“I’m glad to see one of us making good and moving up,” Mrs. Ramsay said, gripping Eve’s arm.
“I’m not sure if moving up is such a good thing,” someone else said. “Seems like the upper crust all wear sour faces. We don’t want that for our Eve, do we?”
“You’ll never lose your pretty smile, will you, Eve?”
“I hope not,” she said, laughing.
“That’s our girl.”
Eve wiped her cheeks, damp with tears and rain on this drizzly fall morning. Goodbyes were like crossroads where the path divided, places where you could look back at what you were leaving behind yet glimpse the choices and possibilities that lay ahead. Goodbyes were hard because they meant change. Eve knew she would be different the next time she returned, and the people she loved would be, too. The narrow village streets and stone cottages already seemed smaller than when she’d left to work at Wellingford Hall four years ago.
Eve was glad she’d brought her umbrella as she walked the muddy road back to Wellingford with Mum and George. The drizzle had changed to a steady rain, and she needed to keep her Sunday dress dry in order to wear it to London tomorrow. None of them spoke much as they walked with bent heads, dodging puddles. After drying off and changing her clothes, Eve crept down the back staircase and through the forbidden door to the Clarksons’ bedrooms on the second floor. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d visited Audrey here and didn’t know what sort of greeting she would receive. The afternoon teas they’d shared as children seemed so long ago, they might have happened to different people in a different lifetime. In the past three years, their cozy teas in Audrey’s room had dwindled from every week to every few weeks and then had stopped altogether. Eve would say goodbye to Audrey, taking another look back before moving forward.
“Eve! Come in!” Audrey said, opening the door. “I’m in the middle of packing, so everything is a bit of a mess.” The room looked different to Eve. Along with the usual chaos of packing—a suitcase open on the bed, a steamer trunk half-filled, bureau drawers and wardrobe doors open—she also noticed that new draperies and bed linens had replaced the old ones. Books and a jewelry box had replaced the dollhouse and other toys on the shelves.
“I came to say goodbye,” Eve told her.
“I suppose you’ve heard that I’m leaving for finishing school in London tomorrow.”
“Yes, Mum told me. And I’m also off to London tomorrow. I’m leaving service for good and enrolling in a course to become a typist.”
Audrey backed up to sit on the edge of her bed. “So I won’t see you after today?”
“You can see me whenever you want to,” Eve said with a smile and a shrug. “We’ll both be in London.” When Audrey didn’t respond, Eve quickly added, “But I suppose the people in your fancy finishing school wouldn’t like you socializing with a working girl like me.” Nor would Audrey’s mother allow it. When the household went up to London for the Season, Audrey’s mother kept her much too busy to visit the sights with her kitchen maid, just as Mum had predicted.
“Wellingford Hall is going to feel deserted,” Audrey said with a sigh. “Alfie is studying at Oxford this fall, Mother stays in London most of the time, and now I’m going away, too.” As if sensing the strain between them, she added, “If you give me your address, I could write to you from time to time.”
Eve smiled and shook her head. “You don’t need me anymore, Audrey. You’ve become very brave all on your own.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I’ve peeked through the baize door once or twice and watched you mingling with all those elegant people your mother invites to her parties. You look perfectly at ease.” Eve lifted her chin and held out her pinkie finger as she imitated a fancy lady sipping tea.
Audrey smiled. Then her smile vanished as her eyes welled with tears. “I’m going to miss you, Eve. I’ll never forget you.”
Eve scrambled for something to say to stop her own tears. She didn’t want Audrey to know how much she would miss her—or how hurt she’d been as Audrey had slowly outgrown their friendship. They were both young women now, sixteen years old, and both about to start new chapters in their lives. “I’ll share a secret with you if you promise not to tell anyone,” Eve said.
Audrey’s smile returned at this reminder of their childhood ritual. She placed her right hand over her heart. “Cross my heart and hope to die. I swear by my very life not to tell.”