A Dream to Share by N/A

Author:N/A
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo Books
Published: 2017-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

‘It’s a charming garden,’ said Bert, holding out a hand to Victoria to help her down the terrace steps and onto the lawn, thinking again that he might have been brought up in the working class area of Newtown but could ape the middle classes perfectly.

‘It’s somewhat overgrown,’ said Victoria, her hand trembling in his grasp. ‘The gardener’s getting too old to cope with all that needs doing.’

Bert led her over to a garden seat situated beneath a trestle archway of rambling roses and a tangle of honeysuckle that were showing tiny buds. She sat down, leaving enough space for him to sit next to her if he so wished. ‘So you live here alone now your father’s dead?’ he asked.

Victoria gave a tinkling laugh. ‘Hardly! There are the maids, Mary and Emma, as well as Cook… and of course, Grandmamma. She’s good for nothing… old age, Mr Temple, is terrible… especially when the mind and body stop functioning properly.’

He would have liked to ask for more information about Emma but instead enquired whether she had any other relatives.

‘I have an uncle who farms at Delamere.’ She gazed up at him and patted the seat next to her. ‘Tell me what is your profession?’

He sat beside her. ‘I’m in engineering.’

Her face shone. ‘How exciting! Do you build bridges?’

‘No. I’m in shipping.’ He slid his arm along the back of the bench and for ten minutes or so glibly told her a pack of lies about his status and his work before smiling and finishing with the words, ‘But we’ve talked enough about me. I’m sure your life has been much more inter­esting. Tell me about yourself … have you always lived here?’

‘No. I was brought up in Liverpool. My father was involved in the cot­ton trade. He would have liked me to marry but I felt I had work to do that was just as important as that of my married sisters – by sisters I don’t mean blood relatives but those women united with me in the Cause.’

Bert thought her words didn’t bode well for his plans. ‘I’m sure you would make a wonderful wife and mother.’ His hand touched her shoulder.

She flinched slightly but did not move away. ‘You think so? I – I always believed I would die a spinster.’

‘Perhaps you only believe that because you’ve never met the right man. Surely if you did, then you wouldn’t refuse him?’ He took hold of her hand.

She swallowed. ‘I – I don’t know. I would have to think about it.’ Abruptly she pulled her hand free and rose to her feet. ‘Shall we go inside and have tea?’

Bert followed her into the house. He decided that she was shy of men and knew that he would have to go carefully. Perhaps if he kept his hands to himself and showed even more interest in her stupid Cause that would do the trick. As he ate cake and drank tea served by the maid Mary, he found himself wondering, again, where Emma Griffiths was right now.

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