The job advert said housework and cleaning silver etc, overalls and equipment provided. The interview was at a house a few streets away, but they told me the work wouldn’t be done there, but I would be taken by car and brought back, 3 days a week, 4 hours a day. The pay wasn’t bad, and we were pretty hard up so I wasn’t going to quibble, I needed a job – any job !
The first morning I was picked up in a large car with luxurious real leather seats. The driver didn’t say a word after confirming who I was, and I was too nervous to speak to him.
He eventually drove through large gates and up a long drive surrounded by what seemed like parkland before arriving at the back of a huge stately home that I knew was in the area but had never visited. Once inside I was greeted by a friendly lady who introduced herself as the head housekeeper. She took me into a room she called the butler’s pantry and gave me an overall, gloves and a large tin of silver polish.
“They’re entertaining this weekend” she said “So its cutlery today, cruets and candelabra tomorrow and all the silver dishes and napkin rings the day after. Next week it will just be ordinary housework.”
Ordinary? I doubted that. I looked warily at the piles of silverware. “They don’t entertain very often do they” I enquired faintly.
Higham Writers
Higham Writers Group
