Farewell to Lancashire

Read Farewell to Lancashire for Free Online Page B

Book: Read Farewell to Lancashire for Free Online
Authors: Anna Jacobs
Tags: Family, Historical Saga
sister’s arm a quick squeeze of sympathy. Cassandra tried and failed to smile back at her. Her aunt might not be here this time, but clearly she’d spread the rumours far and wide. Anger stirred in her at being treated like this, but she held it back. She couldn’t afford to lose her place in this class, because it meant a glass of milk and a piece of bread each time she attended, as well as sixpence.
    But it was so unfair to be treated like this!
    In the small room off the Sunday School area, Livia looked at her companion. ‘Is something wrong?’ She tried to keep a pleasant expression on her face, but truth to tell, she didn’t much like this particular coterie of shopkeepers’ wives.
    As the daughter of a cleric who didn’t have a private income or a rich living, she’d had to be careful with money all her life. And after her marriage she’d still not got money to spare and was shocked sometimes at how carelessly her husband spent their limited resources. But seeing for herself how much suffering had been caused by the war in America, Livia really wanted to help.
    ‘You’re new to the town, my dear,’ her companion said. ‘But you’ll soon find out that
that creature
should not be allowed in a sewing class with decent young women.’
    Livia stared at her. ‘You mean the young woman I was talking to?’
    ‘Yes. One of the Blake girls. Tries to call herself Cassandra.’
    ‘Is that not her real name?’
    ‘It ought not to be, not for a girl of that class. We call her Cass, which is much more suitable to her station in life. She’s not only a Methodist, but her father is a strange man, who has wasted his money for years on Greek lessons. What use has an operative for Greek, I ask you? And he gives those girls of his too much freedom, which they abuse shamefully.’
    ‘How do you know this?’
    ‘My friend Isabel Blake, who is unfortunately related to them by marriage, told me all about the situation.’ She shuddered. ‘To think I have to associate with them here. If my husband didn’t insist I help out, I’d not stay, I can tell you. We can only hope those creatures will realise they’re not wanted and stop attending.’
    ‘They’re hungry. They need to come.’
    ‘Let them find sustenance elsewhere, then, preferably in another town.’
    Livia bit back a sharp response and went to look through the half-open door at the object of all this disgust. ‘Cassandra Blake doesn’t act in a forward way, nor does she look immoral. Her clothing is modest and clean.’
    ‘She’s too cunning to misbehave when she’s with decent folk. The ones sitting on either side of her are two of her three sisters – they try to call themselves Pandora and Xanthe – can you imagine folk of that class calling their children by such names?
We
call them Dora and Susan.’
    Livia bit back a demand to know what right anyone had to change a person’s name, because she knew it’d fall on deaf ears. ‘I see. Well, Cassandra doesn’t seem forward to me and if she has sinned in the past, our Lord managed to forgive sinners and so shall I.’ She didn’t wait for an answer but walked back into the room and made her way round it, stopping again by the three sisters. ‘Cassandra?’
    ‘Yes, Mrs Southerham.’
    ‘I wondered if you’d like to help me with the baby clothes? We have a big pile of them donated by charitable ladies. They need to be sorted out and mended carefully. Your needlework is better than that of the others here, so would be more suited for dainty work.’
    She saw the surprise on the young woman’s face, saw too the intelligence there. No doubt that also upset the ladies. ‘The baby clothes are in another room. Leave that unfinished pinafore at the front for someone else to work on, but bring the sewing equipment you were given.’
    She smiled at the other two sisters and led the way out, ignoring the other lady supervisor’s outraged glare.
    Wondering what had caused this offer, Cassandra followed

Similar Books

The Beast

Hugh Fleetwood

Fearsome

S. A. Wolfe

Waybound

Cam Baity

The Wicked Boy

Kate Summerscale

Criminal Minds

Max Allan Collins

Good Faith

Jane Smiley