Magic in Vienna

The doorman touched his cap as she left the hotel and offered to get her a taxi. She beamed at him, suddenly delighted with her world. ‘I’ll walk, thank you,’ she told him and set off briskly and turned the corner in to Grafton Street and thence as fast as she could go into Regent Street. If she didn’t have to wait too long for a bus she would be able to catch the five o’clock train.

She got back in good time to fetch the twins, who had, she gathered from Mrs King’s veiled remarks, behaved badly. They were both peevish and almost unmanageable; getting them to bed took all her patience and most of her strength. Lady Trescombe had warned her that her granddaughter was spoilt but at least there was only one of her, thought Cordelia, as she ate her supper later on. She was sharing it with Cook, pouring into that sympathetic lady’s ears all the excitements of her day.

‘It sounds a treat,’ commented Cook, ‘and depend upon it, you being such a nice young lady, the gentleman will want you to stay, Miss Cordelia.’

Cordelia hoped most fervently that that would be so. The letter offering her the job, arrived on Monday, so did a letter for her stepmother who read it with outraged disapproval and then subjected Cordelia to half an hour’s invective and reproaches. Not that they made any difference to Cordelia, who listened with a calm patience which served to annoy that lady even more.

But beyond railing at her, there was very little her stepmother could do; she was a grown woman, penniless it was true, but independent. She suggested quietly that her stepmother should advertise for an au pair or a home help to take her place and then went up to the attics to search for the suit case she had used years ago when she had gone to boarding school. It was shabby, but it would have to do. She carried it down to her room and cleaned it up and put it in the bottom of the old fashioned wardrobe; it gave her a nice feeling of security although there were three weeks before she could take up her new job.

Chloë and the twins took the news that she was leaving with little interest although they grumbled a good deal at the idea of having someone in her place. Not because they minded her going, Chloë was quick to point out, but because their mother had warned them that whoever came would be able to go again whenever she liked, unlike their ungrateful stepsister, she had added nastily. And since she had no intention of engaging a series of au pairs, they would have to behave themselves. ‘But of course,’ said Chloë rudely, ‘I’ll do exactly what I like; I’ve never listened to you, and I don’t intend to listen to whoever comes, whatever Mother says.’

Cordelia hadn’t answered; they were all making life as hard as possible for the last week or two, but she hardly noticed; she thought a great deal about the girl she was to look after and speculated a good deal about the uncle in Vienna. Lady Trescombe was in her sixties, she guessed, which meant that her son would probably be verging on forty or perhaps older than that; a balding misogynist probably, since he wasn’t married, quite likely he didn’t much like children, and she and Eileen would have to keep out of his way. Of course, mused Cordelia, he might take an interest, but he also might take an instant dislike to herself and send her packing, but at least he would have to pay her fare back and she would have a little money. She refused to think beyond that; she had waited a long while for something to happen and now that it had, she refused to believe that anything could go wrong.

The three weeks went very slowly but she went around the house doing the chores she had always done and whenever she could, went to her room and did what she could with her meagre wardrobe. She looked with dislike at each garment in turn, really there was nothing fit to wear except a handful of woollies and a sober mouse-coloured dress. She would have to spend all the money she was to have advanced; fortunately it was almost summer and she could get by with a skirt and blouses and perhaps a jacket; there was the question of something decent to wear in the evening too—a long skirt and a couple of blouses might do. If only she could lay her hands on a sewing machine and some material… She might have borrowed the former from someone in the village but she had no more than a pound or two in her purse and very little opportunity to go to St Albans. She would have to do the best she could once she got to Guildford and in the meantime she washed and ironed and pressed and thought happily of the new clothes she would buy.

Her stepmother hardly spoke to her and when, at last the day of her departure arrived, a splendidly warm sunny morning too, so that Cordelia felt all wrong in the grey dress, Mrs Gibson turned her back on her when her step-daughter went along to her room to say goodbye.

‘Don’t think you can come back here, Cordelia, I’m sure I don’t want to see you again—the ingratitude…’

Cordelia went out of the room without a word; Chloë was in the schoolroom reading; she glanced up for a moment as Cordelia went in, said goodbye carelessly and went back to her reading. The twins had already gone to school with never a backward glance. She went to the kitchen and took her leave of Cook, who began to cry. ‘There are those who’ll be sorry for this,’ she uttered fiercely, ‘letting you go without so much as a pound note and wearing clothes I wouldn’t give to the jumble! begging your pardon, Miss Cordelia.’ She pressed a small packet into Cordelia’s hand. ‘Don’t open it now, love—it’s just a little something so that you will remember me. And the village wishes you well, you know that. Write when you have time…’

‘Of course I shall, Cook, and thank you for your present.’ Cordelia bent and kissed the elderly cheek. ‘I’m sure I’m going to be happy.’ And since Cook was still weeping she added cheerfully: ‘I’ll meet a rich man who’ll fall head over heels in love with me and we’ll set up house and you shall come and cook for us.’

Cook blew her nose and wiped her eyes. ‘You mean that. Miss Cordelia? Then don’t leave it too long, will you? I’ve been thinking of leaving these last few months, but I’m getting on a bit and there aren’t many jobs going…’

Cordelia took her hands in hers. ‘That’s a promise, Cook. Now I must go.’

She carried her case down to the front door after breakfast, Lady Trescombe had said the car would be there at half-past nine and it was exactly that time. She picked up her case and went outside and the elderly man sitting behind the wheel of a Daimler motor car, got out and took it from her with a cheerful: ‘Good morning, Miss. I’m Bates, the chauffeur.’ He cast an eye over her neat, unspectacular person and smiled very kindly at her. ‘Welcome to Lady Trescombe’s household.’ He held the door of the car open but Cordelia hesitated: ‘May I sit in front with you, Bates? You see, I don’t know much about anything. I don’t mean to pry, but it would be a great help if you could tell me a little about Lady Trescombe and her granddaughter—it’s the first time I’ve had a job you see, and I’m not sure about things…’

Bates shut the car door and ushered her into the seat beside his. ‘Well, now, Miss, where shall I start?’ He started the car and drove smoothly away and Cordelia didn’t look back.

By the time they were nearing Guildford she knew quite a lot; Lady Trescombe was the finest lady anyone could work for; not strong but always kind and good tempered. As for the staff, there was himself, his wife who cooked for them all, Elsie the parlour maid who also looked after Lady Trescombe, and Mrs Trump and Miss Gage who came in daily. ‘And then there’s you Miss and our Miss Eileen. A very nice little girl—a bit lively as you might say, but she being the only one is used to having her own way. You like children, Miss?’

‘Yes, Bates, I do.’ She thought briefly of the twins whom she would so gladly have loved if only they had let her. ‘I hope we shall get on well together.’

They were on the outskirts of Guildford now, bypassing the town and going beyond it into the countryside once more. They were almost on the edge of a small village when Bates swinging the car between brick gate posts went, more slowly now, up a short drive to a pleasant red brick house, old and beautifully maintained, it’s latticed windows shining in the sunshine.

Cordelia had been sternly suppressing panic for the last few miles and all for nothing; nothing could have been kinder than her reception as she went through the door held open by Bates.

It was Mrs Bates, short, stout and cheerful, who trotted into the hall, closely followed by Lady Trescombe and in the little flurry of greetings and instructions about her luggage and the urging into the sitting room where coffee was waiting, she forgot her panic. Presently, when she had drunk her coffee while Lady Trescombe chatted about nothing in particular, she was taken up the oak staircase to a room at the back of the house so that she might unpack and settle in, as Mrs Bates cosily put it.

Alone, Cordelia sat down on the edge of the bed and looked around her. The room was square, neither too big nor too small, with a wide latticed window and a low beamed ceiling. It was furnished simply but with great comfort with well polished oak and flowery chintz. There was a thick quilt on the bed and a small easy chair upholstered in pink velvet by the fireplace as well as a writing desk under the window and flowers and books on the bedside table. She took it all in slowly; after the bare austerity of her own bedroom this was heaven indeed. She went over to the cupboard along one wall and peered into its roomy interior; her clothes would be swallowed up in it. There was a bathroom too, pale pink, with thick fluffy towels and a shelf filled with soaps and bath salts. Cordelia shut her eyes and then opened them again, just to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming.

It was real enough; she gave a long happy sigh and unpacked.

When she went downstairs again she found Lady Trescombe sitting in the drawing room where they had had coffee. She would have to ask just what her duties were and what better than to do it at once? Only she wasn’t given the chance. Lady Trescombe put down the book she was reading and smiled at her.

‘I thought it might be best for you to go into the garden and meet Eileen on your own. She will be at the very end, behind the beech hedge I expect. She knows that you will be accompanying us to Vienna but I didn’t tell her you would be coming today. And may I call you Cordelia?’

‘Of course, Lady Trescombe, and I’d like Eileen to call me that too, if you don’t mind.’

‘I think it a very good idea. Get to know each other today and tomorrow we’ll work out some kind of routine. You will want to go shopping—perhaps in two or three days time? Did I tell you how we are travelling?’

Cordelia shook her head. ‘No, Lady Trescombe.’

‘We fly to Munich and take a small cruise ship down the Danube. A slow way to get to Vienna perhaps, but we shall have a week to get to know each other and if Eileen is feeling doubtful about meeting her uncle and her life with him, you will have the opportunity to reassure her. I should warn you that I intend to do nothing during the week; I shall rely upon you to entertain Eileen and keep her happy; we shall meet for lunch and dinner of course, but I shall put you in sole charge.’

She gave Cordelia a questioning look as she spoke and Cordelia returned the look calmly; if Lady Trescombe was hinting delicately that Eileen was going to be difficult she refused to let it fluster her; no one, she considered, could be more difficult than her own stepsister; if she could emerge unscathed from a number of years of dealing with tantrums and rudeness and not be paid for it either, then she could certainly cope with Eileen. She stood up. ‘I’ll go and meet her now, shall I?’

The french windows were open on to the garden beyond and she strolled off, making for the beech hedge in as casual a manner as she could manage. She had no doubt that Lady Trescombe would be watching from the house to see if she were showing any signs of nerves. She reached the beech hedge and went, still unhurriedly, beyond it and, just as Lady Trescombe had said, found Eileen lying on the grass reading.

She hadn’t heard Cordelia, so there was time to study her; she was tall for her age, Cordelia judged, and slim to the point of thinness. She had an untidy mane of dark curly hair and denim trousers and a cotton top which she wore, although crumpled, were exactly what a clothes conscious child of her age would choose.

Cordelia couldn’t see her face; she stepped heavily and deliberately on to the paved path between the hedge and the child looked up. She had been crying, evident from puffed eyelids and a pink nose, neither of which could disguise a pretty face. But the scowl on it wasn’t pretty as she jumped to her feet.

‘Who are you?’ she demanded, and then: ‘You’re the governess Granny said she’d found. Well, I’m not going to like you for a start…’

Cordelia didn’t smile. She said coolly. ‘I’ve lived most of my life with two stepsisters and two stepbrothers and none of them liked me. I’m a bit disappointed that you won’t even give me a trial, but I admire your honesty. Only I think you at least owe me an explanation as to why you’re crying. Because of me?’

‘No, of course not. I didn’t know what you’d be like, did I?’

‘That’s something. Do you want to tell me?’

Eileen stared at her. ‘You’re not a bit what I thought you’d be.’

Cordelia made herself comfortable on a tree stump. ‘What did you expect?’

‘Well—someone old and plain and cross.’

‘I’m plain but I’m not that old and I don’t think I’m often cross, suppose you give me a trial?’

Eileen looked surprised. ‘Well—all right. Do you really want to know why I was crying?’ She added fiercely. ‘I don’t cry much.’

‘Yes, I’d like to know. I’m not curious, mind you—but perhaps, seeing that I’m a complete stranger, I might be able to help a bit.’

‘It’s going away from here and Granny. Mummy and Daddy won’t be coming home for two months and now Uncle Charles says she must have a rest from looking after me and so I have to go and live with him in Vienna until they come home. There’s no one else you see.’

‘You don’t like your Uncle?’

‘I don’t remember him. He’s a surgeon and he’s always busy, I was a little girl when I saw him last, but I can’t remember him very well. He’s very large and quite old. I’ll have to be quiet in his house and I don’t suppose he’ll want to see me much…’

‘He sounds a bit dreary,’ agreed Cordelia, conjuring up a picture of a learned, slightly stooping gentleman, going bald, probably with a drooping moustache and a dislike of children, ‘but as long as we keep out of his way and don’t annoy him, I should think we’d quite enjoy ourselves. I’ve never been to Vienna but I believe it’s an exciting sort of place. Two months isn’t long, you know, and I daresay we’ll be able to fill in the days until your mother and father come home.’ Always supposing, she told herself silently, that uncle didn’t dislike her on sight and send her back to England.

Eileen gave her a childish grin. ‘I think perhaps I’ll like you,’ she observed. ‘Why didn’t your stepsisters and brothers like you?’

Cordelia pondered the question. ‘Well, my father married again, a widow with a little girl and boy, and they didn’t like me overmuch, I suppose because I was grown up and they weren’t, and then my stepmother had twins, and I looked after them. I expect they thought of me as a kind of nursemaid.’

‘You’re not sorry for yourself?’ stated Eileen.

‘Good grief no. I say Eileen, I have to buy some clothes before we go to Vienna, would you help me with that? You see, I’ve been living in the country and I’m not a bit fashionable.’

‘I can see that. What’s your name?’

‘Cordelia.’

Eileen smiled, a wide friendly smile, Cordelia was relieved to see. ‘OK Cordelia, I think you’re nice.’

‘Thank you Eileen, I think you’re nice too. You must tell me what I’m supposed to do, you know. Do you think we ought to go and find your grandmother and tell her that we’ve met?’

Eileen came closer and took her hand. ‘Yes, let’s.’

CHAPTER TWO

IT WAS GOING to be all right, decided Cordelia, lying awake in her comfortable bed that first night; the day had gone well. She and Eileen had lunched with Lady Trescombe and then gone for a leisurely walk while the child advised her solemnly about the kind of clothes she should buy and the various improvements she could make to her hair and make-up. Then when that important subject had been dealt with, they made hilarious guesses about Uncle Charles; he was to be stout and short, going bald and stuffy and when Cordelia reminded Eileen that she had said that he was a large man, she was told that people shrank with age. But they didn’t talk about him at tea, after all Lady Trescombe was his mother, and might be sensitive about his appearance. ‘And in any case,’ observed Cordelia, going to say good night, ‘we mustn’t be unkind—we’ve only been joking; perhaps your uncle is the best possible kind of uncle to have.’

Eileen looked doubtful. ‘Well, I don’t think he can be, if he was he’d have been married simply years ago.’ She added anxiously: ‘You will stay, won’t you?’

‘Provided your uncle will let me, my dear.’ Cordelia spoke cheerfully making light of her uncertainty.

It was astonishing how quickly the days flew by. She quickly discovered that Lady Trescombe was only too glad to leave her granddaughter in her care for the greater part of the day. They had lunch and dinner together and sometimes tea, but breakfast they had alone and provided Lady Trescombe knew what their plans were, they could do more or less what they wanted. True, Cordelia supervised Eileen’s piano practice each morning, and they read together for an hour during the day but otherwise the time was theirs to do with it as they wished. They walked miles while Cordelia listened to Eileen’s tales of her parents; they were never ending and she suspected that the child was homesick for them. She had spent the last year with her grandmother, going to a local private school where she had been happy enough but, she confided, lonely. ‘Granny’s friends are all so old,’ she explained, ‘and now I’ll have to stay with Uncle Charles and he’ll be old too…’

‘Well, not as old as all that,’ demurred Cordelia, ‘and if he wants me to stay, I’m not old at all, really. Remember we’ll be in a foreign city and there’s an awful lot to see there and school will be fun. Can you speak any German?’

‘A little, we had to learn it at school.’

‘Splendid—I can speak it a little too, so we’ll have fun exploring when you’re out of school.’ She saw Eileen pout and said hastily, ‘Let’s make plans for the shopping I still have to do; now what do you suggest I buy?’

She had two weeks salary and she intended to spend almost all she had. Once Eileen was in bed each evening, Cordelia sat in her room, whittling down her list of clothes until she decided that she had done the best she could, so that when, two days before they were due to leave, Lady Trescombe told her that Bates would drive her into Guildford so that she might do her shopping, she knew exactly what she had to look for. Eileen was to go too and if she saw anything she liked, said her grandmother, Cordelia could buy it for her; she was given a roll of notes to use for this purpose although she didn’t think that they would be spent; Eileen had a great many clothes and surely had no use for more.

Bates dropped them off in the middle of the shopping streets, arranged to pick them up during the afternoon and drove away and Cordelia, clutching her purse and with Eileen hanging on her arm, began her search.

She succeeded very well, considering that Eileen held matters up from time to time, seeing something that she simply had to have. But Cordelia, while making no objection to this, took care that they didn’t waste too much time and refused to be side tracked by her young companion’s wish that she should buy several pairs of highly coloured jeans and a handful of T-shirts. ‘Not quite the rig for a governess,’ she pointed out and went on looking for a cotton skirt with which she could wear coloured blouses. She settled for a sand coloured one, which Eileen declared was very dull but which was exactly what Cordelia had wanted. One or two cotton blouses and some sandals took care of her day by day wants—rather sparse, but that would have to do. A cotton jersey dress in a pretty blue would do for travelling and exploring museums and churches and a thin silk jersey dress in pale pastel shades would take care of any social occasions, although she didn’t expect many of those. It only remained to buy a cardigan to match the skirt and a pair of plain court shoes. And by then her money was almost exhausted. There was enough to buy undies and tights from a high street chain store but not enough for a raincoat; she would have to make do with her old one. Perhaps in Vienna she would buy one. The pair of them repaired to the restaurant of the store they were in, ate a good lunch and then browsed around the more expensive shops, where Eileen found exactly the kind of sandals she craved. That they were extremely expensive and unlikely to last more than a month or so, were arguments Cordelia tried in vain; they were bought, and since they were gaily striped, it became imperative to find jeans and a top to match them. Cordelia, watching patiently while Eileen started to try on these garments, wondered what Lady Trescombe would say when she handed over the remnants of the money she had given her.

She need not have worried; Eileen’s grandmother expressed approval of both sandals and outfit, enquired kindly of Cordelia if she had found all that she required for herself and suggested that the evening might be spent in packing. A lengthy business, for Eileen changed her mind a dozen times in as many minutes and when at last Cordelia had packed for her declared that it didn’t really matter if she hadn’t got all she needed with her; she could always buy anything she wanted in Vienna. Cordelia, starting on her own modest packing, wondered what Uncle Charles would have to say to that.

They were to fly from Heathrow to Munich and Bates drove them there in the early morning. Although they were joining the cruise ship at Passau, Lady Trescombe had explained, they would be met by a hired car at Munich airport and drive there in comfort; she had, she explained further, a dislike of travelling in coaches. ‘And I shall not go ashore,’ she told Cordelia, ‘but I think it would be good for Eileen to see as much as possible; so you will take all the tours with her. I hope the weather will be fine.’

Cordelia was too thrilled at the prospect of going to somewhere as exciting and romantic as Vienna to worry about the weather. She had almost no money, but she had more new clothes than she had had for a long time, she possessed a passport, and whatever the future held, she was about to enjoy a week of sightseeing beyond her wildest dreams.

The flight was short, less than two hours and they travelled Club class with only a handful of other passengers, so that Eileen, who considered herself a seasoned traveller, was able to point out various landmarks to Cordelia. When they got to Munich airport and had dealt with their luggage and customs, a task undertaken by Cordelia since Lady Trescombe was obviously in the habit of having someone dealing with the tiresome details of travel, a car was waiting for them and whisked them away long before the other travellers had reached the coaches waiting to take them to Passau.

The country was pleasant, not unlike England, and the day was fine; Cordelia, in the blue jersey outfit and thoroughly content with her world, patiently answered Eileen’s chatter and left Lady Trescombe to doze until they stopped at Altotting for lunch. The hotel facing the square in the centre of the picturesque little town awaited the arrival of the coach load of passengers for the ship but Lady Trescombe chose to have lunch in the smaller of the restaurants and before the coaches arrived they had finished their light meal and she was back in the car while Cordelia and Eileen hurried across to the small old chapel opposite the hotel, to peer inside at the incredible silverwork on its walls and wish that they could have had more time to inspect it. But Cordelia had already discovered that Lady Trescombe, while good natured and kind, disliked having her plans or comfort upset. She urged Eileen back to the car and they set off once more.