‘Hm, that must have brought our Dorcas down a peg or two,’ Imogen said when Emmy had faltered to a halt. ‘No doubt it was she who helped bring about your father’s money problems. She always was a demanding little so and so. Can’t pretend we ever got on all that well, to be honest, although she was still little more than a child when I left home.’
Emmy opened her mouth to defend her mother but thought better of it and clamped it shut again. She was in no position to upset the woman, after all, and she was only saying what Emmy herself had thought.
‘And what of my brother Bernard?’ Imogen asked next. ‘And that terrible shrew of a wife he married? And their two boys? What are their names again?’
‘Jake and Jasper. They are both a little older than Abi and me. Jake is in his final year at medical school and Uncle Bernard is hoping to train Jasper to take over the running of the farm eventually.’
Thankfully the maid reappeared then and once she had laid the tray down and left the room, Imogen snapped, ‘Make yourself useful, girl! Surely you know how to pour tea? You’ll be no use to me if you’re like your mother and expect to be waited on.’
Emmy felt a flash of annoyance as she rose to do as she was told. ‘Actually, I’m not at all afraid of hard work,’ she said shortly before she could stop herself. To her relief, Imogen threw back her head and laughed.
‘Ah, so you’ve got spirit! I like that. I can’t be doing with yes people. Now tell me about yourself.’
‘There’s not much to tell really,’ Emmy admitted. ‘Until .?.?. well, until we found ourselves in this position, I think Mama just expected that I would make a good marriage, but that’s highly unlikely now.’
‘And is that what you wanted?’
Emmy lowered her head. ‘Not really,’ she admitted.
‘So what did you want to do then?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Emmy answered honestly as she passed her a dainty cup and saucer. ‘I’ve always liked the thought of nursing or doing something useful, although of course I would never have been allowed to.’
‘Fiddlesticks!’ Imogen stated bluntly. ‘You are in charge of your own destiny and should follow your heart.’ She frowned before asking, ‘Do you have a beau?’
Emmy shook her head and grinned. ‘No, I don’t. Although it isn’t for want of Mama trying. She’s been parading eligible young men in front of me ever since I left school but I haven’t met anyone yet that I would want to spend the rest of my life with, no matter how rich they were.’
Imogen smiled approvingly. ‘Good, I’m glad to hear it. If or when you do marry it should be for love. My Marcel was the love of my life and although we didn’t have too many years together, I would rather have had that short time with him than a lifetime with anyone else.’ For a moment her eyes clouded as she stared towards a portrait of a dark-haired man with laughing eyes.
‘Is that Marcel?’ Emmy asked gently.
Imogen nodded. ‘It is. He was almost twenty years older than me but I knew the moment I met him that he was my soulmate.’ She looked back at Emmy and her voice was stern again as she said, ‘I suppose you’d like to know what your duties would be if you came to live with me?’
Emmy nodded as she sipped at her tea.
‘Unfortunately I haven’t been too well for some time now,’ Imogen went on. ‘The doctors aren’t too sure what is wrong with me. All they can tell me is that I am suffering from some sort of muscle-wasting disease that will only get progressively worse. The old ticker isn’t too good either.’
Emmy had noticed how frail she looked and the slight tremor in her hands and she didn’t know what to say.
‘I have hardly been out of the door since Marcel died many years ago, apart from to visit my other home in Lytham St Anne’s – I like to spend the summer there if I am well enough to travel. The air is so much purer there,’ Imogen confided with no trace of self-pity. Seeing the sympathy that flashed in her niece’s eyes she flapped her hand irritably. ‘Don’t look like that! Death comes to us all sooner or later; be we beggars or kings, there’s nothing so sure! And what is death, after all? We merely pass from this life to another so I am never parted from my love, he speaks to me all the time.’
Emmy felt a shiver run up her spine but remained silent. What could she say?
‘And anyway,’ her aunt continued, ‘my illness hasn’t affected me as badly as it might have done if I was still gallivanting off all over the place as I did in my youth. I was the darling of the stage back in my day, you know. I had men falling at my feet. I could have been a baroness had I wished to be but there was never another for me once Marcel came into my life.’ Once again, she fell silent as her mind went back to happier times. Then bringing her thoughts back to the present, she said, ‘At the moment I only have two servants, although when Marcel was alive we had many more – even a housekeeper and a butler, can you believe? Anyway, that was a long time ago and now I only have Aggie, my little maid, and the cook who live in. I also have a woman who comes in once a week to do the laundry and a man who tends the greenhouse and the gardens. The trouble is my health is deteriorating and Aggie has more than enough to do keeping the house clean and so when your mother wrote to me I thought perhaps you could come as my companion? My eyesight is failing along with everything else, and it would be nice to have someone to read the newspapers and the romance novels that I love to me! I’ve tried spectacles but they are no help at all. Also there are days when I need assistance with dressing and getting up and down the stairs. Do you think these are things you could help me with?’
‘I’m sure I could,’ Emmy assured her. Despite her curt way of speaking and her stern demeanour, Emmy had already sensed that beneath her harsh exterior her aunt wasn’t as hard as she made herself out to be and she felt herself warming to her.
‘I would ensure that you received a fair wage and of course you would live here. I would also make sure that you had some time off. You’re only a young woman and you need to get out and about with people your own age. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, or in your case, girl, don’t you think? Now, will you be staying for lunch before you set off for home again?’
‘I, er .?.?. that would be very nice, thank you,’ Emmy answered. ‘As long as you’re sure it won’t inconvenience you.’
‘I wouldn’t have asked if it would,’ Imogen replied shortly and Emmy hid a smile, sensing that her aunt’s bark was worse than her bite.
‘Right, I’ll tell Aggie to set the dining room table in that case. I usually just have a tray in here but it’s time the room was used again.’ She leant over and pulled a rope at the side of the fireplace that would ring a bell in the kitchen.
Aggie was there in seconds and after bobbing her knee she asked, ‘Yes, ma’am?’
‘My niece will be staying for lunch. Inform Cook and lay two places in the dining room. What culinary delight does she have in store for us today, anyway?’
