Read Online Down Weaver's Lane by Anna Jacobs - Free Book Online Page B

tell me the whole tale now,’ he ordered Lal. ‘I won’t pass it on to anyone else, I promise.’
    She glared at him, her broad face screwed up into ugliness and her coarse, curly hair bouncing with the vehemence of her words. ‘You’d better not. We don’t want anyone to know she’s our cousin. Her mother’s a harlot,’ she didn’t know exactly what that meant but it was clearly bad, ‘and my mother says people won’t speak to us any more because of her. So we don’t want them staying in this town, either of them. My mother says she is probably just as bad as her mother.’
    He studied the stranger again. She had a very sweet face and he didn’t believe this pretty child could possibly be a whore. Faces and eyes didn’t lie as tongues often did. ‘You’re making it all up.’
    ‘I am not! She lives in that house,’ Lal pointed dramatically, ‘and calls herself Emmy Carter.’
    Jack tried to deflect future trouble, something he was becoming adept at with his own brothers and sisters now that he was the man of the house. ‘Well, if you attack the girl every time you see her, you’ll draw attention to yourselves and people will start to wonder why. You’d be better ignoring her and pretending you’ve never even heard of her.’
    Lal considered this, scowling. ‘She might tell people.’
    Jack looked at the girl. ‘You wouldn’t, would you?’
    Emmy looked up at him, such a strong young man and yet with a kind face and gentle eyes. Other people had hurried past while she was being attacked, making no attempt to help her, but he had stopped to protect her. ‘Why should I say anything? I don’t want people to know I’m related to someone as nasty as her .’
    Lal glared at her.
    ‘There you are,’ said Jack. ‘You didn’t need to worry at all, let alone attack this poor lass. There’s usually a better way to sort out problems. If people fought all the time, they’d get nowt done.’ Or get themselves killed like his father.
    Lal stuck her tongue out at Emmy and walked away, pausing to shout over her shoulder, ‘You’d better not tell or I’ll come back and kill you next time!’
    Dinah hurried after her.
    When they’d vanished from sight, Emmy let out a shuddering sigh. Jack smiled down at her and she gave him a wobbly smile before trying to straighten her clothes.
    ‘You’ll not get it off till it’s dried, love. You’d better go home and put something else on.’ He saw she was trying to hold back tears and asked, ‘What’s up?’
    ‘I haven’t got anything else decent to wear and I’m supposed to be starting work for Mrs Oswald this morning at nine o’clock. What will she say when I turn up like this?’ She indicated herself with a despairing sweep of the hand.
    ‘If you tell her what happened, she’ll understand, I’m sure.’
    ‘But I wanted to make a good impression!’ Emmy tried to brush the mud off, but it only made smears on the worn cloth of her bodice.
    He enjoyed watching the play of sunlight on her hair, the sweep of her long lashes, the gentle curve of her lips. No wonder Lal Butterfield was angry at her. Lal was as plain as they came and her bad temper and bullying ways were legendary among the children of the town. It’d do her good to go and work in the mill, where the high-spirited lasses and hard work would soon knock the rough corners off her, only she wouldn’t need to do that. Her father might not be rich like the Rishmores, but he earned good wages and lived in a big, comfortable house.
    Realising suddenly how time was passing Jack said hastily, ‘I have to get back to work now. Will you be all right?’
    ‘Yes. And thank you for your help.’ Emmy stood watching him as he hurried off towards the town centre. Jack Staley. That’s what the horrid Lal girl had called him. She repeated his name so she wouldn’t forget it, then with a sigh she walked on, opened the gate of Mrs Oswald’s little cottage and knocked on the front door. She had no choice