him look like an owl.
She nodded, once.
Anna didn’t come inside, but crouched down on the front steps to give Lily a hug. ‘Goodbye, my darling. We’ll come back tomorrow. Make sure you be good and do everything the doctors tell you, won’t you?’
Lily tried to nod, but her mother was holding her too tightly and she couldn’t move.
‘Don’t worry if you hear any funny sounds. You’re quite safe here.’
Anna pulled back, keeping her hands on Lily’s shoulders. Lily noticed she was crying.
‘Goodbye, darling,’ she said again, looking Lily directly in the eye. She paused for a moment, perfectly still. Waiting. And then:
‘Oh, fucking forget it, then.’
now
‘In the beginning was the word.’ Richard was whispering, not sure if she was awake, not wanting to disturb her if she wasn’t. ‘And the word was…’
There was a pause, long enough for him to think that she was indeed asleep. He almost rolled over and left her to it. And then:
‘Lumbered.’ She was smiling, her eyes still closed. It was one of their favourites.
‘Okay. Well, once upon a time, in old England, there lived a girl called Sarah. She was a servant girl, and had been all her life, working with her mother and her grandmother and her two sisters, for a family called Stephenson. They weren’t a bad family to work for, despite the fact that they were very rich and very posh; they owned a house in London and another in the country, and acres of forest land, but they were always kind and never treated their servants as slaves. Sarah, as the oldest of her sisters, was in charge of looking after the two daughters of the family, Amelia and Amanda.
‘Amelia and Amanda were only a year apart in age, and virtually inseparable. They were both very lively, and kept Sarah busy all day, so that by the time she went to bed she was usually exhausted, and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
‘Because they were very rich, Amelia and Amanda were constantly being given new toys to play with; and, because they got bored easily, they tired of their new toys very quickly.Their parents were kind enough to pass on these disregarded playthings to Sarah’s sisters, who were similar in age, but it wasn’t long before they outgrew them, and it fell upon Sarah to find somewhere to store them.
‘Luckily, there was a room in the house known as the lumber room. It was the home for all the furniture that had been broken or discarded throughout the years, and, because the Stephensons were a very old and very rich family, the room was very large. It was one of Sarah’s favourite places to go, because there was so much history there. Her favourite piece of furniture was a beautiful old four-poster bed. One of the posts was broken, but it made no difference to Sarah; when the house was quiet and she had no work to do, her favourite pastime was to lie on the bed and imagine she was a princess.
‘No one else ever went in the lumber room, except to put things in there; and so it came to be that Sarah knew its contents better than anyone else. Admittedly most of the things in there were broken, but she loved them nonetheless.
‘When Amanda and Amelia were old enough to be thinking about finding husbands and starting their own families, the Stephensons fell on hard times. Mr Stephenson ran his own business, and in the winter of Amanda’s fifteenth year the business fell apart. It was quickly revealed that he had built up a lot of debt in the course of trying to save the business, and that he now owed a lot of money to people that he wasn’t able to pay back. The decision was made to sell the country house and move the whole family to London permanently, so that he could find a new job more easily.
‘There were, of course, many consequences that arose from this decision, and for a while Sarah and her family were worried for their jobs. Luckily, it transpired that they were to move to London with the family, although the rest of the servants
She nodded, once.
Anna didn’t come inside, but crouched down on the front steps to give Lily a hug. ‘Goodbye, my darling. We’ll come back tomorrow. Make sure you be good and do everything the doctors tell you, won’t you?’
Lily tried to nod, but her mother was holding her too tightly and she couldn’t move.
‘Don’t worry if you hear any funny sounds. You’re quite safe here.’
Anna pulled back, keeping her hands on Lily’s shoulders. Lily noticed she was crying.
‘Goodbye, darling,’ she said again, looking Lily directly in the eye. She paused for a moment, perfectly still. Waiting. And then:
‘Oh, fucking forget it, then.’
now
‘In the beginning was the word.’ Richard was whispering, not sure if she was awake, not wanting to disturb her if she wasn’t. ‘And the word was…’
There was a pause, long enough for him to think that she was indeed asleep. He almost rolled over and left her to it. And then:
‘Lumbered.’ She was smiling, her eyes still closed. It was one of their favourites.
‘Okay. Well, once upon a time, in old England, there lived a girl called Sarah. She was a servant girl, and had been all her life, working with her mother and her grandmother and her two sisters, for a family called Stephenson. They weren’t a bad family to work for, despite the fact that they were very rich and very posh; they owned a house in London and another in the country, and acres of forest land, but they were always kind and never treated their servants as slaves. Sarah, as the oldest of her sisters, was in charge of looking after the two daughters of the family, Amelia and Amanda.
‘Amelia and Amanda were only a year apart in age, and virtually inseparable. They were both very lively, and kept Sarah busy all day, so that by the time she went to bed she was usually exhausted, and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
‘Because they were very rich, Amelia and Amanda were constantly being given new toys to play with; and, because they got bored easily, they tired of their new toys very quickly.Their parents were kind enough to pass on these disregarded playthings to Sarah’s sisters, who were similar in age, but it wasn’t long before they outgrew them, and it fell upon Sarah to find somewhere to store them.
‘Luckily, there was a room in the house known as the lumber room. It was the home for all the furniture that had been broken or discarded throughout the years, and, because the Stephensons were a very old and very rich family, the room was very large. It was one of Sarah’s favourite places to go, because there was so much history there. Her favourite piece of furniture was a beautiful old four-poster bed. One of the posts was broken, but it made no difference to Sarah; when the house was quiet and she had no work to do, her favourite pastime was to lie on the bed and imagine she was a princess.
‘No one else ever went in the lumber room, except to put things in there; and so it came to be that Sarah knew its contents better than anyone else. Admittedly most of the things in there were broken, but she loved them nonetheless.
‘When Amanda and Amelia were old enough to be thinking about finding husbands and starting their own families, the Stephensons fell on hard times. Mr Stephenson ran his own business, and in the winter of Amanda’s fifteenth year the business fell apart. It was quickly revealed that he had built up a lot of debt in the course of trying to save the business, and that he now owed a lot of money to people that he wasn’t able to pay back. The decision was made to sell the country house and move the whole family to London permanently, so that he could find a new job more easily.
‘There were, of course, many consequences that arose from this decision, and for a while Sarah and her family were worried for their jobs. Luckily, it transpired that they were to move to London with the family, although the rest of the servants
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