Pengelly's Daughter by Nicola Pryce

Author:Nicola Pryce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pengelly’s Daughter
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 2016-03-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-nine

I would take my letters to the posthouse on my way. Gathering them up carefully, I put them in my basket and crossed the yard. The day was getting hotter; Joseph Melhuish halfway through a jug of ale. He nodded, wiping the sweat from his brow. I could not imagine how he worked at his furnace on a day like this. Jimmy Tregony had fully recovered from his errand and joined his steps with mine. He removed his cap and smiled. ‘D’ye want me to take them letters, Miss Pengelly?’

The letters were too important to let out of my sight. ‘No, Jimmy. I need to pay for them but wait just a moment while I see Madame Merrick – then we can go past the frigate.’

‘I’ve heard she’s a thirty-two gunner.’

‘As many as that? Well, let’s count them.’

Madame Merrick looked up as I entered the room, her dress rustling as she moved. It was made of very ne silk. She was wearing a piece of cloth wrapped several times round her head. A small arrangement of feathers uttered on one side with what looked like a diamond brooch, pinning everything in place. It was surprisingly elegant but I must have looked surprised.

‘It’s a turban, Miss Pengelly, though I do not expect you to have seen one before. Those in the higher ranks of society know what it is.’

‘And how are the higher ranks of society, Madame Merrick? How’s Lady April Cavendish?’

Mother and Elowyn stopped tting fabric against a dressmaker’s dummy. Mother had pins in her mouth. She shook her head slowly, her lips pursed not only by the pins it held. Elowyn smiled broadly.

‘I believe she is quite well, thank you,’ Madame Merrick replied coldly.

‘She’s not yet called?’

‘No, but she has sent her housekeeper, Mrs Jennings.’

‘And did Mrs Jennings take tea, Madame Merrick?’ Elowyn’s eyes widened. She clasped her hand across her mouth. Mother’s frown deepened.

‘As a matter of fact, she did. I have learnt to take very small steps at a time, Miss Pengelly and perhaps you would be wise to do the same.’ The old venom had crept back into her tone. Perhaps I had been wrong to tease her. ‘I hear you are planning an ambitious venture, Miss Pengelly – a naval brig, no less, rumoured to be the biggest ship yet built in Fosse.’

‘We’ve only ever taken small steps, but to survive as a boatyard, I believe we need the courage to take bigger steps.’

‘Then take care those big steps do not trample on people’s goodwill, Miss Pengelly.’

I would have replied with deance, but one look from those hooded eyes brought me sharply to my senses. It was as if she knew I was about to make several members of the Corporation very angry. ‘Thank you, but you needn’t worry – the Admiralty want Nickels to have the commission. I doubt it’ll ever come our way.’

Mother gasped, but those hawk eyes remained staring at me. ‘One moment,’ she said as I turned to go. ‘If you insist on running your father’s boatyard, you must, at least, look as if you prosper.

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