Chapter 18: The House

The next morning, Willow received a note from David that he needed to see her about her house.

She needed to find the wedding planner and go to the auction house, so decided to visit David first. She took Prue with her and Brain drove. They were ushered in and offered tea but declined.

David greeted them, “Lady Willow you look radiant today. Lady Prudence, it is also a pleasure to see you. Willow, we have a problem with the house. The agent contacted me yesterday. It was why I had to leave.”

“The family that had booked the house have had a miss-adventure. They are now unable to take the house. They have of course lost their deposit, as the Season had already started. It may be hard to find a new renter at this late date.”

Willow thought about it. Since she was now getting married, they would need a more permanent base in Bavindor. She didn’t believe that they could hide in the palace forever.

“How big is the house David?”

“To be honest, it’s a monstrosity,” he told her.

“Can we go see it?” she asked.

“I don’t see why not, I have a set of keys here.”

“Excellent, my carriage is outside, so we may as well take it.”

David informed his secretary he was stepping out. He told Brain where to go. They ended up back at the palace. The late Earl’s house was on a large block of land across the street from the main gate into the palace. It actually took up a full acre of land and had three street frontages.

The palace-side of the property was fenced from one end to the other with a high privacy fence and a hedge. The “H” shaped house was almost in the middle of the block. The ‘U’ shaped drive was set between the wings in the front of the house. Carriages drove up one side to the drop-off point in front and then down the other side after they navigated around the massive fountain.

A gate on the back street allowed for tradespeople to visit and provided easy egress for the staff and the families’ carriages. Also out the back, one wing was a large brick carriage house that could accommodate four carriages. It had an old smithy in the fifth bay and a gardener’s tool and pottery room in the last bay.

The top of the carriage wing was divided into six generous sized bunk rooms for the grooms and gardeners. In the middle between the bedrooms were separate ‘his and her’ bathing rooms with two separate privies.

The stables were also in the same brick as the house and under the other wing. It was suitable for sixteen horses. It had a large hayloft area over the double width stables, a tack room and a grain room. Above the tack-room was a two bedroom apartment with a bathroom, kitchenette and parlour for the head groom.

The house itself had three floors, a basement and an attic. Two wings off the front of the main house were also two stories high and ran down either side of the main drive. The ground floor like in the main house and back wings had 3m high ceilings.

David explained to the girls that the estate agent had an argument with the Earl about the plumbing and heating Citing that it would reduce the amount he could rent the house for. The Earl had a weak moment and told him to fix it.

The house originally had forty-six rooms, but the plumber and the builder culled some rooms, to turn them into bathrooms and walk-in closets. Each of the front wings has eight bedrooms upstairs, there used to be ten. They ripped out and shifted walls to put an adjoining bathroom between each set of rooms.

Under the north wing was the Ballroom. They shortened it a little and put in a catering area and two better bathrooms for the guests. There was a lovely walled garden area on the palace side of the ballroom, so in better weather, the guests can spread out a little.

David told them that one of the house’s previous owners had been a very interesting character to put it nicely. The southern wing housed a pool and a large informal entertainment area. The pool can even be heated in winter he informed Willow. It can get quite warm in Bavindore in summer, so they apparently thought it an excellent way to entertain their guests.

The other side of this wing was also a gardened area, with a small cricket pitch. It was wider than the other side garden. The ends were also blocked off at the other end of the two front wings, making it secure. A high wall separated the property from the two neighbours on that side.

He then walked them through the main part of the house. “I’m afraid the builder and the plumber took advantage of the old Earl. At the time, he had been very sick for many years. They kept finding things to fix.”

“My father was not much better. He kept approving their repairs and paying them. He did at least check they were being done. I didn’t realise the extent of the bills, until after I took over the running of the business.”

“It was just as well the Earl was very rich. I put a stop to the fixes when they came to me with more. To be honest, they had gotten to the stage there wasn’t really anything left to fix.”

The underside of the main house had a large library, two parlours, a study a huge dining room, a breakfast room, three privy-rooms and a large, very modern kitchen with a servant’s dining room off it. The large laundry bridged through to the stables and contained two more privies for the servants.

The whole house had been fitted with gas lights and gas fireplaces. Gas pipes had been laid in from the street many years before. Each kitchen had gas cookers and they had gas heated hot water. Willow could only guess at the bill for it all, lucky she could afford it.

The second story was split into ten large bedrooms with sitting areas with fireplaces. Each pair of rooms except the middle two shared an adjoining bathroom, while the two middle rooms had their own.

“They must have gutted it to do the alterations,” he commented. The next floor was the servant’s area and nursery. One side had four smaller rooms for the ladies, and the opposite had four singles for the males the third side had three rooms suitable for married couples.

The two corner rooms had separate privy-rooms and bathing rooms for the servants. The nursery had three smaller rooms a central school and playroom and its own bathroom and privy for the children and the nanny.

The floors were accessed from a central set of staircases and balcony style walkways. A large skylight was over this area, and it was an open area from the skylight to the ground floor. Four sets of chandeliers tiered down with a set for each lower level. They were very impressive.

Willow noticed many of the guestrooms in the wings were simply furnished with functional but quality furniture, quiet wallpapers, simple curtains and plain yet quality carpets. The servant’s rooms were also fitted out the same way.

The decorators had put a bit more effort into the second-floor area as each room had a theme, but neither Willow nor Prue found them overstated, though they did need dusting and airing. They even picked out whose room would be whose. They decided Bethany and Nianna could be housed on the top floor with Silvia’s two children for now.

David introduced them to the current staff of a cook, butler, housekeeper, gardener and two maids. The only one Willow liked was the gardener. The Butler hadn’t even come to the door to let them in. She was not impressed with the tidiness of the house either since they had been expecting the other family to turn up.

Willow informed the staff that except for the gardener, she didn’t require the rest of them. They would be given three weeks’ severance pay and a reference depending on what the estate agent said. She wanted them out today. She pulled a pad out of her reticule and wrote a note.

She told them, they could stay for one week at the boarding house on the note, at her expense. They were to see Baron Karlson for their pay tomorrow. The staff wasn’t happy about being ousted from this cushy job. But she had offered a lot more than other employers had ever given them when she fired them. They went upstairs to pack.

Willow and Prue had both noted several of the main rooms had been used by the staff. Willow asked if David knew of a cleaning crew, she could hire. He said he could organise it for her. “So where do I find a good cook?” she then wanted to know.

“Actually a friend of mine might suit your needs. He was studying at the Academy doing something called Food Science and he liked experimenting with us. He makes excellent food from many Kingdoms. He is from Nordland and to my knowledge, he yet to find employment. The only thing is that he is married and has a fifteen-year-old son,” Prue told Willow.

“Does his son like horses or gardening?” asked Willow. Prue grinned at her. “I’m sure we can find something for his son and wife to do, we will send them a note to meet us at the restaurant. I’m sure the wedding planner and I will be there for some time.”

“Wedding Planner?” asked David with interest.

“She finally wore him down,” explained Prue with glee.

David was not surprised. “You are a force to be reckoned with aren’t you Willow?”

Willow just grinned at him. She looked at her pocket watch and said to David, “We have to meet with the Auctioneer shortly. Could you also arrange to have the things in storage sent here too, please?”

“Not much point, paying for storage if this is to become my Bavindor residence. I think it’s the original furnishings. We can decide what to keep once it’s in here.”

“Yes madam, I’ll add it to the bill,” David said with a grin and a bow.

Willow laughed, “See that you do.”

Willow liked Prue’s friend and his family.

When Willow mentioned she wouldn’t mind shifting them in on Wednesday before the next Deb ball, but she would have to organise carts and people to shift them, Gustave said he had some friends that could help. It’s not as if they had to move them far.

His family would move into today and supervise the cleaning tomorrow. Fran can check out the linens and see what needed washing. Willow gave him a bank draft to stock the house and acquire any kitchen items he found missing.

Gustave blanched when he saw how much the draft was for. Willow explained he would need to set up accounts with his supplies. This way he could make a deposit in each. That way they knew her money was good. They would sort out regular payments of the bills later when they get the house accounts sorted out. He was to keep receipts of his expenditures.

Willow and Prue also liked the wedding planner. Gary was very quirky. They organised to look at the Chapel tomorrow after the auction and further discuss what normally happens in such grand affairs.

Willow had a feeling she was going to be indebted to the Druid. She would have to organise a donation to the Sanctuary. From Gary’s outline, it was going to be a lot to organise, but he seemed competent enough.

Willow met with the Auctioneer and was not impressed with the pre-auction requests he had for her. The fact was most of them were his. He wasn’t happy she rejected them all either. Willow had read through Vincent’s paper and quoted certain figures and facts to the Auctioneer.

He was not happy that she knew more about his job than she should. He was making the error of thinking of Willow as a young, inexperienced girl. She had been working with her father for years. He had even had her tutored in management and accounting skills.

Prue thought it was amusing watching the man squirm under the younger woman’s scrutiny. She agreed with Willow and didn’t like the man. She was glad she didn’t have to deal with him. Her own suppliers and managers were enough of a problem.

The Auctioneer was even less happy that she would be there to tick off the consignments as they sold. He’d been working a scam to skim the products for years. The fact all of her product was pre-packaged, dated, with a weight and a seal attached meant he couldn’t skim. Also, each package was numbered.

It had made the Apothecary’s job easier as he had agreed with the grading she had assumed. He had merely signed each package over the seal. The Auctioneer had planned for some to go missing. However, Willow had demanded to view her products and checked against her list that it was all still there.

If it went missing between now and the auction the next day, it would come out of his pocket. He also couldn’t touch the consignments from the other three members of her Growers Society as she had their lists as well. They too had packaged their product like hers.