Free In the Spinster's Bed by Sally Mackenzie

up.”
    Miss Hutting stood. “Yes. And Mama will be looking for me. She’ll want help with the children.”
    Miss Hutting waited while Belle locked the library door. Then they started walking toward the Spinster House and vicarage.
    “Thank you again for reading my pages,” Miss Hutting said.
    “I do hope you’ll find my comments helpful.” Impulsively, Belle laid her hand on the girl’s arm. “You must not get discouraged. You have a great deal of talent.”
    Miss Hutting’s face suddenly glowed, as if someone had just lit a candle inside her. “Thank you, Miss Franklin. I’m determined to improve.” She sighed. “I only wish I had the solitude you have. The vicarage is so crowded, and Mama is always saddling me with the younger children. It must be so peaceful in the Spinster House.”
    Peaceful? Lonely was a better description.
    “Yes, I do have hours and hours to myself, don’t I?”
    Miss Hutting’s brows shot up. “Don’t you like living in the Spinster House?”
    “Of course I like it.” The Spinster House had saved her life. She had no idea what she would have done if it hadn’t been available when she’d needed it. “As you say, it’s very peaceful. And it gives me my independence.”
    “Precisely. You’re at no man’s beck and call. I can’t tell you how much I envy you that.” Miss Hutting grimaced. “Mama is still trying to marry me off to Mr. Barker.”
    Mr. Barker was a very staid, very prosperous local farmer with a very dreadful mother.
    “Your mother means well. I’m sure she only wants the best for you.”
    Miss Hutting wrinkled her nose. “But Mr. Barker?”
    Belle laughed. “Perhaps not Mr. Barker.”
    They reached the Spinster House, where their ways parted, and Belle touched Miss Hutting lightly on the arm again. “Your mother can’t force you up the church aisle, you know, especially with your father at the other end of it. He would never consent to witness your marriage to a man you cannot like.”
    “I know. I just wish Mama would stop trying to marry me off at all.” Miss Hutting smiled. “Well, what I really wish is to be the Spinster House spinster. However, that position is already taken.”
    “Indeed it is.” Though if William—
    No. She was not going to begin building bridges from fairy dust. “Good day, Miss Hutting.”
    “Good day, Miss Franklin.”
    Belle turned up the walk to the Spinster House. Miss Hutting was blessed with so much—parents who loved her, sisters and brothers to share life with—yet she didn’t begin to appreciate her good fortune. It was very sad.
    But it wasn’t any of her concern.
    She opened the door to find Poppy sitting just inside. At least there was one living creature to welcome her home. She bent to rub Poppy’s ears.
    “Did you miss me, then?”
    “Yes. Dreadfully.”
    Oh! Her heart almost leaped out of her chest. That wasn’t Poppy talking.

Chapter Six

    May 15, 1797—My lip is bleeding and one of my eyes is swollen shut, but I shall never tell them the name of my baby’s father. In the morning they are packing me off to a disreputable cousin. A whore to a whore, Father said.
    —from Belle Frost’s diary

    “William!” His name came out as a croak. He was here. He was actually here. “H-how did you get in?”
    “The back door.” His brows slanted down. “It was unlocked. That’s not safe.”
    “Oh. Yes. That’s right. For some reason Poppy insisted on going out that way this morning. I must have forgotten to lock up when she came back in.”
    She wanted to run to him, to throw herself into his arms.
    She didn’t move.
    “I thought she had her own means of coming and going.”
    Poppy had gone over to rub herself against William’s leg. He bent to stroke her.
    “When it suits her. Today she wanted to use the door.”
    Good God. They were conversing like two polite strangers. She should go to him.
    She couldn’t. It was as if there were a great chasm between them. If she stood here on her side,