her feet propped up on a stool at the side of the large kitchen range and a young girl was standing at the sink washing a towering pile of dirty china.
‘Hello, love, you’re Mary and Beatrice’s young neighbour, ain’t yer? The one who helped us out one night a couple o’ years or so back?’ She smiled kindly and pointed to a chair. ‘Sit yerself down, pet, and you, Lily, fetch that jug o’ lemonade out o’ the pantry.’
Lily hurried away to do as she was told and within minutes was back bearing a great stone jug and some heavy glasses.
Soon they were all seated at the great scrubbed table sipping their drinks and Amy felt herself beginning to relax a little.
‘What brings yer here then?’ asked the cook, who didn’t like to miss anything, and quickly Amy told her of her interference at the hat factory and how she had been caught out. Both Cook and Lily were grinning by the time she had finished relating her tale and Amy found herself smiling too.
‘An’ yer say the master and the old mistress are in there right now lookin’ at yer designs, eh?’ Cook stroked her chin thoughtfully. ‘Well, all I can say is whatever yer did to that hat must have pleased the master, ’cos I’ll tell yer now he don’t suffer fools gladly. An’ what’s more – if he’s taking the trouble to show yer designs to the old mistress, well … he must be impressed ’cos big as he is, he don’t do nothin’ without her say so. To tell the truth I sometimes think it’s her as should be wearing the trousers in this house and not him.’ She laughed, which set her double chins wobbling and then as she looked at Amy again she became more solemn. ‘I’ll tell yer something else an’ all,’ she commented. ‘Yer don’t ’alf remind me o’ Miss Jessica. I don’t mind admittin’ yer give me quite a gliff the first time I saw yer.’
Amy stared back at her curiously. ‘Isn’t Miss Jessica Mr Forrester’s daughter?’
But Cook never got a chance to answer her, for just then a bell sounded, summoning her back to the study.
‘Hope to see yer again, love,’ she told the girl good-naturedly, and quickly Lily ushered Amy back the way they had come. Within minutes Amy found herself back in the oak-panelled study.
As soon as the door was closed behind her, Samuel Forrester addressed her. ‘I have to admit, Miss Ernshaw, that my mother and I are quite impressed with your sketches. Are they all your own ideas?’
‘Oh yes, sir, they are, but I’ve only brought a fraction of them to show you. There are too many to carry all in one go.’
His eyebrows rose as he glanced at his mother who screwed up her eyes suspiciously.
‘Who taught you to draw like this?’ she snapped.
Amy shrugged. ‘I taught myself, I suppose. I’ve loved to draw ever since I was a little girl.’
The old woman frowned. ‘This one …’ She stabbed a bony finger at a particular sketch. ‘What weight would you expect that to be when it was finished?’
‘Oh, no more than three or four ounces, I expect, for the actual body of the hat. Then o’ course there’d be the added weight o’ the trimmings, though for this particular design I would use a very fine lawn veiling, which would have very little weight at all.’
‘An’ this one.’ The old woman pointed to another sketch, a much more elaborate design this time.
‘Definitely silk, stiffened and trimmed with ostrich feathers for more formal occasions. I think that this style might be favoured for day visiting. It would obviously be heavier – possibly nine or ten ounces without the trimmings.’
‘An’ how do you know all this? I doubt you’d get the chance to wear such outfits.’
‘I er … my gran buys me books on the latest fashions when she can afford to,’ Amy told her meekly.
Mrs Forrester nodded. ‘Well, you seem to have a fair grasp o’ fashion, but I could teach you a lot more,’ she commented, and she then proceeded to listen to Amy intently as she fired yet more questions at her. Eventually, seemingly satisfied with the girl’s answers and without excusing herself, she began to hobble towards the door.
‘I’m going to have a lie-down before dinner,’ she told her son over her shoulder, ignoring Amy completely. ‘But I’ll tell you something, Samuel; I think this young lass has a rare gift. Puts some