Opposite Sides (16 page)

Freddy whistled into the
hallway. He had done that several times before so he knew Miss
Turner would know that he needed something. He quietly closed the
door and made his way over towards the girl.

“
Come in,
missy. ‘ere, let me take yer ‘at and coat.” She handed them over.
He carefully draped her heavy coat over a chairback and laid her
hat on the table edge. That was when he saw that the dark-brown
dress she wore did not become her, for it hung rag-like, several
sizes too big and that the girl had attempted to gather it in at
the waistline by the use of a large black leather belt which
crumpled the material up into several large folds. With her outer
clothes removed, Freddy decided she did not appear to be as well
nourished as he had first thought and he came to the decision that
she must have been through hard times lately. Should he leave her
in the kitchen or take her through into the living room? Such a
girl like her might well be light fingered and if something were to
go missing, he would have to take the blame. On the otherhand, she
had arrived with a large suitcase so she must be the new servant
Miss Turner had told him was coming.

Freddy sat on the edge of
a kitchen chair and began unlacing his heavy work boots. The tip of
a toe poked out through the hole in his sock. He tried to hide it
behind his other foot but as he lost his balance, the young visitor
smothered her laugh.

“
Ah, there be
a piggy poking out! Sorry about that!” Freddy grinned and shrugged
his shoulders. “ Would yer like t’come with me, Miss. You can leave
yer bag there. It’ll be safe enough. I’ll find someone to
‘elp.”

He led the way to the
front room and knocked very gently in the centre of the door. No
one from the other side responded so Fred carefully pulled down on
the handle and cracked open the door.

“
I think
you’ll be all right in ‘ere. I’ll ring for someone.” He was not
used to acting like a butler. He bowed and reversed out of the room
leaving the girl standing by herself. The only sound came from the
clock ticking in the corner.

Hans entered. He
remembered seeing a large dictionary on a shelf and wanted to look
up a word. He did not notice the visitor at first. She had quietly
stepped aside, out of his way. She had learnt to make herself
invisible as part of her training. Hans found the book, looked up
the word and made ready to leave. That’s when he noticed
her.

“
Good
afternoon. Are you waiting for someone?” He was puzzled over her
appearance; surely he should know this girl. There was something
familiar, her face, perhaps or the way in which she moved, yet . .
.

“
Good
afternoon. I wait. Miss Turner?”

“
I think
she’s somewhere in the garden. Shall I fetch her?”

She shrugged her
shoulders, with a broad smile, and then looked blank.

“
Tut mir
leid
,
I speak
only little English.”

“
You spoke
German!” he exclaimed in the language of his homeland. He wanted to
know what part of Germany she came from although by her accent he
thought she could come from a Bavarian village.

“
Austria,”
she answered. “And you? You visit Austria?”

“
No, I am
from there. Salzburg.”

“
Me, too!”
Her eyebrows betrayed her surprise. She laughed with
delight.

Hans held out his
hand.

“
I’m pleased
to meet you, Fräulein . . . ?”

“
Friedl.
Fräulein
Friedl.”

This time it
was Hans who was taken aback. She had taken him back to his
childhood, to the mountains and valleys where his grandmother still
lived,
Oma who had sent him to this town
in the Sussex countryside.
“Friedl?” he
asked. “The Friedl’s I knew had a farm close to Esch.”

“
Why, yes,
yes. You know of them?”

She could not think why
this young man should know anything about her family. Any
correspondence that had been between this house and the agency had
only involved the agency manager and Miss Turner. Miss Friedl had
brought a letter of introduction to Miss Turner. It was still in
her small handbag.

“
Let me
introduce myself.” Hans put his right hand behind his back, brought
his heels together with a light click, and bowed. “Erwin Hans
Resmel.”

“
Hänschen?”

There was only one person
who ever called him that.

“
Heidi? You
must be Heidi!”

She laughed again. It was
that laugh that Hans now remembered. She had changed. The last time
he saw Heidi, she was only a very little girl but, together with
her brothers, the Friedls had been his playmates since the day he
was old enough to realise how good having friends was.

His grandparents had been
very friendly with Herr and Frau Friedl. Hans and his brothers had
spent many holidays in Austria with their grandparents and he could
remember romping around with the Friedl children over the sloping
mountainside fields on their farm. Now those happy days had
resurfaced and Heidi’s smile was just as he remembered. A happy
country girl with an infectious laugh that bubbled up whenever she
became excited.

Words began to tumble out
of him. Words he thought he had forgotten. Childish words they had
shared in the dialect of his childhood, bonding and uniting them
once again. He took both her hands in his and stood shaking his
head in disbelief. He was thinking that if he were to let go, she
would vanish into thin air and he would be left alone
again.

“
Heidi
Friedl, Heidi Friedl, I’m
so
pleased to see you. I never thought it would be
here in England that we’d meet again. You know so much has happened
since I saw you last. And you are quite grown up.”

She laughed.

“
Well you’re
not the little boy who came to play.”

“
When Papi
took us to Berlin, I missed you all dreadfully for a long time,” he
suddenly said before the embarrassment of his words took
hold.

“
Really?”

Her eyes flickered and
grew wider. She laughed and her laughter rang out just as it did
round the hills.

“
Yes. It’s
true!” Both hands grabbed his hair for her presence was still
beyond belief. He stepped back and scanned her up and down several
times before speaking again “Is it
really
you? I can’t believe it! But
here you are !”

“
I am and I
do not feel strange any more. It’s like I feel when summer comes. I
also enjoyed our summer holidays together when your Mutti brought
you round.”

Her eyes sparkled like
the lake reflecting a clear blue summer day. It made Hans remember
those earlier days and he was happy at being alive.

“
I can just
see your father now,” he laughed. “He was sitting on the front of
the cart and us on the back with our legs dangling over the back.
Remember that? Going up the hill at the back of the
farm?”

“
I do! I do!
You didn’t like the smell. That’s because Papa had been carrying
the winter manure out of the barn!”

Hans was happy when he
remembered those childhood days, when they had all played together
on the hills near Salzburg, looking down at the silver thread of
the Salzach River winding its way between the the older and newer
part of the town. The image faded as Heidi’s excited babble and
giggles of laughter broke into his thoughts.

“
And do you
remember Uwe and Elsa who lived near
Kaputzinerberg
?”

“
Sorry, I
can’t say I do.”

They were children and
sometimes children do forget things or cannot put all the pieces
together. Heidi shrugged off his comment.

“
Maybe you’d
left when they moved to Salzburg. I remember your older brother,
though.”

“
Renard? What
made you remember him?”

“
I don’t
know. Probably because he was older than us and had crazy ideas
which he tormented us with. And he was very bossy.”

“
That was
Renard. Always ordering us around as though we were his to do with
as he pleased. I’d call him a trickster, for one never knew if he
was being serious or stupid.”

“
Is he like
that now he is older?” she asked.

“
Ah, he’s
older but he still acts the same, orders everyone around just as if
he were the Kaiser.” Hans gave a grunty laugh, more like the
snuffle a pig makes than that of a human being. “I don’t think
Renard will ever change.”

“
No, I guess
not,” she agreed.

Hans did not want to
continue talking about his brothers, especially Renard. He gave
another snort and looked at her with his head held to one side. He
was suddenly aware that they were still both standing in the middle
of the room.

“
Sorry, I
should have asked you to sit down. Would you like to sit.? He held
out his hand, flat to indicate she should take a chair. As soon as
she sat, he sat opposite her with his back to the window. “It’s
unbelievable, Heidi that here we are together . . . in England.
It’s incredi . . . ”

He did not complete the
sentence for the front room door opened and Miss Turner entered the
room.

“
Resmel!” Her
voice rose with surprise as he got out of the chair. “What are you
doing here?” She stopped in her tracks as she caught sight of Heidi
who also stood up. “Oh, you have already met Miss
Friedl.”

Hans grinned in a
sheepish way and after clearing his throat, he told Miss Turner
that they had previously known each other.

“
She’s from
Salzburg, too,” he finished.

“
Miss Friedl
will be here for a few months working as a maid and helping Mary
with some of the more mundane duties.” Miss Turner turned towards
Heidi and held out her hand. “Pleased to meet you, Miss Friedl.
Welcome to my household.”

Heidi blushed. She bobbed
a small curtsey. She shook her employer’s hand.

“
Good
afternoon, Miss Turner.”

Hans indicated that he
was prepared to leave the room but Miss Turner shook her
head.

“
I need you
to translate for me, Mr Resmel. Please tell Miss Friedl that I am
sorry I was not able to meet her as soon as she arrived. I hope she
had a pleasant voyage.” Miss Turner explained some of the duties
Heidi would be expected to carry out and waited patiently as Hans
translated.

This is the
Miss Turner
of the college
again
, thought Hans. “
Efficient and cool
.”

As Hans got to the end of
Miss Turner’s instructions to Heidi, he added that he would meet
her in the kitchen after Mary had finished showing Heidi to her
bedroom.

“
Mary can
show Miss Friedl where things are kept after she has unpacked her
bag. Mary may need you to translate for Miss Friedl if she doesn’t
understand all the house rules. That will be agreeable with you, Mr
Resmel?”

Hans nodded and was
secretly pleased to be able to be with Heidi, even if for a short
time. Miss Turner rang the bell for Mary and then she left the pair
alone again.

CHAPTER
6

In the
millions

It was not unusual for
middle-class households to employ foreign girls, especially to do
lower house duties such as washing dishes or peeling vegetables,
duties even the scullery maids loathed doing. Heidi settled in well
and after a few weeks it was decided that she could help Mary with
normal domestic duties to keep the household running smoothly.
Whenever Hans caught a glimpse of her she was carrying a duster or
sweeper, quietly humming to herself as she moved silently in and
out of rooms reserved for Miss Turner, Jan and himself. Servants in
all houses were expected to be unobtrusive and quiet as they went
about the daily duties. Sometimes Heidi did forget and could be
heard singing in one of the upstairs rooms as she made up the beds.
Mary would have to lay down the pile of fresh linen she had been
carrying, find Heidi and reprimand her.

“
Sorry.
Sorry, Mary. I try to remember.”

The excitement of
Christmas had come and passed and in a few days everyone would be
celebrating the last day of the year. The weather had become so
dismal and cold that nobody had even wanted to go outside. Heidi
had remained with Mary and Ellen in the kitchen and although Hans
had been cheered by knowing she was so close, he was rather upset
that he had seen so little of her. Heidi was only too pleased to
have a job and a little money of her own. Usually, as soon as the
girls finished with school, they were off to the cities, preferring
to work in factories or shops where pay rates were better and time
off was greater. The middle class English found they were having to
look abroad for those willing to be general maids in their houses,
especially as their homes did not carry the prestige of the landed
gentry.

Saturday morning dawned
dismal and cold again. It was the third Saturday in a row the
weather had been awful with intermittent snow flurries and a biting
icy wind that found its way into every corner. Hans could feel the
tension in the house brought on by the bad weather and from being
cooped up indoors. Voices became more strained and tempers were on
a short fuse.