Fairfield Hall by Margaret Dickinson

Author:Margaret Dickinson [Dickinson, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781447237266
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

Thirty-Four

‘What’s all this I’ve been hearing?’ Dorothea’s thunderous face greeted her. ‘Just who do you think you are?’

‘What have you heard, Dorothea?’ Annabel was tired after the day’s events and yet elated by what had been achieved. The last thing she wanted was to engage in a quarrel with her sister-in-law. But it seemed she had no choice; Dorothea was spoiling for a fight. Annabel was determined not to let the other woman gain the upper hand. Whatever it was could wait until she had washed and changed her clothes. And there was something even more important she had to do first. ‘I must see your mother. I’ll see you at dinner, Dorothea.’

‘You’ll listen to me now,’ the woman almost shouted. ‘And you won’t disturb my mother. She’s sleeping.’

‘How is she?’

Grudgingly, it seemed, Dorothea was obliged to admit, ‘She’s improving slowly.’

‘I’m glad. And is the nurse proving satisfactory?’

Again there was reluctance, but she said shortly, ‘Yes.’

‘Then what is so important that it can’t wait until I’ve had a cup of tea and changed my clothes?’

‘You’re bringing shame and disgrace on this family. Wait until my brother hears about what you’ve been doing.’

Annabel raised her eyebrows, but Dorothea’s tirade continued. ‘Bringing folks out of the workhouse back to the estate – folks who rightly belong there because they couldn’t manage their farms. Reinstating a common whore into the village. Wasn’t it bad enough we couldn’t get rid of her because my stupid oaf of a brother gave her the cottage?’

‘And who made her into a whore?’ Annabel said quietly.

Dorothea face was purple with anger. ‘How dare you? How dare you speak ill of my family like that?’

‘It’s the truth, though, isn’t it? If your older brother hadn’t seduced her and sired her child, Nancy would have continued quite happily, I’m sure, as a maid.’

Dorothea couldn’t deny it. Instead, she shook her fist in Annabel’s face and shouted, ‘James will hear about it. About all of it and he’ll send you packing. Sham marriage or no sham marriage, you’ll be out on your ear.’

Annabel met the woman’s furious gaze and her tone was deceptively soft as she said slowly, ‘Oh, it’s no sham marriage, Dorothea, I assure you.’

With that she turned, picked up her skirts and ran lightly up the stairs without looking back to see how her words had affected her sister-in-law.

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