Gertie Golden Girl Pt. 04

Chapter 4 DINNER

"Me collar's too bloomin' tight," Dan Thornton complained, as his wife Dotty brushed the dust off the shoulders of his old dark blue suit jacket, a colour which showed every single speck of dust that landed on it.

And Dotty was diligent about the house, keeping the flat clean was always a priority, so it wasn't as if it was 'old dust', it was probably ash still floating around since cleaning the grate this morning. But tonight, knowing what they were facing, she was becoming obsessed about the dust and made a mental note to brush her husband down again moments before they left the flat.

"Yeah, an' yer trousers are more like Oxford bags than the narrer trousers wot are apparently the modern fashion, Dan," Dotty tutted, "at least they are 'igh waisted an' 'ave proper turn-ups to the legs, so shouldn't look too much like they're dated the 1935 vintage that they really are. I wus surprised you wus still able to do 'em up, I suppose we have continuin' food rationing to fank for small mercies. Let's 'ope the lightin' ain't too good at Evie's place."

"I 'spect it's all bloomin' crystal chandeliers rand their place, Dot, I shouldn't wonder."

"Well, less of the bloomin' swearing, Dan, these is respectable folk an' fer Gertie's benefit we needs ter be on our best behav'yer."

"Yeah, course, I will, Dot," Danny said, "though I'm blowed if I kin understand why this damned Johnnie fella wants to train up our little girl into bein' a proper lady? I mean, Gertie's a great kid, an' always has been the prettiest fing in the world wot I know, but, well, there must be no end o' pretty toff bints fer Johnnie-boy to choose from, wivout 'aving to buy 'em all their bleedin' clobber an' all so she can fit in wiv all the oi polloi."

"Well, it ain't Johnnie what's buyin' nothink, it's 'er new friend Evie's wot's bin doin' all the buyin' an' you know she needs to 'elp wiv that cos it really is the only way that our Gert'll be accepted as a lady by those wot dunno wot a real treasure she is, is if she's wearin' the right cloves wot suits the settin'. As fer why Johnnie's doin' wot he's doin', well, it's cos 'e's in love, ain' it, Dan. I'm sure 'e is. An' love makes folk do funny finks don't they? Gertie is our lovely girl and if this Johnnie wants to do the right fing by our girl, well, I for one would give 'im a great big cuddle an' gladly call 'im 'son'."

"The motor car's here, Mum, Dad, are you both ready to go?" called Gertie up from the foot of the stairs, where she had been agitating, watching and waiting for the car to arrive for at least the last ten minutes.

"Damn!" muttered Dotty, "no time ta brush ya daan, Dan, yer'll jus' 'aff-ter keep out of the light as best ya can."

When her parents reached the foot of the stairs, Evie's cheerful chauffeur Bob, who Gertie had got to know quite well yesterday, as he had driven her around all day and helped carry much of the results of Miss Eveline's insistent shopping, had opened the car door on the pavement side ready for the ease of his passengers to get in.

Bob was about Gertie's father's age or maybe a little older, Gertie estimated, and Evie had explained to her yesterday that Bob had for a long time been Evie's and Johnnie's father's driver and now that her father was retired and needed his car rarely, and as Johnnie has one of his ex-soldiers as his own driver when he needed one, Evie had asked Bob if he would look after her car and be her driver most of the time now that she was married and her husband had his own driver, and Bob had jumped at the chance to remain in the Winter family's service.

Bob had clearly been amused by Evie's gentle bullying of the sweet young girl and her quiet, reluctant acquiescence to accept the inevitable and he had himself made gently amusing asides throughout the shopping expedition. He had decided early on that he really liked this slip of a girl and was pleased for Master John, that he had found such a nice sweet girl, so many that were of his slight acquaintance that he saw at functions that the family were driven to by him were not very nice at all.

"Hello, Miss Gertie," Bob said with a genuine smile, "I must say that that dress looks really great on you, I do believe that you're going to knock Master John seven streets sideways as soon as he sees you tonight."

"Well, thank you, Bob, you're very kind, even if I know you're exaggerating. Evie got me this silk dream of a dress with that singular purpose in mind, I think," Gertie smiled, "We'll have to see, but I do want to make a good impression on everyone."

"I know and you absolutely will, Miss. I heard Miss Eveline tell her mother that you really put your foot down to him on the outset that this scheme of his wouldn't work, but I can see now that Master John was clearly no fool. You'll be fine, young lady, you just be yourself, because it was the real you, just under the surface, that he fell in love with in the first place and, as you grow more into being a lady, remember that you are still that sweet lovely girl that he fell for, and if you keep showin' him that side of you, well, you won't go very far wrong."

"Thank you, Bob. Oh, here come Mum and Dad, if we sit them together in the back, can I sit up front with you?

"Of course, that'll be fine, mind you, when I first started driving Miss Eveline's father, Mr Jacob, the front of that first car was completely open to all weathers and the wind and the rain wouldn't have done your lovely silks no good at all."

"It's a good thing we can now go in comfort then, Bob."

Bob made sure everyone was seated comfortably before setting off to the Dorsets' house in Cadogan Square in Knightsbridge.

"I've never been so nervous," Gertie whispered to Bob once they got going. "I mean, Miss Eveline and I seemed to get on like a house on fire yesterday, but what's her husband like?"

"Don't you worry, Miss Gertie, Mr George won't bite, he's certainly nowhere near as stiff as his old grandfather was. Mr George has known Mr John for most of their lives and they have always been firm friends, which is how Miss Eveline got to know him and learned to admire him as someone friendly, loyal, reliable but also fun to be around. The rest of the Dorsets, mind you, aren't worth a light but Mr George is a good employer, not too demanding of Jack, his driver, and I think he and Miss Evelyn have a good chance in life as a devoted couple."

"Oh, that's a relief," Gertie smiled back, "but who are the Dorsets exactly?"

"Oh, I'll let Miss Eveline tell you all about the Dorsets, I don't think it's my place to say anything more, sorry."

"That's all right, Bob, I'm not prying into family areas where my questioning is unwanted, but I am thirsty for knowledge. I've gone from quietly getting on with my own very uncomplicated life and all of a sudden I'm being whisked around the better parts of London's fancy shops and a classy hairdressers that I wouldn't have dared step into voluntarily on my own, and now I'm formally dining for the first time in my life with one person I really don't know at all as well as a possible future husband and I've only really spent a short time with. My mind is so full of questions that I feel my head could explode."

"I can understand that, Miss Gertie, I really can," Bob smiled in response. "It was a long time ago, around forty years ago, actually, a different but in small ways very similar thing happened to me. Back then I was only a kid about sixteen and knew absolutely nothing about anything at all. I was a simple labouring farmhand on a farm up in rural Derbyshire that even then still used draught horses for ploughing the fields. I was learning animal husbandry from my father and his foreman, mostly by mucking out the stables and the pigs, herding geese and what not. I think I was sucking a straw after cleaning the stables one morning, when the lady from the Big House pointed to me and told the home farm foreman that I looked just the likely young fellow she needed and the next thing I know I was sent by gig into the next town to a motor showroom, where I spent a week in lodgings that the garage owners arranged for me. There I was put hard to work for ten hours a day learning how to drive a motor car and basic servicing from that garage, before I was fitted for a couple of fancy driver's uniforms. At the end of a whirlwind week and the garage were happy that I wouldn't let them down, I managed to drive back up to the Big House in this brand new motor car, the first that the lady from the Big House had ever owned, and I've been a Winter family driver ever since. I had to learn how to behave in mixed company while surrounded by toffs of every kind, even royalty on more than a time or two. You're a bright young lady already, Miss Gertie, and you're a rare diamond in my humble opinion. I reckon you're more than halfway to being loved by all the family, well the parties what matter, just by being exactly who you are ... all Miss Eveline and Mr John are doing, Miss, is adding a little polish. Just relax tonight, help your folks to relax and not put their feet in it and I know that you'll be absolutely fine."

"Thank you, Bob, I can see why your employers like you. I think the 'Lady from the Big House' was very ... astute, I think."

"Well, one of these days, Miss Gertie, I'm expecting to see one more true lady in a long line of astute ladies from the Big House. Without the quality of the Winter ladies, there wouldn't still be any Big Houses."

"Is where we're going, one of the 'big houses', Bob?"

"Not that big, Miss Gertie, the Dorsets have their main house, their big house if you like, down in Hertfordshire. Their town house is not small though, it has ten family bedrooms and several parlours, an informal breakfast room, a family dining room, a large formal dining room, and comes with servants' quarters for up to ten staff, but no ballroom; no need for one, London's full o' ballrooms. Cook tells me that even though you are asked to dress for a formal dinner, it is being served in the small family dining room, so you can regard this as a bit of a dry runoff in practice for bigger functions, but will be in quite relaxed surroundings, with only close family in attendance. However, Harry, the Butler, told me that he has set out a couple of extra place settings in the formal hall," he laughed, "so I think Miss Eveline is going to give you another lesson or two on dining etiquette, about which spoon or fork to use with whatever course."

"Oh Lord," Gertie sighed, "she never lets up, that Evie."

"Indeed, and she never will. I would love to be a fly on the wall for that, begging your pardon Miss, but I had to go all through that with one of the butlers at the Standhopes, cos when the big formal dinners is called for, it's every servants' hands to the decks on them occasions."

"Well, Bob, after I learn how to lay a proper table, and if in future your butler's ever stuck, I'm on the telephone now, so he can give me a call!"

"That's the spirit, Miss Gertie, you're among friends both high and low who want you to succeed, so you relax, enjoy and have fun tonight, won't you?"

"Yes, I think I will now. Thank you, Bob, it's really nice to chat with you."

"You're always welcome, Miss. In all honesty, I have enjoyed our little chats those last two days."

"Me too."

***

A rather grand and beautifully dressed butler welcomed Gertie and her parents at the front door to the imposing three-storey town house that opened up directly onto the street, other than the twelve steps lined with iron railings leading up to the door. He had clearly been waiting for them as the front door was opened as soon as Bob drove up in the motor car and stopped outside on the otherwise empty square, with the large houses arranged around a large rectangular railing-enclosed garden in the centre.

As well as the butler, a footman and a pair of housemaids helped the three dinner guests off with their coats in the entrance hall and took their coats, hats and scarves away to hang up somewhere probably, Gertie thought, out of sight. Her own coat, of course, thanks to Evie, was brand new and fitted her beautifully, but her parents' coats, she knew were rather ancient and more than a little the worse for wear after many years without any possibility of replacement.

She wondered if, she was indeed destined to marry into a family who claimed that money would never ever be a problem, that she would have some sort of allowance one day that would enable her to ensure her parents were sufficiently protected from the elements now and into their old age.

"I'm Williams, Sir, Madam, Miss Gertie, I would like to warmly welcome you to Dorset House," the butler introduced himself while the other unnamed servants helped them out of their coats. "We are dining this evening in the family dining room which is on this floor. It is a small and cosy room, with the fire lit all day to warm it up. The room is candle-lit with the electric lights off and I hope you will find the ambiance relaxed and comfortable. The Cook tells me she is doing a fine roast dinner of Hereford beef and Yorkshire pudding with all the trimmings, so I must admit all the staff are also looking forward to our own little dinner in due course. We will meet up with the hosts and Mr John in the sitting room next to the dining room and you will retire back there where tea and coffee will be served after the meal. Do please let me know if you need anything at all during your time here this evening."

"Thank you, Mr Williams," Gertie said, thinking that her parents were too uncomfortable to say much in reply.

"Just Williams, Miss Gertie," Williams smiled gently at the girl, "only the gentlemen and their guests are 'Mister' or entitled, as appropriate. It may seem impolite at first Miss Gertie, and the Dorsets here are among the best of people to work for, but we are comfortable with the status quo and you will get used to us as we hope to get used to welcoming you here often in the future."

"It sounds, Williams, as if you have your ear to the ground," Gertie smiled back as she walked next to him towards the sitting room, her parents walking just behind them. "If you wouldn't mind slowing down just a touch, though?"

"Of course, Miss, not a problem at all," William replied with a smile, immediately slowing down to match the new pace that Gertie had set, "we have plenty of time before dinner is served."

"Thank you, Williams, it is only that my shoes are brand new and, although comfortably fitting, my feet are still getting used to them and I have no wish to stumble or start growing bunions or corns."

"Of course, Miss Gertie, would you like to take my arm to lean on until we reach the sitting room?" He held his cocked arm out in offer.

"No, that won't be necessary, thank you, Williams, but you are very kind to offer."

"It is why we are here, Miss Gertie, alert to help where needed and able to step back away when we understand we're not. I assure you that we are continually attentive and all of us take pride in everything we do here and we also take much reflected pride in our people here, and their family and their friends. I do hope Miss Gertie, to serve you on your visits for many more years to come."

"And I hope you will be able to have some pride in whatever role I find myself in with connection with the family."

"Oh, Miss Gertie, we all think you are going to be fine. We can't help but be aware of what is going on and I can assure you that we are all rooting for you and, if I may be so bold, we are all delighted with what we have heard about you so far. I think some of the younger girls here believe you give everyone hope of being a small part of a modern day fairy tale. If there is anything you are uncertain of or need to know or need help with in terms of etiquette and behaviour, then please don't hesitate to ask any one of us. This particular branch of the Dorset family and pretty well all the Standhope family are mostly quiet people, they mind their own business but they also do lots of good things for people and charities without shouting about what they do from the rooftops. And they do look after their own, Miss Gertie, not just 'immediate family' but those who serve the Winter family, and our Dorsets are considered part of the Winter family."

The little group soon reached the door of the sitting room and Williams held up his white-gloved hand to hold them there while he knocked, waited a second or two at most and entered the room, introducing the guests as, "Mr and Mrs Daniel Thornton and Miss Gertrude Thornton are here, my Lord."

The answer was instantly returned, "Please show our guests in, Williams, thank you."

"Thank you, my Lord, dinner will be served in ten minutes."

Williams turned and smiled at his three escorts, waving his hand for the guests to enter.

Leading the way, Gertie entered first, her parents close behind. They were welcomed by Evie who moved towards them from the fireplace where the two men stood on either side, the tall, slim figure Gertie instantly recognised as Johnnie and at a similar height but rather broader build of the man next to him, no doubt Evie's husband, supposedly George Gervaise.

"Gertie, excellent timing," Evie said as she embraced her new friend, "that dress looks divine on you by the by. I knew it would."

Evie smiled in return and turned to her parents, while Williams silently departed and shut the door behind him. Gertie assumed he was off to the kitchen to get the dinner served up.

"You must be Mr Thornton, may I call you Dan, sir?" Evie asked and, on seeing the worried but assenting nod of the older man, turned to Gertie's mother, "Mrs Thornton, wonderful to see you again, may I call you Dorothy or ...?"

"Dot or Dotty, please," Dot Thornton replied with a matching smile.

"Well, please come closer to the fire, the evenings are drawing in, are they not?" Evie said as she hooked both her arms into one each of Gertie's parents and directed them towards the two smiling men waiting patiently either side of the fireplace.

"May I introduce you to my husband, the Third Baronet Dorset, but please forget the title when we are relaxing at home, we all just call him George," Evie said, with an impish grin, "George, my dear, may I present to you Dan and Dotty Thornton, my dear friend Gertie's parents?"

George stepped forward and, with a broad smile on his handsome young face took over from his wife, "Dan, it is a pleasure to meet you, sir, as my dear wife Evie says, I answer to George to my friends and I hope we can be great friends," as he vigorously shook the older man's right hand with both his, then turned to Dan's wife, taking her offered right hand and lifted it to lightly touch his lips. "Dotty, it is a delight to meet you too, and I do sincerely hope we can all be great friends. Talking of great friends, it gives me even greater pleasure to introduce you to my longest and dearest friend who, thanks to my having the good sense to marry his beautiful sister, I am delighted to call him my brother, the Honourable Johnnie Winter, the son and heir of Lord Standhope."

Johnnie stepped forward, "Please, Dan and Dotty, call me John or Johnnie, as George and Evie have said, there are just your family and mine here tonight and I hope we can begin to cement a firm friendship between us that I hope will blossom into something much more."

He winked at Gertie, who stood behind her parents, with Evie now having released both her parents and just tucked her arm into one of Gertie's. Then Johnnie shook first Dan's hand and then took both Dotty's hands in his and kissed them both. "Now that we have met and introduced ourselves, I have no desire to delay what has now become my heartfelt wish in asking you for your positive approval in my pressing my suit upon your daughter, Gertrude Thornton?"

Dan glanced at Dotty briefly, she smiled in return, then he turned to look at his daughter standing behind him. She nodded and smiled so beautifully at him that even if he disapproved of anyone who wanted to take his daughter away from him, her smile would have melted any resolve to object.

Dan turned back to Johnnie, cleared his throat and said gravely but clearly, "Lord Standhope, what are your intentions in regard to my daughter Gertie, might I ask?"

"My intention is to court her for perhaps as long as a year, at least for the winter and early spring, to get to know her and allow her to get to know me and my character so thoroughly that we'll before the end of that time I can persuade her to become my lady wife in time. I fully expect this acceptance, were I blessed with the good fortune for it to happen, to come in stages, so that I could ask her to marry me before the close of this winter and that after an engagement of around a year to eighteen months, we can marry and your daughter would become both Mrs John Jacob Winters and, also Lady Gertrude Winter, an honorific title granted to the eldest son of Lord Standhope. I hope it will be many more years yet, but in time I expect to become Lord Standhope and then Gertie will be Lady Standhope. I know these are early days in our relationship, but I admit, sir, that I have been closely observing your daughter for some months before introducing myself and been both impressed by her intelligence and delightful personality as well as captivated by her beauty. Gertie hasn't known me for anywhere near as long as I've quietly observed her and thus I've had verylittle time to make any lasting impression upon her, so I am hoping by your leave that I can spend more time with her and, by being together in company, we can develop a relationship that would endure forever."

"Well," Dan squared his shoulders and looked back at Johnnie, who was three or four inches taller than him, a young man more than half his age, a man with clear eyes and an open honest face, a man, whether with or without wealth and titles, would be a catch indeed for his only daughter. He smiled, glanced at Dotty one more time as he reached out to hold her hand, "Dotty and I would be very happy to have you call upon our precious daughter, Johnnie. But please be aware that while Gertie knows her own mind and will speak up if she feels that your relationship isn't the right one for her and in whatever she decides, I will back her decisions with everyfink, sorry, everything in my power."

"Of course, Dan, and I will protect and encourage Gertie in everything she wants to do with her life, if she decides that she prefers not to travel upon the road I'd like us to travel together, I will respect that, of course."

"Then, welcome son, feel free to call upon our daughter and we hope that everything works out well for you both."

"Thank you, Dan." Johnnie replied, "I will do everything in my power to ensure that."

"Well, now that Johnnie has got that important bit of business out of the way," George said with a beaming smile on his face, "is someone going get around to actually introduce me, only the very patient host here tonight, to the blushing young lady who is the main reason why we are all meeting here in my house?"

"Of course my dear," Evie pressed forward with Gertie on her arm. Turning to Gertie she said, "George is four years older than me and, all through my childhood he regarded me as nothing more than the snotty-nosed little sister of his best friend."

"My dear, you were rarely snotty-nosed, well after you were about four years old," George said, "but I admit to the debit of my powers of observation, that I didn't really notice how special a woman you are until about six or seven years ago and in all the time since then I have never seen anyone more beautiful nor more in tune with me than you, my love."

"True, Gertie, George and I have known each other forever, but familiarity didn't breed contempt in our case, but the more we are together the more content we are in being together. Gertie, please meet my dear sweet husband, George, one of the two very best men that I know and both of them are here in the room with us. George, please meet my newest and already dearest friend Gertie."

"Gertie, it is a pleasure to meet you, having heard so many admiring words about you from the two people dearest to my heart," George smiled, "now, would it be too presumptuous of me to hug you in welcome?"

"No, George, I hope in time that a hug of affection upon welcoming between members of the same loving family is the normal form of address," Gertie smiled and George did give her a quick hug before handing her hand to his friend beside him.

Johnnie took both Gertie's hands in his and then pulled her quite close to him for a brief but warm embrace, then stepped back holding both hands while he admired the girl he was seeing for the first time out of her theatre staff uniform.

"You look a vision, Gertie, an absolute vision," Johnnie said, "I do hope that all this attention and the changes being imposed upon you are not too onerous with which to cope. If so, we can always take it back a notch and take this developing relationship as slow as you would feel comfortable with. Were it up to me, I would have waited perhaps a couple of years or so more until your maturity would help you accept my suit more comfortably, but the attack upon your person on Friday rather forced me to show my hand and, once I had begun to open up myself to you, I felt it best to bring the big guns in to help me."

"Well, my dear friend Johnnie," George interposed, "if we had waited until you were ready to launch your suit, we'd have all been drawing our pensions, old chap."

Gertie squeezed Johnnie's hands in hers, "Johnnie, for my part I am glad you made your acquaintance with me on Friday night. I admit that I had been shocked at the unprovoked attack but you've made the bad memory of it evaporate like dew on a summer's morning. You were a perfect comfort to me just when I needed it. You were also," and her serious face turned to a smiling one, "causing me palpitations because you were sending my heart rate soaring, partly because of the pain and embarrassment, but partly because you are you. All the time you were studying me from afar, even though I was usually too busy to notice any of your observations of me at all, but every opportunity to see you, to take your brief instructions about the care of yours or your mother's coat, were times when, of all the people I met and conversed with, you were always regarded by me as a special gentleman. I suppose, you attracted me to you by your consideration, your polite manners, your consistency of thanking me for my very small services and, last but not least, I remember the generosity of your tips!"

"Ah, you noticed."

"A hat check girl, a waitress, a Clippie on an omnibus, all would notice, we are all solicitous of our tips, for many of us it is the difference between having a meal that day or not. Your generosity alone makes you stand out and only enhances how gentlemanly you are regarded by those who serve you."

"I have always held myself conscious that not everyone has a fraction of the opportunities in life that I have been fortunate to benefit from."

"I believe you do, Johnnie, it is only one of the things that I am coming to admire in you."

To Gertie, it seemed like it was only the pair of them in the room, Johnnie held her attention to the exclusion of all else. But then a knock on the door broke the spell.

The door opened and Williams formally announced, "Dinner is ready to be served, my Lord, if you and your guests will come along and be seated?"

"Yes, of course," George replied, "please lead the way, Williams, and we will surely follow. Dotty, will you take my arm, we are sitting next to one another so we can become better acquainted."

"And Dan," Evie said, "please will you take my arm and I will escort us to where we are sitting. Johnnie, I believe you know what place to escort Gertie?"

"Indeed, Gertie and I will bring up the rear, won't we, old girl?"

"Old girl?' she whispered, their heads close together, "I do believe, Old Man, that you have addressed me thus before," Gertie retorted, while the other two paired couples walked before them.

"Well, I thought we could start out our relationship being of a frame of mind that we would one day grow into those mature titles."

"Like comfortable old slippers, old man?"

"Very much so, old girl. I do love your sense of humour and ability to have fun with our conversations, Gertie, I'm certain that being around you as often as possible will help keep me fresh and young and more happy and alive than I really have any right to be."

"Oh, I think we all have hopes to be happy in life and, although I have butterflies in my stomach right now and a fear of waking up from this dream to discover I'm still sitting on the floor of my cloakroom, that all this is just a flight of fancy that has whizzed through my brain in an instantaneous moment whilst midway between sleep and wakefulness."

"It may seem like a dream, Gertie, but this is all real, my dear, and I hope this reality is but the beginning of a pattern that will become our real life."

By then they reached the dining room, a small room full of dark but highly polished mahogany sideboards adorned with silver gilt picture frames of recent family photos on beaches, boats and horseback. In the centre of the room, there was a small rectangular table which only partially occupied perhaps half the space allowed for a dining table. Gertie assumed that central extensions to the table, along with all the surplus chairs, had been removed from the room to make the table a cosy setting for the six diners to become better acquainted with each other on this first opportunity. Gertie thought that holding the dinner here in this family room with the diners in such close proximity was a very nice touch and she appreciated Evie for setting it up in this way, and for George and Johnnie for going along with Evie's good sense.

She squeezed Johnnie's arm firmly to her side, turned to him and whispered, "If I forget to, please thank Evie later for setting this up in this lovely cosy room. This is simply perfect."

Johnnie leaned into her and whispered back, "When we discussed this meeting yesterday, Evie said you would realise how this looked and the intention of intimacy between our embryonic family development. She knew what your reaction would be and said that you would say exactly what you have done so quietly to me.

"It is because we are not really all that different, you and I, Gertie, and I include Evie and George in that assessment. We are all very similar in the way we think and the regard and respect we have for those we have developed feelings for. You are so close to being one of us, Gertie, but while the other three of us grew up happily together and seem to think alike, you grew up separately and therefore you have a very few rough edges that need rounding off, but then we three had those too in those early days as children, and we knocked those off without even noticing as we grew up together. You, old girl, belong here in this world, our world, and we are going to make sure that you and everyone else realises that. That is if you are game enough to want carry it through, old girl."

"I'm game, old man!" Gertie laughed. She felt relaxed with Johnnie, even though this was only the second time they had beeen in company together. This evening was an important one but several hurdles had already been cleared, she was becoming fast friends with Johnnie's sister and her own parents had just agreed that Johnnie could court her. Johnnie Winter, the Honourable Johnnie Winter no less, had declared before his friends and her parents that he was not only her boyfriend but wanted to be so much more. It was a dream that the only handsome man she had ever taken even a modest unrealistic shine to, and that was only a passing fancy with no hope of meaning anything, but was becoming a reality.

Evie was sat at her place first, at the narrow foot of the table, where Dan was asked by her to seat her and then take the seat to her right, at a ninety-degree angle to her, for his own. Next to Dan, George pulled the only other chair on that long side of the table out and sat Dotty down comfortably, while he took his rightful place at the head of the table. Opposite her father, and next to Evie, Johnnie sat Gertie at her place, while he sat at the remaining chair between Gertie and George, sitting opposite Dotty.

As soon as they were all seated, the butler and house servants spread out hot plates in front of them and in rapid succession placed slices of beef, scoops of steamed vegetables, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, poured steaming gravy to the preferred amount as requested and offered a selection of other sauces duly poured, and left the room to the diners within what seemed to be less than a minute.

"Blimey, that wus quick!" Dan exclaimed without thinking, saying to Evie, "I do apologise, Ma'am, I was determined not to swear tonight, but that was amazing work by Williams and his crew, I've never seen anything like that, it puts our local pie and mash shop look like all their serving waiters have their boots on inside out and back to front!"

Evie smiled and patted his arm in reply, "No offence taken, Dan, I assure you."

"I believe, Dad, that the staff are having the exact same meal as us tonight," Gertie commented, "and I'm sure that they wanted to get off and enjoy it as much as we are about to."

"And you know this, Gertie because?" Johnnie asked her with a smile.

"I think Bob the driver hinted that the staff were looking forward to their roast Hereford beef dinner tonight."

George laughed, "I inherited this house and most of the staff just over a year ago when my grandfather, the Second Baronet died. My cook has been working here for fifteen years and had done the best she could with the cheap ingredients my parsimonious grandfather had allowed her even before rationing. Since Evie and I moved here about four months ago, we've had supplies sent in from the Standhope farms, and I think that the staff very much appreciate the change in quality and quantity. We are quite relaxed here, Dan and, if this was a formal dinner in the main dining room, Williams and staff would have stood by ready throughout our meal, to serve more helpings or clear away as per usual, and eaten their own meal later after everyone was finished and on the coffees.

"But when we have our regular family meals here, Evie let them know that once the meal was served, we could relax and enjoy our meal in solitude, while they could retire and enjoy theirs, and return to serve the final course when we are all ready. We rarely have more than two courses when we are at home."

"What about food rationing?" Dotty asked, "meat in the butchers' shops in Limehouse is scarce, they hardly have any meat most of the time and Smithfield's is almost on our doorstep."

"Of course," Johnnie said, "The Ministry of Food do keep a close eye on the production and distribution of all sorts of farm produce, but the Home Farm on our estate in Derbyshire is a model farm, able to out-produce in quantity and beat the quality of almost every farm in the country, and we also have very grateful tenant farmers working the rest of our land around the Home Farm that produce wonderful meats and cheeses as well as fresh vegetables in season, so our kitchens and the larders of those of our family and friends do not have to remain unduly low on good food, Dotty. Tell Gertie how many eggs, and how much bread, milk, bacon, meat, dripping, suet, cheese and other produce you need each week and your larder can be kept topped up at no expense to you. We have deliveries coming up to London on three days in every week, as we supply most of the best restaurants around. Please consider yourself family."

"Thank you, Johnnie, that is most generous of you and if your farm produce was half as good as this we will appreciate it. And, Evie, George, you allow your staff to eat exactly what you eat?" Dan asked George.

"Other than the wine and brandy, yes, indeed. Our Cook and Butler keep good accounts of food stocks to ensure fair and sensible consumption. I think everyone is happy when they have a full stomach and even happier if they know they will always be certain where the next meal is coming from. I understand that it must be very wearying to continually worry about the basics, like a roof over one's head and sufficient food to keep one fit and healthy," George smiled. "It makes for happy staff and happy staff are cheerful in whatever task they do and they stay in our employ, or at least those that we want to stay, they do stay and they stay loyal to us."

"And every winter since I can remember," Evie added, "Our father has allowed spare food to be supplied weekly to a number of church and Salvation Army charities in Derbyshire, London and one or two other places that feed the poor and the disadvantaged. I remember there were difficulties during the war with supplies, especially the rationing demands, but he restored those supply chains as soon after the war as he could and George and I have added a couple of other charities since. Daddy has been so generous."

Gertie thought the meal was excellent and the conversation that went with it was mostly light and amusing. Evie had thoughtfully provided several bottles of Bass beer on the table as well as wine, for her father's benefit and George and Johnnie also preferred the beer.

Dotty was intrigued by Evie and George's long acquaintance and George explained that his father and Johnnie's father were officers together in the First World War and that when his father was killed in action, he was looked after by first his mother and, after she died in the 1918 flu epidemic, his grandfather, the Second Baronet, an older man, who soon found the young child too much of a handful for him to care for. Johnnie's father, Lord Standhope, already having a son about the same age as George, in the shape of the young Johnnie, about three or four years his junior, offered to take him for the school holidays and Lord Dorset happily agreed. At the end of the summer Lord Dorset didn't ask for his grandson back and so he stayed with the Winter family all throughout the rest of his childhood and in between term times as a Cambridge undergraduate.

Gertie picked up that the elder Lord Dorset was not a good businessman, and probably had a gaming habit and, at some stage tried to access George's trust fund, which contained all the wealth of his father who died in the War, which George was unable to access himself until he was 25; one of the managers overseeing the maintenance and improving the value of his trust fund, was George's late father's best friend, Johnnie's father.

Under the control of the Standhope Winter Bank, George's trust fund grew, was safe from predation by his grandfather and, now that he had access to his finances, he used it to fund his trading as a Broker on the Stock Exchange and he in turn managed other investors who saw opportunities in investing in companies that George recommended to them.

"I don't actually have to work," George smiled to his guests at the table, "but being brought up as an honorary Winter, I have learned by their example, that worthwhile work was good both for body and mind and I wish to make up for any lost ground after my grandfather wasted his life through idleness and reckless abandon, and my own father, who I really never knew except by stories told by Johnnie's father, and sacrificed his life serving his country in that first awful war. My father had the foresight to make financial arrangements which set me up for life, and I want to do the same for our children when we have them."

Evie knew that Dotty worked school days helping with school dinners but suggested that next Saturday, if she was free, she might accompany Gertie and herself on further shopping as she was sure that Gertie's wardrobe needed more variety after getting in the basics a couple of days earlier.

As it was a working day the next day, and Dan as usual had an early start to the day, they finished the evening early after tea or coffee, with promises on either side to do this meeting up regularly in the future and that they were to include both Gertie's brothers at some near future date and Evie would gradually introduce more Winter family members and perhaps the more gregarious of the Gervaises to Gertie as she would be required to dine with them more frequently.

to be continued