For The Sake of Her Family (20 page)

Nancy had made it clear that she wanted Alice to be part of the wedding package. Who’d have thought it, after their first encounter? He smiled to himself at the memory of Alice holding her
own against the sneering staff and his raging sister. She’d spoken her mind, too full of pride to be cowed by them. Funny old world: he’d travelled the globe, yet he never felt more
relaxed than when he gazed into the cornflower-blue eyes of his soon-to-be sister-in-law.

Alice leaned against the closed study door. Had she heard right? Was she now part of the family? Was Gerald really signing the cottage and marble works over to Will? If so, all
their worries were over. In the space of an hour, she had gone from abject despair to elation. A proper home, with money and good food. And she’d be looking across the dining table every day
at the man of her dreams. This really was going to be the year all her wishes came true.

When she got to the kitchen, however, she was soon brought down to earth by the sight of Mrs Dowbiggin and Faulks in secretive discussion.

‘I don’t think you should be with us. Faulks has told me the scenario. You’ll be thinking yourself better than us now. Never in all my days have I heard anything so scandalous!
Take heed, my girl: no good will come of this. If I were you, I’d lock my door on a night and warn that brother of yours what he’s really taken on. He’ll earn every penny
he’s got out of Master Gerald; you can tell him that from me.’

‘I don’t believe it’s any of your business, Mrs Dowbiggin. It’s between my brother and Lord Frankland – or Gerald, as I’m to call him from now on.’
Alice smiled. Now that it had finally sunk in that she had no more worries, she couldn’t resist a bit of mischief while at the same time putting the stuffy housekeeper in her place.

‘Well, you’ve changed your colours! The pair of you have worked your way into this family and now you’re going to drag it into the gutter. Well, it’ll be over my dead
body that you harm this family. Nancy was best off left alone in her bedroom with her memories and us to take care of her – no harm would have come to her then.’ Mrs Dowbiggin took the
copper pan that she’d been waving at Alice as if she wanted to clout her with it and put it on the pan rack.

‘Mrs Dowbiggin, please. I’ve always confided in you, and the only thing my brother has done wrong is fall in love with someone out of his class. Is that such a sin? Please, we all
have to live and work together, and I don’t want any bad feeling between us. I’m truly grateful for everything that everyone’s done for me these last few months. I’ll never
forget your help, especially.’ Alice squeezed the chubby red arm of her accuser with affection. ‘I’m lucky, Mrs Dowbiggin, but I’ll never forget where I came from and who
helped me get this far. All I ask is that you wish Will and Nancy luck. Because, as you say, they are going to need it. Moreover, I’m going to need your help. I’ve so much to learn
– I don’t want to let the family down.’ Alice smiled at the blustering housekeeper and hope that she’d smoothed her ruffled feathers.

‘Aye, well, we’ll see. But it’s still a rum carry-on.’ Mrs Dowbiggin threw her tea towel roughly over her shoulder. ‘And I don’t know what this useless
lump’s gawping at – he’s supposed to be moving you into your new room.’ She deftly flicked the end of the tea towel at Faulks, who up till then had stood on the sidelines,
saying nothing.

‘Don’t bring me into your petty argument. Unlike some, I know my place and keep my thoughts to myself. And kindly refrain from using that tea towel upon my personage.’ Faulks
rose from his chair. ‘Which room is to be yours, Miss Alice? Are we to move your belongings now or later?’

‘“Miss Alice” – listen to you! She’s Alice, you big galoot,’ Mrs Dowbiggin mumbled to herself.

‘She is now Miss Alice to me, as I will have to remember when we are in public. Now, which room did Master Gerald want you to have, Miss Alice?’ Faulks’s face was sombre. Mrs
Dowbiggin may not have realized it yet, but changes were afoot at the manor and he had every intention of keeping abreast of the times.

‘The blue room, Faulks. And thank you for helping me move my few possessions.’ Alice smiled at the poker-faced butler; perhaps he was not so bad. Mrs Dowbiggin bullied him something
terrible, and yet he never so much as batted an eyelid.

‘Good choice by Master Gerald – it gets all the morning sun. Follow me and we will see to it straight away, Miss Alice.’

‘Stuffy old cock,’ Mrs Dowbiggin muttered as the pair moved out of the kitchen. ‘No good will come of this day, you mark my words.’

‘You’ve certainly come off well with my forthcoming marriage, Sis. I’m still in shock myself. I can’t believe how much comes with our dear Nancy. Hard
to believe no one else has picked her up with her being worth all that money.’ Will Bentham sat in his usual fireside seat, his shoes practically smoking from the warmth of the fire as he
rested them on the trivet. ‘She’s worth a mint! We’ll never want for a penny.’

‘Everything comes at a price, our Will. Do you really know what you’ve taken on? I can’t help but think there’s something wrong. A woman of her standing should not be
marrying one of us. I don’t want to see any one of us hurt – I’ve had enough hurt lately to last me a lifetime.’ Alice took her cloak off and sat in the chair next to her
brother.

‘Give over – we’re made! You’re always looking at the downside, you are. Here you are living in the fancy house you’ve always dreamed of, and here’s me with
my own business, a wife that’ll adore me and a nice income – what more can we wish for? All we need to do now is find you a fellow from the snooty circles you’ll be moving in and
then we’ve cracked it.’ Will grinned at his sister as she played with her fur-trimmed gloves. ‘I see you’ve been spending their money already: new gloves, dress and cloak.
That lot must have cost a pretty penny.’

‘Nancy said I’d to have them when we went to Kendal the other week. She had a fitting for her wedding dress and while we were there she insisted I should have a new dress and cloak.
I don’t know how much they cost: it was all billed to the manor.’ Alice fumbled with the gloves, embarrassed. She had thought that she would enjoy having clothes bought for her and
being treated like a lady, but in all honesty, she wasn’t comfortable in her new position. She was neither one thing nor the other, with no purpose in life other than being companion to
Nancy. She had also felt extremely uncomfortable when the dressmaker measured her, eyeing her up and down, making her feel like something on the bottom of her shoe. Nancy had assured her that the
woman was only doing her job and not to be so silly. But still she felt unworthy of the quality material that was being draped on her.

‘Well, we’ll have to find you somebody, ’cos I see you and Jack have fallen out, else he wouldn’t have had Amy Lawson on his arm in the Moon the other night. Can’t
say I blame him, like. She is a bonny bit of a thing.’ He smiled, remembering Jack giving Amy a kiss outside the pub’s entrance.

‘I . . . I didn’t know Jack had found someone else. Is she all right, this Amy? I don’t think I know her.’ Alice was taken aback. She knew Jack had been avoiding her, but
she thought that he would have had the decency to tell her that they’d finished and that he had moved on. She missed Jack’s company; he was a best friend who always made everything all
right, no matter how bad things were. How she wished that he were still friends with her, just for company and for someone to talk to and share her concerns with.

‘’Course you know her; she’s from Bridge End. Her father once sold us a bull – queer old bloke, said he’d come and do the job himself if his bull didn’t
perform. She’s probably like her father. Knowing Jack, he’ll be going at it like a rabbit up in that bed over the stables!’ Will grinned, oblivious to the hurt he was causing his
sister.

‘Don’t be so vulgar, our Will! Besides, there is no bedroom at the stables, so he won’t be doing any such thing.’

‘There bloody well is! He uses it when he’s got a broody mare or when he wants a bit of peace and quiet, so that nobody knows he’s there. Funny bugger, I’ve often shouted
for him at the stable door with no reply, only to find him laying low up in that hayloft, not wanting to talk to anyone. Come to think of it, you two are a lot alike. He goes up in his loft, and
you go up the fell. Funny buggers, the pair of you.’

‘I didn’t know he had a room up there.’ Alice now knew why Jack had been avoiding her. He’d been there in his hidey-hole the day when she was upset and talked to his
horse. No wonder he was avoiding her like the plague. She had thought it was because of her new position at the manor; she should have known better. Jack wasn’t like that. One day she’d
tell him the truth, but not yet. ‘I hope he’ll be happy with Amy. Me and him just weren’t meant to be.’

‘Come on, our lass, cheer up. Bloody hell, you’re hard work today! Another few months and it’s my wedding. What do you think our folks would say? I’ll never forget that
evening when Gerald Frankland brought Father home. God, the old man was drunk. That’s when all this started, if you think about it.’

Alice tried to rally her spirits with thoughts of the wedding. For all her faults, Nancy was a good woman who was in love with Will. ‘So have you got a new suit? And who’s to be your
best man? You know I’m your matron of honour, don’t you?’ Alice grinned at her brother. ‘Don’t tell me, let me guess: it’s Jack, isn’t it? I can’t
understand why none of their family is coming, not even any of Gerald’s friends. It’s going to be a quiet affair, because there’s not many of our side still standing.’

‘Never mind, Sis, we’ll all be there that counts. As long as I get a ring on her finger, that’s all that matters. Don’t worry, I’ll tell Jack not to rub your nose
in it with his latest conquest. I know you think a lot of him really.’ He winked. He’d noticed how upset she’d been when he joked about Jack and Amy, but it would never have
worked between Alice and Jack. Too much to handle, was his sister. She’d soon have got bored with his steady best friend.

‘Don’t care if he does. I’ve got other fish to fry.’ Alice wasn’t going to let her brother’s words hurt her. Besides, when it came to Jack, she was the one
who had done all the hurt; she deserved everything she got. But she was damned if she was going to let her brother know that.

‘That’s it, lass – don’t let the buggers grind you down. No matter how bad it gets, keep on fighting, else they’ve won and that’s not what life’s about.
What’s made you come up here today to visit, then? No lords or ladies to entertain or take high tea with?’

‘Gerald’s going through his tenancies for the year. There’ll be tenants going in and out of his office all day today. I thought it would be better if I made myself scarce.
We’re the talk of the dale as it is, without me being there to add to the gossip. Imagine the embarrassment if Father’s friends saw me strutting about, dressed to the nines, when
they’d come cap in hand to keep their homes for another year.’

‘But we’ve done nothing wrong, Alice. We’ve only taken what was on offer to us and made the best of a bad situation. Come on, lass, it’s what you’ve always wanted:
big house, good clothes, full belly – a lot more than we’ve had in the past.’

‘You don’t understand. We have all the material things that we ever needed, but I realize now it’s not them that’s important. It’s knowing who you are, being your
own person and having your freedom. I love being part of the family, but I need that little bit more security, same as you have.’ Alice reached for her cloak and put it around her shoulders.
‘I’ve got to go. I’m meeting Mrs Dowbiggin at St John’s. We’ve got to decide how to decorate the church. Thank God you both chose April – at least there will be
spring flowers to decorate it with!’ She opened the cottage door and smiled at Will.

‘Ali, if you don’t like it, change it. Set your head and go for it – bring me back my stubborn, headstrong little sister, the one with the attitude, please.’ He got up
and kissed her tenderly on her cheek. ‘Stick me some dandelions in a jam jar – that’ll do for their wedding. Let’s bring ’em down to our level.’

‘Nay, we can’t have that, our Will. They’d be wetting the bed all night – isn’t that what Mum used to say when we picked dandelions?’ Alice grinned and closed
the door.

Will was right: she needed a kick up the bum. After all, she was now Miss Alice, not plain Alice Bentham; she had an allowance and was about to help arrange her brother’s wedding to Lord
Frankland’s sister. Enough moaning – time to get on with things.

The walk to the church was exactly what Alice needed. Although it was only the end of January, the weather was quite mild and she enjoyed the two-mile stroll from Stone House
to St John’s, breathing in the sharp, clear air and seeing early signs of spring all around her. Lichen covered the tops of the walls and the bark of the bare trees, making everything greener
than the grey day should have permitted. In another week or two, the grassy banks would be full of celandines, primroses and wood sorrel and the pungent aroma of wild garlic would fill the air
along the riverside. The trees would be filled with nesting birds and the dark nights would soon be gone. It was a time to look forward, to get on with life and stop dwelling on the past.

‘Where have you been? I thought me and Faulks were going to freeze to death in this little church. It isn’t like the one at Dent; there’s nothing grand about this one. There
was me getting in a tizz, worrying about all the preparations that needed doing, and Faulks has just told me that there’s only going to be ten at the wedding. Lord Frankland doesn’t
want a big do, doesn’t think Miss Nancy could handle it.’ Mrs Dowbiggin shook her head. ‘It gets stranger by the minute. I always dreamed that a Frankland wedding would be a
splendid affair. I was really looking forward to decorating the church and manor, cooking for a huge wedding party and making the finest wedding cake, and now Master Gerald’s saying immediate
family only. It’s a rum do, is this wedding.’

‘I like St John’s. It’s a lovely little church, nestled here among the yew trees and with the river running by. I don’t think Nancy and Will would have felt comfortable
in anything bigger. This is charming.’ Alice surveyed the wooden pews and glittering altarpieces and felt a peace she hadn’t known in a long time. ‘It’s not all about
status, Mrs Dowbiggin; it’s about being right for the moment.’ She watched the old housekeeper wrinkle her nose and run a finger along the altar. ‘I hope that they will be very
happy together and that their union will be blessed with children.’