‘No, of course I won’t tell,’ and then, adopting a slightly scolding tone, added, ‘But can we make sure it doesn’t happen again?’
Georgina giggled behind her hand. ‘We’ll try to behave better, but you’re so pretty. And I do like your drawers. We couldn’t resist finding out if you had any on. Will you show me how to make a pair just like them, with the frill round the legs and everything?’
And suddenly Mercy found herself laughing too. ‘Canyou sew?’ she asked. ‘Any of you?’ And as heads were shaken and frowns gathered, she laughed again. ‘Then I’ll have to teach you. But the other men won’t want a pair of drawers. What can we teach them?’
‘Dignity,’ said a stern voice from behind her. ‘Something in which you seem to be sadly lacking, girl.’
Chapter Nine
It was Saturday afternoon, Maggie was taking a rest and catching up on her diary, and Livia decided on a short walk. She was already missing Ella, even if her sister had only been gone a few days, and had some serious thinking to do, for which she needed a clear head.
She opted to walk right up to the castle ruins, quiet at this time of day, and settled herself on a grassy mound. A cow lifted its head to stare at her, its jaws working, before ambling away. Livia loved the peaceful solitude of this place. The castle was built back in the twelfth or thirteenth century by one of King John’s powerful barons, so far as she could recall from school History lessons. By the fourteenth century it was in the hands of the Parr family, and some said Catherine Parr herself was born there, and had spent much of her childhood in Kendal. She too had been married off against her will to two geriatric husbands before accepting the dubious honour of becoming the sixth wife of Henry VIII.
What was it about men? Why was their father sohard on them? Livia knew that her father worshipped power. Craved it as others might crave whisky. She heard occasional talk in the town that Councillor Josiah Angel took bribes. That a suitably substantial sum slipped quietly into his bank account would earn you the right to build where you wished, expand your factory, or treat your employees in whatever manner suited you. Such gossip distressed her greatly as Livia felt a natural pride in her father’s achievements as a self-made businessman.
It also upset her that he made little more than a perfunctory show of caring about the welfare of the poor, being of the view that their penurious state was due to their own fecklessness, and in no way connected to the high rents he charged them to live in the property he owned.
Kendal was a prosperous town and Livia was aware that she lived in one of its better class districts, with everything she could wish for by way of material comforts. She couldn’t imagine what it must feel like to share a room with ten others and be uncertain where your next meal was coming from. But the old saying that money didn’t necessarily bring happiness was certainly true in her eyes. There were other ways of bringing misery into a person’s life beside poverty, and surely the lack of love was the worst cross to bear.
Her father had made her mother’s life a misery, constantly criticising her and finding fault as if to prove that he was better than her, no longer the young man who had joined her father’s business as a mere apprentice. He seemed to carry a chip on his shoulder because they camefrom different ends of the social spectrum, and Josiah never missed an opportunity to put her down.
In the end the poor woman had taken refuge in ill health, thankful to be out of the firing line of his caustic remarks and cruel tricks. Livia felt her loss keenly, but the responsibility of caring for her two younger sisters, as she’d promised their dying mother she would do, harder to bear than she’d ever imagined.
Things had got steadily worse once his three daughters were his only target. Whatever dissatisfaction or disappointment he
Georgina giggled behind her hand. ‘We’ll try to behave better, but you’re so pretty. And I do like your drawers. We couldn’t resist finding out if you had any on. Will you show me how to make a pair just like them, with the frill round the legs and everything?’
And suddenly Mercy found herself laughing too. ‘Canyou sew?’ she asked. ‘Any of you?’ And as heads were shaken and frowns gathered, she laughed again. ‘Then I’ll have to teach you. But the other men won’t want a pair of drawers. What can we teach them?’
‘Dignity,’ said a stern voice from behind her. ‘Something in which you seem to be sadly lacking, girl.’
Chapter Nine
It was Saturday afternoon, Maggie was taking a rest and catching up on her diary, and Livia decided on a short walk. She was already missing Ella, even if her sister had only been gone a few days, and had some serious thinking to do, for which she needed a clear head.
She opted to walk right up to the castle ruins, quiet at this time of day, and settled herself on a grassy mound. A cow lifted its head to stare at her, its jaws working, before ambling away. Livia loved the peaceful solitude of this place. The castle was built back in the twelfth or thirteenth century by one of King John’s powerful barons, so far as she could recall from school History lessons. By the fourteenth century it was in the hands of the Parr family, and some said Catherine Parr herself was born there, and had spent much of her childhood in Kendal. She too had been married off against her will to two geriatric husbands before accepting the dubious honour of becoming the sixth wife of Henry VIII.
What was it about men? Why was their father sohard on them? Livia knew that her father worshipped power. Craved it as others might crave whisky. She heard occasional talk in the town that Councillor Josiah Angel took bribes. That a suitably substantial sum slipped quietly into his bank account would earn you the right to build where you wished, expand your factory, or treat your employees in whatever manner suited you. Such gossip distressed her greatly as Livia felt a natural pride in her father’s achievements as a self-made businessman.
It also upset her that he made little more than a perfunctory show of caring about the welfare of the poor, being of the view that their penurious state was due to their own fecklessness, and in no way connected to the high rents he charged them to live in the property he owned.
Kendal was a prosperous town and Livia was aware that she lived in one of its better class districts, with everything she could wish for by way of material comforts. She couldn’t imagine what it must feel like to share a room with ten others and be uncertain where your next meal was coming from. But the old saying that money didn’t necessarily bring happiness was certainly true in her eyes. There were other ways of bringing misery into a person’s life beside poverty, and surely the lack of love was the worst cross to bear.
Her father had made her mother’s life a misery, constantly criticising her and finding fault as if to prove that he was better than her, no longer the young man who had joined her father’s business as a mere apprentice. He seemed to carry a chip on his shoulder because they camefrom different ends of the social spectrum, and Josiah never missed an opportunity to put her down.
In the end the poor woman had taken refuge in ill health, thankful to be out of the firing line of his caustic remarks and cruel tricks. Livia felt her loss keenly, but the responsibility of caring for her two younger sisters, as she’d promised their dying mother she would do, harder to bear than she’d ever imagined.
Things had got steadily worse once his three daughters were his only target. Whatever dissatisfaction or disappointment he
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