Free i 3d091ef367b6a8bf by Unknown Page A

notorious daughter Elizabeth. Porter was in the respectable business of shipping.The Wright family consisted of Stephen, his wife Rosie, and three sons, John, Amos, and James, all confirmed bachelors and so, unattended by ladies. Then there were the Forresters: Alan, his wife Minnie, and their five daughters, the latter all well into their twenties: Jane the eldest at twenty-nine, and, down the line, Mary, Alice, Freda, and Sarah at twenty-two. They were merry girls; at least, they presented a merry front; and they were unescorted except for their parents. However, they knew there would always 102 be John, Amos, and James Wright whom they could fall back on. Just as John, Amos, and James, in their turn, never bothered about escorts, knowing that they would and could pick from the Forrester lasses. And the Wright men being merry souls, there was always a great deal of chatt and laughter whenever the two families met up.Among the rest of the guests were those invited under the heading of strong acquaintances, men and wives who attended the hunt. They might be farmers, but so-called
    'gentlemen' ones.Altogether, the future groom's guests came to fifty, the future bride's merely nine: Andrew Kemp, Bridget's solicitor, his wife Jane, and their son Richard, himself a solicitor; William Bennett, Bridget's accountant, his wife Nell, daughter Nancy and son Jeff; and lastly Bridget's agent, Arthur Fathers and his son Philip. Mrs Fathers was rather unwell.As was usual the guests had been assembled for about an hour before supper was announced; and as the table in the large dining-room could accommodate only twentytwo people, the innovation of smaller tables, 103each seating four to six people set around the main board, had been resorted to. That this arrangement proved difficult for the serving Of the meal went unnoticed as the hired and liveried waiters were practised in their work and no catastrophe occurred, much to the annoyance of James Bright, the butler-cumfootman-cum-valet and anything else that was required of him in this establishment; and with only four females under him, the housekeeper Mrs Matilda Pillman, the cook Rose Jackson, and Kate Swift and Mary Carstairs, who did whatever was required of them, from assisting the cook to mending their own uniforms and even washing them at times when the laundress couldn't cope with what was required of her in one day of hiring.Nevertheless, the cook and the three women had, for the previous week, worked almost eighteen hours a day preparing for the great do and determining that the supper spread was going to be something that would be talked about for some time afterwards, even if it were thought to be but a prelude to the banquets that would become a regular feature in this house once Mr Lionel was
    104married to the beautiful and rich Miss Mordaunt.They knew that, as engagements went, this one had been a whirlwind affair, for Mr Lionel had known her for less than a year and had been engaged to her for a matter of months only. But there, the sooner the better, for this house would come alive again, and not before time.Where the master had got the money from to engage these titivated lackeys and the band of four players, besides all that wine and spirits, the Lord only knew; because they had been lucky to get their half-pay wages last Christmas.However, to attend to present and future matters: they would all keep their eyes on the leftovers because that lot had arrived in a covered cart, in which Jack Johnson, the yard man, had said were three large wicker baskets, empty ones. And for what did waiters want to carry three big empty wicker baskets along with them, eh?But now, as the noise and the laughter proclaimed, the guests were leaving the dining-room, the ladies making for the toilet room one way, the gentlemen to a similar
    105room the other way, and, as Kate Swift remarked the while wrinkling her nose, there'd be some cleaning up in the morning in that department, if she knew