The Maid's Quarters

By Holly Bush

1893 Alice Porterman is released from her duties as a maid for Jolene Crenshaw and travels home to help her mother care for her sickly brother. But her mother and brother are not in their family home when Alice arrives and she learns the landlord, Albert Donahue, has evicted them into the harsh Boston winter. Alice goes in search of him and is surprised at what she finds.

Albert Donahue, an up-and-coming member of Boston’s elite, made his fortune through hard work and shrewd business deals. But his dreams of a family to share it with have not come true, perhaps until an impertinent young woman enters his home and won’t leave until she speaks to him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Holly Bush
• Release date: Sep 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9780578165981

Holly Bush

Holly Bush was born in western Pennsylvania to two avid readers. There was not a room in her home that did not hold a full bookcase. She worked in the hospitality industry, owning a restaurant for twenty years and recently worked as the sales and marketing director in the hospitality/tourism industry and is credited with building traffic to capacity for a local farm tour, bringing guests from twenty-two states, booked two years out. Holly has been a marketing consultant to start-up businesses and has done public speaking on the subject.Holly has been writing all of her life and is a voracious reader of a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction, particularly political and historical works. She has written four romance novels, all set in the U.S. West in the mid 1800’s. She frequently attends writing conferences, and has always been a member of a writer’s group.Holly is a gardener, a news junkie, has been an active member of her local library board and loves to spend time near the ocean. She is the proud mother of two daughters and the wife of a man more than a few years her junior.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Boston 1893

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Alice Porterman looked at Mrs. McKinnell. What do you mean Ma and Jimmy aren’t living here anymore? It is our house!

They’re living in two rooms at the back of the church, Alice. I would have taken them in here, but I have no room, none at all, Alice’s mother’s closest neighbor said to her. You better get them, girl. Jimmy wasn’t doing well the last time I stopped by. Your mam can hardly leave him to get victuals or go to work. I’ve been shopping for her when I can.

Thank you, Mrs. McKinnell. I’ll go right away. Alice turned and looked at the narrow two-story home where she’d grown up. I’ll just put my bags in the house, she said, and started down the walk that separated the Porterman and McKinnell homes as she had just arrived from the train station coming from Washington.

Nay, you can’t, girl. They’ve changed the locks. Your mam couldn’t even get back in to get your brother’s medicine. Leave your cases on my porch. I’ll have one of the boys carry them in and we’ll keep them here until you’re settled somewhere.

Thank you, Mrs. McKinnell, Alice said, red-faced. I will get them as soon as I get this straightened out.

Don’t worry, Alice. Just get your mother and brother back home where they belong.

Alice nodded and kissed the plump, red-headed woman’s cheek. Thank the Lord you were here to help Ma.

It’s nothing. Neighbors do for neighbors. Your mam would do the same for me, she would. So, your mother had Jimmy read me the letter she got from you that those rich nobs are paying you without you even working for them. La-de-dah! And look at them skirts of yours! That is fine wool, is it not, with them lacy petticoats sticking out? And a pretty little hat to boot!

Senator and Mrs. Shelby knew that Jimmy was ill and were very grateful for the help I gave them and their daughter when their ranch was struck with the influenza. They wanted to lighten my worry about Jimmy and Ma and offered me my full salary indefinitely. I will always be eternally grateful.

I would say so! Mrs. McKinnell agreed, and belted out a laugh. She peered through the open door of her house and screamed, Devon McKinnell! Stop your teasing! I’ll have Mr. McKinnell whoop your hide when he gets home from the mill, I will! She turned back to Alice. Go on, now. Get your mother and get poor Jimmy back in his bed.

Alice waved her good-byes and turned to climb the hill to Saint Peter and Paul Catholic Church. How very angry she was! How could her mother have let this happen? Alice sent her the full amount of the rent on their small house every month from her pay as long as she had been employed. Even when she’d first started at Landonmore as an upstairs maid, her salary had been enough to cover her mother’s rent and pay for some food, although it left only a few pennies for herself. With her help, Alice’s mother had been able to work mornings only at the dressmakers and still scrape by.

Alice let herself in the church gates and circled to the back. She came to a small building and saw smoke coming from the chimney. What would it be costing in coal to heat this shack? she wondered. The door opened suddenly, and her mother was screaming and dragging Jimmy out into the cold air.

Breathe, boy! her ma shouted, and plopped down in the snow beside the steps. Breathe!

Ma! Alice cried, as she dropped her purse and hurried to where her mother was struggling to turn Jimmy onto his stomach.

Help me, Alice! He’s not breathing!

Maeve Porterman thumped the back of the thin, limp boy lying across her legs as she sat just outside the door of the building. She hit his back hard with a closed fist, and Jimmy’s shoulders began to shake. He sputtered and struggled to breathe and coughed until his eyes watered. Maeve continued to tap his back until he spit and cleared his throat enough to breathe calmly. Alice was kneeling, holding him in place across his mother’s knees lest he roll onto the ground. She chafed his arm through the thin cotton of his shirt and felt him shiver.

Come on, Ma. Let me carry him into the house, Alice said and bent to pick him up.

Her mother struggled to stand and then wiped the tears from her face on her apron. I am so glad you’re here, Alice. So glad.

Get in the house, Ma. We’re letting the heat out, she said, as she turned sideways at the doorway to carry Jimmy inside.

Alice lay her brother down in the bed near the stove. She propped his pillows up, kissed his cheek, and smiled. You gave us a fright, Jimmy! Are you warm enough?

Alice! Jimmy smiled back at her. You’re home!

Quit trying to talk so soon after one of your spells, Alice admonished, and pushed the hair out of his eyes. You will start a coughing fit again.

Jimmy held her hand and leaned back on his pillows. Alice knew he was exhausted, and soon his eyes drifted shut. She pulled the covers up over his shoulders and turned to her mother.

What has happened, Ma? I went home today, only to find out the locks have been changed. I send the rent money faithfully every month. Why are you not living at home? Mrs. McKinnell said Jimmy hasn’t been doing well.

Maeve Porterman turned from her daughter and busied herself folding clothes and stacking them on the shelf above the washstand. The rent went up a dollar, and Jimmy’s new medicine is twice as much as the old. But he’s only having a coughing fit once every few days instead of once every few hours. He’s even been eating better.

But still I send you twenty dollars every month, which should cover the rent and the price of the new medicine. But it occurred to her what had happened, and it was all Alice could do to not shout. Please tell me you have not given that man money.

Maeve said nothing, and Alice went to her and waited until she turned. Her mother would not meet her eye. You have given him money, haven’t you? Alice whispered. You gave that man my money!

Maeve flushed. It is my money to spend as I see fit once you have given it to me.

The four dollars and a half from the shop that you earn and what I send you have always been enough. That man came crawling around, didn’t he?

Watch your tongue! That is your father you’re speaking so ill of. He brung you into this world!

And then left me and my brother to starve. Left you, too, to chase his whiskey. What has he done now?

Maeve crumbled onto the chair beside the bed she slept in. She stared grimly ahead and pulled a worn hanky from her skirt pocket. "He hadn’t eaten in days, Alice. What would you have me do? He looked like a skeleton, I say. He came to say hello to Jimmy, he did, and I heated some soup for him. He was nearly starving, but he ate very slowly. He told me it had been four days since he’d eaten anything other than