At All Costs Read online

Chapter Four

  Much of Alice’s unrestrained joy over having a staff could be laid at Emma’s busy little feet.

  Alice discovered that Emma was a skilled seamstress who had a keen eye for which of the latest fashions would show Alice at her best. But there was a problem. Providing Emma with the right fabrics, sundries and jewelry would be far more expensive than she and Joseph could afford.

  Well, her father might keep a strict eye on his purse and on Alice’s allowance, but he had no idea what went on at his home.

  When his wife died, Conrad let his butler and maid go. He saw no need for staffing his house now that he spent fifteen hours a day, seven days a week in his office. Besides, he hated going into the home he shared with the woman he loved for so many years and finding that she was no longer there.

  Alice knew her father’s schedule. She knew his home was vacant most of the time. She also knew her childhood home had an immense attic that housed a treasure trove of the items Emma would need:

  Fine fabrics her mother had purchased but were never made into clothes. Dozens of beautiful dresses, gowns and other items of clothing that could be altered to fit Alice. Drawers full of buttons, thread, needles and untold numbers of other notions. Expensive jewelry – diamonds, emeralds, pearls, rubies. Necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, the list goes on.

  Alice used to play “dress-up” in the attic when she was a child. Why hadn’t she thought of that attic before? Never mind, she told herself. It didn’t matter, because the most important thing she needed, she already had.

  A key to her father’s house.

  She already had gone to his home and scoured the attic. Emma had sewn her several items of clothing, some of which she had worn to great effect at social occasions.

  And it was working. Alice was starting to get noticed by some of the ladies on society’s fringes. It was not like meeting up with the “old money” girls, but it was a start.

  Emboldened by the success of her early raids of the attic, Alice decided to literally take things further.

  She discovered there were a large number of portable treasures, and she could have Brock take them to a pawn shop. It made Alice enough money to allow her to host a proper afternoon tea for her new friends. The fine china at the tea, of course, was courtesy of her ancestors, whose valuables had been stored in her father’s attic for decades.

  Yes, life was definitely looking up for Alice Hunter. She also found she was grateful for Emma, although it would never do to express gratitude to her maid in any way. Emma was the help, after all.

  Alice had been lonely before Emma came along, and with the addition of Emma to the household, the life Alice had always wanted to live had found her.

  Emma had impeccable manners, as one would expect of an English girl. And she had been trained in an English manor, so she knew how to be civil to people, even those one might not like. In America, it would be called the Golden Rule. But in England, it was just the English way.

  Emma helped open doors for Alice in a way Alice never could have expected, because Emma knew, from her training, how an upper crust society works. Emma was able to make Alice understand that you can hope to be rich and famous, but those are not the real goals. If you are rich and famous, but do not have the respect and esteem of all people, your peers, and yes, also those who serve you, your money and your fame will be hollow things.

  So, whenever Emma saw that Alice was about to castigate or demean someone, Emma would inconspicuously help her.

  Yes, Emma was quite a find, and Alice vowed she would never let her go. Emma’s remark that Alice was a lump of clay she would like to mold into a work of art seemed to be working.

  But the reverse also was true. Largely because Alice, without actually saying it, showed in other ways that she respected, and was willing to listen to, her maid. Emma was enjoying her role in the Hunter household.

  At first, Emma thought working for Alice was the worst form of servitude. But as Alice slowly changed her ways, so did Emma change hers. Although she loved working for the Duke of Sedgwick in England, no one there would have asked her advice or taken her subtle instruction. Emma, on the other hand, was able to guide Alice.

  Emma also was having a wonderful time creating Alice’s wardrobe. Alice relied on Emma for everything. Although Alice at times acted the great lady with her tone while speaking to Emma in public, Emma expected nothing less.

  She was, after all, grooming Alice to become a grand lady.

  ●●●

  And yet, something was troubling Emma. So, she decided she would have a talk with her best friend.

  Brock and Emma were getting ready for bed. Both were rather quiet, as they sometimes were. But this time there was a tinge of sadness, even anxiety, in the air.

  “Brock?”

  “Hmm?”

  “I need to have a talk with you.”

  “Talk.” He sat down beside her on the edge of their bed.

  “I’m worried about Alice.”

  “Why?” He sounded a bit uneasy.

  Emma fumbled with the buttons on her nightgown.

  “I don’t know. Exactly.” She paused. “Perhaps it’s nothing, but …”

  “But what?”

  “I do the books for her. Her expenses. Her income. Everything. She hates to do that kind of thing, so she has me do it.”

  “And?”

  “She’s been getting big checks from a pawn shop.”

  “I know.”

  “What?”

  Brock stood and began pacing the room. “I’m so glad you brought this up, Emma. It’s been driving me crazy. I wanted to tell you, but I wanted to be sure –”

  “Brock, what? Tell me.”

  “I’m the one who has been pawning things for her.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because she told me to. I’m the servant. She’s the lady. And she told me not to tell anybody. Anybody. Not even you. I had to promise. I should have told you sooner, but –”

  “It’s okay, sweetheart. I understand.”

  “I didn’t think anything of it at first. I mean, people pawn things all the time. But yesterday she asked me to come with her to her father’s house, because she needed help. It was a very fancy chair. Padded. Ornate. Gold trim. And heavy. I carried it down out of the attic and took it to the pawn shop. She got 200 dollars for it. Can you imagine? That’s more than we make in six months.” He paused. “Emma?”

  “What?”

  “I think I could be in trouble. With the law.”

  Emma jumped up and rushed to him. “Oh, Brock, why?”

  “Because I think she’s stealing from her father. And if they arrest her, you know they’ll arrest me as well.”

  They sat down on the bed and stared in silence across the room. Thoughts of fleeing from yet another country crossed their minds.

  “I think we have to talk with Joseph,” Brock said.

  Emma nodded. “Yes.” She wiped her tears.

  “I’ll talk to him in the morning while we’re riding to work.”

  “Yes.”

  ●●●

  But Joseph was in no mood to listen to Brock. He was still fuming about his father-in-law, and he ranted almost all the way to work.

  “On the inside, I’m at my wits’ end, Brock. Oh, I know people think I’m this mild-mannered, pulled-together guy. And that’s the way I am on the outside, you know. But on the inside, well, that’s another matter.”

  Outside, a slow drip of rain came down from the murky grey skies, matching Joseph’s frame of mind.

  “You know, I refuse to let that creep’s abuse and threats rattle me in a way he would know. I won’t give him the satisfaction. But let me tell you, I am plotting every moment of every day.

  “People underestimate me because of my soft-spoken, congenial ways, and that’s fine by me. That’s how I managed to be married to an heiress of a multimillion-dollar fortune. I schemed for years to be in this position, yet Alice and her stupid fath
er thought they had chosen me. Ha!

  “They thought I would be easy to manipulate, since they both have strong personalities and need to be in charge. Little did they know I had been the one leading them. Ha! People often fail to see beneath the surface to the root.

  “Even bringing you into my household, Brock, and now teaching you how to be a proper servant and a gentleman. Well, of course, I was grateful to you, and still am, for saving my life, but I knew if I could get a man like you, Brock, a man with your loyalty, that it would last a lifetime, and it could be invaluable to me.” He paused. “What say you, Brock?”

  Brock smiled that perfect gentleman’s smile. “Well, Mr. Hunter, I can say something I think might be invaluable to you that I don’t think you know about.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Your wife is stealing from her father and making a lot of money doing it.”

  Brock told him the whole story.

  Joseph was flabbergasted. “Now that is what I mean by loyalty, Brock. Thank you. I think I can make good use of that information. Listen, next time Alice asks you to pawn something, tell her to talk to me first. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Joseph also suspected that Brock was learning everything he could, with an eye to the future and leaving the Hunters for greener pastures. Joseph planned on being those greener pastures, with Brock staying exactly where he is, under Joseph’s roof and thumb.

  TO BE CONTINUED

  Coming Soon:

  Dead-Time Stories

  A Victorian Romance

  Book Two of So Shall Ye Reap,

  A 12-Book Novelette Serial by DAVID JAY

  About the Author

  Of all the human emotions, the greatest is love. Not perfect, sweet, syrupy love, but rather the kind of love that tests one’s moral principles and strength of character. At age 77, “new” Victorian romance author David Jay knows that, and he isn’t afraid to venture into the dark side of human nature, all the better to display love’s triumph over evil. David’s new work, So Shall Ye Reap, is a 12-book novelette serial. You have just read Book one. Book Two, Dead-Time Stories, is coming soon!