Read 4.50 From Paddington for Free Online

and a good deal of ingenuity, several more desirable places, Rutherford Hall was mentioned.
    “That sounds exactly what I want,” said Lucy firmly.
    The Registry Office rang up Miss Crackenthorpe, Miss Crackenthorpe rang up Lucy.
    Two days later Lucy left London en route for Rutherford Hall.
    Driving her own small car, Lucy Eyelesbarrow drove through an imposing pair of vast iron gates. Just inside them was what had originally been a small lodge which now seemed completely derelict, whether through war damage, or merely through neglect, it was difficult to be sure. A long winding drive led through large gloomy clumps of rhododendrons up to the house.
    Lucy caught her breath in a slight gasp when she saw the house which was a kind of miniature Windsor Castle. The stone steps in front of the door could have done with attention and the gravel sweep was green with neglected weeds.
    She pulled an old-fashioned wrought-iron bell, and its clamour sounded echoing away inside. A slatternly woman, wiping her hands on her apron, opened the door and looked at her suspiciously.
    “Expected, aren't you?” she said. “Miss Something-barrow, she told me.”
    “Quite right,” said Lucy.
    The house was desperately cold inside.
    Her guide led her along a dark hall and opened a door on the right. Rather to Lucy's surprise, it was quite a pleasant sitting-room, with books and chintz-covered chairs.
    “I'll tell her,” said the woman, and went away shutting the door after having given Lucy a look of profound disfavour.
    After a few minutes the door opened again. From the first moment Lucy decided that she liked Emma Crackenthorpe.
    She was a middle-aged woman with no very outstanding characteristics, neither good-looking nor plain, sensibly dressed in tweeds and pullover, with dark hair swept back from her forehead, steady hazel eyes and a very pleasant voice.
    She said: “Miss Eyelesbarrow?” and held out her hand.
    Then she looked doubtful.
    “I wonder,” she said, “if this post is really what you're looking for? I don't want a housekeeper, you know, to supervise things. I want someone to do the work.”
    Lucy said that that was what most people needed.
    Emma Crackenthorpe said apologetically: “So many people, you know, seem to think that just a little light dusting will answer the case - but I can do all the light dusting myself.”
    “I quite understand,” said Lucy. “You want cooking and washing up, and housework and stoking the boiler. That's all right. That's what I do. I'm not at all afraid of work.”
    “It's a big house, I'm afraid, and inconvenient. Of course we only live in a portion of it - my father and myself, that is. He is rather an invalid. We live quite quietly, and there is an Aga stove. I have several brothers, but they are not here very often. Two women come in, a Mrs. Kidder in the morning, and Mrs. Hart three days a week to do brasses and things like that. You have your own car?”
    “Yes. It can stand out in the open if there's nowhere to put it. It's used to it.”
    “Oh, there are any amount of old stables. There's no trouble about that.”
    She frowned a moment, then said, “Eyelesbarrow - rather an unusual name. Some friends of mine were telling me about a Lucy Eyelesbarrow - the Kennedys?”
    “Yes. I was with them in North Devon when Mrs. Kennedy was having a baby.”
    Emma Crackenthorpe smiled.
    “I know they said they'd never had such a wonderful time as when you were there seeing to everything. But I had the idea that you were terribly expensive. The sum I mentioned -”
    “That's quite all right,” said Lucy. “I want particularly, you see, to be near Brackhampton. I have an elderly aunt in a critical state of health and I want to be within easy distance of her. That's why the salary is a secondary consideration. I can't afford to do nothing. If I could be sure, of having some time off most days?”
    “Oh, of course. Every afternoon, till six, if you like?”
    “That seems