responsible.’ He jumped visibly as the clock struck, and made to depart.
Summoning not Susan but Mrs Trent, I indicated that she was the source of all this morning’s good food. Her curtsy was modest, but I wagered she would not be in the kitchen two seconds before she checked the coin that he had passed her. However, she would have to wait a moment longer: the archdeacon should know of her personal kindness in the matter of Joseph, the box, and the clothes for Sarey.
As she bobbed her acknowledgement of his renewed thanks, to my joy she added that Susan and Robert had also played a part. They were included in the sonorous blessing he bestowed upon her. Both might have preferred a less spiritual and more material reward, I fear.
As I accompanied him to his curricle, once again guarded by his little tiger, I admitted my contact with Sarey and Joseph was instrumental in my agreeing to maintain contact with Clavercote, and told him of Joseph’s father’s despairing departure.
‘So the child is to be brought up by strangers?’
‘Sarey no longer considers him a stranger: indeed, his arrival in her arms may have saved her reason, since she had but hours before lost her own infant.’
He produced his purse once again. ‘His new family – can they afford an additional mouth? Pray, Tobias, do not give them all this at once, lest others begrudge what they may see as good fortune. You will know when to provide, when to withhold, whether to give in kind, whether to give in cash.’
Like Mrs Trent, I refrained from looking at the gold. ‘I will keep a detailed account for you,’ I promised.
His horses were more than ready to depart.
‘I will see to the curates for all the services; and – Tobias – the bishop will hear of your service to the ailing families. But I will spare him the news of your inexplicable impersonation of a parish constable.’ He left with his hand raised in blessing.
The sum that Archdeacon Cornforth had entrusted to me would, if husbanded well, keep Sarey and her family in some prosperity. I found a box to keep it in, just big enough to hold a notebook for the accounts I had promised to keep. Both Mrs Hansard and Mrs Trent should advise me, the latter because she had already given as much as she could afford and probably more –the archdeacon’s half-guinea apart, of course.
‘Clothes for Sarey,’ she declared as I went to the kitchen to consult her. ‘And shoes and pattens. Soap for the baby. Bedlinen – though I was about to give her your old sheets now I’ve turned them.’ She laughed at my puzzled expression. ‘Sheets wear out in the middle first – stands to reason – so you cut them in half and sew the two original edges together. Then you hem the new edges.’
‘But the ridge down the middle …’ I felt like the princess complaining about the pea.
‘Easier to bear than the cost of new sheets, and that I will declare. New sheets slung on the bushes on washday would cause talk in the village, you mark my words. I tell you straight, Dr Campion, Sarey won’t want that. She’d see our old ones as a kindness, but new ones as an embarrassment. And if you don’t believe me, you ask Mrs Hansard.’ Was there a tinge of resentment in her voice? How must she feel about my constant attendance at Langley Park? I must give the matter thought and prayer.
‘I am happy to take your advice. And what about the matter of clothes? Would it not look particular if I, a bachelor, showed a knowledge of women’s wear?’
She laughed. ‘Truly you need a wife, Rector, to make yourself respectable – and to do all this sort of work for you.’
‘Until I have one, Mrs Trent, perhaps you would lend me countenance by accompanying me next time I go to Clavercote. In fact, I see that the sun is breaking through at last. I fear my equipage is not as grand as the archdeacon’s, and Robert is not so top-lofty as his tiger, but we would make a fine couple, so long as we conceal the bundle
Summoning not Susan but Mrs Trent, I indicated that she was the source of all this morning’s good food. Her curtsy was modest, but I wagered she would not be in the kitchen two seconds before she checked the coin that he had passed her. However, she would have to wait a moment longer: the archdeacon should know of her personal kindness in the matter of Joseph, the box, and the clothes for Sarey.
As she bobbed her acknowledgement of his renewed thanks, to my joy she added that Susan and Robert had also played a part. They were included in the sonorous blessing he bestowed upon her. Both might have preferred a less spiritual and more material reward, I fear.
As I accompanied him to his curricle, once again guarded by his little tiger, I admitted my contact with Sarey and Joseph was instrumental in my agreeing to maintain contact with Clavercote, and told him of Joseph’s father’s despairing departure.
‘So the child is to be brought up by strangers?’
‘Sarey no longer considers him a stranger: indeed, his arrival in her arms may have saved her reason, since she had but hours before lost her own infant.’
He produced his purse once again. ‘His new family – can they afford an additional mouth? Pray, Tobias, do not give them all this at once, lest others begrudge what they may see as good fortune. You will know when to provide, when to withhold, whether to give in kind, whether to give in cash.’
Like Mrs Trent, I refrained from looking at the gold. ‘I will keep a detailed account for you,’ I promised.
His horses were more than ready to depart.
‘I will see to the curates for all the services; and – Tobias – the bishop will hear of your service to the ailing families. But I will spare him the news of your inexplicable impersonation of a parish constable.’ He left with his hand raised in blessing.
The sum that Archdeacon Cornforth had entrusted to me would, if husbanded well, keep Sarey and her family in some prosperity. I found a box to keep it in, just big enough to hold a notebook for the accounts I had promised to keep. Both Mrs Hansard and Mrs Trent should advise me, the latter because she had already given as much as she could afford and probably more –the archdeacon’s half-guinea apart, of course.
‘Clothes for Sarey,’ she declared as I went to the kitchen to consult her. ‘And shoes and pattens. Soap for the baby. Bedlinen – though I was about to give her your old sheets now I’ve turned them.’ She laughed at my puzzled expression. ‘Sheets wear out in the middle first – stands to reason – so you cut them in half and sew the two original edges together. Then you hem the new edges.’
‘But the ridge down the middle …’ I felt like the princess complaining about the pea.
‘Easier to bear than the cost of new sheets, and that I will declare. New sheets slung on the bushes on washday would cause talk in the village, you mark my words. I tell you straight, Dr Campion, Sarey won’t want that. She’d see our old ones as a kindness, but new ones as an embarrassment. And if you don’t believe me, you ask Mrs Hansard.’ Was there a tinge of resentment in her voice? How must she feel about my constant attendance at Langley Park? I must give the matter thought and prayer.
‘I am happy to take your advice. And what about the matter of clothes? Would it not look particular if I, a bachelor, showed a knowledge of women’s wear?’
She laughed. ‘Truly you need a wife, Rector, to make yourself respectable – and to do all this sort of work for you.’
‘Until I have one, Mrs Trent, perhaps you would lend me countenance by accompanying me next time I go to Clavercote. In fact, I see that the sun is breaking through at last. I fear my equipage is not as grand as the archdeacon’s, and Robert is not so top-lofty as his tiger, but we would make a fine couple, so long as we conceal the bundle
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