The Rag Nymph (aka The Forester Girl) by Catherine Cookson

Author:Catherine Cookson [Cookson, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780360317
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘Lie down, me dear? You’re goin’ to bed and you’re goin’ to stay there for the next few days, as that doctor said. And what’s more, I’ll have old Partridge come and see you.’

‘Oh, I don’t need a doctor, Mrs Aggie.’

‘Leave it to me, girl, to know what you need. Anyway, old Partridge has been wantin’ to get his foot in this door again for years. The last bill I paid him was sixteen years ago when me father died. Two shillings a visit he charged. Daylight robbery. And I told him that.’ She smiled softly and, holding her hands out to Millie, she drew her gently up from the couch, saying, ‘Come away. Come away.’

It was the same evening. The yard gates were closed. They’d had their evening meal. Millie was asleep upstairs and Aggie and Ben sat facing each other, Ben with a mug of beer to his side on the settle and Aggie with a glass of gin resting on a shelf to her hand. They had been sitting in silence for some time.

When Aggie spoke her voice was quiet. ‘I know what you’re thinkin’,’ she said. ‘It’s such as my own thoughts. We did what we thought was best: we sent her away to save her being picked up and from the outcome of what that would mean; yet she walks straight into it; and all arranged by that bitch of a woman. Have you thought what would have happened to her if the men of the house hadn’t come in at that moment?’

‘Aye, I’ve thought what would have happened to her. And aye, me thoughts have just been similar to your own. Well, here she is and here she stays. And she won’t get out of me sight if I can help it.’

‘Huh! And how long d’you think you can keep your eyes on her? She’s growing fast. The solution for her is to be married, that’s the only safeguard…’

She hadn’t finished the last word before he sprang to his feet, crying, ‘Married? She’s only thirteen, woman!’

She stared at him for a moment and, her voice deceptively quiet now, she said, ‘She’s near fourteen and she’s an old fourteen.’

‘Aye, all right, she’s near fourteen, but you’re marryin’ her off.’

‘I’m not marryin’ her off now, but in two years time she’ll be ready for it, aye, if not before.’

‘What’s come over you, woman? You want rid of her?’

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