Chapter One, Episode 73 - Where to Go? - Situationally Theirs

Biltmore House, North Carolina 2015

Review, Edit and Update:
Episode 73 - Where to Go? - had an extra parameter. In my Author's note at the end, I indicated that I wrote this based on my writing group assignment for the month of June. 

I thought it was fairly well edited as we read our pieces aloud to the group. What I had missed, which has been a pattern for this writer, is setting individual scenes around dialogue, consistent with characters and location. Seldom does that alter the dialogue much more than breaking it up should the dialogue be long. I also recognized that, to truly be stand alone stories, when names are mentioned, brief definition of characters is appropriate.

Where to Go?

“Where would I like to go? My goodness, Elizabeth, I had never even thought about that." Martha and Elizabeth had known each other for years, both them hired at the same time, Martha as Housekeeper and Elizabeth as the cook. "Yes, James and I are engaged to be married, but there’s no travel right now. At least, what do they call it - non-essential or something like that? Honeymoon travel can’t be real necessary.”

“Martha.” Cook shook her head in time with stirring her cake batter. “Haven’t you ever played ‘just pretend’ when you were a young girl? You must have played that game with your grandkids.”

“But a honeymoon? I don’t even know whether James likes to travel or where he would like to go.” Martha frowned, surprised that she didn't really know that about her intended.

“But Martha, what do you like? If you could go anywhere, where would it be?” Cook pressed Martha to think about her own interests.

“Let me think.” Martha put one finger to her lips, one hand on her hips. “There are actually two places. One is easier to get to than the other, but if you want me to dream a little………One would be in Scotland and live in a castle on the moors ~ if such things exist anymore. They must have all kinds of history and until Miss Emelina changed things we had been play acting at Upstairs Downstairs a long time. I’d like to see what a really old-fashioned Downstairs would look like……And James and I could go for walks on the moors and just get into the dreaminess of it.” Martha smiled at the thought of walking with 'her' James. James, better known as Digby, was the estate butler. Hired after his father, Digby, Sr. retired from that position.

“Are you sure? Isn’t it cold and dreary there? Not sure that would be the most romantic place to go.” Cook had been hoping for some place warm, like the Islands of Morocco but Martha did have funny ideas now and then. Maybe her second choice would be better. “What’s the second place, Martha? You and James don’t have much chance for romance around here.”

Martha blushed. “Oh, heavens Elizabeth. We’re both too old for all the romantic stuff - except for flowers and wining and dining. If you must know, my second choice is not that much different, except we wouldn’t have to fly across the ocean. It may be easier to get to although with all the protest violence down there, we wouldn’t be able to go right away.”

“But if all the protests were settled, where would you go?” Their long friendship had occasionally tested their patience. This was one of those times. Elizabeth was tapping her foot waiting for Martha to tell her about a place ‘not that much different’. She had gone from the moors of Scotland all the way to protests in the country south of Canada. 

“I would take James to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Did you know that you can stay there? I think James would be fascinated by such a trip. One time, long before you asked me where’d I’d like to go, Joanie showed me how to get on their website. Well, it is just beautiful. It’s in those mountains. You know, the Blue Ridge Mountains. There are amazing gardens and even one inside the house that is at least three stories tall. Can you imagine our Samuel tending exotic plants and inside a castle? He has no time for fancy gardens." Samuel Forrester, the estate gardener, preferred being out on the land to fussing over houseplants. "But back to my trip. They even have a swimming pool from the 1920’s. Oh Elizabeth, you would love the kitchens. They are the real Downstairs. Those people had to work so hard just to keep one family going. Very little electricity yet. Still churning butter and the cold storage is bigger than our one pantry!”

Martha's description had aroused Elizabeth's curiosity. “That place does sound interesting, but what about the Upstairs? What would Brigitte think of it?” Brigitte, a young woman and only hired four years prior, had what Martha called a 'multipurpose job' - to be Mrs. Beaufort's Lady's Maid and the Upstairs cleaning maid. 

“Well, the first thing Brigitte would say ‘Get me more staff! I can’t clean all this by myself.’ But she’d get us a whole lot more gossip! Wouldn’t old Mrs. Beaufort be right in her element. A real Lady of the Manor. And did you know there is a whole floor for guests. Single bedrooms. Parlours. Even a writing room. Ceilings more than 12 feet high, walls covered with heavy tapestries. Some walls covered floor to ceiling with book shelves. Dark maroon velvet upholstery and draperies. My heart just gets all in a flutter just thinking about how grand it must have been for the Upstairs people, while our Downstairs ancestors were working from dawn to dusk just to keep everything grand.” While Martha was gushing about the Biltmore Mansion, Cook had finished mixing up her cake and popped it in the oven to bake. While it was baking, she put the old teakettle on for tea. It was an old but still shiny teakettle with what Cook considered a proper spout. She put her Grandmother’s porcelain teakettle whistle over the spout and got out teacups for both of them.

Elizabeth washed her hands, drying them on her apron. “The Biltmore Mansion, is it? When I put that cake in oven at just the right temperature and then thought about the big drafty ovens back then….. just to be in those kitchens and see all the old equipment those cooks used then would be a real treat. Do you think we could handle some of it? You know, Martha, we may just have to leave James at home and go exploring ourselves. 

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”

~ Confucius

**Authors note: Today was my writers group. Our assignment for today was to research and write about a place we had never been. Martha, the Housekeeper and Cook at the Beaufort Estate, decided that they should tell the story. What could I do? I've been to Biltmore House but those two are like a pair of two year olds sometimes. So I let them loose on my writers group this afternoon.