Chapter One
The early afternoon train from Bath pulled into an almost deserted platform. A young woman was the only passenger to alight at the small country station. Tall and good-looking, she was smart if conservatively dressed and clutched a large Gladstone bag. Although just thirty, Jane Seymour looked younger. Fresh-faced with short brunette hair, she was a handsome rather than a pretty woman: tall, broad-shouldered, and slender with an almost athletic build.
Looking around the empty station she pulled out a map from her coat pocket. Since there was no one to ask she was going to have to find the way to her destination, Seal House, herself, and as she walked along a country lane she contemplated her dire predicament. It was only a few days since she had been dismissed from her position as Governess at Farley Hall, the country home of the wealthy Wallis family, on the pretext that she had imposed too strict a regime on her two young male charges. In fact, although she was a great believer in the strictest discipline and had not spared the rod, she had been acting on the instructions of Sir Charles Wallis, the father of the two boys. It had been the jealousy of his wife, Lady Wallis, which had resulted in her dismissal without a reference, the kiss of death for future employment. Although Sir Charles had clearly been besotted with Jane, she had refused his overtures. His obvious obsession with Jane had not, however, escaped his wife's notice.
In danger of being thrown onto the streets penniless and unemployed, Jane had been saved by a friend of Sir Charles who had, at the latter's prompting, offered her gainful alternative employment (also as a governess she supposed, but of this she was unsure). The gentleman concerned, a Mr. George Seal, had always been most interested in her methods of punishment and had been a frequent visitor to the schoolroom.
After a long walk along the road and meeting no one, Jane eventually came upon a pair of imposing stone pillars, and on the front of one of them was a small plaque: SEAL HOUSE. Turning up a rutted track between the pillars, Jane walked for a mile until she found herself almost ankle-deep in the mire, exhausted and muddy, but at last facing an imposing 18th-century mansion. The huge, red-brick building was surrounded by extensive lawns, and keeping to the track Jane skirted the front of the building and found herself in a large, walled courtyard at the rear. To one side she could see a number of horses in stables, and in some wire cages, a number of dogs barked at her. Approaching the tradesman's entrance she knocked on the door, and after a few seconds, it was opened by a nervous-looking girl in her late teens, wearing a shapeless, brown dress. Jane smiled.
"Hello. I have an appointment with Miss Browning, the Housekeeper" she said.
The words were hardly out of her mouth when a large, florid-faced woman wearing a white pinafore pushed the girl roughly to one side. Jane started to repeat what she had said to the girl, only to be interrupted by the woman.
"I heard what you said! Who are you?" she snapped.
The big woman was rather frightening and had obviously taken an instant dislike to Jane. Steeling her nerves, she replied.
"My name is Jane Seymour, and as I said I have an appointment with the Housekeeper."
The large woman grimaced and chuckled.
"Oh, the Seymour woman. I know all about you, missy."
Opening the door wide so that Jane could enter, the woman led her along a hallway to a small office. Seated at a desk was a stern-looking woman with a narrow, hard face and sharp features. Her black hair was tied in a tight bun at the base of her neck, and although in her 40's she had a firm, curvaceous figure. She peered at Jane through a pair of round spectacles perched on the end of her nose.
"At last, Miss Seymour, you have honoured us with your presence," she hissed. She looked up at the big woman who had escorted Jane to her.
"Thank you, Mrs. Grimes", she said to her, "that will be all for the moment."
With a shrug of her shoulders the big woman departed. Indicating that Jane should seat herself opposite, Miss Browning glanced at a paper on her desk then looked up at Jane.
"I see you have neither previous experience at housework nor a reference. How Mr. Seal thinks I can use you I don't know..." she muttered.
Jane was uncomfortable at the turn of events.
"I thought I was being interviewed for the position of Governess," she blurted out
The Housekeeper looked at her in amazement.
"How could that be possible? There are no children in the house to be taught."
Jane's heart sank as the Housekeeper continued.
"We only have one vacancy on the staff, that of scullery maid under the Cook, Miss Grimes, whom you have just met, and I have been instructed to offer you that vacancy."
Scratching her nose Miss Browning continued.
"The wage is 1/- a week and hours are from 6 a.m. until when you are needed, seven days a week. Every other Wednesday you will get an afternoon off if you are not needed."
Jane felt like crying but managed to compose herself.
"Thank you - I would of course like the position," she said.
With a smirk, the woman turned from her desk and pulled a long, pliable, crook-handled bamboo cane from behind a filing case. This she carefully placed on her desk and pointed to it.
"One further thing," she said. "I'm sure you recognize this since I'm sure you've handed out many thrashings. Well, this is what I use on the bottoms of scullery maids who displease me and are lazy, so beware!"
The Housekeeper stood up and instructed Jane to follow her. After going through a labyrinth of narrow hallways, Miss Browning eventually threw open the door of a small bedroom containing little else but two narrow beds, on one of which lay a brown dress the same as Jane had seen the girl who had let her in wearing. The Housekeeper turned to Jane.
"I am assuming you are able to start immediately?" she snapped.
Jane nodded, too upset to speak. The woman continued.
"You will share this room with Daisy, the other scullery maid. On the bed is your dress: it might be a bit short as our scullery maids are usually a lot younger than you are. Get changed and go down to the kitchen where Mrs. Grimes will tell you your duties."
Miss Browning closed the door, leaving Jane to her own thoughts. Determined not to cry she started to change, taking off her fashionable clothing until she stood in just her underclothes. Next, she put on the sack of a dress, which to her dismay finished just above her knees. Woolen socks and heavy black shoes completed the uniform. At that moment Daisy, the other scullery maid who had answered the door on Jane's arrival quietly entered the bedroom. Looking nervously behind her she whispered:
"I thought I'd just come and see you were all right, I don't want Cook to catch me or she'll tan my hide."
"I've just been shown Miss Browning's cane and been given a warning," Jane whispered back.
The girl pulled the back of her sack-like dress up to her waist to expose a pair of very womanly and completely bare buttocks. Their attractiveness was spoilt by a pattern of red cane stripes that covered not only her buttocks but much of her thighs as well. There were also a number of strange clusters of nasty-looking, red blisters. Shocked, Jane was for a moment speechless. The girl, however, reached behind her to point at the cane marks.
"Miss Browning's not kidding, she gave me six bloody hard cuts of the cane yesterday for not cleaning the floors to her satisfaction. The blisters are from Cook's special wooden butter pat: it's got horrible holes that give you blisters. They are both cruel cows."
There was one thing that Jane desperately wanted to ask the girl and she managed to get a word in edgeways.
"Where are your drawers? Have they been confiscated due to you being punished?"
The girl laughed.
"If you're a scullery maid you don't get drawers: they like to keep us bare-arsed so we're always ready for a whacking."
Daisy nodded towards the pile of clothing on Jane's bed.
"There ain't no drawers amongst that lot is there? You'll be kept bare-arsed like me. It's terrible a lady like you having to submit to that indignity."
A sound outside the bedroom door startled the girl, and she quickly left the room after first checking that the coast was clear.
Having dressed and feeling very vulnerable not wearing drawers, Jane very nervously made her way to the kitchen where the scowling Cook awaited her, standing with her hands on her hips. Mrs. Grimes looked Jane up and down and laughed.
"Well, well, well! What a comedown for Miss Lardy-dardy," she quipped. Oh yes, I know all about you, girl."
Jane stood blushing in her horrible, brown dress as the Cook continued.
"First of all you can clean your mess off the floor: you made the mess with your muddy feet, now you clear it up!"
Jane looked on, not knowing what to do. Getting angry, Mrs. Grimes shouted at her.
