Prudence and the Romantic Poet (The Three Graces #3)

Chapter 9

9

Prudence had not meant to break such surprising news to her sister so bluntly. But that was how it all tumbled out. The story of how she had met Mr Sealy, and how needy he was, and how he appeared to have only one servant, and him rather elderly.

‘I cannot leave him,’ she concluded.

‘No,’ said Constance slowly. ‘I still cannot quite believe we have a living relative. I knew there was an uncle of our mother’s who had nothing to do with the family, but I assumed he was dead.’

‘Well, you cannot stay to take care of him,’ Finn reminded his wife. ‘You are under strict orders to only take care of yourself for the time being.’

Constance looked at him with a troubled expression. ‘But Prudence cannot stay alone. I must remain here a while longer.’

Finn compressed his lips and looked grim.

‘I am not a child,’ said Prudence calmly. ‘I am of age, and quite capable of remaining in Bath for another week or two. Just long enough to ensure our uncle’s comfort, and arrange the hire of reliable staff to care for him. ’

‘I could not leave you to do this alone,’ protested Constance.

‘That is exactly what you must do,’ replied Prudence. ‘Finn is right. You must take care of yourself and the baby foremost. None of us can countenance a recurrence of—’ she did not need to finish this sentence. Finn reached for his wife’s hand, catching her eye. Constance understood the look, and relented.

‘Lizzy must stay with you,’ Constance said at last. ‘And Amos. I would feel more comfortable knowing they are with you. Amos would guard you with his life.’

‘This is Bath, Connie,’ said Prudence with a smile, relieved that there was not going to be a tussle. ‘The greatest threat to me here is the mud.’

‘But young ladies do not reside alone, even in Bath.’

‘I shall not reside alone. I mean to reside with my great-uncle. No one can object to that.’

‘I would sooner you stayed here with Mr and Mrs Hervey.’ Constance looked newly anxious.

‘If our uncle will assent to it, then it will be better if I reside with him. I should only be travelling up and down town morning and evening to sleep here. There is little use renewing the rent for another month merely for me to use it as a hotel to sleep in at night.’

‘But what sort of house has Mr Sealy?’

‘A good-sized town house in Kingsmead Street. One of the older ones. He appears to only use one room on the ground floor, but the other rooms I glimpsed were all furnished, if in need of a thorough clean.’

‘You will not wear yourself out cleaning a house from top to bottom,’ protested Constance.

‘I will get help. Mrs Smithyman is sure to know of reliable people I can hire. We may have to pay for a deal of it, however. From his style of living I conclude that Mr Sealy is very poor.’

‘Of course we will do all that is needed,’ said Constance. ‘Mama would certainly have wished it. I should like to meet him. You say he is quite alone. How very sad. He might be glad to find that he has family.’

Prudence thought of the crotchety old man and his reception of her, and forewarned her sister as best she could. ‘He is not an easy man,’ she said tactfully. ‘I am not even certain that he was pleased to know me. It is purely my conscience that prompts me to stay and help him, not my inclination.’

But to Mr Sealy’s they were all to go.

The servant who opened the door of Mr Sealy’s house peered past Prudence at the group of strangers behind her.

‘It is Miss Grace,’ Prudence prompted.

‘Aye,’ he said, still looking doubtfully at them all.

‘I have come to see my uncle. This is my sister.’

‘Another niece?’ The servant looked rather dazzled by the elegant figure of Mrs Finnistone. ‘Well, I’ll be.’ He looked at Finn questioningly.

‘My sister’s husband,’ explained Prudence. ‘And our maid,’ she added as he tilted his head to peer round Finn at Lizzy. ‘And our manservant.’ Amos was at the rear of the group. Constance had thought it a good plan to let Lizzy and Amos see what kind of establishment they would be going into if Prudence insisted on remaining there.

‘May we come in?’

The servant considered this for some moments. ‘Mr Sealy don’t have visitors. He don’t like them. ’

‘We are not merely visitors,’ said Prudence. ‘We are family.’

He considered this for some moments more, then said, ‘I’ll have a word with him,’ and shut the door.

‘This is not a propitious beginning,’ said Constance.

‘I did warn you he was of an unsociable character,’ said Prudence.

Some minutes passed by before the door opened again.

‘Mr Sealy says if you’ve come for the entry to the hot baths and the hire of the chair, he never asked you for it and he don’t have it,’ said the servant.

‘I have not come for money,’ said Prudence. ‘We are here to ask after him and to offer our assistance.’

The servant replied that he would tell that to the master, and shut the door again.

‘Is the door latched, Pru?’ said Finn. Prudence tried the handle and found that it was not. It opened inwards. ‘Let’s cut line and speak to the fellow ourselves.’

Constance protested, but Finn stepped in and held the door for the rest of them to follow.

The entrance hall was cold. ‘Lawks,’ exclaimed Lizzy, eyeing the cobwebs overhead and running a finger through the dust on a heavy oak console.

They could hear voices from the room a little way down the hall. The servant was saying, ‘You need what help you can get, sir, for I can’t be doing everything, an’ the office won’t send no more mopseys, ‘cause they’ve marked you down as too crabbed and close-fisted. Now here’s a bobbin’, spruce kind of maid, nothing seedy about her, claiming kin and not asking for none of your blunt, but ready to show you a kindness, and kindness is what you’re needing, for if someone don’t come and help out we’ll be eating pap all our days and you won’t be leaving that chair till you stick your spoon in the wall. ’

Mr Sealy growled out something in reply and then broke into a violent fit of coughing punctuated with gasps for breath.

The sisters shared a look of alarm and were of one mind to help, for the old gentleman sounded dreadful. Prudence pushed open the door, saying, ‘Uncle Sealy, let me help you,’ and hurried in. ‘Lizzy, help me lift him to open his lungs.’

Constance poured out a glass of water, Prudence gave a calm request to the servant for some brandy, honey, ground pepper and hot water, but was informed that there were no such things to be had in the pantry. Lizzy went off to investigate and returned to give a shocked account of the pitifully stocked shelves.

‘No wonder you’ve a Churchyard cough,’ exclaimed Lizzy, ‘breathing in this smoke and dust.’ She could not open the window, for it appeared to have been closed for years, so Amos was employed to open it with force, while Finn attempted to get the fire burning properly, instead of smoking noxious fumes into the room.

Mr Sealy’s violent coughing fit eventually ceased, but left him in so weak a state he could barely speak. He glared round at them all from his chair which he was sunk into, a blanket tucked over his lap by Prudence.

‘Who is Mr Sealy’s physician?’ Prudence enquired of the servant.

‘He won’t have no gallipots round him,’ was the reply. ‘Says they’re all on the take. He goes in the hot baths now and then when his bones are bad, and takes a drop of something when his bellows are seedy, but the maid who left yesterday took the brandy and the bellows tonic along with the candlesticks and the salt box.’

‘Goodness, there is a lot to do,’ said Constance, casting a worried look at her sister. ‘I cannot possibly leave you to manage alone.’

‘You are not staying here to take it on,’ said Finn in a firm voice.

‘There is nothing I cannot do with a little help,’ said Prudence. ‘And you will go home with Finn tomorrow, and you will not worry about me, for I shall manage just fine, so long as Lizzy and Amos will help me.’

‘Course we will, miss,’ said Lizzy.

‘We must make a list,’ said Constance, sinking down on a wooden chair and feeling for the notebook in her reticule.

Mr Sealy recovered his voice. ‘Who the dickens are you ?’ he demanded, glaring round at them all, but still too weak to lift his head from the back of the chair.

‘Forgive me,’ said Constance, rising and putting out a hand. ‘I am Anne Sealy’s eldest daughter. It is a pleasure to meet you, Uncle Sealy.’ If the word pleasure was not said convincingly, Constance’s smile of compassion was genuine. ‘Unfortunately I have to leave Bath, sir, but my sister and our excellent servants will help you to get more comfortable.’

‘ Comfortable ?’ said Mr Sealy suspiciously.

‘You need help with all the household work, sir. My sister shall arrange for new servants.’

‘The house needs a scrub,’ said Lizzy. ‘And there’s barely a crumb to eat.’

‘The chimneys need sweeping,’ added Finn.

‘And I daresay your spirits need cheering,’ said Constance kindly.

‘And who is going to pay for charwomen and sweeps and the like?’ demanded Mr Sealy. ‘I haven’t a farthing to spare.’

‘We shall settle all that,’ promised Constance .

‘Why the deuce should you do that?’ Mr Sealy’s eyes were still narrowed in suspicion. ‘What do you think you’ll get out of it, hey?’

Constance gave him a confused smile. ‘Get out of it? Why, the satisfaction of helping our fellow kin. It is exactly what our mother would wish us to do. We are family, sir.’

Mr Sealy said no more, but listened as the sisters made out their list of necessary provisions. Lizzy returned from the kitchen with a posset for him which he drank sullenly.

‘Uncle Sealy, would you object to myself and Lizzy and Amos taking rooms here, just until everything is in order?’

‘Rooms? And I suppose you’ll be wanting victuals here, and fires made up, and candles to burn, and who’s to pay for that?’

‘I assure you, we shall not cost you one penny,’ said Prudence patiently.

‘I’ll not pay one half-penny for my house to be taken over.’ A gleam entered his eyes. ‘It’s you who should be paying me rent! Does this look like a hotel? Do I look like some taverner giving away free bed and board?’

Finn made a noise of vexation; Prudence had no doubt he was about to sweep them all out of the house and say that all offers of help were retracted. She could have hardly have blamed him. Even dutiful Constance was looking dismayed. Before Finn could speak, Mr Sealy’s servant rounded on his master.

‘Well! If that don’t take the biscuit! Here’s this pair of spruce maids, like angels from heaven, sent to show you a kindness, you old goat, and here you go and start spoutin’ ’bout charging rent and taking their blunt, an’ all they wants is to be Christian and charitable, an’ you go an’ act like the cagged and cranned old devil that you are! If you don’t show some gratitude and say not a word more ’bout fleecing them, then Jack Pickering is going to be done with William Sealy and leave you to that by-blow nevvy of yours and see how quick he’ll help you go off in your eternity box!’

Mr Sealy trembled to begin with, then turned dark and blustery, and growled some oaths that made Constance wince, but the end result was that he issued an ungracious invitation to Prudence to stay as long as she needed to, so long as it didn’t cost him for victuals and coals and candles, and so long as no one interfered with him or touched anything in his room. ‘Not a thing , mind!’ he emphasised. ‘Pickering’s the only one who touches anything in my room.’

Prudence acknowledged this request and said she would look forward to moving in the next morning and wished him a good day.

Constance would not be easy until she had ascertained that there was suitable accommodation for her sister. They were shown upstairs where the bedchambers were housed. The furniture was in like manner to that on the ground floor – old-fashioned but solid.

‘It is very damp and cold,’ said Constance. ‘You cannot sleep in such an unhealthy air, dear,’ she protested.

Prudence was too sensible to disagree with this, and certainly would not wish for Lizzy and Amos to be subjected to sleeping in damp rooms. They discussed lighting fires, but Finn reminded them that the chimneys needed sweeping, and a delivery of coal would be required to keep several fires lit.

After a little more exploration of the house it was decided that the unused parlour on the ground floor would serve as a room for Lizzy and Prudence, for it already contained bedroom furniture from a previous occupier. Probably the string of disgruntled housekeepers had been its prior tenants. Constance declared the mattress to be lumpy, so the best of the mattresses upstairs was carried down by Amos and Finn to replace it. Amos agreed to having a bed made up in what was the unused storeroom. Both these rooms were adjacent to the kitchen where the stove warmed the neighbouring walls enough to keep the damp away.

‘It is all rather primitive,’ said Constance, looking round the room. ‘I wish you would stay at Laura Place.’

‘It will be perfectly comfortable when everything is aired,’ said Prudence. ‘It’s far more comfortable than the school we lived at all those years.’

‘Perhaps I have grown too at ease,’ said Constance with a frown.

‘I do not intend to spend more than a dozen nights here,’ said Prudence. ‘I think it will be something of an adventure.’

Constance looked incredulous.

‘Did you not say I ought to try my wings a little? Here I shall have a taste of running a house, keeping busy, and hopefully doing some good to my fellow creatures.’

Constance still did not look convinced, but she did not try to argue her sister out of the scheme. Even sweet-tempered Prudence had a strong will when she had made up her mind to do something.

Prudence thanked the servant as he showed them out of the house. She put out a hand saying, ‘I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr Pickering. I believe you have your master’s best interests at heart, so I look forward to working with you to arrange for his comfort.’

‘The name’s Jack Pickering,’ he replied. ‘No one ever calls me mister, so it don’t sound like me. I won’t shake your hand, miss, not ’cause I’m not civil, but I’ve never shook hands with a gentry lady, so it don’t feel like me, so I’ll make you a bow an you’ll call me Pickering, an’ we’ll get on as merry as a grig.’

Prudence could not imagine the long-faced Mr Pickering being merry, but she kept the amusing thought to herself.