The Compassionate Countess

By Robin Bell

Two years after arriving in England in 1886, to unexpectedly discover that she had inherited the hereditary title of Countess, twenty year old Australian farm girl Mary Evans has adjusted, in her own way, to dealing with the authority, privileges and wealth that have been bestowed upon her. Mary has a passion to help those less fortunate than he

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: May 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781643450452

Robin Bell

ROBIN BELL, is a retired teacher who now lives on and manages the family dairy farm in South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia purchased by her grandfather in 1910.

Book preview

Preamble

Mary Evans laughed as she watched Scruffy, her grey shaggy hound, race towards the village, then bound back to her in a great dilemma, as he wanted to be with her but also had to be at the village school gate when the children appeared in the schoolyard at the end of the school day.

Ruffling his ears, she sent him back towards the school and continued to walk along the track from Longmire Hall to the village of Longmire, where she waited with Scruffy for the children to emerge from the schoolhouse. Leaning against the gatepost, she thought how much her life had changed since her arrival in London just over two years ago.

Mary was guardian to four children who lived on the estate. Twelve-year-old Alfie and ten-year-old Jack now lived in the Hall with Mary, after running away from the Lewes Workhouse where Jack had been viciously whipped by the Master.

The ten-year-old twins, Sally and Jane, plus Sally’s dog, Mac, lived in one of the cottages across the courtyard from the main building with Sally’s tutor, Meg. Sally had been blind since being knocked down by the runaway horse that killed the twin’s mother more than two years ago. Mary had found them living on the streets in London, terrified of being put in the Workhouse after their grandmother had recently died.

Mac, the yellow dog, had attached himself to Sally when they first met at Home Farm and had shown a surprising ability and desire to guide Sally wherever she wanted to go. Now, after more than twelve months together, they were inseparable and went nearly everywhere on the estate with the other three children.

Mary had lived her entire life on a small dairy farm in Victoria, Australia, until just after Christmas in 1885 when her mother had died, never telling her daughter of her aristocratic family in England. As her mother’s heir, Mary had embarked on the two-and-a-half-month sea voyage from Melbourne to London in early 1886, a couple of weeks following her mother’s funeral and just after her eighteenth birthday. She had been met in London and taken straight to Lewes, in Sussex, where she met the solicitor Mr Lyons. He informed her that her maternal grandmother had been a Countess and that her mother, Lady Patricia, who was her heir, was presumed to have drowned when she was eighteen.

When it was finally discovered that Patricia had been kidnapped and taken to Australia, the Countess immediately sent detectives to Melbourne to search for her long-lost daughter, only to die a week before Patricia, who unknowingly had been a Countess for a week before her premature death.

As Patricia’s only child, Mary was informed that she was now the new Countess. In fact, her full title was Lady Mary Emma Evans, Countess of Longmire and Oakdale. Not only was she a Peer of the Realm, but she was also an immeasurably rich young lady, owning two vast estates, one in Sussex, the other in Yorkshire, a town house in London, and a house in Lewes. She also owned a large number of prosperous businesses throughout Britain and overseas.

This all came as a considerable shock to Mary, as did the first sight of her new home, Longmire Hall on the Longmire Estate six miles from Lewes. To her horror, she found her new title meant she was expected to live a life of idleness, with servants to do everything for her. Having lived her whole life on a small farm, working hard every day, this enforced inactivity nearly drove her mad during the first couple of weeks at the Hall.

She had never encountered anything like the vast inequality between the wealthy landowners and the working classes in England. With no training whatsoever in life as an aristocrat, she couldn’t understand how people thought that by right of birth, they were superior beings to all others and had the right to treat others as inferior beings. Before long, Mary exerted her authority and made many sweeping changes to the way her household was to be run.

Mary’s unconventional ways of dealing with situations had at first caused great consternation amongst her peers, but as they grew to know her, they accepted most of her different ideas as being due to her colonial upbringing. Many people were shocked when they heard that Mary had told her servants that they were her employed staff, who were to work together, helping each other when need be, and that they would not be disciplined for talking while they worked.

It was rumoured that she ate her meals with the servants, but whenever visitors called or were invited to afternoon tea or to dinner, Mary was the perfect hostess, and the staff, as she called the servants, could not be faulted in their effort, although they did appear to smile a lot!

Mary’s indoor and outdoor staff adored her and would do anything for her. They enjoyed their work, which no longer seemed the onerous daily drudge it had previously been. The female staff were thrilled with their new quarters a floor below the cold, draughty attic rooms, and the men’s quarters over the stables now had running water and the walls had been sealed to keep out the wind.

Her tenants in Longmire, the estate village, and the tenant farmers, after some initial distrust following Patricia’s brother’s heartless treatment of everyone, were now happy to chat to her and accept her presence working beside them when a job needed extra hands.

At the end of the long driveway stood an imposing white four-storey building with six elegant marble steps leading up to an impressive portico and a stout wooden front door. Windows seemed to cover the whole of the building’s façade, with numerous dormer attic windows under a high-pitched roof with countless chimneys. At one side of the house, an immaculate lawn sloped down to a small lake that sparkled in the sunshine.

Chapter 1

London

April 1888

Hugh Watson, the estate supervisor, was seated in the boardroom with eight of the Countess’s business managers when Mary and Mr Lyons entered the room.

‘Good morning, gentlemen,’ she said as the men stood and waited for her to be seated at the head of the table, with Mr Lyons beside her. ‘Thank you all very much for attending this morning’s meeting. I hope you will be interested in the details Mr Lyons will discuss with you. I will leave you to listen to and debate our proposal. Mr Watson, will you please accompany me outside?’

As the door shut behind them, Mary heard Mr Lyons begin to speak, then she turned to Hugh and said, ‘Oh, Hugh, I have missed you so much during the past three weeks,’ and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

Poor Hugh, desperately wishing to sweep her into a loving embrace, blushed then took her hand and gave it a quick kiss. He then offered her his arm, and they walked out of the building and entered the tea shop next door.

Understanding Hugh’s embarrassment, Mary smiled and said, ‘Tell me all about your trip up north, Hugh,’ giving him the opportunity to regain his composure.

Once Hugh started to tell her about the people he had met, the businesses he had visited and the brief visit he had made to his family home, Oakdale Estate in Yorkshire, Mary was pleased to see him relax and become his usual good-humoured self.

An hour later, after Mary had updated Hugh on the information Mr Lyons was imparting to the managers, they returned to the boardroom to find the men chatting away so keenly they at first didn’t realise she had entered the room. When they resumed their seats, Mary said, ‘So, gentlemen, do I take it you feel as enthusiastic as I am about my proposal?’

Mr Jenkins, manager of the china clay mine in Cornwall, stood up and asked, ‘Lady Mary, are you really proposing to offer each of us a five percent share in the Rushmore Shipping Company you have just purchased?’

‘I am,’ replied Mary. ‘Are you interested in the proposal, gentlemen?’ When all eight men agreed that they were, she added, ‘Very well then, gentlemen, we will meet here again in three weeks after you have spoken to your families and your bank managers. This is a risky business you are looking at entering into, though steamships tend to be a bit safer and more reliable than the sailing ships.’

During the previous two years as Mary had become more interested and involved in the many businesses she owned, she had become aware of how dependent her mining and manufacturing businesses were on the shipping companies to move the raw materials and finished goods around Great Britain and overseas. The cost was high, and at times, it was very difficult to ensure goods were dealt with efficiently and honestly.

Mary had asked for enquiries to be made about the possibility of owning some ships and whether owning her own shipping company would enhance her businesses or be detrimental. About two months earlier, Mr Lyons had been informed of a small family shipping company in Southampton about to be sold, following the death of the owner. With no close male relative to take over the company, his widow wished to sell up immediately and move back to America as quickly as possible.

The company owned 6 relatively new steamships: two 3,000-ton ships with facilities for 500 passengers and some trade, at present sailing the Australia route in 60 days; two similar-sized ships with limited passenger facilities trading with America; and two trading vessels plying India and the East Indies.

After rigorous investigation and serious negotiations, a price had been settled upon, and Mary became the owner of the company. She agreed to employ the manager, Charles Browning, who had been practically running the company by himself for a number of years, as the owner rarely visited the office.

Mary had decided to offer her senior managers the opportunity to be shareholders in the shipping company and the eight who attended the meeting were the ones who had shown the greatest interest in the proposal for the purchase of a shipping company.

Hugh had been away when the final papers were signed but was aware of the proposed purchase, so it was no surprise to him that Mary now owned the shipping company. When Hugh first met Mary, he had held similar views to most men of his time that men were both physically and intellectually superior to women, who were best suited to just be wives, who oversaw domestic duties and brought up children, as well as being available for whatever pleasures her husband desired.

He was rapidly changing his views the more he came to know Mary. She was a quick learner and knew as much about the running of the estate as he did. Her accounting skills were well developed, and she had no qualms about arguing the point with men or women. Whilst her title gave her the liberty to do this, she did so in such a manner that most people didn’t take offence.

But more than that, Hugh had found Mary to be a great companion on their regular rides around the estate and during the evenings when they sat together in the study, doing the books or discussing not only the estate but all manner of subjects.

After a quick lunch, Mary and Hugh caught the train to Lewes, leaving Mr Lyons to finalise the share arrangements with the managers. They were met by Robert, the head groom, with the Countess’s coach.

To their surprise, he was accompanied by the four children for whom Mary was guardian. Alfie, Jack, Jane, and Sally excitedly hugged both Mary and Hugh, chatting constantly while the luggage was loaded until Robert told all four to get up on the driver’s seat. Although a bit cramped, he sat with the boys to one side and the girls on the other. Sally, who was blind, sat beside him, with her hand on his hand so she could feel him controlling the horses with the reins.

Chapter 2

May 1888

Two weeks later, Mary was in Lewes attending an afternoon tea at the residence of Lady Edith Pridmore, the wife of Sir Harold Pridmore, a London banker seeking election to Parliament.

While Mary and the other five ladies in the sitting room were sipping their tea and discussing the upcoming Charity Ball, there was the sound of a scuffle in the garden outside the French windows, followed by a high-pitched voice shouting, ‘No, no,’ then a scream and a thud.

Sitting nearest to the windows, Mary was first out into the garden to find a young man, with his trousers down around his knees, struggling with a girl on the path. She grabbed him by his coat collar, hauled him off the girl, and swung him face first into a large rose bush, where he screamed and struggled as the thorns ripped into his face and the lower part of his anatomy exposed to the elements!

While Lady Pridmore ran to her sixteen-year-old son Phillip and tried to disentangle him before too much damage was inflicted on his person, Mary helped the girl to her feet. She was quite dazed and had a bruised cheek, with one eye rapidly closing. Her blouse was ripped open, so Mary placed her jacket around the shivering girl’s shoulders.

With her snivelling son now curled up on the lawn, hastily covered by his mother’s stole, Lady Pridmore turned to the girl and snapped, ‘What have you done to my son, you stupid girl?’

When the young maid replied, ‘Master Phillip grabbed me and took my purse,’ Lady Pridmore slapped her across the face and snarled, ‘You have no right to accuse my son of such a gross untruth, Amy. Go to your room, pack your bags, and leave immediately!’

Mary was appalled at such callous treatment of an employee, so ignoring a ferocious glare from Lady Pridmore, she said, ‘Tell me what happened, Amy.’

Amy sobbed. ‘Master Phillip grabbed me when I was on my way to the shops and demanded I give him my purse. Cook gave me two shillings to buy some material for an apron, plus I was taking my own three pounds to put in the bank. When he had my purse, he attacked me.’

When Mary turned to Phillip, who was now standing and hastily adjusting his trousers, and asked, ‘Do you have Amy’s purse, Phillip?’ he swore at her and told her to mind her f——ing business. Before he knew what was happening, his right arm was pulled so high up his back, he screamed.

‘Enough of that foul language, my lad,’ said Mary forcefully, adding, ‘Lady Pridmore, please take the purse from your son’s coat pocket and count the contents.’

Initially, the furious woman hesitated, but with the other four women watching the drama unfold, she extracted a soft leather purse from the boy’s pocket and counted out exactly three pounds and two shillings. Humiliated, Lady Pridmore tried to cover up for her son’s behaviour by saying, ‘This maid has been flirting with Phillip and leading him astray.’

Taking her lead, Phillip embellished the story by adding, ‘She is always flirting with me when I am home from school.’

When Amy said intensely, ‘We have never met before you grabbed me,’ he shouted, ‘You can’t prove I’ve done anything wrong.’ Then with a smirk on his face, he added, ‘Any charges that stupid maid makes won’t stick. My father has ways to make sure she will change her story.’

Listening to the last sentence of his rant, Mary decided she had heard enough and for once opted to use her titled status. Glaring at Phillip, she softly asked, ‘Do you know who I am, Phillip?’ and wasn’t at all surprised by his foul-mouthed response.

His horrified mother, well aware of Mary’s reason for