Read Online Emily by Valerie Wood - Free Book Online

need to tell her all about Granny Edwards.
    ‘And where are your parents? Or are you an orphan?’ Deborah stared at her from wide-set blue eyes.
    ‘Yes, miss. I’m an orphan, I think.’
    ‘You only think? Why don’t you know?’
    ‘My father is dead and I don’t know where my mother or brother are.’
    ‘You have a brother?’ Deborah put down her cup and clapped her hands joyfully. ‘Just like me. I have a brother too.’ She put her head on one side and considered. ‘Only I think he might be dead!’
    The door slowly opened and Mrs Francis appeared, her face was pale and her eyes had dark shadows beneath them. ‘What is all this chatter, Deborah? I’ve told you that you mustn’t gossip with the servants.’
    Emily bobbed her knee. ‘I was just leaving, ma’am,’ and was relieved to see Mrs Brewer coming through the door.
    ‘Miss Deborah wanted to talk to Emily, ma’am,’ Mrs Brewer explained. ‘I thought you wouldn’t mind.’
    Mrs Francis sank wearily into a chair. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I don’t really. It is a distraction, I suppose.’
    Mrs Brewer indicated that Emily should leave the room, and bobbing her knee she left.
    ‘Is she trustworthy, Mrs Brewer?’ Mrs Francis turned tired eyes towards the housekeeper. ‘Or will she tittle-tattle?’
    ‘She seems very reliable, ma’am, and she has no immediate family, so she has no-one to gossip with apart from the other servants, and they are all discreet.’
    ‘She has a brother, Mama, just like me,’ Deborah interrupted, then looked vague. ‘Or – I’m not sure if she said he was dead.’ She shrugged. ‘She’s an orphan, anyway.’
    Mrs Francis gazed vacantly out of the window. ‘That’s all right then,’ she sighed.

Chapter Seven
    All through the winter Emily was at the mercy of Miss Deborah’s every whim. It must be Emily who helped her dress, Emily who brought her tea, Emily who should walk with her in the snow-filled gardens and if Emily was unavailable, busy with other chores, then Miss Deborah had a vicious tantrum of screaming which sent the whole household into a spin.
    ‘We should be thankful I suppose that Emily is a patient, resourceful girl,’ Roger Francis remarked to his wife as he handed her into the carriage, as once more they had managed to allay a difficult bout of temper from their daughter over a visit to a neighbour.
    ‘There’s something about her that I can’t quite make out,’ Mrs Francis began, ‘but she’s patient with Deborah, I agree. She tires everyone else so, with her constant chatter and questions.’ Mrs Francis barely looked at her husband as he placed a rug around her. ‘I am at the end of my tether. I don’t know how much more I can stand.’
    Mrs Francis hadn’t wanted Deborah to go with her on the visit, but in a fit of resentment Deborah had insisted and had started to shout and screamwhen told that she couldn’t. Her father couldn’t calm her and neither could Mrs Brewer. Mrs Francis suggested that she be given a sedative, but Mr Francis demurred. Mrs Francis had stormed up to her room and in desperation Mrs Brewer had sent for Emily.
    ‘Miss Deborah! I wonder if you would play the piano again,’ Emily had dared to ask. ‘I heard you the other morning and it sounded so lovely. I’ve never heard it played before.’
    ‘Never heard the piano!’ Deborah stopped shouting. ‘What nonsense, Emily! Of course you have. Everyone plays.’
    Deborah was a poor musician, but Emily didn’t know that. She simply thought that the sound coming from the instrument was magical. She shook her head. ‘I’ve never heard it, miss.’
    Emily felt Miss Deborah’s eyes staring into hers and wondered if she was going to have another fit of temper at her temerity. But she gave a sudden laugh. ‘Good gracious, girl.’ She unconsciously mimicked Mrs Francis’s voice. ‘Come over here and I will show you.’
    Roger Francis was watching by the fireplace as his daughter sat at the piano and arranged