Free Daisy by MC Beaton Page A

Freddie? We were so happy. Then Freddie ups and breaks my heart and says he is taking diggings in London and is going to find a wife. Did you ever hear of such ingratitude, Miss Chatterton? I could have chosen a nice local girl for him, but he needs to go chasing after flighty society girls.”
    Mellowed by several glasses of the “full-bodied,” Mrs. Bryce-Cuddestone surveyed Daisy across the sea of mahogany. “I must say all the same, you seem like a nice, biddable little thing. Could be molded to the Bryce-Cuddestone manner. Yes. Yes. Could be
formed
as a sculptor forms a figure out of raw clay. I am very artistic.” She suddenly let out a cavernous yawn. “You have my permission to show her the garden, Freddie.”
    Freddie looked like a child at Christmas. “Oh, I say, Mater. That’s simply ripping. Come along, Daisy. I may call you Daisy, mayn’t I? We’re going to see lots of each other.”
    Daisy’s heart sank to her little kid boots. She followed Freddie out into the misty garden. He turned toward her, his face radiant.
    “The mater
likes
you. Isn’t that marvelous? You must admit it’s the greatest compliment you’ve ever received.”
    Now Daisy had been taught all her young life to respect her elders, so she bit back the angry reply on her lips. Freddie took her silence for acquiescence and maidenly modesty. “Let’s take the old bus out for a spin. I’ll drive you myself.”
    Daisy agreed. The sound of the engine would at least prevent any lengthy conversation. They rattled out onto the road, Freddie in high spirits and Daisy in the depths of misery. What a horrid day it had turned out to be! And she had thought that she simply
had
to pick out a personable young man, marry him, and live happily ever after. She had not envisaged such unromantic obstacles as mothers-in-law.
    They had gone a little way out of the town and were chugging along a country road through the thickening mist when Daisy spied three still figures lying beside the road. “Oh, do stop!” She put her hand on Freddie’s arm. “Someone’s had an accident.”
    Freddie stopped and looked over his shoulder. “I wouldn’t worry about that,” he said. “Let’s go on.”
    Daisy looked at him in amazement. “There are three people just lying beside the road.”
    “Let them lie,” said Freddie, and then sighed heavily. Daisy was already out of the motor and running back along the road.
    The three figures, a man, woman, and small child, lay in the thick grass beside the ditch. Beads of mist rimed their hair and their torn and shabby clothes. The woman clutched the tiny child to her emaciated bosom. All three were dead.
    With a small whimper Daisy drew back. “What on earth happened?” she sobbed to Freddie, who had come up behind her. He shuffled his feet awkwardly. “Starved to death, I should say. Pretty common, you know. Parish’ll come along to pick ’em up. Let’s go. You can’t do anything for them now.”
    Daisy walked slowly back to the motorcar. She found that her hands were shaking. “How on earth can people just starve to death in England?”
    “They do it all the time,” said Freddie cheerfully. “Not around your part of London, of course. Fact is, they’re lazy. Simply won’t work, you know. Poverty’s like a disease. They can’t seem to shake it off.”
    Daisy desperately wanted to believe him. But the picture of the little child’s emaciated, claw-like hand as it had died clutching its mother’s coat swam in front of her eyes. “But a little child,” she whispered.
    “Nasty for you,” said Freddie sympathetically. “Put it out of your mind. Better get back soon. Mater’ll have had her nap.”
    Daisy had been mild and meek all her young life, but she was suddenly flooded with such strong hatred for the mater that she thought she would faint. What on earth was happening in the world? She had seen enough food thrown away after a house party to have kept that poor family for a year!
    As Freddie