Read Online A Woman's Estate by Roberta Gellis - Free Book Online Page A

slow to
answer his bell. Abigail was annoyed; she wished he had spoken to her directly
rather than blaming Empson for what was not his fault. Too much of that might
change the warm welcome Victor and Daphne had received from the servants.
    Worst of all, by accident—at least, Abigail hoped it was an
accident, rather than a deliberate attempt to get back at Hilda—the children invaded
Hilda’s room. That precipitated a major crisis. Both Victor and Daphne
apologized, Abigail apologized, all three explained that it had only been a
result of their mistaking the corridor, owing to having come up the wrong set
of stairs. Still, it took a whole day to soothe Hilda’s sense of “having been
violated”.
    Then Abigail felt she had to face the problem of
transferring the management of the house from Griselda’s hands to hers. But
Griselda’s silent shrinking from opposition to any proposal Abigail
made, despite her clear terror that her mother would discover she was not
performing her usual tasks, woke in Abigail a mingled pity and exasperation.
Half of her wanted to shriek “Stand up for yourself, you ninny. I won’t bite
you!” at the girl, and the other half wondered if there was any “self” left
inside poor Griselda after years of being scorned and scolded by her selfish
mother.
    Pity won over exasperation, however, partly because Victor
and Daphne kept insisting that Griselda was “the best of good sports”, although
they would not say why, and partly because Abigail was annoyed with Hilda, who
was periodically still lamenting the dreadful shock caused by the intrusion of
the children into her private domain. Inspired by this mixture of emotions, Abigail
came down to breakfast with an idea that would protect Griselda and still leave
the real power in her own hands.
    This morning it seemed that everything was going to fall
into place. Abigail had finally arranged what she felt was adequate temporary
supervision for her children, although not for education. Mrs. Howing, the
housekeeper, had suggested Francis’ old nurse, who lived on the estate in a
cottage not far from the Roman ruins that gave Rutupiae Hall its name. Mrs.
Franklin had married a farmer, and when he had died, she had sold the farm
because her daughter’s husband, Price, the head gamekeeper on Sir Arthur’s
estate, knew nothing about farming and cared less.
    Mrs. Franklin was not young, but she had not lost her touch
with children. Over the years, she had taken into her home, first on the farm
and then in her cottage, any of the children of the Lyddens or St. Eyres who,
for one reason or another, needed special, private care for a few weeks or
months. She had nursed Griselda over a long convalescence after she had been
desperately ill, first with measles and then with pneumonia. Lady Hilda, Howing
said expressionlessly, claimed she could not bear to see her pale, listless
daughter creeping about the house.
    Needless to say, this did not improve Abigail’s opinion of
Hilda, but she had asked Mrs. Franklin to come to Rutupiae, had been favorably
impressed, and had arranged for her to supervise Victor and Daphne until she
either sent them to school or hired a governess and tutor. Mrs. Franklin had not
been very enthusiastic about living at Rutupiae Hall, but Abigail assured her
that it would not be for long, at the most a month or two. The deciding factors
were that Francis had been her favorite nursling and that his children had a
special attraction for her.
    In fact, Abigail’s discussion with Mrs. Franklin provided
another reason for helping Griselda if she could. To her relief, Abigail found
that it was not necessary to tell Mrs. Franklin of Francis’ death because
Griselda had taken the trouble to walk down to her cottage as soon as they
heard of it from Mr. Deedes. And it was partly her grief over Francis’ death
that prompted Mrs. Franklin to break her rule of caring for children only in
her own home.
    The first fruits of the arrangement had