The Brigandshaw Chronicles Box Set by Peter Rimmer

Author:Peter Rimmer [Rimmer, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kamba Publishing
Published: 2017-03-20T22:00:00+00:00

The doctor certified Richard dead in the morning. Everybody in the family cried as everyone cried when there was a death close to them. Close death was a nudge at their own mortality. Some even cried with relief. It had never been much of a life for Richard St Clair despite how beautiful he looked. They left him in his room covered with a white sheet. The parish church was all ready for Christmas, with a big cut-out story of the nativity in the entrance that had taken the children of the village a long time to build. Richard would have to take his turn. This was Christmas. With the windows left wide open to the fields covered in snow, there was no chance of him going off. The male nurse had cleaned him up nicely, taken a month’s pay, and gone off to join his family for Christmas. He did not seem sad to lose his job. Barnaby drove him to the railway station at Corfe Castle in the trap and said the man had caught his train to Swanage. Jug Ears appeared to enjoy the trot as standing still in the stables with the roof covered in cold snow was not pleasant. No one spoke of Richard. Penelope thought it was not the time to tell the family she was pregnant, even if the child inside of her would inherit the title if it was a boy. She had a quiet word with the family doctor after he had seen to Richard.

“God moves in strange and beautiful ways,” said Doctor Reichwald. “He takes and he gives. Yes, Mrs St Clair. You are indeed pregnant. Five months I should think.”

“Please don’t tell the family.”

“You haven’t told anyone?”

“Not yet.”

Doctor Reichwald smiled. The girl was probably not more than nineteen.

Then he forgot the family and went home to his wife and children. He had his own worries. With a German name and a German war looming, he and his family were in trouble. It was too late to change their name now. Even if they did, people would still know them for who they were. German immigrants. Their name change should have been done by his grandfather when he became a naturalised Englishman. But in those days the royal family were more German than English so it did not seem to matter… Wasn’t Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany Queen Victoria’s grandson? He was very cold when he got home to a warm hearth and a hot cup of tea. Goodness, he was more English than the English. At least the poor boy was out of agony, which he would have been in, could he understand. Doctor Reichwald knew very little about mental illness. He had delivered the boy. Lady St Clair had been so happy. They had rung the bells in the parish church of Corfe Castle as they had done for centuries when an heir was born to the barony. Now they would do it again. Despite all the terrible things, life went on.

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