by Rosie Clarke
Lizzie felt it was a pity that Miss Summers couldn’t be a politician if she wanted to be, but she wasn’t sure that she did, because she was wearing a ring on her engagement finger. Amy said she was going to be married soon and that, when she did marry, both Amy and Lizzie would go away to school instead of being taught at home. Lizzie wasn’t sure what she would feel about that, because although the boarding school was only in Cambridge, just over twenty miles away, they wouldn’t come home very often.
Lizzie would miss her grandmother and the stories she told. She wouldn’t miss hearing her parents argue, but she’d begun to feel at home in the big, rambling old house.
Of course Nicolas and Jonathan had both been away to school and Jon to college. He was the eldest and he would be finishing at college next year. Amy said that Jon would run the estate for Granny. Emily wondered why she didn’t ask Papa to do it for her, but perhaps she didn’t trust him because he’d lost most of his money in that silly bubble, as Mama called it.
Papa wasn’t usually silly. In fact he was stern and whenever Lizzie did something wrong and was called to his study, she quaked in her shoes. Nicolas was always being called to account for getting into scrapes, but he didn’t seem to mind Papa’s temper – even when he got the cane.
Lizzie loved Nicolas the best of all her family. She sometimes wished that she could live with just him and not see any of the others, but of course that wasn’t possible.
Nicolas was so kind. He’d been kind to that poor little girl they’d seen in the fields. She’d looked so awful, her face streaked with tears and her dress filthy where she’d lain on the muddy grass. She’d seemed so very poor to Lizzie, her boots scuffed and her dress patched so many times that it looked a mess.
Mama complained that they were poor, but Lizzie had lots of pretty clothes in her wardrobe. For a moment she wondered if Emily would accept a dress from her, but then she remembered what Amy had said about giving things to the poor.
‘They only take advantage if you’re not careful, and if they don’t do that – they resent you for offering charity.’
Amy had been so rude to the poor girl. Lizzie had felt ashamed for her sister, but Amy was always like that, thinking she was above everyone else.
‘Lizzie, dearest, will you do something for me please?’
Lizzie forgot about the girl in the field as her grandmother called to her and she ran to her grandmother’s side. It was probably best not to send the girl a present, she had decided, because she would only think Lizzie was being condescending.
She would probably be going away to school in the autumn and then she wouldn’t have much chance to go riding with Nicolas – and she wasn’t likely to see the farmer’s girl again.
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Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing,
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Copyright © Rosie Clarke 2000
Rosie Clarke has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
First published by Ebury Press in 2015
www.eburypublishing.co.uk
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library