Free Hester Waring's Marriage by Paula Marshall Page B

she’s really hungry, do you? Perhaps that’s what’s wrong with her. Delirious from hunger. I should have offered her something. I never thought to wonder what she is living on now that Fred is dead. Oh, dear!’
    â€˜No, Luce, it’s all those commoners she’s mixing with,’ said Stephen dismally. ‘She used to be such a biddable little thing, if plain. Now she’s plainer than ever and a bit of a shrew as well.’
    He was relieved that his pity had never taken him so far as to say anything which could have been construed as an offer of marriage.
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    Hester walked home in an ecstasy of liberated wickedness. For the moment she had no regrets. They would probably come later. All her past life she had been a timid child who had barely raised her voice. Everyone had made it quite clear to her that what she might have to say was of little interest or consequence.
    Her mother’s most common expression when she had looked at her at all had been one of distaste. Fred, her father, had treated her as merely a convenient servant, very convenient, since even a servant would not have stood for the treatment which he had meted out to Hester.
    Well, she had raised her voice today, and made her presence felt, too. She was so taken with her own naughtiness that, when she turned the corner into the lane where she lived, she bumped into Tom Dilhorne before she knew that he was there.
    He stepped back with some surprise and a little amusement as he registered her defiant air.
    â€˜Good afternoon, Miss Waring.’
    â€˜Good afternoon, Mr Dilhorne,’ she almost carolled at him.
    He looked gravely at the disgraceful gown which she was clutching to herself.
    â€˜Busy, Miss Waring?’
    The giddiness which had overtaken her at Lucy’s overwhelmed her again. She stared rudely at her tormentor.Well, her inward voice was right. The ogre was a man who made Captain Parker look juvenile and unformed, but he was an ogre, nonetheless.
    â€˜Yes, you might say that, Mr Dilhorne. I have been trimming this extravagant dress for the Board’s party.’
    â€˜You intend going there, then,’ he said, his mouth twitching. The moment she showed spirit she was transformed. He was right. There was some real, red-hot passion roiling around there beneath the sober exterior.
    â€˜Yes, you might say that I intend to favour it with my presence.’
    â€˜Very gratifying, Miss Waring. I look forward to seeing you there.’
    â€˜Do you, Mr Dilhorne? You surprise me. I thought you more used to less, shall we say, decorous gatherings!’
    Hester unfurled this piece of insolence at him as though she were setting up a banner. Let him make what he would of that!
    He was gravity itself. ‘On the contrary, Miss Waring. I shall attend tomorrow with the keenest interest.’
    He bowed. She bowed back. Damn his impudence for looking at her dreadful gown with such a satirical eye. Well, she would wear it tomorrow, and she would try to show a little more decorum than she had exhibited today. One might almost think that she had been drinking.
    Tom knew that she had not been drinking, and he knew the delirium of despair and starvation when he saw it. And she’s growing up, he thought. I wonder if she realised how she looked at me once or twice? He wondered, too, what had roused her so. Well, he might find out tomorrow. But Hester would never tell him that the spark which had freed her had been ignited by himself.
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    School Board parties were not, as Hester could have guessed, the most exciting of affairs. But, to her starvedsenses this, the only one which she was ever to attend, seemed almost more than she could bear. She knew that, in a room full of not very well-dressed men and women, she was the worst dressed of them all. Even Lucy’s lace could not save her gown.
    On the other hand there was food, lots of it, so that her mouth watered and her empty stomach clenched. She forced