miss Hetty, she is quite kind most days and only once really lost her temper with me. That was when I told tales on Sir Victor.’
    ‘Why? What had he done?
    ‘He made so bold as to pinch my bottom as I was passing by his chair. I thought I had better report it to my lady, but she told me I must be lying because he was the perfect gentleman and an invalid besides. That was when she said a scolding was not enough.’
    ‘And how did she punish you, Jane?’
    A delicate flush spread over her features. ‘She… she spanked me with her hairbrush.’
    ‘In private?’ Hetty queried relentlessly.
    ‘Yes, in her bedroom. She made me lay facedown on her big bed while she pulled down my drawers and gave me what for. It stung so bad I never dared say nothing about Sir Victor to her again.’
    ‘And would you have had cause to tell her anything more, Jane?’
    Tears brimmed in her eyes. ‘Oh yes, Miss Hetty, I am afraid so.’
    She did not wish to push the girl too far, so she enquired about Nanny Baines.
    ‘Oh she is a tyrant, that one! She rules everyone with a rod of iron, including Sir Victor. She is a real tartar, and no mistake.’
    Now Hetty thought she understood her husband’s trepidation when he first caught sight of the woman. As his old nanny, she must have ruled him with a rod of iron, too. ‘Has she disciplined you, Jane?’
    ‘Only with harsh words and a slap on the cheek. That was the day Sir Victor wheeled himself into the stillroom.’
    ‘Ah…’ Hetty remembered the stillroom well. Its location – at the end of a dark passageway and far from the main body of the house – made it the ideal spot for a clandestine encounter.
    ‘He started to make free with me,’ Jane continued, ‘as I stood at the bench. I was shocked, but not altogether surprised since he had already pinched my bottom.’
    ‘What did he do this time?’ Hetty surprised herself with the note of eagerness in her voice. She did not understand why she should feel so keen to know the details, but somehow it made her feel better. Perhaps it was the knowledge she was not the only one to have suffered at Sir Victor’s wandering hands.
    ‘He…’ Jane swallowed the memory of her emotions in order to continue speaking calmly. ‘He lifted my skirt and stroked my bottom quite intimately. I begged him to stop, but he would not, and all the while he was saying… things.’
    ‘What kind of things?’ she enquired gently. ‘Remember, Jane, I have also suffered at that man’s hands. You will not shock me. Feel free to speak plain.’
    ‘But I have not spoken of it to anyone,’ she looked thoroughly miserable, ‘not after Lady Alice would not believe me.’
    Hetty’s heart went out to the girl. She squeezed her hand in sympathy, and waited.
    ‘He said I