Read Online Abigail's Cousin by Ron Pearse - Free Book Online Page A

if
one gets a promotion." He looks up to his hurrying sister and says
without much hope:
    "There's
nought you can do about it, is there!"
    Abigail eyes
her brother in turn as they walk and shakes her head:
    "Even had I
the material," then added with a bitter grimace, "or the time. No,
brother, sorry!"
    People have
thinned out as they walked along St James Street and another
thought struck Jack Hill: "Are you still on speaking terms with
your cousin, sis?"
    She stopped in
her track and faced her brother. He, on the other hand, looked down
upon her tight bodice with its stiff stomacher which had the effect
of forcing the breasts into the fashionable décolletage and he felt
flattered as people passed them on either side, men even venturing
a second glance. However her tone of voice forced his eyes onto her
stern countenance. Her words were like cold water on his
self-esteem:
    "If that means
what I think it to mean, forget it brother. I am not advancing
your..." She hesitated and he filled in the missing word,
'promotion'. She walked on seemingly disgusted but Jack persisted
saying in a complaining tone:
    My pocket
money is stopped so I could not save up for a new uniform if I
wanted to." But his sister did not falter though now approaching
the Pickadilly Road where the noise of carriages was very loud she
was forced to shout to be heard:
    "Cousin Sarah
stopped your pocket money when she heard you spent it on drink.
Besides you still have your pay or does that go on drink!"
    Jack could
have told her that he had not been paid for months. This was
customary in the army of that time where officers, even lowly
lieutenants were expected to provide for themselves, or rather,
their families, but Jack has no family. Yet he knows telling his
sister will get him nowhere. Civilians just do not understand army
ways. Instead, as his sister beckons him to turn around and walk
back the way they had come as she is due back on duty at the
palace, he tries a different tack:
    "Masham has
just been promoted captain."
    Once again she
stopped and faced him. Now they were alone. This time she was
conciliatory:
    "You want me
to talk to Cousin Sarah about your promotion."
    "There's a war coming, sis. You wouldn't
want your brother to be more at risk than your lover."
    She bridled at
this description of Masham who was visiting the palace at the time
though he had made no declaration. She privately thought he was
more interested in her beautiful younger sister, Alice. Yet it was
good to see him. As she continued to mull over his remarks, Jack
resumed his wheedling:
    "There is not
much time, sis, because if there is war, we shall end up over
there, across the North Sea, then there will be no chance. If, your
cousin could mention it to the captain-general! After all, after
that highwayman incident, he promised to do anything for you."
    She now spoke
sharply and to the point: "After that incident, he bought you a
commission as a lieutenant. Masham's father bought his son the rank
of ensign, yet here he is now, a captain. In five years he has
jumped above you, and he deserved to. Brother, you had a shiftless
reputation on the farm. Nothing has changed."
    Jack laughed
out loud: "Good old sis! Not in love! Pull the other one." I get
your drift but be fair, sister. Masham has been in the army five
years against your Jack's three so he did have a head start."
    His sister
nodded conceding his point but shook her head too which meant, 'if
it were the other way round, it would make little difference'. They
had arrived back at the gardens which fronted the palace, the
flowers and shrubbery looking decidedly the worse after being
trampled on by the hundreds of people anxious to improve their
vantage point for the hearing of the royal proclamation just an
hour earlier. Abigail said:
    "I've still a few minutes afore I need to
go back. Let's sit awhile." Jack took off his peaked cap, nervously
and then seeing his sister waiting hurriedly swept the leaves from
the wooden