he had gone to do. Immediately underneath the window she could see a dark green curricle drawing up, with Mr Berkeley’s tiger at the reins. She looked at him, bemused. Mr Berkeley threw back his head and roared with laughter.
‘Well,’ he said, reasonably. ‘I could n ’ t allow you both to drag all that way back by yourselves. You are both worn out already – look, little Bob can scarcely keep his eyes open.’ (It was true. Even as he spoke Bob’s head was nodding and he seemed in imminent danger of tumbling from his seat). ‘Well, then – I sent a message to Belvoir for Jack to bring the curricle around. You can hold Bob on your lap, I daresay.’
Mr Berkeley paid for the dinners and assisted Kathryn from her seat. Then he picked Bob up from his chair and carried him out to the carriage. Kathryn got herself into it and found Mr Berkeley gently depositing her son into her waiting arms.
‘Thank you so much, Mr Berkeley,’ she said. ‘I really do not know what we would have done without you.’
‘Don’t mention it. You seem determined to forget that you provided me the most valuable service that one person could ever provide for another. Compared with that a dinner and a short ride home are as nothing, let me assure you.’
‘Well, I am grateful anyway. I am so glad we met up again.’
Kathryn had not meant to say this, but say it she did. For a second she hoped that Mr Berkeley had n ’ t heard her but she soon realised that he must have. However, perhaps remembering her harsh words to him on the occasion of their last meeting, he decided to make no response. He simply bowed his head, ruffled Bob’s hair, and left them at their door.
Chapter 7
Kathryn’s concerns about her aunt increased rather than diminished over the next week or s o . The old lady, not one normally to put a brave face on her aches and pains, suddenly began to change the subject when Kathryn asked her how she was , and she seemed less and less able to summon the energy to collect and deliver her work. As this provided her only source of income, other than Kathryn’s allowance for her rent, this represented a major threat to her well-being. So Kathryn increasingly found herself walking the three miles into Weymouth in order to keep her supplied with work.
April sped on by, with little to relieve the daily routine s at Sandsford House. Kathryn now held daily lessons with Bob, attempting (not altogether successfully) to instil the rudiments of the alphabet into him. There was the constant work inside the house – sewing, mending, cleaning, cooking – and outside – looking after the animals, collecting eggs, churning butter, pumping water, washing. And then there were the almost daily walks into Weymouth and back in order to support Aunt Shepherd. Kathryn was pleased to hear nothing from her husband. She felt that she and Bob were better off without him. She saw nothing of Mr Berkeley, and little of Mrs Wright. Once, to be sure, they had run into each other in Harvey’s library and taken their tea together, sharing some amusement at the weird new fashions then contained within the latest edition s of the London magazines, but Kathryn was terrified of bumping unexpectedly into her brother at High Street and reviving a ll those illicit sensations which he evoked in her and that she was trying most desperately to subdue. So she used the excuse of her increasing commitments to Aunt Shepherd as reason enough for her lack of contact, and avoided going to High Street unless she was actually passing right by.
On the twenty fourth, however - Kathryn’s birthday – she received a little note from Mrs Wright requesting that she reserve the morrow for a day out in the country in celebration of their joint birthdays, and with an invitation for Bob to participate as well. Had the invitation been solely for herself she would probably have returned her excuses, but she was acutely aware of her little son’s extremely constrained
‘Well,’ he said, reasonably. ‘I could n ’ t allow you both to drag all that way back by yourselves. You are both worn out already – look, little Bob can scarcely keep his eyes open.’ (It was true. Even as he spoke Bob’s head was nodding and he seemed in imminent danger of tumbling from his seat). ‘Well, then – I sent a message to Belvoir for Jack to bring the curricle around. You can hold Bob on your lap, I daresay.’
Mr Berkeley paid for the dinners and assisted Kathryn from her seat. Then he picked Bob up from his chair and carried him out to the carriage. Kathryn got herself into it and found Mr Berkeley gently depositing her son into her waiting arms.
‘Thank you so much, Mr Berkeley,’ she said. ‘I really do not know what we would have done without you.’
‘Don’t mention it. You seem determined to forget that you provided me the most valuable service that one person could ever provide for another. Compared with that a dinner and a short ride home are as nothing, let me assure you.’
‘Well, I am grateful anyway. I am so glad we met up again.’
Kathryn had not meant to say this, but say it she did. For a second she hoped that Mr Berkeley had n ’ t heard her but she soon realised that he must have. However, perhaps remembering her harsh words to him on the occasion of their last meeting, he decided to make no response. He simply bowed his head, ruffled Bob’s hair, and left them at their door.
Chapter 7
Kathryn’s concerns about her aunt increased rather than diminished over the next week or s o . The old lady, not one normally to put a brave face on her aches and pains, suddenly began to change the subject when Kathryn asked her how she was , and she seemed less and less able to summon the energy to collect and deliver her work. As this provided her only source of income, other than Kathryn’s allowance for her rent, this represented a major threat to her well-being. So Kathryn increasingly found herself walking the three miles into Weymouth in order to keep her supplied with work.
April sped on by, with little to relieve the daily routine s at Sandsford House. Kathryn now held daily lessons with Bob, attempting (not altogether successfully) to instil the rudiments of the alphabet into him. There was the constant work inside the house – sewing, mending, cleaning, cooking – and outside – looking after the animals, collecting eggs, churning butter, pumping water, washing. And then there were the almost daily walks into Weymouth and back in order to support Aunt Shepherd. Kathryn was pleased to hear nothing from her husband. She felt that she and Bob were better off without him. She saw nothing of Mr Berkeley, and little of Mrs Wright. Once, to be sure, they had run into each other in Harvey’s library and taken their tea together, sharing some amusement at the weird new fashions then contained within the latest edition s of the London magazines, but Kathryn was terrified of bumping unexpectedly into her brother at High Street and reviving a ll those illicit sensations which he evoked in her and that she was trying most desperately to subdue. So she used the excuse of her increasing commitments to Aunt Shepherd as reason enough for her lack of contact, and avoided going to High Street unless she was actually passing right by.
On the twenty fourth, however - Kathryn’s birthday – she received a little note from Mrs Wright requesting that she reserve the morrow for a day out in the country in celebration of their joint birthdays, and with an invitation for Bob to participate as well. Had the invitation been solely for herself she would probably have returned her excuses, but she was acutely aware of her little son’s extremely constrained
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