Carnegie's Maid

Inside the carriage, Clara finds two other Irish girls of her own age already seated there. Her clothing is filthy, and she has no trunk of belongings as they do. Thinking quickly, she says that her trunk went overboard during a squall. The two girls seated in the carriage are repulsed by Clara’s bedraggled, smelly attire. She bluffs her way through the conversation, explaining that they didn’t see her in the second-class cabins because she was seasick for most of the trip.

Clara learns from Misses Coyne and Quinn that their passage was arranged by Mrs. Seeley, who runs an employment agency. They are to be employed as children’s tutors while Clara learns that her namesake was slated to be the lady’s maid for Mrs. Margaret Carnegie, the mother of tycoon Andrew Carnegie.

After arriving in Pittsburgh, Clara’s next ordeal is to bluff her way through an interview with the exacting Mrs. Seeley, whose placement agency hires staff for the richest homes in the area. The real Clara Kelley came from a middle-class family and served aristocratic ladies in Europe. Mrs. Seeley seems skeptical of the imposter Clara. Nevertheless, she gives Clara a clean servant’s gown and allows her to wash up before presenting her at the Carnegie mansion.

Clara and Mrs. Seeley then travel to a suburb called Homewood that contains the mansions of Pittsburgh’s elite and is far from the soot and grime of the city itself. The Carnegie mansion is called Fairfield. After using the servants’ entrance in the back, they encounter the cook, who is a Black man named Mr. Ford. He is affable and friendly, unlike Mr. Holyrod, the butler.

The two women are escorted to their audience with the formidable Mrs. Carnegie. Clara is intimidated and impressed by the luxury of the mansion and by her new mistress.

After they enter the parlor, Clara is assessed by her new employer. Mrs. Carnegie speaks with a thick Scottish accent and tells Mrs. Seeley how disappointing her previous picks for lady’s maid have been. However, Mrs. Carnegie agrees to take Clara for a 30-day trial period. For her part, Clara assesses Mrs. Carnegie to be a working-class woman whose family wealth was only recently acquired. Clara notes her mixture of awe and fear: “In her gaze, in such close proximity, I saw something familiar. Intelligence. Determination. Even grit perhaps [...] I admired that grit. But it didn’t mean I wasn’t scared of it. And it didn’t mean that I wasn’t scared of her” (38).

Clara is given little time to adjust to her new role and is expected to prepare her lady’s bedchamber that evening. She has never worked as a domestic servant before but does her best to glean details of her job from the butler when he gives her a tour of the house. Holyrod makes it clear that neither he nor the housekeeper will be supervising Clara. Her role in the house is unique since she is answerable only to Mrs. Carnegie. Clara uses her time alone to inspect Mrs. Carnegie’s bedchamber. She is surprised by the number of business documents on the lady’s desk. Mrs. Carnegie plays an active role in the companies that her sons manage and often gives them shrewd advice about how to proceed in their dealings.

When her mistress arrives, Clara quickly figures out that she is expected to undress Mrs. Carnegie, brush her hair, and buff her nails. Clara silently notes the condition of the older woman’s hands: “These were the hands of a woman who’d worked hard for decades, not the delicate hands of a lady” (46). When Clara hesitates as she performs her routine, she realizes that the nouveau riche Mrs. Carnegie is taking her cues from Clara about what grand ladies require from their maids. Grateful, Clara observes, “The only thing that saved me in my first hours as lady’s maid was my mistress’s own ignorance” (47).

In the days that follow, Clara is alert to every opportunity to teach herself the role of lady’s maid. She aspires to make herself indispensable to Mrs. Carnegie by anticipating her needs. The lady’s two sons, Andrew and Tom, are away on government business. They are considered critical railroad employees who are indispensable to the Union’s war efforts.

An upcoming tea and whist party has Clara worried because she doesn’t understand the card game. One day, she sneaks into the mansion’s vast library to find a book that might instruct her. There, she finds Mrs. Perkins’s Guide to Managing House. As she peruses the library’s shelves, she is discovered by Andrew Carnegie, who has just returned home. Clara’s describes how “[h]is bushy, red beard and sweep of darker red hair across his high forehead added to his blithe appearance. His stance was comfortable and his smile broad and unwavering” (53-54). Putting her at ease, Andrew offers Clara the use of the library whenever she likes. He also says that Clara has managed to please his mother, which is a nearly impossible task.

In January, Clara finally receives a letter from her sister Eliza. The family is concerned that their landlord, Lord Martyn, might revoke their tenancy or reduce their acreage. Their large holding has made it possible to survive the potato famine that killed so many others. However, Mr. Kelley’s activities with the Chartists, who agitated for more rights for tenant farmers, have angered the landlord. The entire family is worried about their future but very glad of the money that Clara sends to them. Clara writes a reassuring response to Eliza and then opens a second letter that she has received. This one is from the fiancé of the real Clara Kelley. He doesn’t know that she perished at sea. Clara feels sad when she realizes that he is waiting for word from a dead woman.