Off the Rails by Beryl Kingston

Author:Beryl Kingston [Beryl Kingston]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780719807442
Publisher: Robert Hale
Published: 2012-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

As the weeks passed by, Jane Cartwright read all her daughter’s lovely long letters twice and greedily. She was still miserable with the loss of her and seeing her writing so firm and clear on the page brought her close and made the pain of being apart less acute. When she’d read them through a second time, she passed them across the dinner table to Nathaniel, who read them attentively too, and said he was glad she was doing so well. But after he’d read the fifth letter, he set it to one side and looked at her seriously across the table.

‘I think you should read my letter now,’ he said and held it out to her.

It was from George Hudson with instructions that Mr Cartwright was to travel to Leeds at his earliest convenience where he was to meet up with the chairman of the old Leeds and Derby Railway, ‘which we have now taken over’, and receive instructions for the continuance of the new line.

Jane tried not to show how disappointed she was. ‘How long are you like to be away?’ she asked.

‘That I couldn’t say,’ he told her, ‘but how would it be if you were to accompany me?’

‘To Leeds?’

‘Aye.’

‘All that way?’

‘’Tis nowhere near as far as Whitby,’ he laughed. ‘Not by a long chalk and you managed that safely enough as I recall.’

‘But what about the children?’

‘Audrey will look after them,’ he said, and when she still hesitated, he decided to urge her a little. ‘Come with me, my dearest. I cannot promise you sea and sand but Leeds is a fair place. ’Tis my home town when all’s said and done. I should like to show you round for I know you would like it and here’s the chance come for us.’

So she agreed, feeling greatly daring, and they travelled by stagecoach two days later on a misty autumn morning, while Milly was walking her two pupils in Longfield Great Park, with a basket full of breadcrumbs to tempt the ducks on the lake and her book of fairy stories in her pocket.

Their walks had now become an established part of their day and one they all enjoyed – almost as much as playing Bears, which they did every afternoon, after they’d done their sums and their sketching. That afternoon was going to be particularly special because Uncle Felix was coming to ride with the hunt and he always came early enough to play Bears too – when he wasn’t talking to Miss Smith, which he did far too much, in Miss Arabella’s opinion. But when they got back to the house it was obvious that some great change had occurred for there were servants rushing about everywhere in a state of obvious agitation.

Arabella knew what it was at once. ‘Papa’s come home,’ she said. ‘Now we’re for it.’ Her pretty face was set in its old supercilious expression and Maria looked as though she was going to burst into tears.

‘He’ll give us a spection,’ she told Milly, fearfully.

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