Free Green Girl by Sara Seale

he told her reprovingly. “ An ’ where else could you go, an ’ yourself cast up out of the fog like a piece of flotsam? ”
    Harriet had not altogether cared to be likened to a piece of flotsam, but she was grateful that the servants showed such little surprise at these hurried nuptials, and appeared to accept her without resentment. Agnes of the uncertain temper, it was true, had looked her over with a belligerent eye and made it plain that she would brook no interference in the kitchen, and the untrained Molly, learning that the Castle guest she had thought a little queer in the head was to become the new mistress, gave way to shrieks of hysterical mirth and had to be banished to the scullery with sharp words from Jimsy; the land workers, whose wives supplied the casual labour in the house, stared at her incuriously and went away, scratching their heads.
    “ Och! There ’ s no accountin ’ for the tastes of the quality, an ’ they not troubled with choosin ’ a woman for wurrk, ” was one remark overheard. “ But wouldn ’ t you think, now, Mick, he ’ d ’ ve gone for one of the Miss Ryans if it ’ s heirs he ’ s after, an ’ they with the strong hocks under thim, an ’ the grand quarters of brood mares? ”
    The question of heirs, thought Harriet ruefully, was no doubt sufficient reason for the most unlikely of unions in the eyes of a community accustomed to the seriousness of stock breeding and the misfortune of no male heir for Castle Clooney, but by the terms of his proposition, it was evidently not the matter uppermost in Duff Lonnegan ’ s mind. Since to Harriet the main object for his marriage still seemed to be concern for his daughter ’ s welfare, she tried to learn something about the child from Jimsy, but he would only say that the little miss had lacked too long for the right company and would be the better for some learning in the proper way to behave.
    “ Has she no manners, then? ” Harriet asked, feeling a little daunted by the prospect of an undisciplined Irish ho o ligan.
    “ Och! Manners in children is onnatura l entoirely. She was born ould, that wan. ”
    There seemed, thought Harriet, to be little place for Nonie, for Duff seldom mentioned her except with that suggestion of rough regret at nature ’ s perverse trick in endowing the child with his own looks and not her lovely mother ’ s. Harriet revisited Kitty ’ s room to steal another look at her portrait and try to discover some likeness in the child, but she found that both portrait and easel had been removed, together with the books bearing Sam ’ s signature and the discarded clutter of girlish mementoes which had filled the drawers of the little chest.
    The discovery gave her an odd little sense of shock. Was this Duffy ’ s way of warning her not to trespass, or was it simply a ruthless severing with the past? No regrets ... no comparisons ... the slate wiped clean ... he had said, but he had spoken with faint bitterness, and once again Harriet ’ s curiosity was aroused. Who was this Sam whose gifts had been sufficiently significant to banish with the portrait? Had he loved poor, imprisoned Kitty, or even been her lover? Harriet gave a little shiver, imagining what discovery might have led to, for she did not think that the dark, ugly stranger who was so soon to be her own husband would give much quarter if he learnt he had been deceived, then she left the room to seek the more friendly familiarity of the snug, chiding herself for letting her imagination run riot yet again.
    She had not expected to find Duff already there, evidently back early from his daily rounds of his tenancies, and jumped when he remarked with his disconcerting trick of catching her out:
    “ Well, have you changed your mind? ”
    “ What about? ” she stammered, her attention upon Kurt who had lifted his head and after investigating her with an exploratory nose as he had on that foggy day, flattened his ears to his skull in sudden