Love or Duty by Roberta Grieve Read Free Book Online

Sunday school teaching, she was bored.
    If only she was allowed to get a proper job like so many of her school friends. Peggy had trained to be a school teacher and now taught at a village school not far away from Holton, although she would have to give it up when she married. And some of the other girls had become nurses or worked in shops.
    But Dora insisted that ladies didn’t work. It wasn’t as if they needed the money. Not for the first time Louise wished she’d been born a boy so that she could follow her father into the family business. She had a feeling that Stanley would like to have her working with him. But as always, he deferred to his wife and gently told Louise ‘Your mother needs you at home.’

     
    As usual when her household duties were done, Louise was bored and restless . What should she do with herself for the rest of the day? Sarah was at singing practice and Dora, after a busy morning writing letters confirming engagements for future concerts, was lying down. Stanley was at the office as usual and the house was quiet.
    Louise sighed and decided to go for a walk. As she opened the door into the hall, Polly came running along the passage from the kitchen at the back of the house. Her face was flushed and her cap askew.
    ‘Oh, Miss, come quick. Cook’s had a fall – she’s hurt real bad.’ The maid clutched at Louise’s arm.
    ‘What happened?’
    ‘I’m not sure, Miss. I came in and found her lying on the floor. She’s in terrible pain.’
    Louise gently removed Polly’s clutching hand and hurried into the kitchen. A quick glance at the overturned stool, the broken jar and spilled flour told her what had happened. She knelt beside the still figure. ‘Cookie, tell me – where does it hurt?’
    Cook opened her eyes and moved a hand. ‘I can’t move me leg, Miss,’ she said between gasps of pain.
    ‘Lie still, we’ll fetch the doctor,’ Louise said. She pulled the tattered old cushion off the chair by the range, put it under the old woman’s head and told Polly to fetch a blanket. She sat on the floor holding her hand and gently stroking strands of hair away from her face. Cook’s eyes had closed again and she was breathing raggedly.
    When Polly came back she tucked the blanket round the still form. ‘Stay with her while I telephone the doctor,’ she ordered.
    Old Dr Tate listened while she explained what had happened. ‘It sounds as if she’ll need to go to hospital. I’ll make arrangements then pop round,’ he said.
    He arrived at the same time as the ambulance and decided to go to the hospital with her. ‘I’ll let you know how she is later on,’ he told Louise, touching her shoulder briefly before following the stretcher out of the front door.
    She must tell Mother what had happened, Louise thought. But first she must make sure Polly was all right. The poor girl looked thoroughly shaken up when she returned to the kitchen and promptly burst into tears before sinking into Cook’s chair – a sure sign of how upset she was.
    ‘What are we going to do, Miss?’ she sobbed.
    ‘Well, first of all, you’re going to make a pot of tea while I go up and tell Mother about the accident. I’m surprised she didn’t come down to see what all the fuss was about. Then we’re going to sit down and work out what we’re going to give the Master and Miss Sarah for their supper when they get home.’
    ‘But I can’t cook, Miss. I know I ’elps Cook out but I only does what she tells me. I can’t manage on me own.’
    ‘I can’t cook very well either, but I’m sure we’ll manage together.’ Louise patted Polly’s arm reassuringly and left the room.
    ‘I thought that stupid girl had gone and broken something again when I heard the noise,’ Dora said.
    Louise explained that Cookie had been taken to hospital.
    ‘How are we going to manage?’ Dora cried, her hysterics rivalling Polly’s when she realized they would have no one to cook for them. ‘We’ll have to engage