Saraband for Two Sisters

Richard had wanted me to learn the duties of the mistress of the house and this was something in which I did not need a great deal of tuition, for my mother had always been a woman deeply concerned with domestic matters, and she had brought us up to feel the same. It was one of the areas in which I did better than Bersaba and I was often in our kitchen at Trystan when my mother gave the orders for the day. So I had no difficulty with Mrs. Cherry, who sensed this and respected me for it. I made a point of going down to the kitchen each morning to tell her what I would have for dinner and supper. She would sit down with me, purring slightly. “She seems a very contented woman,” I thought.

She called me “my lady” as all the servants did and she spoke of the General in hushed whispers which implied great respect.

I asked her if she had done a lot of cooking at any time and she answered yes, she had, for there were occasions when the household was full of guests. “Military gentlemen,” she said. “They’d come here and stay for a few days. The General would ride out from Whitehall with them. Big appetites they had, and good drinkers most of them. That’s why the General keeps a good cellar. Cherry says we’ve got some of the finest malmseys and muscadels in England.”

“You must tell me what happens on these occasions, Mrs. Cherry. I shall want to make sure that they are a success.”

“You can rely on me ... and Cherry as well as Mr. Jesson, and we see that the rest of them behaves if you know what I mean. There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for the General.»

“It must have been difficult for him without a hostess all these years.»

“Well, I reckon you’ll be a help, my lady, but I can tell you that these military gentlemen like to eat and drink and fight their wars on the table and they’re content. I remember one night when we went in to clear away after supper and there they were ... my best game pie was some fort or other and my boar’s head was the enemy’s cavalry, if you please. There they were arranged there all over the table ... you never saw the like ... and one of them started making pellets of bread and throwing them around. Shot and shell they was.”

I laughed. I could well imagine that.

“Their profession is fighting, Mrs. Cherry, and preserving the country from our enemies.»

“I don’t doubt that, my lady. But as I was saying ... give them a good sirloin of beef and a leg of mutton and plenty of pies and plover and partridge and hare or peacock and something good to wash it down with and they’re content.»

“I am sure everything will work splendidly.”

“Oh, you can rely on me, my lady ... and Cherry. And the rest of them too.”

“Thank you.”

“And there’s one thing we have to be ready for. At any time the General can arrive. You can be sure that he’ll be back here as fast as he can ... he being such a newly married man.”

“Mrs. Cherry,” I said, “how long have you been here?”

“It was before the General ... er ... before his first marriage. Cherry got a wound in his leg, and the General, thinking highly of him, and Cherry being unfit for service, he says - the General, I mean 'Well, come along and be my general factotum.’ That’s what he said, and, ‘Mrs. Cherry can be the housekeeper and cook for me.’ Cherry jumped at it, and so did I. Always a high regard Cherry had for the General-who wasn’t a General then-that came after.”

“So you were here at the time of his first marriage.”

“Oh, yes. I remember the day he brought her here. We talked of it here in the kitchens only the other day. Your coming reminded us those of us who were here, of course. I said, ‘He’s not made a mistake this time,’ and Cherry agreed with me.”

“A mistake?”

“Oh, I’m speaking out of turn again. Cherry’s always telling me I talk too much. Well it’s good to be sociable. Well, since you ask, my lady, and it’s as well to know what’s gone before I reckon, she was a delicate little thing. Too young she was.”

“How young?”

“Seventeen-going on for eighteen.”

“Oh,” I said.

“I know you’re a young lady yourself, but she seemed younger if you know what I mean.

One of the Herriots. Thought a good deal of themselves, the Herriots did, one of the finest families in the north. The families were in favor and I think that had to be the reason for it. So they were married, and the General - only he wasn’t a General then - brought her home. She knew nothing about housekeeping. She was frightened of her own shadow.”

“She liked needlework.”

“Yes, indeed, my lady. She’d sit up there in the Castle Room and she’d have her tapestry set up there and she’d work away and sometimes you’d hear her singing. She had a pretty voice-oh, a very pretty voice-but not strong, and she’d play the spinet and sing as she played. It was very pretty to hear her. There was one song she used to sing ...”

“Yes, Mrs. Cherry?” I prompted.