****chapter 4***
***Troubled Times***
Madge who is a housemaid here came looking for me this morning to tell me I had to go and see Mr Carson in his office at once. I had just finished doing the fireplaces with Lizzie and I thought we must have done something wrong with them, but Lizzie said it couldn't be that or he would have sent for her as well. I was scared and didn't want to go, but Lizzie said I might be in more trouble if I didn't and gave me a farthing she keeps in her apron pocket just in case I needed it. Lizzie is not superstitious like Mrs Patmore but she thinks the farthing might be lucky one day.
I didn't want to go and see Mr Carson. I wanted to run away but I didn't know where I could go and we were on the fourth floor so I would have had to climb out of the window on a knotted sheet like a heroine in a book and Carrie would have been mad because she makes the beds.
I thought I could sleep in the hedgerow because people who run away in books always do that, I don't know why. And I would have to eat apples and pears and raspberries and blackberries and tomatoes and everything else growing wild. I don't mean I would grow wild, though I might as I wouldn't be able to get my hair cut while I was running, so it would be very long and I would have to wash in streams that would probably be icy cold because it's what people in books do.
But it was all right with Mr Carson in the end. I met Mrs Hughes on the stairs and she said Whatever is the matter? Burn? So I started crying some more because she was so nice when she asked me but my finger wasn't hurting any more so I said No, Mrs Hughes I'm not crying because of the burn now, which made her laugh for some reason.
Then she got all serious again and asked who had upset me and I told her about Mr Carson and she said she would come with me. I had to wait outside his office when she went in first and I wasn't supposed to hear, but Mrs Hughes had her lips pressed together like she does when she's mad and she was so mad she didn't close the door properly so I couldn't help listening to some when it got a bit loud. I'm not sure how she managed to talk with her lips pressed together. Maybe all Scottish people can do that. Anyway, this is what they said.
"Charles, you may have meant well, but that was not the best way to tell her! You've put the fear of God in the poor child!" (that was me they were talking about).
"I do assure you, Elsie, that was not my intention at all."
"In Heaven's name..."
But that was all I heard because Vinnie the boot boy came then with a message for Mr Carson and the door clicked shut after he'd gone. Vinnie stared at me because I was waiting and not doing any work.
I couldn't hear any more so I just sat there, wishing I could be thousands of miles away, and trying to count how many leaves there were on the tree outside, but it was difficult trying to look up from the basement window and they kept moving in the wind or when birds flew on or off a branch and I could never get it right and kept losing count of the leaves and having to start all over again.
Then Mrs Hughes came back out and looked at the window where I was looking and seemed a bit puzzled about something before she said "You can come in now, Hinny, and stop worrying, you're not in any trouble."
Mrs Hughes calls me Hinny a lot. I asked Mrs Patmore once why and she said it's just a Scottish word, stop talking daft and get those potatoes done, for goodness sake, I never knew anyone for dilly-dallying!
Anyway, I had a nice surprise. Mr Carson was very nice. He said he hadn't meant to upset me and he was sorry he was so harsh yesterday and he had sent for me so he could tell me. Then you will never believe what happened next!
He opened the desk drawer and took out a paper bag and said he had sent Vinnie out for them early this morning specially as soon as the shop opened to make up for shouting at me and it was a quarter of wine gums! Mr Carson said I was not to eat any sweets while I was on duty and to remember I was not to say bloody hell – it sounded funny when he said it, he made it sound posh - and Mrs Hughes walked part of the way back with me and said, "There! That wasn't so bad after all, was it now, Hinny?" when she left so I think Hinny must just be a Scottish name that she likes better than Daisy.
I feel really happy today. it's not the same as Mam's hugs, but it feels good to know they care about me even though I'm only a kitchen maid. And it is a good job I didn't have to sleep in a hedgerow because I don't know what a hedgerow is.
A/N (1) bairn (pronounced burn) in Scotland and Northern English – child
A/N (2) hinny – in Scottish and Northern English – term of endearment for a woman or child
A/N (3) It's difficult trying to strike a balance between being authentic and using the correct spelling and grammar. I doubt that Daisy would be doing that as yet, but I decided to write it this way to make the story be easier to read. So just imagine the errors! ;D
A/N (4) No more author's notes this chapter! :D