Chapter 2: Dismissed and Pursed
Summary: Nellie suffers further by being expelled from her place of work.
Notes: My own grand-mother's place of work is unknown. The Lansdowne House and family is thus a fiction. But it is certain that she was "taken advantage of" by one of the men who was associated with where she had gone into service after she had left her stepmother to look after the family. She was dismissed when she was in a more advanced state of pregnancy than appears in this story and married her betrothed who was himself "born out of wedlock" when she was eight months pregnant.
…
Lansdowne House & The Green, Stretton-on-Fosse
Monday 8th May 1876
…
Ten weeks later, there was no hiding anything. Nellie had endured the ignominy of the glances and judgement of the house servants as she retched over her porridge and the horrified recognition by the mistress who had stopped her in the upstairs hallway and demanded to see her in the full spring sunlight.
She was served notice and escorted to the back door by a grim faced housekeeper, her only belongings clutched shakily in her brown carpetbag. But just before she was finally evicted, Nellie had heard shouting. It was Mr Lansdowne, berating his son.
"And this hasn't been the first time! Don't think I don't know it! Do you think you're going to spend your whole life taking advantage of those of lower station than you? And I sent you into law for God's sake! She is being sent away you know. We can't keep her here, but you are not getting away with this. I am reducing your allowance for the next three months by half and if it happens again I shall reduce it even more!"
It was the nurse Mary-Ann Bartlett, who was entrusted to run after Nellie down the lane and press into her hands the purse heavy with silver and copper coins. Mary-Ann was in tears, for everyone knew the housekeeper's rigid morals and all had heard the master's voice so they all knew Nellie would not be coming back. It was clear that this was far less than the young Master Hendry would probably spend in a single month, but it was also more than most of them would have ever been able to accumulate in a two year period. It seemed a small fortune and she knew Nellie was lucky to get it. She'd heard of others turfed out in similar circumstances with barely the clothes on their backs.
Nellie accepted the tearful hug from Mary-Ann and fumbling with the buckles of her carpet bag, managed to slip the purse safely inside. Bolstered by that a little, Nellie continued down the lane towards The Green, wondering where she might go next.
Ascott-under-Wychwood was over twenty miles away and too far to walk at this end of the day. And impossible anyway. Within two years of her mother's death, Nellie's father had married a girl little older than herself, "to look after the little ones", but who had begun to produce almost as many as she had adopted with astonishing rapidity and regularity. The little thatched cottage in the row was now far too small for all of them. It was one of the reasons Nellie had gone into service. No, she could not return there.
There was only one person she really wanted to see but she was not sure what he would think about all that had gone wrong. She had hopes. For he had taken his mother's maiden name, did not know his own father and he knew the bitter sting of the name 'bastard'. They had become engaged only eight months ago when Frank was home on his annual holiday and had met a year before that at a village fair, not long after she had begun work in the village. His name was Frank George Southam and he was working as a farm labourer about seven miles away. His grandparents and mother lived right here in The Fosse.
No, it was his grandparents she was more concerned about. She hoped they might be prepared to let her stay on the strength of the engagement, which had been solemnified over a mash of tea and a biscuit in their house. But if they refused, and called her names she was afraid even Frank would turn away.
Nellie turned left and wandered down The Green. After wavering at the crossroads, she crossed Belcony and onto The Sharries. She was quite disoriented, knowing she ought to know her way to the Southam's cottage, for the village was little more than a large hamlet with only a few streets, but she was unable to work out her next steps. Her carpetbag banged her shins and she blundered into a low wall bruising her shins even more, and sat down heavily.
A blackbird was singing in a nearby bramble thicket and the horse-chestnuts in the field were in bloom. A bee buzzed past and circled her several times before settling in some dandelions at her feet. But there was nothing to cheer her. She was three months pregnant, she had lost her first real job and escaped further abuses by her employer's son only to face an unknown future. The tears were starting again, but Nellie held them in and just stared mournfully into the mid-distance listening to the blackbird.
She sent a heartfelt prayer to God, to Jesus, to the Saints, to the Fairies, to whomever might listen. She needed intercession…
…