Autumn Softly Fell Read Online Free Page A

Autumn Softly Fell
Book: Autumn Softly Fell Read Online Free
Author: Dominic Luke
Pages:
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to me going on, and it’s gone twelve already and you’ve not even had your breakfast! Let’s go through to the day room. I’m supposed to be watching Baby, as well as seeing to you. They expect me to have eyes in the back of my head, I’m sure!’
    The day room was next door, a large place with a glowing fire and barred windows, shelves stacked with toys and games, a rocking horse, a mournful parrot in a cage.
    Nora was peeping into a cot. ‘There’s Baby, miss, sleeping like a log. And over here….’ She took Dorothea’s hand and led her to a big sturdy table in the middle of the room. ‘This young gentleman is your cousin, miss. Aren’t you going to say “hello”, Master Roderick?’
    Dorothea, rather self-conscious in her borrowed frock and combed curls, looked shyly at the boy sitting at the table. He was about her own age, perhaps a little younger, scrubbed and spruce in knee breeches and a shirt with a wide collar. He had been playing with tin soldiers. A great many of them were lined up on the table. But now he abandoned his game and slipped off his chair, advancing on Dorothea with a brazen, inquisitive look, grey eyes staring from under black brows.
    ‘Who are you? Why are you here? I’ve not heard about you before!’
    ‘My … my name is Dorothea.’
    He scoffed. ‘That’s a silly name!’
    Dorothea stood her ground. It was all very well being frightened by her tall uncle or by the fierce housekeeper, but she would not allow herself to be browbeaten by a mere boy – especially a rude little boy like this one.
    ‘
Dorothea
is not a silly name. It is no sillier than
Roderick
.’
    ‘
Roderick
is a warrior’s name.’ The boy puffed out his chest.
    Showing off, thought Dorothea. Just like the boys in Stepnall Street. Just like Mickey.
Look at me! Look at me! Aren’t I brave/smart/strong!
But Mickey, for all his faults, had always looked out for her, even though he wasn’t her brother or her cousin or any other sort of relation. This boy Roderick, she sensed, didn’t look out for anybody other than himself.
    ‘Now you leave the poor girl alone, Master Roderick,’ said Nora, brushing the boy aside and leading Dorothea to the far side of the table. ‘She’s going to have her breakfast!’
    Breakfast
was the word Nora used to describe a feast fit for the Queen. There was porridge, a boiled egg, toast, butter, marmalade and a huge glass of milk. It was more food than Dorothea was used to eating in an entire day, let alone for breakfast. But she was ravenously hungry. She could not remember when she had last eaten. She set to work with gusto – even if it was slightly off-putting having Master Roderick watching her every move. Like the people at the party last night, he had obviously never been taught that it was rude to stare.
    ‘Are you going to eat
all
of that toast?’ he demanded at length.
    She shook her head, watched as he grabbed a piece, spooned great dollops of marmalade onto it, gobbled it up. A word formed in her mind: greedy. But then she told herself not to be so hasty. Maybe he was hungry. Maybe he had not had a breakfast fit for a Queen. And perhaps he was rude because he didn’t know any better. He might be quite a nice boy underneath. Papa often said, ‘The world judges by appearances, Dotty – and it’s wrong. It’s plain wrong.’
    She couldn’t eat another morsel. She had never felt so full in her life. Getting down from the table, she explored the big room – far bigger than the room where she lived off Stepnall Street. The baby was awake now, kicking and gurgling in its cot. The parrot, rather moth-eaten, was unresponsive. Flames leapt over the coals. Such a pile of coals, too! She had never seen the like.
    At that moment, a plump, prickly-looking woman came bustling into the room. She had a black bodice and skirt, and a big red nose.Locks of greying hair were escaping from under her cap. Dorothea’s heart sank. How many more people would she have to meet in
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