Abi sent Hetty a murderous glance and flounced away to her room.
When she was gone Hetty told Dorcas and Emmy, ‘Me brother is callin’ round this evenin’ to take some o’ the trinkets we brought from the house to sell ’em for yer.’
Dorcas didn’t look too thrilled at the thought of being parted with any of her remaining treasures but understood that needs must. And so, Hetty retrieved them from under the floorboards and laid them out in front of her and they spent the next half-hour deciding which ones should go first.
‘I reckon these would sell well,’ Hetty said thoughtfully, holding up a fine pair of figurines. They were a Dresden shepherd and shepherdess and had cost a fortune when Dorcas had bought them as they were quite rare.
‘They’re actually worth a great deal of money. Can your brother be trusted not to break them and to get a fair price for them?’ Dorcas fretted.
Hetty looked offended. ‘Our Mickey ain’t no mug,’ she shot back. ‘An’ he don’t sell things round ’ere. He’ll probably take ’em to an antique dealer he knows in Warwick. He’s allus on the lookout for interestin’ stuff fer him an’ he allus gets a fair price. But o’ course if yer don’t trust ’im .?.?.’
‘Oh, I’m sure I can if you say so,’ Dorcas said swiftly, seeing that Hetty was offended. ‘And I shall be happy to pay him a percentage of whatever they fetch.’
‘That goes wi’out sayin’. An’ he’ll expect ’is travellin’ expenses an’ all,’ Hetty told her as she gently rewrapped the figures. ‘An’ what about this silver tray? We ain’t goin’ to ’ave much cause to use it ’ere, are we?’
The words stung when Dorcas thought back to how many visitors she used to have in Astley House. Every week without fail she would hold a coffee morning or an afternoon tea and everybody who was anybody had loved to come, yet since moving into the cottage not one of them had been to see her or even bothered to get in touch.
‘I suppose not,’ she said sadly. ‘But I’d like to keep the silver tea set .?.?. for now at least.’
They also added another Meissen figurine of a little cherub to the pile and a pretty Wedgwood plate, but then Dorcas insisted that was quite enough for now and so the rest of the items were duly returned to their place beneath the floorboards and Hetty went off to rustle up some supper for Emmy, who was almost falling asleep now.
‘Do you think you’ll like working for Aunt Imogen?’ Abi asked as they lay in their little beds that evening.
‘Whether I do or not, I think I’m just going to have to make the best of it .?.?. for now at least. Mother needs the money.’ Emmy yawned and turned over, and while Abi prattled on, she was fast asleep in minutes, although her dreams were full of ghosts and ghoulies floating out of the walls in Aunt Imogen’s house.
Over the next few days, Emmy once again began to pack her things. It felt as if she had hardly settled into the cottage before she was off to live somewhere else again, but it couldn’t be helped and Abi had been in such a bad mood that she sometimes thought she might actually be relieved to go. Neither her sister nor her mother were adapting at all well to their new lifestyle, but they were just going to have to get used to it.
‘Don’t you dare let them have you waiting on them hand and foot,’ she warned Hetty.
‘Ooh, don’t you worry, I shan’t,’ Hetty replied with a grin. And then as something occurred to her she commented, ‘Jasper’s been around a lot over the last couple o’ days, ain’t he? What do yer think the attraction is all of a sudden?’
‘Perhaps he just wants to make sure we’re settling in.’ Emmy didn’t like to think badly of anyone, so why, she wondered, did Jasper’s sudden concern for them all make her skin crawl? ‘It might be that he’s taken a shine to you, Hetty,’ she teased with a twinkle in her eye. ‘It certainly can’t be me or Abi, can it, considering our parents would never allow a union between us.’
Hetty snorted. ‘Huh! He might be rich but there’s somethin’ about that young bloke I just can’t take to. Jake, on the other hand, is different, but Jasper .?.?.’ She shuddered.
Emmy felt much the same, although she refrained from saying it as Hetty helped her to carry her luggage downstairs and place it by the front door. Jasper had offered to pick it up for her the following morning and drive her to the station and she was grateful to him for that at least, for Hetty had made her pack almost everything she owned.
‘But why do I need to take two evening gowns? I’m going to be a paid companion to an older lady so I doubt very much if I’ll ever get to wear them,’ she had pointed out.
‘Ah, but yer never know,’ Hetty insisted as she had folded them carefully. ‘An’ it’s better to take too much rather than not enough.’
And so Emmy had given in gracefully, although she had no idea how she was going to jiggle them all into a cab when she got to Euston.
On the morning of her departure, she got up early, and although Abi had chosen to stay in bed said a surly goodbye from beneath her blankets. But Dorcas was there to see her off, still in her dressing robe, and Hetty was there too.
While Jasper’s driver carried the luggage over the field to the carriage, Emmy said her goodbyes. ‘Write to us often, miss.’ Hetty had tears in her eyes as Emmy gave her an affectionate peck on the cheek before turning to her mother.
‘Take care.’ Dorcas had never been one to show Emmy a lot of affection and was clearly finding it hard to know what to say.
‘I will,’ Emmy promised and, seeing no reason to prolong the goodbyes, she allowed Jasper to take her arm as they walked over the field towards the waiting carriage. As always, the touch of his hand made her stomach churn. He had shown them nothing but kindness for days now, so why, she wondered, couldn’t she take to him?
‘Goodbye, Mama, goodbye, Hetty,’ she called, over her shoulder.
When she finally stepped up into the carriage, she leant out of the window to get a last view of the little cottage as it rocked across the bumpy grass. Then she sat back against the squabs; a new chapter of her life was about to begin and there could be no going back now.
Chapter Fourteen
‘She’s gone, then?’ Abi said as she appeared in the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from her eyes at eleven o’clock that morning. Her hair hung down her back in a riot of shimmering brunette curls, and even sleepy-eyed and still in her night attire she was beautiful.
