Replenish the Earth by Anna Jacobs Read Free Book Online

shuffling towards her. The door opened a crack and an old woman, dressed in clothes as ragged as the man’s, peered through it, brandishing a carving knife. She sighed in audible relief as she saw Sarah and let the knife hand drop.
    ‘You'm missed your way, mistress. Village is down t'other end of the lane. There be no gentry livin' here now.’
    She made as if to shut the door and Sarah put out a hand to stop her. ‘I haven’t missed my way. I’m Sarah Bedham.’
    ‘Ah.’ She stared hard at Sarah. ‘Will Pursley said you were coming today, but he said this afternoon, not this morning. Said he were bringing you.’ The woman peered around, as if expecting to see him nearby.
    Sarah tried to be patient, though she was longing to go inside and the doorway was still blocked. ‘Well, I’ve come on my own. I didn’t want to wait.’
    As the woman studied her face again, the fear and hostility faded from her eyes, and she let the hand holding the knife fall by her side. ‘Be you truly Miss Elizabeth's daughter?’
    What were she and her son so afraid of, Sarah wondered? ‘Yes. And you are, I think, Mary Hames. Mr Jamieson told me you were living here.’
    Mary nodded and glanced at Sarah again. ‘You don’t look like Miss Elizabeth.’ Then she saw the locket and reached for it. ‘But thass hers, right enough. I seen it many a time. Her godfather give it to her when she turned eighteen, Lord Tarnly.’
    She studied Sarah again, then clapped her hands together triumphantly. ‘You d’look like Old Master, thass who! Your great-granfer, not your granfer. He were a big man, Sir James, wi' grey eyes like yourn. I remember him well. There’s a painting of him in the long gallery upstairs.’ Tears tracking down the wrinkles on her cheeks, she reached out to tug at Sarah’s arm. ‘Come in out of the cold! And welcome home, mistress! Welcome home!’
    So at last Sarah entered her house, and she cared not that it was by the back door. Her heart was too full for speech as she moved slowly inside, and once there, she could only stand and look around, swallowing hard and willing herself not to weep for sheer joy.
    It was a large, square room with a bright fire of logs burning in an enormous grate over whose iron cooking rails hung an assortment of hooks and a kettle crane holding a big, blackened kettle trickling steam. There was a window on the yard side of the room, though the panes were dusty and some cracked. The floor was paved with great square stone slabs and those nearest the door had hollows worn in them, as if countless feet had left a lasting impression of their passing.
    Sarah moved across to warm her hands at the fire. At one side stood an old-fashioned wooden settle with a high back and cowering behind it was the man who had run away from her in the shrubbery. He whimpered and hid his face in his hands as he saw her looking at him.
    Mary came to stand at Sarah’s side, ‘Don’t ee be feared of the lady, boy. She’s our new mistress.’ She turned to Sarah. ‘My Petey's nervous of strangers, mistress. I know he ent got all his wits, but he wouldn’t harm anything, that boy wouldn’t. An’ he’s a good worker if you do but take the time to tell him slow what to do, an’ maybe watch him do it once or twice.
    ‘Will Pursley hires him sometimes for a day's diggin' or to help wi' the harvest an’ he wouldn’t pay out good money unless he got value for it! Yes, he’s a good lad in his own way, is my Petey, but they boys in the village do torment him so! Then he hits out at them. S'only natural, that is, to defend yourself!’
    ‘Yes, of course,’ agreed Sarah. She had seen people bait idiots before and it had always sickened her. ‘I’m sure he is a good - er - boy.’ Petey looked to be at least thirty and his hair was starting to go thin on top. ‘Mr Jamieson told me you two had been looking after the house.’
    Before Mary could answer, the back door crashed open and a burly man with dark hair