Chapter 4 DINNER
"Me collar's too bloomin' tight," Dan Thornton complained, as his wife Dotty brushed the dust off the shoulders of his old dark blue suit jacket, a colour which showed every single speck of dust that landed on it.
And Dotty was diligent about the house, keeping the flat clean was always a priority, so it wasn't as if it was 'old dust', it was probably ash still floating around since cleaning the grate this morning. But tonight, knowing what they were facing, she was becoming obsessed about the dust and made a mental note to brush her husband down again moments before they left the flat.
"Yeah, an' yer trousers are more like Oxford bags than the narrer trousers wot are apparently the modern fashion, Dan," Dotty tutted, "at least they are 'igh waisted an' 'ave proper turn-ups to the legs, so shouldn't look too much like they're dated the 1935 vintage that they really are. I wus surprised you wus still able to do 'em up, I suppose we have continuin' food rationing to fank for small mercies. Let's 'ope the lightin' ain't too good at Evie's place."
"I 'spect it's all bloomin' crystal chandeliers rand their place, Dot, I shouldn't wonder."
"Well, less of the bloomin' swearing, Dan, these is respectable folk an' fer Gertie's benefit we needs ter be on our best behav'yer."
"Yeah, course, I will, Dot," Danny said, "though I'm blowed if I kin understand why this damned Johnnie fella wants to train up our little girl into bein' a proper lady? I mean, Gertie's a great kid, an' always has been the prettiest fing in the world wot I know, but, well, there must be no end o' pretty toff bints fer Johnnie-boy to choose from, wivout 'aving to buy 'em all their bleedin' clobber an' all so she can fit in wiv all the oi polloi."
"Well, it ain't Johnnie what's buyin' nothink, it's 'er new friend Evie's wot's bin doin' all the buyin' an' you know she needs to 'elp wiv that cos it really is the only way that our Gert'll be accepted as a lady by those wot dunno wot a real treasure she is, is if she's wearin' the right cloves wot suits the settin'. As fer why Johnnie's doin' wot he's doin', well, it's cos 'e's in love, ain' it, Dan. I'm sure 'e is. An' love makes folk do funny finks don't they? Gertie is our lovely girl and if this Johnnie wants to do the right fing by our girl, well, I for one would give 'im a great big cuddle an' gladly call 'im 'son'."
"The motor car's here, Mum, Dad, are you both ready to go?" called Gertie up from the foot of the stairs, where she had been agitating, watching and waiting for the car to arrive for at least the last ten minutes.
"Damn!" muttered Dotty, "no time ta brush ya daan, Dan, yer'll jus' 'aff-ter keep out of the light as best ya can."
When her parents reached the foot of the stairs, Evie's cheerful chauffeur Bob, who Gertie had got to know quite well yesterday, as he had driven her around all day and helped carry much of the results of Miss Eveline's insistent shopping, had opened the car door on the pavement side ready for the ease of his passengers to get in.
Bob was about Gertie's father's age or maybe a little older, Gertie estimated, and Evie had explained to her yesterday that Bob had for a long time been Evie's and Johnnie's father's driver and now that her father was retired and needed his car rarely, and as Johnnie has one of his ex-soldiers as his own driver when he needed one, Evie had asked Bob if he would look after her car and be her driver most of the time now that she was married and her husband had his own driver, and Bob had jumped at the chance to remain in the Winter family's service.
Bob had clearly been amused by Evie's gentle bullying of the sweet young girl and her quiet, reluctant acquiescence to accept the inevitable and he had himself made gently amusing asides throughout the shopping expedition. He had decided early on that he really liked this slip of a girl and was pleased for Master John, that he had found such a nice sweet girl, so many that were of his slight acquaintance that he saw at functions that the family were driven to by him were not very nice at all.
"Hello, Miss Gertie," Bob said with a genuine smile, "I must say that that dress looks really great on you, I do believe that you're going to knock Master John seven streets sideways as soon as he sees you tonight."
"Well, thank you, Bob, you're very kind, even if I know you're exaggerating. Evie got me this silk dream of a dress with that singular purpose in mind, I think," Gertie smiled, "We'll have to see, but I do want to make a good impression on everyone."
"I know and you absolutely will, Miss. I heard Miss Eveline tell her mother that you really put your foot down to him on the outset that this scheme of his wouldn't work, but I can see now that Master John was clearly no fool. You'll be fine, young lady, you just be yourself, because it was the real you, just under the surface, that he fell in love with in the first place and, as you grow more into being a lady, remember that you are still that sweet lovely girl that he fell for, and if you keep showin' him that side of you, well, you won't go very far wrong."
"Thank you, Bob. Oh, here come Mum and Dad, if we sit them together in the back, can I sit up front with you?
"Of course, that'll be fine, mind you, when I first started driving Miss Eveline's father, Mr Jacob, the front of that first car was completely open to all weathers and the wind and the rain wouldn't have done your lovely silks no good at all."
"It's a good thing we can now go in comfort then, Bob."
Bob made sure everyone was seated comfortably before setting off to the Dorsets' house in Cadogan Square in Knightsbridge.
"I've never been so nervous," Gertie whispered to Bob once they got going. "I mean, Miss Eveline and I seemed to get on like a house on fire yesterday, but what's her husband like?"
"Don't you worry, Miss Gertie, Mr George won't bite, he's certainly nowhere near as stiff as his old grandfather was. Mr George has known Mr John for most of their lives and they have always been firm friends, which is how Miss Eveline got to know him and learned to admire him as someone friendly, loyal, reliable but also fun to be around. The rest of the Dorsets, mind you, aren't worth a light but Mr George is a good employer, not too demanding of Jack, his driver, and I think he and Miss Evelyn have a good chance in life as a devoted couple."
"Oh, that's a relief," Gertie smiled back, "but who are the Dorsets exactly?"
"Oh, I'll let Miss Eveline tell you all about the Dorsets, I don't think it's my place to say anything more, sorry."
"That's all right, Bob, I'm not prying into family areas where my questioning is unwanted, but I am thirsty for knowledge. I've gone from quietly getting on with my own very uncomplicated life and all of a sudden I'm being whisked around the better parts of London's fancy shops and a classy hairdressers that I wouldn't have dared step into voluntarily on my own, and now I'm formally dining for the first time in my life with one person I really don't know at all as well as a possible future husband and I've only really spent a short time with. My mind is so full of questions that I feel my head could explode."
"I can understand that, Miss Gertie, I really can," Bob smiled in response. "It was a long time ago, around forty years ago, actually, a different but in small ways very similar thing happened to me. Back then I was only a kid about sixteen and knew absolutely nothing about anything at all. I was a simple labouring farmhand on a farm up in rural Derbyshire that even then still used draught horses for ploughing the fields. I was learning animal husbandry from my father and his foreman, mostly by mucking out the stables and the pigs, herding geese and what not. I think I was sucking a straw after cleaning the stables one morning, when the lady from the Big House pointed to me and told the home farm foreman that I looked just the likely young fellow she needed and the next thing I know I was sent by gig into the next town to a motor showroom, where I spent a week in lodgings that the garage owners arranged for me. There I was put hard to work for ten hours a day learning how to drive a motor car and basic servicing from that garage, before I was fitted for a couple of fancy driver's uniforms. At the end of a whirlwind week and the garage were happy that I wouldn't let them down, I managed to drive back up to the Big House in this brand new motor car, the first that the lady from the Big House had ever owned, and I've been a Winter family driver ever since. I had to learn how to behave in mixed company while surrounded by toffs of every kind, even royalty on more than a time or two. You're a bright young lady already, Miss Gertie, and you're a rare diamond in my humble opinion. I reckon you're more than halfway to being loved by all the family, well the parties what matter, just by being exactly who you are ... all Miss Eveline and Mr John are doing, Miss, is adding a little polish. Just relax tonight, help your folks to relax and not put their feet in it and I know that you'll be absolutely fine."
"Thank you, Bob, I can see why your employers like you. I think the 'Lady from the Big House' was very ... astute, I think."
"Well, one of these days, Miss Gertie, I'm expecting to see one more true lady in a long line of astute ladies from the Big House. Without the quality of the Winter ladies, there wouldn't still be any Big Houses."
"Is where we're going, one of the 'big houses', Bob?"
"Not that big, Miss Gertie, the Dorsets have their main house, their big house if you like, down in Hertfordshire. Their town house is not small though, it has ten family bedrooms and several parlours, an informal breakfast room, a family dining room, a large formal dining room, and comes with servants' quarters for up to ten staff, but no ballroom; no need for one, London's full o' ballrooms. Cook tells me that even though you are asked to dress for a formal dinner, it is being served in the small family dining room, so you can regard this as a bit of a dry runoff in practice for bigger functions, but will be in quite relaxed surroundings, with only close family in attendance. However, Harry, the Butler, told me that he has set out a couple of extra place settings in the formal hall," he laughed, "so I think Miss Eveline is going to give you another lesson or two on dining etiquette, about which spoon or fork to use with whatever course."
"Oh Lord," Gertie sighed, "she never lets up, that Evie."
"Indeed, and she never will. I would love to be a fly on the wall for that, begging your pardon Miss, but I had to go all through that with one of the butlers at the Standhopes, cos when the big formal dinners is called for, it's every servants' hands to the decks on them occasions."
"Well, Bob, after I learn how to lay a proper table, and if in future your butler's ever stuck, I'm on the telephone now, so he can give me a call!"
