Read Rebel Sisters for Free Online Page A

confided. ‘I will be based in different parts of the county, giving practical lessons in cookery and the use of these new stoves to groups of people.’
    â€˜Are you going to accept it?’
    â€˜Yes, but I haven’t told Mother and Father yet.’
    â€˜Miss Independent.’
    â€˜You can talk,’ Nellie teased. ‘When are you going to study in Germany?’
    â€˜Next year,’ Kate said, blushing modestly. ‘I hope to study at the university in Berlin and I plan to give language classes too.’
    â€˜What if you meet a handsome German man?’
    â€˜Nellie, I doubt that will happen.’ Kate laughed. ‘I’m sure German men are much the same as Irish or English ones and are not exactly keen on carrot-haired women of a certain age and demeanour.’
    Kate was the kindest sister, blessed with an amazing intelligence but overly conscious of her homely face, high colouring and red hair.
    Linking arms as they approached Temple Villas, Kate promised to lend her moral support when Nellie told Mother about the position she had been offered.
    As predicted, Mother took the news badly.
    â€˜A young woman travelling the countryside without a chaperone, exposed to all kinds of situations? It is certainly not desirable, and not what your father and I would have wanted or expected for you,’ she remonstrated. ‘What would our neighbours and friends think of us if we should let one of our daughters be involved in such a thing, traversing the countryside and at risk of all kinds of things?’
    â€˜They would think what forward-looking parents the Giffords are,’ retorted Kate. ‘What bright, intelligent young women they have raised, ready to take up careers of their own and be independent.’
    Mother coloured.
    â€˜Mother, it is very safe, I promise,’ Nellie assured her. ‘I will be transported to each place where I am to give my demonstrations and lessons, along with my equipment, and I will stay there for a few weeks giving the course to local women.’
    â€˜And where will you stay – in some local hotel with rough salesmen and tradesmen?’
    â€˜It is arranged that I will lodge and have meals with a respectable local family in their own home, either in the town or on a farm,’ she explained. ‘There would be no impropriety involved, Mother. It is a very respectable position, I am assured.’
    Mother didn’t look convinced.
    â€˜Nellie is very competent and able,’ interjected Kate. ‘Otherwise she would not have been offered such a position. What would you have her do – return to cook here at home for you and Father while the rest of us go on to study and have careers? My sister deserves better and should at least be given the opportunity to prove herself.’
    Kate’s appeal was like some legal argument and, much to Nellie’s surprise, Father and Mother agreed, with the proviso that, if her position proved unsuitable, she would agree to return to Dublin.
    â€˜Well done!’ chorused her sisters and brothers when she proudly told them the good news of her official appointment.
    Three weeks later she nervously stepped off the train in Meath with all her cooking equipment and was met by a man in a pony and trap, already loaded with her stove, ready to bring her to where she was to set up in an old hall in the middle of Enfield town. She was staying with an elderly couple who lived only a few doors away from the hall and made her feel immediately welcome. A woman had been assigned to help her during the six-week course she was teaching in basic cookery and domestic skills.
    As Nellie looked out on the sea of eager faces when she stood up to talk in her new apron, she put her nervousness behind her and concentrated on the task in hand, passing on the knowledge and experience she had gained. Young wives eager to learn; women wanting to discover how to feed a large, hungry family on a small