A Perfect Christmas by Page Lynda

Author:Page, Lynda [Page, Lynda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780755380992
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2012-08-01T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Agnes Dalby sighed with relief to hear footsteps descending the stairs at long last. She scurried out of the kitchen to greet Cait. ‘Good morning, Miss Thomas. I was getting really worried about you. It’s well past your normal time for leaving the house to go to work and you haven’t even had any breakfast yet.’

At the bottom of the stairs Cait looked over at the woman, feeling perplexed. Agnes had been in every day since her employers had left, continuing with her duties despite the fact that she wasn’t being paid. Cait couldn’t at all understand why she was acting this way and not off enjoying her leisure.

‘You did understand my mother’s instructions to you when she left?’ Cait asked her now.

She nodded. ‘Perfectly. Mrs Thomas laid me off until she comes back.’

‘Then why are you still working here when you’re not being paid?’

‘Because if I didn’t, who would look after you, Miss Thomas?’

Cait felt shocked. Was this Agnes Dalby’s way of telling her she cared about her? If so, why was it that she could when Cait’s own parents couldn’t? She didn’t know quite how to respond to this so just said, ‘I would like some breakfast, Agnes. Tea and toast will be fine.’

It wasn’t lost on Agnes that Cait had addressed her by her Christian name for the first time, and wondered if the girl had realised. She felt warmed by it. ‘I’ll have it ready in a jiffy.’

As Agnes bustled back into the kitchen she fought down her desire to ask Cait just where she was getting the money from to buy the smart new suit she was wearing, different from yesterday’s, not to mention pay for the new hairstyle she was sporting, which was clearly from an expensive salon in town, the sort her mother frequented. Then there were the dozen or so boxes of new shoes and handbags that Agnes had helped the taxi driver bring in when they’d been delivered yesterday afternoon. Even if she landed herself a new job, it couldn’t pay on such a munificent scale, and besides she hadn’t been working there long enough to have been paid her first wage packet. And, more surprisingly, this new job didn’t seem to require her to work normal office hours either as she was home by four yesterday afternoon and had time to have her hair done first. It was after nine o’clock now and Cait seemed in no hurry to be at her new workplace. But it wasn’t Agnes’s place to query that, she decided.

There was a question it was her place to broach. As she was putting Cait’s breakfast before her Agnes asked, ‘Miss Thomas, do you know what your plans are for Christmas yet? Have you had any word whether your parents will be back by then? Only there isn’t much time if I’m to make a Christmas cake and pudding, mince pies et cetera, and also what I’m needed to prepare in advance for Christmas Day. I can order all the provisions from the butcher and grocer, of course.

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