Chapter 1

A companion – a somewhat impoverished lady of genteel upbringing, paid to act as a ‘friend’ to an older woman who had managed to reach a stage of having no-one in her family or circle to look after her. This acted as a bridge for members of that class during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras when class was beginning to break down but it was still looked upon with something of horror that a refined person might have to resort to paid employment in an office or similar establishment.

Simon Peters had just finished school and was in the long vac.; waiting to go up to Oxford to study Theology and then Divinity. He was that rare thing; someone who was actually choosing to enter the church rather than seeing it as the least worst option (law, the army, the church; all choices for respectable middle classes wanting to maintain their position). His father was the lawyer, and his elder brother was already starting the long process of inheriting the family firm – in time Peters and Son would refer to himself as the son, and then himself as the elder Peters it was hoped. At the present moment old Mr Peters still interfered as best he could, but he would retire or die soon and the partnership would fall to Simon Peters’ father (and son).

He and his friends had looked forward to this long vac. Jeremy was joining his Great Uncle in Scotland for some shooting. Ludo (Ludovic Hans Gruber – his father was the founder of Gruber Dies Limited and owned the house overlooking the town) was travelling to meet his extended family who still lived in Prussia; he was travelling alone! He was looking forward to the adventure, convinced that he would fall madly and hopelessly in love with a young fraulein and they would plight their troth and live happily in the Black Forest. Ludo was a hopeless romantic and would eventually make a small living out of writing such fiction whilst his sister showed the ‘mettle of [her] pasture’ and took over the business when their father faded.

The announcement that Simon was to travel to Newborough to visit Great Aunt Jo was therefore not part of his plans. The truth was he had messed up, he had made no explicit plans and pronounced them. As in the way of all parents, a vague plan to ‘do nothing’, to be indolent, was regarded as no plan and therefore could be easily and comprehensively consigned to the dust bin of life. The parental plan was: Simon visit and stay with Great Aunt Jo all summer, she had no close relatives to whom to leave her considerable wealth; to get into her ‘good books’ they should all visit, but she was a pain. Boring, decrepit, half deaf, irascible, cantakerous. The plan of Josiah Peters and his wife was that Simon could spend (ruin) his holiday making himself useful to the ‘old dear’ and then their family would be left the bulk of the money when the time came. Naturally they dressed it up as ‘doing your duty to your old relatives, old thing. She’ll really appreciate it’ and so on and so on. Nothing so venal as ‘get ahead of my brother and cousin in the inheritance stakes’. Simon had no choice. He moaned to his friends, but accepted the inevitable.

He did, at least, get to travel by train alone (‘you could accompany me, Mama’ ‘Oh no dear, I have far too much to do at the moment’ - for which read ‘there is no way I am visiting that old bat to be told, yet again, that I am not good enough for Josiah’) in the First Class carriage. A small moment of pleasure was afforded by being in the same carriage as two delightful young ladies and their governess. The governess discouraged conversation, but could not prevent him looking at the young women instead of the view from the window.

Newborough is the end of several branch lines from the industrial towns of the North. As they approach, one curves to take in Exton on Sea and then travels up the coast affording excellent views, whilst another travels via Teinton, Teinton Harbour, Teintonmouth to progress South down the coast. Thus the terminus – originally three separate buildings is unusual in being a terminus with trains approaching from three points of the compass. The station was designed by the renowned railway architect Archibald Smothers, in the Palladian style. If at first it seemed overblown for the single track that was originally in use, as other railways brought more lines and more customer, the impressive station seemed to say ‘here I am, the gateway to Paradise for a day’. The other stations were demolished and Smothers’ Cathedral as it was nicknamed was reworked. It was started as a speculation to attract day trippers by train on the Bank Holidays and factory shutdowns. Then it had re-invented (New Newborough as one wag named it) itself as a select place to visit and take the waters. The waters being warmed salt water baths for the less energetic, and bathing in the sea for those with robust constitutions. The North Beach was reserved for bathing machines with ladies to be wheeled into the water and take the cold North Sea unobserved. The South Beach extended for two miles and the final mile was by tradition and practice a male only preserve since many men still bathed naked. The closer part of South Beach was increasingly being used for mixed bathing (clothed of course). This was somewhat racey and exciting to the younger people of the town, there was often a mixture of classes, allowing a rosy cheeked young lady of demure and respectable upbringing to hear a ‘fookin Hell it’s freezin ain’t it?’ or similar. Nothing of an unsavoury nature ever occurred (even the working classes were generally quite respectable), but the possibility that it might happen was a piquant addition to the experience.

Simon Peters disembarked from the train, wished the two young ladies and their governess a happy stay and, feeling quite the ‘man about town’ hailed a cab to take him and his luggage to his Great Aunt’s house at ‘Horizon, Acacia Crescent’. The cab did not know which house was Horizon, Simon had not visited since he was three, so could not tell him. Luckily the name was painted above the door and, being summer, there was enough light.

“Ahh, Master Simon I presume? You came by cab? You must have money to burn.” was the greeting from the old lady in the drawing room. Apparently she expected him to walk with his three bags. A porter would have cost almost as much, given the distance from the station. Acacia Crescent was perhaps half a mile from the railway station. It was built on the edge of the steep slope. Some called it a cliff but the land here was soft and malleable and so cliffs were not possible – or desirable. Below the South Beach stretched away to the right and the town nestled under the headland that separated North Beach from South Beach. These houses had been built for the better off clientele. Some had been taken as summer residences, but increasingly they were occupied all year round, as Great Aunt Jo’s was.

The welcome was chilly, Great Aunt Jo had no need to make herself amenable to visitors; though perhaps if she had been she might have had more visitors. Instead she complained about the lack of visitors whilst welcoming those that came with comments that amounted to criticism.

“Ring the bell, where is Susan?” a woman appeared. “Where is Susan?”

“I have no idea Ma’am. She ain’t in the kitchen, I do know that.” The cook cum housekeeper was almost as curmudgeonly as her employer. She was of good northern stock who spoke her mind, was confident in her ability to obtain another post if it ever came to it (for she was a good cook); however she would never leave since she enjoyed the work and freedom this small household provided. She was cook and housekeeper combined because Josephine Barker (sister of Josiah’s mother) saw no reason to go to the needless expense of “paying for two people to sit around chatting when one could do the work easily”. Miss Barker was correct in this, and Emily Smythe (Emmie Smith to her friends) was happy to be responsible for all the arrangements. She had a budget and stayed within it easily; maids came in to ‘do the beds’ and clean. There was little else, aside from lighting the fires; since few of the rooms were in use, it was accepted that Susan could stoke the fires when Smythe was not available.