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Norma remained mute. By time they returned to the front door a heavy silence had descended upon them both. Norma sailed out of the door without a backward look leaving Sissy to take one last worried look at the empty property. With a sigh, she left the house and locked the door. The warmth that immediately engulfed her when she stepped outside was a welcome relief but didn’t eradicate her concern about having to move into the property.
I don’t think anything can ease my qualms about calling this place my home. Still, it is a home. We can afford to live here, and the farmer who owns the house has a family, sons, who will take over the running of the farm when he passes on. There is very little likelihood we are ever going to have to move again. We must take comfort in that.
With a sense of bleakness she had never felt before, Sissy hurried after her aunt. Neither of them spoke as they made their way back to the village. Sissy tried to think of something to say to brighten the atmosphere but she truly didn’t feel able to.
‘What do we do?’ she whispered when they reached the end of the road they currently lived on and stopped in the middle of the path.
Norma shook her head and sighed. There was a sadness in her eyes Sissy had only witnessed when they had been forced to leave the manor house they had lived in when Sissy’s father had been alive. ‘We have no choice but to move there. We need somewhere to stay.’
Sissy threw a look over her shoulder at the house they were going to move to. It was still visible on the horizon, if she squinted a little.
‘I am going to visit with Maud for a while,’ Norma announced suddenly.
The last thing Sissy wanted to do was spend the next hour or so listening to Norma and her friend gossip. ‘I am going for a lie down,’ Sissy replied, turning away before Norma could demand she accompany her.
‘Are you sure you wouldn’t like to come too?’ Norma asked hopefully.
‘No. I really do need to think,’ Sissy replied with a kindly smile. ‘See you later.’
She hurried off before Norma could demand that Sissy walk her to the door. Sissy knew that if she was asked to do that the second she reached Maud’s house she would be encouraged inside and would then be expected to stay and take tea. That was the last thing she felt able to do. Right now, all she wanted to do was cry.
Minutes after leaving her aunt, Sissy let herself into the house she had, for the last several years at least, called home. But once inside the sitting room she stared at the emptiness that awaited her. While the house she was in wasn’t anything wonderful or luxurious it was considerably more homely than the cottage she had just left. Sissy shuddered in dismay. She could not see their personal belongings in the empty cottage at all no matter how much she tried to envisage it. That made her wonder what they were going to do to furnish the new house.
It is going to be even more evident that we are impoverished if we just use what we have, but we cannot afford anything else.
It was galling that Morgan was going to be able to see exactly how poor they were. With a sad sigh, Sissy removed her shawl and made her way into the kitchen. She was just starting to put the makings of supper together when there was a knock on the front door. Sissy cautiously hurried to the front window and peered around the shutter. She mentally cursed when her gaze clashed with Morgan’s. Slowly, reluctantly, she made her way to the front door and opened it.
‘Good morning, Sissy. How are you today?’
Sissy dipped into a curtsey and tried to keep her face blank. ‘I am fine, thank you.’
‘Is your aunt at home?’ Morgan asked, peering around her. ‘Might I come in? There is something I need to discuss with you.’
‘My aunt isn’t here.’ Sissy tried to keep her gaze on the floor but the sight of him standing before her, so handsome and strong, was bewitching. She had to look up. Their eyes met. The room they were in faded. She heard nothing but her heartbeat. She felt nothing but his presence before her. Sissy stared when
she knew it was rude. She stared when she knew it was wiser to look away. Nothing could make her tear her gaze away from his. It took her a few moments to realise that he was staring at her just as determinedly and didn’t seem able to look away either.
I doubt it is for the same reasons, though. I doubt Morgan would ever feel anything but pity for someone like me.
That was enough to snap Sissy out of her daze. She lowered her gaze and then realised that he was staring at her because he had asked her something. She couldn’t remember what, though.
Morgan refused to take his leave of her. Instead, he edged deeper into the room and closed the door behind him. He waited for her to remind him that it wasn’t right or proper that they were alone together. When she didn’t, he stepped closer still.
‘Might I persuade you to take a walk with me?’ he asked huskily. It wasn’t that he wanted to whisper or was worried that someone was going to overhear his request. He wanted her to know that his invitation was for her and her only. ‘There is something we need to discuss.’
‘Oh?’ Sissy tried not to look worried, but her stomach fell to her toes. ‘I don’t think that-’
‘Please, Sissy,’ Morgan pressed.
‘That would be wonderful,’ she replied eventually. The doubts that hovered in the back of her mind were pointedly ignored. She didn’t want to worry about what anybody thought if they saw her walking with Morgan. Now that she knew what her future was going to contain, she didn’t really care much about anything.
They are going to criticise us anyway, so I may as well enjoy this moment while I can. God knows it isn’t likely to happen again.
Sissy knew that Norma wouldn’t object to her going for a walk with him because she knew that Morgan could be trusted. So, Sissy followed him out of the house. She struggled to hide her surprise when he held a gentlemanly elbow out to her and smiled expectantly. It felt wrong to have any kind of physical contact with him, but it was churlish to refuse his silent request – wasn’t it? Touching him created a fission of awareness to shiver through her. It felt strange to be this close to him yet wonderful at the same time. Consequently, as soon as the sun brushed her face, Sissy sighed with contentment and was infinitely pleased she had made the decision to accompany him.
‘I understand that you went to view Farmer Martin’s cottage,’ he began when they had reached the narrow path running parallel to the river which flowed around the outskirts of the southernmost edge of the town.
Sissy studied the glistening surface of the water tumbling past the bank upon which several ducks were swimming. ‘We have indeed.’
