‘But I feel that it is,’ he pressed. ‘Surely if you don’t wish to return to Greenacres you will let me find you a suitable position elsewhere?’
‘I’m quite capable o’ lookin’ after meself, you just concentrate on lookin’ after the baby you foisted on me.’
He recoiled but she showed no remorse. As far as she was concerned, she owed him nothing, least of all respect, and the sooner he was gone the better she would feel. She no longer feared for her family’s jobs because she knew that he wouldn’t want her pregnancy to become common knowledge and she now held the power to destroy his marriage and his reputation. He had ruined her life – for what decent man would want her now that she was soiled goods? Even so, she wasn’t seeking revenge, she just wanted this whole sorry episode in her life to be over. ‘So how will I let you know when the baby has arrived? Shall I send word to Greenacres?’
‘No, as it happens, I shall be staying here in Scarborough. If you could get word to this address.’ He quickly took out a piece of paper on which he had written the address of the cottage, and after handing it to her he slowly rose. It seemed that there was no more to be said. ‘I shall wait to hear from you then,’ he said uncomfortably. ‘And may I say that I hope that all goes well for you, Amber. Good day to you.’ And with a stiff little bow he turned on his heel and let himself out.
An hour later he set off back to Whitby feeling wretched. Now he had to find someone who would care for his illegitimate child who could be trusted to keep their mouth shut, for he knew that if word ever got out about it Louisa would petition to leave him. But would that be such a bad thing?a little voice inside him asked. If Louisa had been more of a wife to me, I would never have felt driven to take advantage of a maid.But even so, he knew that this was no excuse and he urged Major into a gallop to try and escape his guilty conscience.
*
Three days later when everything they might need had been sent on ahead by coach, the Greenwoods and Mrs Ruffin set off for Seaview Cottage in Scarborough. Mrs Ruffin and Louisa rode in the coach, with Jimmy, Barnaby’s faithful groom, driving while Barnaby rode alongside on Major. They had agreed that Jimmy would remain with them in the room above the single stable at the cottage until they returned to Greenacres – whenever that might be. Mrs Ruffin, meanwhile, as well as looking after Louisa, would do the cooking and cleaning, whilst Mrs Reed would see to their laundry. Louisa seemed happy with this arrangement, although Barnaby wished that she would have agreed to stay at home where the doctor he knew and trusted was at hand. Still, as always, her wish was his command.
As they set off, the skies were grey with a threat of rain in the air, and they had not gone very far when Louisa started to complain every time the carriage went over a bump or a rut in the road.
‘I shall be black and blue by the time we get there,’ she wailed as Mrs Ruffin looked on unsympathetically.
‘Well, it was you as wanted to come,’ she pointed out unfeelingly and Louisa pouted.
‘I didn’t know the roads were going to be so rough, did I?’ She crossed her arms across her swollen stomach, wrapped her cloak more closely about her and stared sulkily from the window, which suited Mrs Ruffin just fine as it meant she could close her eyes, settle back against the soft leather squabs and take a nap.
The next Mrs Ruffin knew of it they had stopped at a coaching inn for refreshments. As Barnaby helped his wife down from the carriage, she stared at the inn disapprovingly.
‘I hope they do hot chocolate here,’ she whined. ‘How much farther is it now? I don’t recall it being such a distance!’
‘We’re about halfway. All being well, we should be there shortly after lunch and Mrs Reed has agreed to have a meal waiting for us.’ He tucked her small hand into his arm and side by side they entered the inn. There were a number of people inside, many of them farmworkers who had taken a break to sneak a quick tankard of ale, and they stared at the couple curiously. The air was fuggy with tobacco smoke and Louisa noticed that the sawdust on the floor didn’t look any too clean.
‘I hope the water closet is cleaner than this room is,’ she said with her nose in the air. ‘Surely, we could have stopped somewhere a little more salubrious, Barnaby?’
He stifled a sigh as he led her to a table at the side of an inglenook fireplace where a log fire was crackling. ‘I’m afraid if we hadn’t stopped here, we would have had to go on for at least another hour,’ he told her as patiently as he could. ‘And you did say that you needed to relieve yourself.’ He left her then to go to the bar to order a tankard of ale for himself and Jimmy, and a pot of hot chocolate for Louisa and Mrs Ruffin.
‘Well, I must say this is nice,’ Mrs Ruffin said as she took a seat and removed her gloves. ‘It’s like going on holiday, isn’t it?’
Louisa sniffed disdainfully. ‘I hardly think so, I only chose to go to the cottage because?.?.?.’
When her voice trailed away, Mrs Ruffin felt a rush of sympathy for her. She knew that her young mistress didn’t want to give birth to this child back at Greenacres in case it went the same way as the previous two she had lost and she could understand it, so she was prepared to be patient with her.
The hot chocolate was surprisingly tasty when it came, served by the landlady who was a great Amazon of a woman with ruddy cheeks, hands like hams and a ready smile.
‘Off on ’oliday are yer, me lovelies?’ she queried.
Louisa chose to ignore her and looked away, so, embarrassed at her mistress’s rudeness, Mrs Ruffin told her, ‘Yes, something like that. And thank you, this looks very nice.’
Half an hour later they were ready to set off again and within minutes Louisa was complaining loudly once more. It had started to rain by then so the carriage was forced to slow down, which added time to their journey. But at last Scarborough came into view and soon the carriage drew up outside the cottage.
Louisa had been just a young girl the last time she had visited it with Mrs Ruffin and her parents, and she was quite excited to be having a change in her routine. ‘It’s bigger than I remember it,’ she said approvingly after climbing down from the coach. ‘I think we shall be very comfy here, Ruffy, very comfy indeed.’
She hurried on ahead of everyone, and when she entered the large kitchen she was not disappointed. As promised by Mrs Reed, everywhere was clean as a new pin and the tempting aroma of a large cottage pie was issuing from the range. There was a fire crackling in the grate and everywhere looked warm and cosy.
Mrs Ruffin followed her in while Jimmy and Barnaby took the carriage round to the stable.
‘It all looks lovely,’ Mrs Ruffin said approvingly as she helped Louisa take off her bonnet and cloak. ‘But come along, you must be hungry and that pie smells delicious.’
Jimmy and Barnaby soon joined them and Louisa was appalled when she saw that Jimmy was going to join them for their meal. She opened her mouth to object, but as though he could read her mind, Barnaby shot her a warning glance and she angrily snapped her mouth shut, for then at least.
The meal was plain but tasty and everyone but Louisa enjoyed it. ‘I would think this is the sort of meal that would be served to the staff back at Greenacres,’ she said ungratefully.
Mrs Ruffin almost choked on a mouthful of food. ‘Well, you’d best get used to it,’ she warned, waving her fork at her. ‘Because I don’t pretend to be a cook and once I’m doing the cooking you might look back on this and wish you could have more of it!’
