POVERTY'S PRIDE

CHAPTER FIFTEEN (Part Two)

                   CHAPTER FIFTEEN (Part Two)

Linda called on her mother mid-day.

     ‘What have you brought me today, child,’ Daisy asked. ‘Some of Mrs Jowett’s scones, I hope.’

     ‘Mam, you can’t expect to receive something every visit. Mrs Jowett is generous but we mustn’t take advantage.’

     Daisy sniff, annoyed. ‘There’s plenty at Cliff House and I expect Mrs Jowett feathers her own nest quick enough.’

     ‘Mam, that’s unfair.’

     ‘Unfair!’ Daisy’s nostrils flared. ‘Considering who your father is...’

     Linda felt her face flame to be reminded of her shameful origins. ‘Mam! Please!’

     ‘Well!’ Daisy folded her arms and looked unrepentant. ‘I’m thinking of your future, my girl,’ she said. ‘You’ll be ready to marry soon and you have precious little in way of a dowry.’

     ‘I’ll never marry,’ Linda said lowering her head. ‘What decent man would want me with my family background?’

     ‘Oh, there’s many a man would take you for your looks alone.’

     ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ Linda said with a tone of finality. To change the subject she remarked. ‘Has something happened in the village? I noticed groups of people talking together.’

     ‘Oh, that’ll be talk about the dead woman found on the shoreline earlier this morning.’

     Linda looked startled. ‘A dead woman? Who is she?’

     Daisy shrugged. ‘No one knows. She was lying below the cliffs at Cliff House.’

     Linda put her hand to her throat. ‘Not Rosalind!’ she cried out.

     ‘A stranger, I told you, Daisy said impatiently. ‘According to Twm Beynon’s description she might be a lady. Tall she was, with long blonde hair left to grow wild. I wondered if she belongs to Cliff House.’

     Linda drew back in shock, her hand covering her mouth. No, it could not be. She jumped up from her chair at the table and reached for her bonnet and shawl.

‘I must go, Mam.’

     ‘But you’ve only just got here!’ Daisy’s eyes narrowed. ‘You know something, my girl. Out with it!’

     ‘There’s no time now,’ Linda said hastily. Her hands were shaking as she pulled on her bonnet and threw the shawl around her shoulders. She must return and seek out Rosalind to reassure herself that everything was all right at the cottage.

     ‘You stay right here and tell me everything now!’ Daisy thundered. ‘I’m your mother. I have a right to know what danger my daughter might be in.’

     ‘Your curiosity must go unfed for once, Mam,’ Linda said crisply. ‘Rosalind might be in danger herself.’

     With that parting shot Linda ran from her mother’s cottage, dread making her hurry.

For the umpteenth time in the last hour Rosalind went to the cottage door and stood gazing along the path through the woods expecting to see the returning figure of Cynthia Trevellian.

She had been gone since before breakfast and now the lunch hour had passed also with no sign of her. Several times Rosalind had been on the point of going to look for her, but she felt that would be too much like complying with Sir Leopold’s wish that she spy for him.