Free Emily by Valerie Wood

stopped her pummelling. ‘From Mr Francis’s family. Onny nobody told him till it was too late!’
    * * *
    Mr Francis sent for Emily later in the day. She knocked on the library door and entered to find him sitting by the fire in his high-backed leather chair. He looked tired, she thought, his blue eyes were heavy and rather sad, but he greeted her with a smile and invited her to sit down opposite him. She hesitated. ‘Do sit down, Emily. Don’t be afraid. I need to talk to you about my daughter.’
    She perched uncomfortably on the edge of the chair. It doesn’t seem right, she thought. I should be standing up.
    ‘What I have to say is not because of anything you have done, you must understand that. We have been very pleased with your work.’ He tapped his fingers against his beard as he considered. ‘But my wife – Mrs Francis and I – in view of Miss Deborah’s attachment to you, which, although it seems amicable at the moment –’. He got up from his chair and started to pace up and down. Emily too stood up. ‘It could turn. She – she gets these attachments to people, but then turns against them.’ He looked almost pleadingly at her and she felt so sorry for him. ‘She is rather – delicate, I’m afraid, prone to moods.’
    ‘I understand, sir.’
    ‘Do you, Emily?’ He shook his head. ‘I think not.’
    ‘What do you want me to do, sir? Would you like me to leave?’ Better get it over and done with, she thought, but where will I go?
    He nodded and appeared relieved. ‘It would be for the best all round, I think.’
    ‘Would you give me a reference, sir? I won’tbe able to get employment without one.’ It’s not fair, she deliberated. How has this happened to me?
    ‘I’ll do better than that.’ He sat down again. ‘I have talked to Mrs Francis about this and we have agreed that this situation is not your fault and therefore we must do what we can for you.’
    Mrs Francis wouldn’t care what happens to me, Emily thought. She is not in the least interested in any of her servants. But she listened as he explained what they were willing to do. ‘Mrs Francis has a second cousin who lives in Hull. She often has difficulty in getting good servants and I thought that if you were willing to work in the town, I would write to her suggesting that she takes you – perhaps as a lady’s maid rather than in general service?’
    How odd, she thought, that Mr Francis should be doing all of this. I always thought that the mistress of the house dealt with servants.
    ‘So, what do you think? Could you bear to tear yourself away from the country and live in a town?’ He smiled gently and she thought how handsome he must once have been.
    ‘I don’t know, sir. I’ve never been to a big town, although I’ve been to Hedon market.’
    His eyes crinkled. ‘Hull is nothing like Hedon. It is a big, bustling place. It’s full of sailing ships, seamen and tradesmen. It’s noisy with lots of people. It has theatres and music halls, shops of every description, and a big fair every year, much bigger than the village fairs. But’, he added, ‘youhave only lived in the quiet of the country. You may not like it. I don’t want to persuade you against your will. If you don’t want to go then we will think of something else.’
    She considered. What other option had she? ‘Could I think about it, sir? Just for an hour?’
    ‘Of course.’ He pursed his lips. ‘I would rather you didn’t talk to the other servants of the reason for your leaving, perhaps you could tell them that you are considering another situation?’ He saw her hesitation. ‘Except perhaps Cook or Mrs Brewer? They would understand. They have been here a long time.’
    Mrs Castle and Mrs Brewer were sitting at the kitchen table having a glass of ale when she went slowly downstairs. Mrs Castle had obviously primed Mrs Brewer about the situation, for she looked directly at Emily and asked bluntly, ‘I suppose they’ve asked you to