Read Online So Long At the Fair by Jess Foley - Free Book Online Page B

sensible enough chap, as we know, but how good his judgement is of females I’m not sure. Perhaps he thinks they’re all as gracious and loving as his sisters! Ha ha!
    This week I received a letter from Jane. She continues to do well. She seems very happy at Trowbridge so far, and is looking forward to going up to London in the autumn with her new employers, who have a house there. She tells me in her letter that she’s coming to Flaxdown for her holidays in September before they all go off. Her mother, whom I saw yesterday, can hardly wait.
    There’s not a lot more to tell you right now and I shall have to stop as Father will soon be coming in. I am well, as ever, and getting on with my studies – but more of that another day. For now, goodbye from
    Your loving sister
    Abbie
    She read the letter through, folded it, sealed it in an envelope and, along with those to Lizzie and Iris, put it on the mantelpiece. She was just about to put her writing materials away when her father entered.
    ‘I’m just making tea,’ she said as he took off his hat. ‘I wondered where you’d got to.’
    He hung up his jacket and sat down, and in silence Abbie pulled off his boots and brought him his slippers. When she had poured and handed him his tea she sat facing him from the chair opposite. ‘Well?’ she asked.
    He nodded. ‘Well, I saw the vicar. And he was very sympathetic and understanding.’ He took a swallow from his cup. ‘But of course the fact that you left school at twelve doesn’t exactly help your case.’
    ‘Did you tell him I’ve been studying?’
    ‘Of course. And I said you were doing extremely well, and that you’re a very clever young woman.’
    ‘What did he say to that?’
    ‘Nothing much; it was what he’d expect me to say. Anyway, he says you must write him a formal letter of application. Then he’ll consider speaking to the other members of the Board to see about them giving you an interview.’
    ‘Oh, Father, that’s wonderful! Did he say when the interview might be – if I get one, that is?’
    ‘As soon as the Board meets, which will be next month, so he said.’
    ‘Oh, it’s a terrifying prospect – but all the same I wish I didn’t have to wait.’
    ‘It’s all to the good,’ he said. ‘It means you’ll have time to prepare.’
    Sitting down at the table again, she wrote at once to the Revd Hilldew, making her application. When she had finished the letter she read it aloud to her father, who nodded his approval, and signed it. After sealing the letter in an envelope, she turned in her chair and regarded him in the soft glow of the lamp. She could almost feel his belief in her. She would do well; she was determined. And she knew that by doing so, by succeeding, she would be helping him to fulfil himself.
    Since her mother’s departure she had grown even closer to her father – as, she realized, had her brother and sisters.
    ‘Do you miss her, Father?’ she asked after a moment.
    He looked at her in surprise. ‘Your mother,’ he said; a statement.
    Abbie nodded.
    ‘What brought that question on?’
    She shrugged. ‘Sometimes I’ve wondered.’
    A moment of hesitation, then: ‘No, I don’t.’
    ‘Do – do you think about her?’
    He frowned. ‘Oh, Abbie, that’s all in the past. Have we got to talk about such melancholy things?’
    She said nothing. After a second or two he went on, ‘Yes – I think about her now and then. But I don’t miss her.’
    ‘Neither do I,’ Abbie said. ‘And I wouldn’t want her back. Not now.’ She paused. ‘But you loved her once.’
    ‘Yes.’ He nodded. ‘Oh, she was a beautiful girl, your mother. And I thought she was so sophisticated – the way she dressed, the way she spoke. I was determined to have her if I possibly could.’ He sighed. ‘And I did. Though I’m afraid she married me as an escape.’
    ‘An escape?’
    ‘I came to realize it later. She hated her work. She was never cut out to be a governess – being