“You flatter me,” he replied, laughing, “I’m not that young. However, you are most perceptive concerning my responsibilities in handling the ships, the office details, and the keeping of the accounts. They are, indeed, challenging. I must say that Sir Robert had the better part of the arrangement as the adventurer, having all the joys of travel and none of the tedium that goes along with any business venture.”
Not releasing her hand as he spoke, Alexander turned his attention to the man, standing on the landing. “Charles, see to the ladies’ luggage.”
Katherine gazed up at the old man, who looked like a charred shepherd’s crook in his black jacket, and a flicker of recognition swept through her. But like a wisp of smoke, she couldn’t grasp it.
Eyeing the mound of luggage that the driver was unloading, Charles mumbled his displeasure. The thin servant, however, nodded in compliance. He slyly studied Katherine as the women and Alex walked passed him. Then taking the smaller bags and leaving the heavier ones for the stableman and the coachman, he followed them into the manor.
“There isn’t a staff of servants yet,” Alex informed the women. “The estate is in need of many things and servants have been the least important element until now.”
“Are there no servants?” May-Jewel questioned. This wasn’t at all what she expected. “Then who will attend me? Who will see to my needs?”
“At the moment, there are three to see to your needs,” Alex assured her, smiling. “Charles oversees the manor, and there is the cook, and Brice, the stableman, who also tends the grounds. I’ve told Charles to hire a maid as soon as possible.”
Ignoring the implications that there was a shortage of funds, May-Jewel made a mental note to hire at least a dozen more servants when she got the chance. How could she be the mistress of a grand manor without servants? If she was to be the envy of the countryside, she would have to have a servant for each room and at least two personal maids.
Alex walked further into the great hall and explained, “For the time being, you’ll have to overlook the state of things. Robert’s first concern was always for the ships and their cargo, he…”
Katherine wandered away from May-Jewel and Alex, their voices becoming a dull hum. A sense of satisfaction of finally being at Wistmere came over her as she paced the patterned floor. For her entire life she wondered how it would be to stand in the great hall, what it would even look like. But now as she glanced around the huge room, a cryptic chill shrouded the small feeling of victory. The spacious square hall was a stagnant monument to time. Ancient tapestries, void of color, sagged from broken stays. Their designs, as they hung in grotesque folds, were no longer even conceivable. A rodent swiftly scurried from a darkened corner and slid under a lone wadded horsehair settee sitting against the outer wall. Katherine shivered as the rat disappeared. Moving back to the small group that stood dwarfed in the hall’s vastness, she silently regretted the manor’s lost glamour, for at one time it had been glamorous.
There was no apparent beauty in the cold hall for May-Jewel either. She thought it dim and depressing. “How unlike Robbie,” she exclaimed with dismay, glancing about. “I expected his home to be brimming with rare and priceless objects from around the world. But the emptiness of it…”
Alexander turned to hide a flush of guilt and quickly said, “Never fear, it is only that I’ve had the outdated furnishings carted away. I was sure that you would want to fill the manor with articles and furnishings of your own choice!” He offered no other defense in his decision to sell everything and pocket the proceeds
In other words, Katherine thought bitterly, you’ve pillaged the manor and lined your own purse. She decided that this would be the last decision young Mister Fleming would make on her behalf.
Trying to draw the women’s attention away from the lack of furniture, Alexander hastened to continue the tour. “The room with the double doors on your left is the sitting room. The one next to it is the dining hall and then the back parlor. And that corridor leads to the back of the manor which holds the servant’s quarters and the kitchen. To the right is the formal parlor. Down that corridor, you’ll find the library, observatory, and a rather artless art gallery. Robert wasn’t really into the master painters so there’s little to see there. Straight ahead, through those arches, is the ballroom. But tomorrow is soon enough for you to explore your new home. Right now you must be anxious to get settled in.”
On the east and west sides of the great hall, winding gracefully up from its center, were two wide staircases, intricately carved by the adroit hands of an artisan long since dead. It was up the east staircase that Alexander led the two women while he spoke further of the estate.
“Wistmere, unlike other great estates of Scotland, survived the English takeover.” His brogue was suddenly apparent above his adopted English accent. “It was started by Robert’s great grandfather, Sir John. In the beginning, it was a glorious place for providing solace to battle-weary chieftains or for hosting banquets. Ah, what a grand time it must have been to see how, at the first skirl of a bagpipe or the twang of a lute, the ballrooms were filled with swirling dancers.” His tone suddenly became somber. “But like everything else grand, it takes money to keep it so. I’m afraid that Robert, unlike his ancestors, had been rather lax there. And I think his time away from here made it easy to
