The Child From Nowhere by Freda Lightfoot

Author:Freda Lightfoot
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Historical Fiction
ISBN: 9780956811936
Publisher: Freda Lightfoot
Published: 2011-04-21T23:00:00+00:00

Mrs Petty declared, and Ida and Fanny heartily agreed, that they hadn’t enjoyed a more entertaining afternoon in years at Tyson Lodge. The raised voices in the parlour had naturally attracted their attention, bringing them creeping out into the hall so they could all the better hear what was going on. There’d been a slight interruption when the aunts had appeared with a sorry-looking Flora, and Ida was duly dispatched to fetch hot water and iodine. Cissie carried the child upstairs while Mrs Petty, Fanny and Miss Vera remained in the hall, ears pricked.

Sadly, the exchange in the parlour had become somewhat muted so that they were forced to draw ever nearer in an effort to hear properly. Fanny swore that if blood looked like being drawn, she’d swallow her pride and run for Dennis. Ida, having scooted to the kitchen, drawn the hot water, flown up the stairs and back in record time, quickly returned to join the curious eavesdroppers.

Mrs Petty felt quite certain that at any moment Miss Vera would notice their presence, scold them all and send them scurrying back into the kitchen. But she did nothing of the sort, being far too busy cocking an ear herself. And then the door was flung wide and they all had to quickly dip back into the shadows.

The voices within rang out loud and clear, all about the wickedness done to those poor children by madam Lucy, of her being cast out into the streets and there being no chance of forgiveness, which Mrs Petty later declared was too good for her by half and she should be hung, drawn and quartered at the very least.

Then Lucy stormed into the hall, a veritable dervish of fury, ordering Ida to pack her bags, and Fanny to fetch a cab as she refused to stay a moment longer in this house simply to be insulted. Not a soul among them moved an inch.

‘Do you hear what I say?’ Lucy screamed, stamping her foot and going red, white and all shades of purple by turn.

It was Vera who had the temerity to step forward. ‘I believe no one is preventing you from leaving, Lucy. And perhaps, in the circumstances, it would be for the best. As ye sow, so shall ye reap.’

Lucy had no option but to obey. She stormed upstairs to her room where she was obliged to pack her own bags and stagger down the stairs with them moments later before the humiliating gaze of the entire household. No punishment by the judicial system could have been more devastating at that moment, no departure more demeaning for a woman so obsessed with her own status. For her fall from grace to be witnessed by everyone, including the servants, in condemning silence, was utterly mortifying.

Not a soul offered to open the door for her, and Lucy found herself out in the porch with not even a cab waiting, her instructions on this completely ignored. She was forced to abandon most of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.