Free Sons and Daughters by Margaret Dickinson Page B

think of.’
    Charlotte cast him a grateful glance down the table.
    ‘I wouldn’t want to be a miner,’ Ben said quietly at her side. ‘I’d hate to have to work in total blackness like that.’ He shuddered.
    ‘Do you know,’ Georgie piped up, ‘they take a canary down there just to make sure the air’s good. If it isn’t, the poor bird might die. Don’t you think that’s cruel, Miss Charlotte? To the canary, I mean.’
    Osbert and Philip laughed, but Ben and Charlotte – and even Miles – took Georgie’s comment seriously.
    After that, whilst the meal was served and eaten, the table seemed to divide into two. The two adults and Philip at one end talked politics, whilst Charlotte, Ben and Georgie talked about the local countryside.
    ‘I haven’t seen the sea yet,’ Georgie said. ‘And we’ve been here two months already.’
    ‘Then perhaps your papa would allow me to take you one day,’ Charlotte offered. ‘Do you ride a pony?’
    ‘Papa’s just bought one for me to ride. She’s called Gypsy. Philip has a big horse called Midnight, but he’s rather wild at the moment. Phil can’t ride him yet.’
    ‘I’d love to see them.’
    ‘Why don’t you come over tomorrow after Sunday school?’ Georgie suggested excitedly. ‘You could come back in the motor car with Brewster and me.’
    ‘Well, I . . .’ Charlotte hesitated and glanced down the table to their host, but Miles was listening intently to something Osbert was saying and she couldn’t catch his eye.
    ‘That’s settled then,’ Georgie said firmly and there seemed no point in arguing with the determined little chap. Charlotte hid her smile.
    As the meal ended, Georgie raised his voice again. ‘Papa, thank you for my dinner. Please may I leave the table?’
    ‘You may, Georgie.’
    ‘And may Miss Charlotte and Ben come up to the playroom?’
    ‘I’m not sure that Miss Charlotte—’ Miles began, but she interrupted swiftly.
    ‘I’d be happy to, Mr Thornton.’
    The three made their escape from the solemn talk at the opposite end of the table, giggling as Georgie led the way to the second floor of the big house.
    ‘Oh my!’ Charlotte gasped as the boy flung open the door of what had once been the nursery. ‘I’ve never seen so many toys.’
    In pride of place in the centre of the room stood a huge rocking horse, looking very much the worse for wear. It had obviously been ridden and played with so often that its mane was shaggy, its paint peeling.
    ‘This is Starlight,’ Georgie said, patting the horse’s neck. ‘He was father’s when he was a little boy, but now he’s ours.’
    Charlotte stroked the toy’s nose just as if it was a real animal.
    ‘And this is Georgie’s new toy,’ Ben said softly. ‘He got it for his birthday recently.’
    Charlotte turned to see a motor car that Georgie was able to sit in and pedal.
    ‘He frightens us all to death tearing up and down the landings.’
    ‘I bet!’ Charlotte laughed.
    There were teddies, mechanical toys and games galore. Georgie ran around picking up one thing after another. At last he said, ‘What shall we play, Miss Charlotte? Snakes and ladders? Ludo?’
    ‘I . . .’ Charlotte faltered. She wasn’t very good at games. She had never had any playmates during her childhood – only her governess and Mary. Her upbringing had been severe. Miss Proudley had been told that her sole purpose was to instruct the child, whilst poor Mary was kept fully occupied running the house. So games and play had not figured very much in Charlotte’s childhood. Only at Sunday school had she learned how to act out the Bible stories, as she did now with her own class. Though sometimes, she remembered ruefully, even that went wrong.
    But now she smiled. ‘We’ll play whatever you want. You can teach me.’
    ‘Ludo, then,’ Georgie said promptly. ‘Me ’n’ Ben play it, but it’s better with three or four.’
    ‘Phil won’t play now,’ Ben whispered. ‘He says he’s too old