“None at all. No experience in anything, except planting crops now. I’m quite good at that.”

This made him laugh. “Don’t you worry yourself then. I’ll give you a hand.”

Emily reached the lane and walked up the narrow front path between the overgrown bushes to the front door. I should try to make time to tame this little wilderness, too, she thought, pushing trailing branches out of the way. As she stepped into the tiny living room, she realized that she might have created a rose-tinted image of the cottage. She was now looking at a forlorn little room with the bare minimum of furniture and no adornments of any kind. She realized that it hadn’t seemed so bleak when the three of them had sat on those chairs and laughed while the setting sun streamed in through the window. The cottage felt damp and cold, and a draught blew strongly down the chimney. She felt a moment’s panic. Why did she want to be in this place when she could have a room in the big house and sit with Lady Charlton by the fire? But she answered her own question. Like a fox being chased by the hounds, she needed a bolthole in which to lick her wounds.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Emily put her bags down in the narrow front hall and climbed the steep stairs to the attic bedroom where she had slept before, bending her head as she stepped inside. Without the sun shining, it was dark and gloomy and cold. The sloping ceiling felt oppressive, almost threatening. She decided she’d be warmer and somehow safer sleeping downstairs, and so she came down carefully. When she had finished making up the bed, she carried her bags into the room and was going to put her clothes into the rickety chest of draws in the corner, but remembered that Daisy would be waiting to hear from her. So instead, she headed straight for the Red Lion and found Alice and Daisy still sitting by the fire with big mugs of tea in their hands. Daisy seemed remarkably happy to hear that she would be working at Bucksley House.

“I don’t know why you are looking so delighted at going back to being a maid and working under Mrs Trelawney every day,” Emily said. “I don’t think I’ve come across a more unpleasant woman.”

“That’s all right,” Daisy said. “She’ll be so glad that I’m taking over the work that she’ll be nice to me.”

“I hope so, for your sake,” Emily said.

“At least I’ll be close to you and Alice,” Daisy said. “And far away from my dad and that other place.”

“So all went well with Lady Charlton?” Alice said.

“Couldn’t have gone better,” Emily replied, accepting the mug of tea she was offered. “She didn’t want to give me the cottage, she wanted me to stay at the big house.”

“How nice for you. I hope you accepted,” Alice said.

“No, I did not. I told her I’d rather have my own place, if she didn’t mind.”

“You’d rather have that damp and draughty place than a manor house? Are you daft, girl?” Alice asked.

Emily had to laugh at her expression. “No, you don’t understand. I need to learn to live on my own. I have no skills at all. How am I going to take care of a baby if I can’t even do the simplest tasks? And I need a place where I can have a good cry if I want to. I don’t want to be brave all the time.”

“Of course you don’t,” Alice said. “And don’t you worry, love. I’ll come over and teach you a bit about cooking if you want.”

“And I’ll come down from the big house and clean for you,” Daisy said.

“You are both too kind.” Emily looked from one to the other. “But I need to learn to do my own cleaning, Daisy. I’ve got to be completely independent, I see that.”

“Well, I’ll come up now and help you with getting the fire going and things,” Alice said.

“And I’ll take my bags up to the big house and get myself settled up there. Then I’ll come down and report to you,” Daisy said.

Alice and Emily walked together across the green and up the lane to the cottage.

Emily paused at the gate to the cottage. “Oh, and, Alice, you haven’t told Nell Lacey about me, have you? About the baby and everything?”

“I haven’t said a word, love.”

“Because Lady Charlton said exactly what you suggested—that I call myself Mrs Kerr and say I’m a war widow. I don’t like lying, but at least for now I think it might be so much easier.”

“Of course it will. So mum’s the word. Now, let’s see what needs doing in here, shall we?” She went ahead of Emily, opening the front door and stepping into the living room. “Strewth, girl!” she exclaimed, as if seeing it for the first time. “It ain’t Buckingham Palace, that’s for sure. You’ve got yourself a big job ahead.” Then, as Emily stared around her, she went on, “Well, don’t just stand there. Let’s get cracking, shall we? First things first, we need to get that stove going or there will be no hot water. And that kitchen floor and them windows need a good washing. And them curtains—they look like they’re about to fall to pieces, and they won’t be no good at keeping out the cold. You tell them at the big house that they need to find you some better curtains.” She walked on through to the kitchen. “And some more pots and pans, too. There ain’t no way you can cook yourself a decent meal with what you’ve got there.”