Read Online The Hamiltons of Ballydown by Anne Doughty - Free Book Online

glance at the slight figure clutching the silent child and shook her head dismissively.
    ‘Have you another blanket, Ma?’
    Rose ran upstairs and fetched one and simply stood watching as Sarah threw it round Maisie Thompson’s shoulders, gathering the fullness at the front for her to clutch in her free hand. When Sarah wore that particular determined look, she knew better than to try to stop her.
    ‘Come on,’ Sarah said, turning to Maisie, ‘the path’s slippy. Walk on the grass, it’s safer,’ she insisted, as she drew her out into the snow. ‘Back later, Ma,’ she said over her shoulder, as Rose hovered in the doorway. ‘Don’t come out in the cold.’
    She did as she was bid, shutting the door before the brougham began its cautious descent of the hill. She shivered fiercely as she came back to the stove. She knew nothing would have stopped Sarah from going with Maisie to the dispensary, yet she felt she ought to have tried.
    Hugh would take care of her, of course, and make sure she didn’t sit around in the cold. She didher best to reassure herself, but she knew it was not the cold or the icy roads she now feared. Between coming in from school and going off with Maisie, Sarah had grown up. With the others the change had come almost imperceptibly. Even now, there were moments when she looked at Sam and still saw the child she’d nursed. Hannah had always seemed older than her years and seldom needed her as much as Sarah had. But now her littlest love was striding into womanhood and nothing she could do would stop her. Nor should she. But she could not hide from herself the fact that, more than for any of the others, she feared for Sarah’s happiness.
     
    ‘Where’s Sarah?’ John asked, as he sat down in his armchair and pulled off his wet boots, his glance flickered from Hannah to Rose, as they moved about the kitchen, setting up the evening meal.
    ‘She went with Hugh to the dispensary,’ Rose replied coolly.
    ‘A bad night for her to be out,’ he said slowly. ‘Maybe ye should’ve said no.’
    ‘Da, you can’t say no to Sarah when she takes a notion,’ said Hannah promptly. ‘You know what she’s like.’
    ‘Aye, ye have a point,’ he said quietly. ‘She came up to us in the workshop like a whirlwind and told Hugh he’d need the brougham,’ he began. ‘She didn’t
ask
him,’ he went on, ‘she told him. An’ I hafta sayhe just laid down his work and went straight out for the mare and I helped him harness her up. An’ she just stood there watchin’ us an’ niver a word to either till she jumped up beside him. “
There’s a poor woman with a sick child down home with Ma,
says she to him.
She was comin’ up here for a dispensary ticket. The least we can do is drive her there
.” He never said a word, just looked at her an’ gets up an’ takes the reins, an’ off they go.’
    ‘Was he annoyed with her, do you think?’ asked Hannah, as she finished her job and drew over a chair to sit down beside him.
    ‘I coulden tell ye, Hannah,’ he said, honestly, looking her full in the face. ‘The daylight was near gone and he was in a hurry. And ye know the faster Hugh moves, the more he holds his head down. He might not’ave been annoyed, but he was powerful quiet.’
    Rose smiled ruefully at John as he sat back in his chair and looked up at the clock. Sam should be in any moment now, desperate for his supper. She’d expected Sarah and Hugh back long before this.
    ‘What was wrong with the we’an, Rose? Had ye anythin’ in the house to give it?’ John asked, as they all settled down to wait.
    ‘No, I couldn’t give it anything for I’d no idea what was wrong. It certainly wasn’t wind and it had no cough. But then it was so weak, it might not have had the energy to cough. Poor thing, it was so thin Icould feel its ribs through the shawl she’d wrapped it in. She looked half-starved herself,’ she said sadly, her eyes leaving him and focusing on the corner of the stove