“The housekeeper was always getting after the maids ’cause of complaints from them above stairs. I was practically dragged upstairs one day by Mrs. Hallam ’cause she found lint on a stair. You would have thought I had shit on the carpet the way she acted.
“And the cook, Monsieur Rideau! What a nasty piece of work he was, having tantrums, throwing pots and pans, pushing me out of the way. He threw a quail at me once ’cause I missed a feather.
“We had lots of rules. We couldn’t leave the property without permission. Family weren’t allowed to visit without permission, and if it were found out that a girl had a follower, she would have been sent packing without a character. One of the maids got pregnant, and as soon as it were known, she was put out on the road ’cause it would ‘tarnish the family’s reputation.’ That were a joke ’cause you’d see the young Mr. Turner going into a maid’s room at all hours. Only time in my life I was glad that I wasn’t good-looking, ’cause he left me alone.
“But then Ellie left and got a job at Montclair, and she got me a job, too. First, I was seen by Mrs. Crowell and then Lady Lacey, Miss Elizabeth’s grandmother. She would have been in her fifties at that time, and she was just starting to go gray. She had the most beautiful reddish brown hair, but it were her green eyes that grabbed hold of you. You’re not supposed to stare at people, especially your betters, but you couldn’t help yourself when Lady Lacey looked at you.
“Anyways, I went in, and Lady Lacey said, ‘Please sit down.’ Someone above stairs saying ‘please’ to a servant, that were my first clue this house were different. Then to be asked to sit down — that were the second. I can remember that day like it were yesterday. The day of my freedom from slavery at Turner Hall.
“Lady Lacey said I’d be on probation for six months. If after that time Mrs. Crowell said I was a hard worker and a good girl, I’d be asked to stay on and that I’d have one day off every week. Love a duck! A day off!” Dottie said, nearly jumping out of her chair. “I never had one, so on my first day off, I sat out in the courtyard, not having a clue what to do.
“And then there were the Irish laundry maids. Well, they were a piece of work. Even though they could speak English, they spoke their Irish gibberish. To my mind, the laundry maid’s job were worst job in the house for a girl ’cause the lye soaps just eat away at your skin. Those girls weren’t the cleanest people, neither. They figgered that they were in water all day, so they didn’t need to wash. Mrs. Crowell had to get after them to take a bath and to see to their private parts regular like.”
I could see out of the corner of my eye that Michael was finding all of this to be very amusing. I did too, but I was embarrassed that the Irish maids were so dirty.
“Lady Sarah Lacey, your grandmother,” she said, pointing at Michael, “was an American and very thrifty. She didn’t see no sense in having five or six courses every night when there weren’t any guests in the house. Do you now what that means to a scullery? Do you know how many dishes and glasses have to be washed for every course served? It made a big, big difference, especially come the end of the day when you’re so tired you can hardly stand. Besides, that whole family had the fidgets, especially Mr. Matthew. He’d always be below stairs looking for Jack or Tom to play football.
“Mr. Trevor were the best-looking boy I ever seen until I set eyes on this beautiful boy right here in front of me,” Dottie said with a great big laugh and slapped Michael on his knee. She laughed so hard it brought on a coughing fit. “Fags,” she explained, pounding on her chest. “I give ’em up two years ago, but the damage is done.
“Those Lacey boys were always below stairs looking for something to eat, and Mrs. Bradshaw would make ’em sandwiches or heat up the leftovers. Master Reed was my favorite, and Lord could he ever eat! He was always carrying that little beagle with him. That family had more dogs than a city pound, but Blossom were the only dog allowed below stairs ’cause Mrs. Bradshaw wasn’t having any fur in her food.”
Taking a sip from a glass of water, Dottie said, “I’m surprised you haven’t asked about Miss Elizabeth seeing how she’s this young man’s mother.” Michael smiled, knowing I had tried several times to get in a question about Beth.
“Well, your mother, I knew her to be a sweet girl and she’d be prettier than any other girl I ever seen come into that house. She had beautiful long brown hair, and she liked to wear it in a braid. Keep in mind, when I left, Miss Elizabeth was still a girl. After her lessons, she’d come and sit down on the stairs while I was brushing them and talk to me. One time, she asked me if I had a beau. I thought she was a mind reader ’cause I had just started walking out with my Jimmy, who I had met at a dance in Stepton. He come up from Sheffield ’cause he said he’d run through all the girls down there. Cheeky devil.
“Jimmy and me got married in ’06, and we moved to London where he got a job on a loading dock at Selfridge’s. That were a step up for him. I lost my darling man two years ago. We’d been married for forty years and had six kids together. But you’re not here to talk about me. What’s your next question?”
“What was it like having Jack and Tom below stairs?”
“At Turner Hall, the housekeeper and butler hardly spoke to each other, so you can imagine my shock when I found out the butler and the housekeeper were married! I’d heard of such things before, but it were after they retired and living in one of the tied cottages on the estate. But Mr. and Mrs. Crowell being married weren’t my biggest surprise. When I got there in 1895, there’d be two little boys running around. Well, I never heard of such a thing before or since.”
Finally, Michael showed some interest. We had gotten to the part where his father and uncle had come into the story.
“They were good boys. The worst thing they done were run up and down those long halls or kick a ball indoors. Tom could get into mischief now and then, but that just meant that he’d hide under the table in the servants’ hall or splash the laundry maids, and the one time he got caught looking up Macy’s dress.
“It worked out nicely for the servants ’cause everyone took turns taking the boys outside to play. Getting outside were a big thing for us. I actually looked forward to hauling coal or going to the wood pile ’cause it got me outside where I could at least see the sky.
“I think it were 1922 when Lady Lacey invited me and my family to Harvest Home at Montclair. I hadn’t seen her in years and years, and she come over and said, ‘Dottie, I’m so glad you could come.’ It were like she’d seen me the day before.
“And Miss Elizabeth was there with her older boy scampering around getting into everything. It were a lot of fun to see Jack chasing after him, seeing how we used to chase after Jack. And you, young man,” she said, pointing at Michael, “didn’t come into this world for another couple of months, but it were plain as day your mum was going to have another baby. So we’ve already met one time before.” Dottie laughed, which caused a coughing fit. “Fags,” she said, pounding her chest. “Don’t never start smoking.”
I asked Dottie if there was anything else she would like to share. After giving it some thought, she said, “I think back to those days, and I can hardly believe how much of our lives were given over to those above stairs. But then I think about those below stairs. They were my family. The footmen were my brothers, and the maids were my sisters. When Jimmy and I started walking out, Mrs. Crowell had the ‘birds and bees’ talk with me like she were my mum, and Mr. Crowell sat Jimmy down and let him know that there’d be ‘consequences’ if he didn’t treat me right. And we had fun. The lot of us, the junior servants, I mean, would get silly and laugh our fool heads off.
“We’ve come such a long way from those days when you couldn’t walk down the road without getting the housekeeper’s permission, and all I can say is, I’m glad that none of my kids ever had to go into service. That would have been hard for me to take.”