Maggie's Child Read Online Free Page A

remain on in a small, one bed-roomed cottage rent-free on the edge of his estate. Her mother claimed, with him being part to blame for her brother’s death, it was his way of clearing his guilt.
    Maggie slept on a narrow truckle bed for a few months, and earned a meagre wage working the fields for the new tenants. She took on more chores around the home but nothing she ever did for her mother was right. Despite her hard work and bringing in a salary, her mother labelled Maggie as lazy. A good for nothing. Her father was too weak to argue so kept quiet, and simply turned over in his bed whenever her mother ranted and raved about trivial things. Maggie was surprised when she returned home from work one evening to find the widower, Jacob Sawbury, seated at their table. It appeared he approached her father about Maggie going to work for him. Maggie, grateful her time at home might be nearing its end, listened to his offer.
    ‘It’ll be more than the Squire pays and a free meal thrown in, providing she can cook.’ Neither he nor her mother spoke directly to her, and Maggie dared not speak out. to decide.
    Cramped living conditions, a sick father, and an ungrateful mother were not the ingredients for a happy home. Farmer Sawbury offered her accommodation and work. Maggie prayed for a better life, and now her chance might be just around the corner, however, this farmer had a poor reputation in the village, and Maggie became nervous about her future. Her father tried to say something, but a coughing fit prevented him from asking questions. He waved his hand in a gesture to her mother, indicating for her to make the decision.
    Maggie watched as his thin, feeble arm flopped onto the grubby blanket. Both she and her father didn’t have to guess as to what her mother would decide. Her mother was a cold-hearted woman, and there was not a lot of love for Maggie – if any – and money served a better purpose.
    ‘You needn’t think you are getting her for nowt. Worth a something, she is. And neither is she staying under your roof without being wed. Marry her, and fetch me a hefty bag of coins, and she is yours.’ The pair shook hands in a solemn deal, and Maggie stared in despair. Sold for a bag of coins. There had been no point in her protesting, and did not want to listen to a lecture. She simply hoped life was about to take a turn for the better. Maggie was not going to upset her mother. Arguing might make her change her mind, and Farmer Sawbury was her ticket out of the clutches of a mealy-mouthed woman. As far as Maggie was concerned, her mother was dead. She also knew had her father been well, he would have bartered her the same way, and probably held out for more money. She was a nobody in the house, merely another mouth to feed.
    When I leave here, I will never return. I mean nothing, nothing to them. Nor they to me.
    Her mother organised the wedding for early morning of June second; a Monday. A quiet ceremony, to be held at St. Mary’s church in Redgrave. A beautiful sunrise greeted Maggie but she could not find excitement in the weather, nor the wedding.  She was tired from her chores the day before, and those she had to complete two hours early because of the wedding. Also, they were a mismatched couple in Maggie’s eyes, and she could not see it to be an ideal arrangement. Her husband-to-be was tall; extremely tall. She was as petite as he was wide shouldered. Ten years spanned between them. Maggie understood he had been married when he was her age, and his wife died in childbirth five years after the wedding. Maggie knew no more about the man beside her. She did not even know if he smiled, he had never done so in her presence. His dark eyebrows knitted together across a furrowed brow, and mingled with lank, unkempt hair. His face, swarthy dark from working outside in the sunshine, reminded her of the gypsies who moved from farm to farm. He was not a handsome man, and most definitely not her choice of husband if