A Cornish Maid by Rosemary Aitken

Author:Rosemary Aitken
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2022-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

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Alicia waited till she heard the front door close, then turned to her companion. ‘Beth, you are a wicked tease! He must have overheard.’ Beth gave a knowing grin. ‘Well, of course, I intended that he should. The poor little fellow is clearly terrified – but equally clearly he’d do anything for you. Don’t look so modest, of course that’s how he feels. Why did he come to the meeting otherwise? He’s not the sort of person to be sympathetic to the cause, or avid to listen to the speakers. You could tell that on the night. He looked as if he was in purgatory – but I’d put him in the front row and he couldn’t get away. Of course, I thought you’d come and rescue him by sitting next to him.’ Her eyes were dancing, and she was clearly trying not to laugh.

‘Poor Mr Tulver…!’ Alicia began, but it was no good. The mental picture was so comical – Mr Tulver, all pomposity, forced to sit and endure boredom among the feathered hats – that it came out as a titter. She caught Beth’s eye and that only made it worse. In a moment the pair of them were giggling helplessly, and both of them had to sit down on the chairs and dab their streaming eyes. Most unladylike – especially as Edith chose that moment to come in.

‘Excuse me, Miss Alicia, but were you wanting tea?’

With an enormous effort, Liss willed herself to stop, and managed to control herself sufficiently to say, ‘Yes, please, Edith, and some buttered toast.’ She struggled to quell the tell-tale tremor in her voice.

When the maid had gone she turned to Beth again. ‘Poor Mr Tulver. It really isn’t fair. He can’t help being pompous and he tries so hard to please.’

Beth Richie looked at her with a peculiar smile. ‘You shouldn’t be unkind to him. He is clearly smitten. I think he’s rather sweet. And he’s promised to help us – by default at least. Though I’m not quite sure what you intend that we should do.’

Alicia nodded. She was more sober now. ‘I’m not quite sure myself. And it’s no laughing matter, if Edith is correct. I thought at first that Fanny had simply run away because her father came to find her – and that is naturally what Edwin thinks, and what he blames me for – but Edith has persuaded me that there might be more to it than that.’ She outlined the whole story to Elizabeth. ‘What do you think, Beth?’

Her friend surprised her. ‘I’ll do what I can, of course, and very willingly. But I think that you should get your little maid to help. For one thing, she can ask around more easily than us – talk to servants and that sort of thing and go to places that we couldn’t go ourselves. And secondly – as you say yourself – she was the one who spotted that something was amiss: she made

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