Chapter Eleven

Catherine found the door to Hadaway & Son Solicitors unlocked but was rather surprised not to find Josiah Flitch hunched over his customary desk in the corner of the waiting room. He appeared a moment later, however, through the door to Mr. Hadaway's office, a scroll of paper in hand.

"Good mornin', mum! To what to do I owe the pleasure?" he greeted her brightly, folding the paper carelessly and stuffing it without ceremony in his pocket.

"Well, Josiah, I thought what with Mister Hadaway still detained in London, we might take the opportunity to sort out the files and surprise him when he comes back."

"Not really what I'd consider a nice surprise." Flitch pouted.

"Oh really?" Catherine smiled, "And what does Josiah Flitch consider a nice surprise?"

"Why, it's nothin' I could say in front of a fine lady such as yourself!" Flitch countered, grinning wickedly, "Mister 'adaway would box me ears if 'e found out I'd told you such a thing!"

Catherine laughed as she considered the frankly absurd mental image of the elderly solicitor boxing the ears of his skinny beanpole of a clerk, "Fair enough, I don't wish to get you into trouble. But what do you say about sorting the files?"

Flitch scratched his chin thoughtfully, "It might make my job a whole lot easier by havin' things organised round 'ere."

"You know it will. Come on, let's get to work!"

They decided that the best system of filing would be to arrange all of the documents by kind: wills, birth certificates, marriage certificates, business agreements, contracts, ledgers etc. etc. and then alphabetically by the surnames of those concerned. For example, if one were wishing to find the will of a certain Mister Thomas P. Prewitt; one need only go to the drawer marked "O-R" of the filing cabinet marked "Wills" and flick through the files until they found "Prewitt, Thomas" and there he is, right between "Pretty, Laurence" and "Pyrkins, Astrid".

It soon became apparent though, that it had been rather a long time since the solicitor's offices had last undergone a vigorous Spring cleaning. A very long time. Thick dust layered almost every surface and reduced both Catherine and Flitch to violent coughing fits whenever it was disturbed - by the time they finally regained control of their lungs several minutes later, their eyes were streaming, they felt terribly sick, and the dust had only settled elsewhere. Cobwebs of monstrous proportions hung suspended up in the corners of the room and from bookshelves and lamp fixtures. They spent some time unsuccessfully trying to guess what colour the dusty old curtains had once been - they had faded to an odd shade, somewhere between colourless and a dull grey and had turned so mouldy in some places that they had literally rotted away. At one point, Catherine opened a drawer only to close it again with a shriek when she discovered that something large and furry had gotten itself trapped in there and died, Josiah stepped forward to do something about disposing of the body but after a mere moment of inspection and a shriek louder than Catherine's, he too slammed the drawer shut again and told her, wide-eyed and pale-faced, that he wasn't entirely sure that the creature was actually dead. They both agreed that they would leave that drawer well enough alone until sometime later.

They worked steadily for several hours until they were interrupted in the early afternoon by an unexpected visitor. Catherine was crouched sorting through a pile of birth certificates, placing them in alphabetical order in their new filing cabinet (Dankworth, Julian; Deiryme, Martha; Dowele, Barnabas) when she heard the office door open, she paused and craned her neck to look around the cabinet.

A young woman was standing in the doorway, glancing around shyly, taking in the disorder of the room. She couldn't have been older than Catherine herself and was rather lovely, very much like that traditional image of a pretty country lass which was much romanticized at the time - you know the one, perhaps a farmer's daughter or Little Bo Peep in a children's book of nursery rhymes - a little on the plump side with rosy cheeks and dimples, curls the colour of wheat and big blue eyes. She seemed somewhat nervous and half turned to leave but then Josiah chose that moment to emerge from the back room.

"Just found another pile of birth certificates to add to-" he stopped short when he caught sight of the newcomer, "Oh! 'ello Evie, what can I do for you?"

"Hello, Josiah. I was wondering if I might speak to Mister Hadaway - if he isn't too busy and can spare a moment, that is." she spoke quietly, with her eyes downcast.

"Mister 'adaway's still in London on business. Don't know when 'e'll be back but I'll write your name in 'is appointments book so 'e knows to see you when 'e does return. Cathy, where'd we put the appointments book?"

Catherine stood up from where she was crouched behind the filing cabinet. The young woman stared at her with an expression of equal parts awe and wide-eyed horror, evidently she hadn't been aware of Catherine's presence until then.

"Oh M'lady!" she gasped, curtsying with obvious difficulty, "I do beg your pardon! I didn't see you there!" It was at that moment that Catherine realised that the girl was, in fact, with child. She still probably had a couple of months of pregnancy left to go, but nevertheless, her stomach was already very noticeably rounded and restricted her movement somewhat.

"No need to apologise! The book is on Mister Hadaway's desk, Josiah. We put all of the especially important things on there for the time being, remember?"

While Josiah excused himself to retrieve said book, Catherine made her way through the maze of desks and filing cabinets, "We've been tidying since nine o'clock this morning. Believe it or not, it was ten times worse before we started." she explained, smiling as she came to stand before the girl.

"I know. I've only been in here once before - to register my marriage - but I remember how untidy it was. So dingy and cluttered." the young woman was rather softly spoken and seemed too shy to maintain eye contact for longer than a few seconds.

"I suppose the fact that the firm is understaffed doesn't particularly help. There's all these other desks here but no other clerks."

"That's because Mister Hadaway doesn't have any sons, you see. Normally, the head of the firm has his sons work for him as apprentices and clerks until they become solicitors too. Then the firm is eventually passed on to the eldest son while the other sons get jobs in the London offices or at other law firms. That was the family tradition for over fifty years. But then Mister Hadaway didn't marry."

"So what do you think will happen to the firm now there's no one to inherit it?"

"I think…" the girl lowered her voice conspiratorially, "I think Mister Hadaway will take a partner. I bet in a few years from now we'll see "Hadaway and Flitch" painted above the door outside."

"Really? You think he'll take Josiah for a partner?"

"Yes. And then, when the time comes, Josiah will take over the entire business. Don't tell him I told you this though, his head is already big enough to start with." Catherine spluttered with laughter.

"'ere what's so funny?" Josiah demanded, appearing at her side with the appointments book clutched to his chest.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." Catherine said sweetly, sharing a sly smile with the girl. As Josiah flicked through the book to find the correct page, Catherine took a moment to contemplate him and digest the information she had just received; she did like Josiah and certainly found him amusing, but she wasn't certain that he could ever be the best candidate for such a task - no, Josiah was far too weak, too much of a whiny sycophant to take over and maintain a successful law firm one day. But the sad truth was that very probably, sometime in the not too distant future, the name of Flitch would join Hadaway on the sign above the door, and then one day Hadaway would be gone, and the firm would be christened "Flitch & Son Solicitors".

"What was it you was wantin' to talk to Mister 'adaway 'bout?" Flitch inquired, hunting about for a quill and ink.

The young woman glanced anxiously at Catherine and reddened visibly. Catherine busied herself looking for a quill and inkpot to give to Josiah and pretended that she wasn't actually paying any attention.

"With Freddie…away, his mother thought it would be best if I came to speak to Mister Hadaway about sorting his affairs and also to see if anything can be done to provide for the babies - should everyone turn out to be right, that is." the young woman's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Still 'aven't given up 'ope, 'ave you?" Josiah replied, smiling sympathetically. Catherine thrust a quill and inkpot into his hands and went to sort through some marriage certificates on the other side of the room.

"The other day we received a letter from the Navy Board. It said they found it "highly unlikely" that there were any survivors. Even Freddie's mother has given up hope. But I won't. Freddie promised me before he left that no matter where in the world he ended up, he would always find his way back to me and the babies. He promised."

"Right. Well…I'll just make a note of your name 'ere and I promise you'll be the first to see Mister 'adaway when 'e returns." Josiah muttered, nibbling awkwardly on the end of the quill.

"Thank you, Josiah. Good day, Lady Merryweather, it was an honour." the young woman dropped another awkward curtsy and hurried from the office, closing the door noiselessly behind her.

Catherine cleared her throat uncomfortably, "I didn't catch her name."

"That's Evie Fletcher. 'er father owns the grocers."

"Really, Josiah, you might at least have taken her into Mister Hadaway's office so she could conduct her business in private. It was plain to see that she was embarrassed to explain such a delicate matter in front of someone else. Especially me!" Catherine reprimanded, still flicking through the handful of marriage certificates.

"Sorry, I didn't realise." That, Catherine thought, is why you will make a poor replacement for Mister Hadaway. You're oblivious when it comes to running this business properly.

"'er 'usband goes by the name of Freddie Fletcher. 'e was in the Navy but 'is ship sunk somewhere off the coast of Africa. The entire crew's been lost at sea for almost three weeks. Evie's expectin' twins so there's a lot of worry as to 'ow she'll provide for the babies."

"Josiah, what did I just say about keeping the business of others private? Really, this is terribly unprofessional of you!"

"But you just 'eard 'alf of the story already! I'm just fillin' in the gaps for you! Besides, everyone in the village knows anyway."

"That is irrelevant. You shouldn't be revealing intimate details about Mister Hadaway's clients to any random person."

"But you ain't just any random person," Flitch said in a patronisingly indulgent way, "You're the Lady Catherine Merryweather."

Catherine gave an exasperated sigh, she could tell by his triumphant grin that he thought his retort clever and that he had won the argument, and that she would not be able to make him see sense. They worked in silence from then on, with Catherine still organising the marriage certificates. One particular piece of paper stopped her short, though. It was the record of the marriage of eighteen-year-old Evie Huett to twenty-year-old Frederick Fletcher. Oh, that poor, poor girl, Catherine thought sorrowfully.

Catherine returned to Moonacre in the late afternoon. She and Josiah had made a significant dent in the cleaning of the office, having removed the majority of the dust and cobwebs and even tore down the faded mouldy old curtains. They had started to put in place a practical filing system and had only stopped when they both found themselves to be rather exhausted. Catherine was all for returning the next day to finish organising the files, but Josiah had told her that he would be travelling to London in the morning to deliver some important documents to Mister Hadaway concerning the case he was trying to resolve. Instead they agreed to continue when he returned the week after.

She was just about to pull the bell at the gatehouse to summon Digweed down from the Manor to open the gate for her, when something caught her eye. It was the cameo brooch, hanging on a length of black ribbon from one of the railings of the gate, coiling in a spiral as it spun in the wind. Catherine reached out and tugged it down - the ribbon was tied in a loose knot and came away easily - looking down at the pale ivory profile set into the shell pink background, she found herself laughing happily, despite the fact she had tears in her eyes.