Read Online Never an Empire by James Green - Free Book Online

to Maria who stood patiently awaiting whatever might befall her. She knew she had done wrong and would be punished, but she was so tired, so very tired.
    â€˜Have you eaten today?’
    Maria made the effort to reply.
    â€˜No, but I am young and strong and my mother’s need is greater.’
    A lie, of course, she was indeed young, but not strong, which she immediately proved by fainting away on the spot, partly from shame perhaps, but mostly from hunger.
    Maria came to lying on a sofa in a small but comfortably furnished room. The woman was sitting opposite and standing behind her was a young man. The young man was the woman’s son, a bright, smiling youth of seventeen. The woman explained that her son was home from university and that she lived alone, her husband having died three years ago. Now that her son was away so much she felt lonely and would like a companion to live with her. Would Maria be interested? It was as if an angel of God had appeared and asked her if, by any chance, she would like to go to heaven. What could she say? Nothing. She put her head in her hands and cried. The woman took that for an acceptance and carried on talking. Slowly Maria surfaced. She was to come and live in this fine house and work, but not cleaning and cooking. She didn’t quite understand but it seemed to her that she was to be a daughter to this woman, this angel from God. Daughter to an angel. And paid! The wages were carefully calculated so that Maria could give a small but sufficient amount each week to her family and still have enough left over to buy a few things for herself.
    â€˜But of course you must ask permission from your mother.’
    Maria nodded.
    The woman nodded to her son who left the room and returned with a basket. It contained food. More food than Maria and her family had seen in weeks.
    â€˜You must become strong.’ The young man smiled at her. ‘The work will not be hard but even so, there must be more of you than there is at the moment if we are to pay you so much.’
    The smile widened into a grin.
    Maria smiled. He was making a joke.
    The woman laughed.
    â€˜It is settled then if your mother agrees.’
    And of course her mother agreed, so Maria moved into the fine house and became the companion of Señora Lucia Clothilde Herrera.
    Señora Herrera was not a wealthy woman but she was careful, industrious, and capable, and took great pleasure in passing on the domestic talents she had acquired to her new companion who proved a willing and apt student. As the result of a healthy diet and a civilised lifestyle Maria bloomed. A beautiful young woman slowly emerged from the frail waif who had been brought to the house. Was it a surprise to Señora Herrera that a relationship developed between Maria and her son, Alberto? Perhaps, but perhaps not. Either way he came home from university a little more often than before Maria’s arrival; they became firm friends, then more than friends, and on his graduation from university they were married. The architect of the romance, Señora Herrera, could not have been more pleased. She was not rich, she could not buy a place for her son, nor had she influential friends who would see that he was made welcome in some suitably well-paid position. Her son would have to make his way in the world and to do this he needed a reliable, competent wife beside him, one who could manage things as they should be managed, as she would have managed them herself. So many young men fell for a pretty face and figure without thought of household management. In Maria, she knew from first-hand experience, he would have a wife who would serve him well.
    Alberto Herrera was a civil engineer and had done well at university. A recommendation from that institution had secured for him an appointment to an official post. The man who interviewed him and confirmed his appointment was a senior official in a very junior state department responsible for the