Autumn Softly Fell Read Online Free Page B

this hectic house?
    ‘So. This is the forsaken child.’
    Abandoned, forsaken
. Dorothea gritted her teeth as the plump woman looked her up and down. She resented such words.
    ‘Well, my lady,’ said the woman haughtily. ‘What a spectacle you made of yourself last night, by all accounts, turning up out of the blue like that! Mrs Brannan was very cross that her party was spoiled. Quite beside herself, she was – or so I’ve heard. Cook says they had words this morning, the master and the mistress. Not that they haven’t had words before, mark you. It’s only to be expected when a woman marries beneath her. But where was I? Oh yes. Stand up straight so I can look at you!’ The piggy eyes raked over Dorothea once more but seemed to lose focus half way. The woman groaned, clutching her temples. ‘My head’s that bad today I can barely stand it! But listen now because I don’t want to have to repeat myself. I’m Nanny and I’m in charge. You’re to mind your Ps and Qs and do as you’re told. I don’t want a peep out of you, do I make myself clear?’
    Dorothea nodded. The cosy feeling that had grown inside her after meeting Nora and eating the big breakfast was rapidly withering away, but there was one question that could not wait. She took a deep breath. ‘Please, where’s my papa?’
    A look of irritation crossed Nanny’s blotchy face. ‘Now what have I just said? I don’t know where your pa is and I’m sure I don’t care. Hold your tongue now! And that goes for you, too, Master Roderick! The next person to open their mouth will get a good hiding!’
    Nanny settled herself in a chair by the fire. She soon fell asleep, snoring. Nora was called away to help downstairs. Roderick went back to his toy soldiers. Dorothea inched her way towards one of the windows. She felt that if she could just see outside, she might not feel so hemmed in. But there were bars on the window which only increased her sense of being trapped, and the world outside – the fields and trees and the great grey sky – seemed very remote andunfamiliar. It was not at all like the world she knew and gave her no clues as to where her papa might be.
    Time ticked by. The trees and fields faded into an early dusk. Dorothea’s eyes filled with tears as she leant against the bars. She felt as if everything was drifting away from her. Her whole life – everything she had known – was being swallowed by the grey gloom. But crying got one nowhere. Mrs Browning, back in Stepnall Street – a million miles away, as distant as the moon – boxed their ears if they started ‘bawling and carrying on’, Dorothea and Mickey and Flossie. But Dorothea wouldn’t have minded having her ears boxed – wouldn’t have minded going without that glorious breakfast – if only she could have been home again.
    With nothing to do and nowhere to hide, she found she could no longer keep back the memories of last night: all the bits she had tried so very hard to forget. She saw in her mind’s eye her papa and her uncle confronting one another in the midst of the lavish room, growling and snapping their teeth like half-starved dogs in the narrow courts back home.
    ‘Well, Albert, so this is where you’re holed up now. Very nice. Very nice indeed. Landed on your feet and no mistake. Though it’s a bit off the beaten track, you might say. I had a devil of a job finding the place.’
    ‘You are drunk, Frank.’
    ‘I’ve had a nip or two, to keep out the cold. Only a nip.’
    ‘A bottle or two, I should say, by the state of you.’
    ‘Now then, Albert, there’s no call for that sort of talk! But why should I expect any different? You always did have it in for me. You always did try and blacken my character.’
    ‘Is it any wonder, after what you did?’
    ‘You’re no better’n me, Albert, that’s the long and short of it. There’s only one difference between us. My old man didn’t have a business to pass on. That was where you struck gold.’
    ‘I