We talked for quite a while about what she would expect of me and, to my surprise, what I should expect of her. I’d never known such a thing. My two employers to date had been perfectly wonderful, but I’d never been told I should expect them to be polite and considerate, or that I should speak up at once if I thought I was being treated unreasonably. This was going to be a new life indeed.
We agreed that I should start work in the Hardcastle household in a fortnight’s time and she said that she would make all the necessary arrangements with Lady Tetherington. Once she had gone, I wasted no time in rubbing John’s stupid beaky nose in it, but with the others I was more circumspect, playing down the promotion and trying not to appear too full of myself.
Having just watched two years fly past almost unnoticed, I was dismayed by how slowly the next two weeks crawled by. My few possessions were packed on the first night and I found myself willing the hours to pass. On my final day, the staff gave me a most splendid farewell lunch and each of them wished me well. The family, too, gave me a warm send-off and Sir Clive presented me with a journal and a beautiful pen.
‘I know you like to read, my dear,’ he said. ‘I wonder if you might find the time to write, as well.’ I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there with my little bag in my hand and burst into tears. Parlour maids came and went and we weren’t treated like this. I had no idea how to react.
Eventually I managed to mumble my thanks and went out through the front door – the front door! – and got into the waiting Hansom that the Hardcastles had sent to collect me.
The Hardcastles were younger than the Tetheringtons, though no less wealthy, but they lived a much simpler life. The house itself was run by just a cook and a housemaid, while Sir Roderick was tended to by his valet, Jabez Otterthwaite, and I, obviously, looked after Lady Hardcastle. I was more than a little out of my depth at first and more than once I thought I’d made a terrible, arrogant mistake in accepting the job. But I had been carefully watching the senior maids ever since I entered service and had persuaded one of them to teach me some dressmaking skills, and the rest of my duties I picked up slowly as I went along. Eventually I began to feel as though I was living up to the confidence Lady Hardcastle had shown in me and after a few months began to properly enjoy myself.
If I thought that the last four years had been pleasant enough, the next twelve months in the Hardcastle household were positively idyllic. As lady’s maid I was expected to attend my mistress almost wherever she went and I found myself traveling all over the country and even, once, to Paris. It was the most fun I had ever had.
There were times when I was left behind. She disappeared for days at a time and on her return, refused to speak about what she had been up to. I’m embarrassed to say now that it never occurred to me to be nosy enough to find out what she’d been doing, nor clever enough to work it out for myself. But in my defence, I was only seventeen and I’d led a somewhat cloistered life in servants’ quarters where the sort of things that I subsequently discovered about her were never dreamed of, much less spoken of.
She was the best possible company and although there was never any doubt that we were employer and servant, she treated me with the utmost respect and always talked to me as though my opinion mattered.
Sir Roderick was something of a rising star in the Foreign Office and one day in 1895 he came home with the news that he was to be posted to Shanghai. Better yet, Lady Hardcastle was to go with him and I would be accompanying her. Everyone else was being left behind, but I was going to China. China!
I felt yet another kick on the sole of my boot.
‘Florence!’ said a voice sharply.
I struggled awake.
‘Sorry, my lady. I was just resting my eyes,’ I croaked.
‘And your mouth, pet; you’re drooling,’ said Lady Hardcastle.
I wriggled upright in the chair and tried to come to.
‘Come along, up you get. Harry wants us to meet someone.’
I pushed myself out of the surprisingly comfortable chair and straightened myself out. Harry was already wearing his hat and was putting on his gloves. I tried to see if he were armed but there were no obvious signs.
‘Looking for this?’ he said, drawing a tiny pistol from his waistcoat pocket. ‘Latest thing from America, an update of a Belgian weapon. We’re trying them out.’
‘Very impressive,’ I said. ‘Though I confess I’m more impressed that you noticed me looking.’
‘A gentleman always notices when a woman is looking at him, Miss Armstrong,’ he said with a wink. I blushed.
‘When you’ve finished admiring my brother’s weapon, Flo, perhaps we might go?’
I hurriedly put on my own hat and gloves and followed them out.
We quickly found a motor taxi and Harry instructed the driver to take us to Whitehall. I was almost surprised by the comfortable feeling I had in the familiarity of the London streets. We had lived there for five years before moving to Gloucestershire, of course, but I’d spent much more of my life living elsewhere so it shouldn’t have felt so much like being home. Nevertheless, that was how it felt.
The journey was a short one and when we arrived at the anonymous Regency building, the uniformed man just inside the door acknowledged Harry with a nod and allowed us in without further ceremony. Harry led us briskly to an office on the first floor and knocked on the door.
‘Enter!’ said a muffled voice from inside.
Harry opened the door and ushered us in. A silver-haired man in an impeccably-cut suit was sitting behind a large oak desk, and he stood as Lady Hardcastle entered.
‘Emily,’ said Harry once we were all inside. ‘Allow me to introduce Sir David Alderman. Sir David, this is my sister, Lady Hardcastle.’
‘How do you do,’ said Sir David.
‘How do you do,’ said Lady Hardcastle. ‘And this is my maid, Florence Armstrong.’
‘Ah, yes. I’d heard that you and she were a team,’ said Sir David. ‘Welcome, Miss Armstrong.’ He gestured to two chairs in front of his desk. ‘I’m embarrassed to say that I have only two chairs. I’m not used to entertaining crowds.’
‘Please don’t worry, Sir David,’ I said. ‘I’m more than happy to stand.’
‘Very well. Thank you,’ he said. ‘I hope you don’t mind the peremptory summons, as it were, but I felt I needed to introduce myself and reassure you that we’re doing everything we can to track down this man, whoever he might turn out to be, and to keep you safe.’
‘Thank you, Sir David,’ said Lady Hardcastle.
‘Although I must say, I’ve been wanting to meet you for some time.’ He tapped a buff folder on his desk. ‘Your file makes most impressive reading.’
She inclined her head slightly in acknowledgement.
‘But as I’m sure you’ll understand, events over the past couple of months have turned that idle curiosity into something more urgent.’ He flipped open the folder and riffled through the pages. ‘I have copies here of the statements you gave to the Governor-General’s office in Calcutta in 1901, and the one you gave to this office on your return to England in 1903. They’re entirely consistent with each other and you are adamant that when you left Shanghai in 1898, Günther Ehrlichmann was dead.’