Free The Innkeeper's Daughter by Val Wood Page B

chatted on, but Bella was no longer listening until he said, ‘… manor house, big estate, your father would’ve known of ’em. I expect his father’ll want him to join him eventually. He’s got an older brother and a couple of sisters too, I think.’
    Bella was silent. Jamie Lucan must have ridden to the Woodman because it was halfway to Hornsea from Hull. He’d have put his horse in their stable whilst he called in for a drink. He must have been doing that each time he called. They had no stable lad here but he would have fastened his mount up in one of the stalls. Strange, though, she thought. I’d have expected him to want to go straight home after spending two weeks at school and in lodgings.
    She fantasized about the manor house, if that was where he lived, as Johnson said, and imagined a great hall with a fireplace at one end and a wide staircase like a picture in a book she had seen. Miss Hawkins had often lent her books and Bella had always wrapped them in brown paper so that they didn’t get dirty.
    And how lovely to be able to see the sea from his bedroom. That must have been what he meant, when he said upstairs. And his sisters, they’ll be pretty I expect and dressed in white dresses, probably to their ankles if they’re only eight and ten, and his mother, what would she wear? A crinoline probably with a very large hoop beneath it and—
    ‘Bella! Wake up.’ Joe’s voice was harsh. ‘Don’t just stand there. Wash these glasses, will you!’
    She nodded and took dirty glasses from the counter and put them in the washing-up bowl. Yes, she thought. Stop your daydreaming, Bella. This is your life; don’t think of any other.

CHAPTER NINE
    EARLY CHRISTMAS EVE morning after Henry had been fed, Bella carried him in his crib into the taproom whilst Nell, under her mother’s watchful eye, cleared away the breakfast things and, following Sarah’s instructions, chopped onions, minced goose liver and giblets, added suet, sage and parsley, whisked in an egg and put the mixture into an oven dish in preparation for the next day.
    ‘My eyes are streaming,’ Nell complained. ‘I can’t see!’
    ‘You don’t need to see.’ Her mother picked up the dish. ‘I’ll put it in ’oven. Don’t go away,’ she warned as Nell shuffled towards the door. ‘There’s chestnut stuffing for ’inside of ’goose to be made now.’
    ‘We’ll never eat all this, Ma,’ Nell grumbled. ‘There’s enough here for an army. Are we having Christmas pudding?’
    ‘Yes. I did two last year and we onny ate one. We’ll have that.’
    ‘And can we have syllabub and frumatty? I
love
syllabub.’
    ‘I thought you said there was too much food.’ Her mother permitted herself a rare smile. She hadn’t smiled much since Joseph’s death.
    ‘Oh, but they’re special for Christmas,’ Nell said. ‘We’ve got to have them.’
    ‘The wheat’s been simmering all night for ’frumatty,’ her mother said, ‘so when you’ve finished ’next lot of stuffing I’ll show you how to mek it, and syllabub as well, so that you’ll know for another time.’
    Nell shook her head. ‘It’s our Bella you should be showing, Ma. I’m going on ’stage. I shan’t need to know about things like cooking and baking.’
    Her mother grunted. ‘Bella already knows what to do. She learned when she was younger than you. You’ve been spoiled, m’lass. Time now that you start to help in ’kitchen, and don’t think about going on ’stage cos you’re not. Your father wouldn’t have allowed it and I shan’t either.’
    Nell said nothing, but her lips set in a pout and her mother saw the expression of determination and knew that she had a rebel on her hands. She’s not like our Bella, she thought. This young madam is as stubborn as her brothers. They’re all ’same, and onny do what they want to do. They think I don’t know, that I don’t notice, but I do. Sarah was aware that she was condoning their behaviour, but she was too