The Blacksmith's Wife by Anne Doughty

Author:Anne Doughty [Doughty, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780749020866
Publisher: Allison and Busby
Published: 2016-12-15T05:00:00+00:00

Time moved on and Sarah was summoned to lunch by the young man called James she’d met on her last visit. He escorted her to her place beside Mrs Carey at the top of the long table in the servants’ hall. The food was good and plentiful, but Sarah found it hard to enjoy while replying to Bridget Carey’s stream of questions above the noise of the large assembled company. She was so glad to get lunch over that she said a polite ‘No, thank you’ to tea in Mrs Carey’s sitting room on the grounds that she’d not managed a quarter of what needed doing today.

She was grateful for the enfolding quiet of Sir George’s study where the fire had been made up in her absence and someone had left a basket containing wax polish and cleaning materials probably in response to her question to James as to where she could find such things.

She sniffed the polish appreciatively and applied it sparingly to the half of the desk that stood empty and dusty. She was so encouraged by the wonderful effect it had on the leather surface she was sure she got through clearing the second half much faster than the first.

For the moment, she was not opening letters and looking at them unless they’d already been opened in the first place. Her sole concern was to create order, to have piles that were not so high they’d fall over. Sorting them for content, or urgency, she tried not to think about. Some of the envelopes looked very battered and worn as if they’d been around for a long time, but clearly all of them remained unanswered.

What could they be about? she wondered. She knew there were no letters in what she’d sorted from family and friends. These would be marked private and probably would be delivered straight to the family breakfast table, not stacked up in Sir George’s study. So what were all of these?

Finally, overcome by curiosity, she opened a letter that still looked fresh and recent. Despite its very small copperplate, she found the text consistent and legible. The writer began by insisting that it was a true copy of the minutes made this day of our Lord, 13th September 1845 at the request of Sir George Molyneux, Chairman of the said Committee of Governors of the Armagh Workhouse.

Fascinated, she read on and found that one of the topics under discussion was the eleven-year-old who had applied for permission to go and live with a Mr Hamilton. It seemed that Mary-Jane Gray had returned to the house rather than live in the country with the Hamilton family and it was proposed that the shoes and stockings given to Mary-Jane Gray on her going out to service were now to be given to this new applicant.

Sarah paused, wondering if Annie had had such a ‘going out’ present. Then her eye caught a list of punishments. Three young men were to have no supper for a week, two of them to have twenty-four lashes as well.

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