Free Wings over Delft by Aubrey Flegg

splintered shell fragments in her palm. Father got up to assist Mother back to her room. Still Louise did not move; it was only when she heard his voice in the hall that rebellion boiled up inside her . It was her life, and nobody had the right to dictate it. She thrust back her chair.
    ‘Father,’ she shouted, blundering towards the hall. It was now or never. She pulled open the dining room door, but she was too late. She heard the street door slam. She wanted to run after him but Annie was blocking her way.

    ‘You lied to me, you Jezebel!’ Her old nurse was shaking with fury, like a peacock when displaying. ‘Goodwife Drebbel has told me everything. It is one thing to sneak past me, but to parade yourself unchaperoned in the market place, to let young men kiss you like the whore of Babylon; it is a disgrace.’ Louise felt her mouth opening and closing. At last she found her voice.
    ‘But Annie, that was Rey –’
    ‘No, it wasn’t. Master Reynier left a week ago.’ Louise shrugged; there was no arguing with Annie in this mood. ‘And then who did you go off with?’
    ‘I was accompanied by Mr Kunst; the Master chargedhim with seeing me home.’
    ‘And how long did it take him to do that?’
    ‘I wanted to look over the walls, that’s all. I’ve been cooped up all winter!’
    Annie shifted her line of attack. ‘How can you treat that poor boy like this?’
    ‘Who, Annie?’
    ‘Master Reynier, of course! It’s bad enough being sent away just when your engagement should be announced.’
    ‘There is no engagement, Annie!’ Louise was almost shouting.
    ‘You can’t keep things secret from me; of course there is an engagement, he told me –’
    ‘He didn’t tell you. He told you that he was going away because of the rumours about us, you’ve got it all wrong.’ But Annie knew better.
    ‘Ever since you were children together he has looked after you.’ She wagged her finger in Louise’s face. ‘And young Miss that you are, you accepted it!’ That hurt Louise. ‘Such a gentleman he’s turned into, and such nice manners.’
    ‘Annie, you’ve been trying to make us fall in love since we were in nappies!’
    ‘Love!’ The word almost exploded from Annie’s mouth. ‘What has love got to do with it? It is God that makes a marriage , not love.’ Louise’s heart sank, when Annie and God teamed up there was no stopping them. ‘Do you think that God thinks only of Miss Louise Eeden? What about your father? His whole future is dependent on you. Everyone in Delft is on ten-terhooks at the merger of the two great potteries.’
    ‘But that is business, Annie!’
    ‘Do you think then that God has no hand in business? Has he not guided the ships of our brave sea captains as they ploughed and sowed the oceans for the riches that make our nation great? Are God and business to be held at bay just because Louise Eeden refuses to bow to His will?’
    Louise made one last bid for reason. ‘But Annie, I’m not marrying a sea captain!’ That was levity, and Annie’s God was without humour. Her final blow struck home, low and hard.
    ‘Think of your poor mother, Louise. Will she survive an-other winter like the last? Even now she coughs at night. I hear her, but you are too high and mighty in that attic of yours. Couldn’t you let her see you married before she is gathered? Who knows what the Lord has prepared for her?’
    Rage and tears rose like twin fountains inside Louise. Annie was right; Mother could not last. Louise had seen, but denied, those bright red spots of colour on Mother’s cheeks that made her look so pretty; the terrible beauty of the consumption that was eating away at her from inside. But how dare Annie suggest that God would have anything but open arms and a loving embrace for Mother!
    Annie stepped back from Louise and put her hand to her mouth, as if only now realising what she had said. She made an ineffectual gesture of appeasement as Louise thrust past her and thudded blindly