her knee as Mrs Forrester nodded her approval.
‘Excellent. Then may I ask you to show Miss Ernshaw to her room?’
‘O’ course, ma’am.’
Nancy turned to Amy with a timid smile as Mrs Forrester told her gently, ‘Go along with Nancy, dear. She’ll show you where everything is and then you can tidy up and have a short rest before dinner. I’m sure you must be tired after your journey.’
Amy nodded obediently, though in truth she was far too excited to be feeling tired. As they mounted the stairs, Amy noticed that Nancy’s uniform was identical to the one that Lily wore, and she guessed that Nancy was probably therefore the parlourmaid here.
Nancy led her up three steep flights of stairs and Amy noticed that the higher they climbed, the less elaborate the furnishings and carpets became, although everything was still spick and span. Once Nancy was quite sure that they were out of earshot of the mistress she grinned at Amy tentatively.
‘I’m afraid you’re up in the gods wiv me, miss.’
‘Oh please, Amy will do just fine,’ Amy told her quickly. ‘I’m simply a servant, the same as you.’
Nancy seemed to relax somewhat then as she led her along the final landing and pointed at a door. ‘That’s your room and this is mine ’ere. I ’ope I won’t disturb yer when I get up in the mornin’s.’
She threw open a door and Amy stepped past her into a surprisingly large room. ‘Oh, this is lovely!’ she exclaimed, crossing to a big brass bed as Nancy looked on and smiled.
‘Well, it ain’t as posh as the rest o’ the ’ouse downstairs, an’ it does yer in sometimes, climbin’ all them apples an’ pears, but I dare say yer’ll find it comfortable.’
Amy looked curiously around the room, but then more interested in Nancy for now she asked, ‘Are you the parlourmaid here?’
Nancy laughed merrily. ‘Nah. I’m more of a general dogsbody, to tell you the truth,’ she chuckled. ‘There’s only three staff ’ere an’ that’s Cook, Mrs Wilcox an’ meself, so I suppose yer could say I were sort o’ the laundrymaid, the parlourmaid an’ general maid all rolled into one – not that I’m complainin’.’ Her eyes were sparkling with mischief and Amy knew at once that she would like her. When Nancy then plonked herself down on to the quilted counterpane, Amy sat down beside her and began to undo the ribbons of her bonnet.
‘You ain’t exactly what I were expectin’,’ Nancy informed her cheekily. ‘I thought you’d be much older.’
Amy laughed. ‘Sorry to disappoint you.’
Nancy quickly shook her head, setting her brown curls bobbing. ‘Oh no, I ain’t disappointed,’ she hastily assured her. ‘It will be nice to ’ave someone me own age about the place fer a change, especially now I know you ain’t all la di da.’ Then suddenly remembering the time she rose guiltily and scurried towards the door. ‘Good ’eavens! Mrs Wilcox will ’ave me guts fer garters if I don’t get a move on, but per’aps we’ll have time fer a proper natter later on, eh?’
‘Yes, I’d like that,’ Amy told her. ‘And by the way, don’t get worrying about disturbing me in the mornings. I’ll probably be awake anyway; I’m here to work too so I get up early myself.’
Nancy nodded and after flashing her a final friendly grin she disappeared through the door.
Amy now looked about the room that was to serve as her home for the next month. It was a nice room with a huge mahogany wardrobe standing against one wall. Next to that stood a matching chest-of-drawers and on the wall to one side of the door was a washstand with a pretty flowered jug and bowl and a small pile of fluffy towels folded neatly on top of it. Compared to the little shaky-down featherbed that Amy had at home, the brass bed appeared enormous, and she bounced gleefully up and down on the side of it until the springs squealed in protest. Smiling, she hopped off it and, crossing to the big window, she drew aside the cretonne curtains. The sight almost took her breath away, for she felt as if she was on top of the world. The rooftops of London stretched away before her, reflecting all the colours of the rainbow as the late-afternoon sun played upon them, and Amy tried to lock away every little detail of the wonderful sight in her memory.
By the time she went down to dinner later that evening she