As Sybil inclined her head and sank into one of the wing chairs with her hands folded primly in her lap, Dorcas gulped. It looked like she was going to just have to come out with it in front of both of them, so she took a deep breath and began tentatively. ‘The thing is .?.?. I find myself in a bit of trouble .?.?. Well .?.?. quite a lot of trouble actually, and I’ve come to ask if you might help me out .?.?. Only temporarily, of course,’ she added hastily as she saw Bernard’s frown deepen. Just then the door opened and to make matters even worse Bernard’s two sons entered the room. Jasper, the younger of the two at eighteen, was the spitting image of his father in looks and in nature, while Jake, who was now twenty-one, was milder mannered, fair-haired with grey eyes and favoured his mother in looks.
‘Hello, Aunt Dorcas.’ Jake immediately held his hand out in greeting while his brother merely eyed her curiously. ‘How are you and the family? It’s been a while since we saw you last.’
‘Er .?.?. we are all well, thank you,’ his aunt muttered politely.
Sybil glared at Jake, she had never made a secret of the fact that Jasper was the favourite.
The situation was becoming worse by the minute until Dorcas feared that she wouldn’t be able to bring herself to speak in front of them all. ‘Bernard .?.?.’ She gulped and licked her dry lips. ‘I was wondering .?.?. would it be possible to have a word in private? It’s quite a delicate matter I wish you speak to you about.’ Every instinct she had was telling her to just lift her skirts and get out of there but she couldn’t afford to and so she tried not to notice Sybil’s pursed lips.
Bernard sighed heavily. ‘I suppose so; we’ll go into my study.’ Lifting his drink, he marched from the room, and after inclining her head to Sybil and the two young men, Dorcas scuttled after him.
‘So, what is it that’s so private you couldn’t speak of it in front of the family?’ Bernard asked sternly once they were in the privacy of his study.
‘I .?.?. Well, the thing is .?.?. I find myself in difficulties. Financial difficulties, that is.’
Bernard frowned as he swirled the amber liquid in his glass and stared at his sister’s flushed face. ‘But I thought Gerald’s business was doing well. Isn’t this somethingheshould be sorting out?’
‘He .?.?. he’s gone,’ she said quietly, bowing her head in shame and silently cursing her husband for leaving her and her daughters in such dire straits. There had been a time when he would never have contemplated doing such a thing, but then, she realised with a little shock, somewhere along the line they had grown apart. ‘And so it seems that the mess is left for me to sort out,’ she went on in a shaky voice. ‘It appears that the business has been in trouble for some time. I didn’t know until the manager came to see me today, so I went to the bank and discovered just how bad things are. I have spoken to our solicitor and he has told me that if the debts aren’t cleared, I shall have to sell the house to pay them.’
‘And how much money are we speaking of? Hundreds?’
When Dorcas shook her head, his frown deepened. ‘Thousands?’
She fumbled in her bag and when she pushed a piece of paper with the amount they needed across his desk to him, he gasped. ‘Surelyyou can’t expect me to loan you this amount?’
Dorcas began to cry but it didn’t soften him in the least and he began to pace up and down the room. Eventually he turned to her and shook his head. ‘It appears to me that the solicitor was right. You will have to sell everything. But where has Gerald gone?’
‘I don’t know; he just left a note saying he was sorry and disappeared. And if I do what you suggest, what will become of me and the girls? Where will we live? We’ll be penniless.’
Bernard’s first instinct was to tell her that this wasn’t his problem, but then he thought of what people would say if he was to turn his back on his sister and he thumped the table. ‘The bloodyfool!’ he ground out through clenched teeth. ‘Didn’t I tell you not to marry him?’
Dorcas bit her lip. He was speaking to her as if she were an errant child but she was in no position to retaliate so she remained silent.
Eventually he paused in his pacing to say, ‘Before I make a decision on what is to be done I would like your permission to speak to the manager at the works and your solicitor tomorrow.’
She nodded; there was nothing else she could do and sensing that for now he had nothing more to say to her she turned for the door. ‘And you will speak to me again tomorrow?’
He gave a curt nod and with her cheeks burning with shame and humiliation, Dorcas went out to the carriage.
‘Sonowwill you tell us what’s wrong, Mama?’ Abigail asked sulkily the second her mother set foot in the house again. She knew it must be something serious; her father hadn’t come home for dinner and her mother hadn’t eaten all day as far as she knew.
‘I’m afraid you will have to be patient for a little longer,’ Dorcas told her wearily.
Abigail pouted. ‘Butwhy?’ she pressed. ‘And where is Papa? He’s never this late home normally.’
‘I doubt your father will be home this evening,’ Dorcas said as she handed her hat and gloves to Hetty who looked almost as concerned as her daughters. And with that she made for the stairs leaving Emerald and Abigail to stare at each other worriedly.
Dorcas was not at breakfast or lunch the following day but confined herself to her room, and when Emmy went to tap on her bedroom door to see if she was all right, she was sent away.
‘I’m afraid it must be something serious,’ she told Abigail.
Her sister frowned. ‘It had better be. Mama was supposed to be taking me to a fitting for my new gown in Nuneaton this afternoon. Now I’ve missed the appointment it’s doubtful it will be ready in time for me to take it back to school.’
Emmy couldn’t help but smile. Trust Abigail to think only of herself. She could be incredibly selfish at times but Emmy loved her all the same. At the moment she was more worried about her father, though. She couldn’t ever remember him not coming home of an evening and she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
It was late in the afternoon when her uncle arrived and after showing him into the drawing room, Emmy hurried upstairs to inform her mother that he was there. Dorcas’s bedroom door was firmly locked but she told her daughter that she would be down presently. When she finally appeared on the staircase, Emmy was shocked at the sight of her. Her mother’s eyes were red-rimmed and she was so pale that she looked like a ghost. She was still wearing the gown she had worn the day before and had clearly slept in it as it was crumpled, and her hair was unbrushed and straggling from its pins. She looked nothing at all like the confident, arrogant woman Emmy knew and her sense of foreboding deepened.
Once downstairs, Dorcas took a deep breath then entered the drawing room where she found Bernard with his back to the fire and a grave expression on his face.
