The Lorimer Line Read Online Free Page A

to be observed, the matter was now settled.
    Margaret went straight to her mother’s boudoir. A fire was burning there as usual, although it was May. Georgiana complained incessantly of the dampness of the Bristol climate and exposed herself to it as little as possible. She was almost thirty years younger than her husband, but ever since the stillbirth of her last baby, eight years earlier, she had retreated from her marriage – as from every other form of exertion — into the shelter of this one stifling room.
    As well as being over-heated, the boudoir was over-furnished. It was impossible to move anywhere without brushing against some small side-table laden with ornaments or silver-framed family photographs. The day-bed and the chairs were covered in plush and protected by tasselled antimacassars, and the heavy curtains were never fully drawn back. The smell of Georgiana’s pug dog and of her latest meal or hot drink always lingered to make the room stuffy. Margaret could hardly bear to remain in it for long. She had been brought up in a house which had been built and furnished in a classical style a hundred years earlier and little changed since then, and liked its uncluttered spaciousness. She did not begrudge her mother this private island of clutter, of course, but she spent as little time in it as possible.
    The doctor was just leaving the boudoir as Margaret arrived. Dr Scott had brought all Georgiana’s three surviving children into the world, as well as the four who had failed to reach their first birthday, and since then his weekly visits had brought him near to being a friend of the family. Through his wife he was well-connected, and had recently inherited from his father-in-law a legacy whichJohn Junius’s interest had helped him to invest to advantage in Lorimer’s Bank. His new prosperity had enabled him to move to the growing suburb of Clifton, in which so many of his wealthiest patients lived. His only regret at this time of his life was that his son, Charles, on qualifying as a doctor, had taken a permanent appointment on the staff of a London hospital instead of returning to join his father’s practice.
    However, Dr Scott had no intention of retiring for a good many years, so there was time enough for the situation to change. He was in a cheerful mood as he greeted Margaret and asked for her co-operation in ensuring that in the afternoon Mrs Lorimer did not go straight from her overheated room to the garden.
    Georgiana too was in good spirits, less petulant than usual. Although the afternoon’s party was to be of such a humble kind, it would provide her with the chance to show herself as a hostess. She agreed without argument that Betty Hurst should be engaged and trained as a lady’s maid, and then spent half an hour quizzing Margaret about which costume she intended to wear for the afternoon. It would be too cool for lace, Georgiana said; safer to wear the brown dress which had a velvet jacket. Margaret listened politely to her mother’s opinions without allowing them to change her own plans. She was shown Georgiana’s new buckles of cut steel and admired them dutifully, although in her heart she considered such small details of costume to be worth no more time than was needed to buy them. When the arrival of the chairs which had been hired to set around the garden was announced, she took the opportunity to escape.
    Supervising the arrangements could have occupied her for the whole morning. But the household servants were well trained. Margaret had already explained the day’s requirements, and they would work with more responsibility if she did not oversee them directly. It was as muchto remove herself from the temptation to interfere as to implement her father’s wishes without delay that she asked for the victoria to be ready for her at eleven.
    First she went to her music teacher’s old lodgings and was there able to discover Luisa’s new