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“I never thought you would be interested.”
“Of course I would be interested! Although… it would be cruel, do you not think, to leave Father to the tender mercies of Morgan and Charles? I should never be able to enjoy an evening at the Rectory, knowing they would have to call upon one of the women to make up a four for whist.”
“You could walk over there every evening after dinner,” James said. “In fact, there would be little walking to be done, since I dine there more often than not.”
“No, I could not abandon Father. It is important in the hour of his great loss to support him in every way that I can, do you not agree?”
James sighed. “Of course.”
“And I am the eldest son — the heir. It is my duty to be there.”
“I am sure you are right,” James said.
“Well, there is the Rectory now, so I will leave you, little brother.Au revoir.”
And with a quick wave, he was gone, leaving James to shake his head in affection. His brother would never change.
Whistling, he continued on to the Rectory.
1: Leaving Sagborough
SAGBOROUGH, WEST RIDING
JANUARY
Julia had endured fourteen farewell dinners, each more tedious than the last. As if it were not enough that every day must be spent kneeling before a trunk or box or portmanteau, folding and tucking and wrapping, but every evening they were all to don their finery, or what remained unpacked, and venture out to be congratulated or condoled, according to the opinion of the person offering the sentiment. There were those who thought they were entirely mad to leave the blessed country of Yorkshire to venture into the decadent south. There were those who envied them their opportunity to climb the ladder of society a little. And there were those who were no doubt glad of their going, or foretold catastrophe, or wished them gone long since. They allofferedgood wishes, but Julia took leave to doubt the sincerity of many of them.
Their final evening at Sagborough was spent in their own home, but if they had expected a quiet time, a respite before the rigours of the journey, they were mistaken. Everyone who regarded himself as a particular friend came to wish them a final farewell, and it seemed they had a great many particular friends, for the drawing room was full, and the parlour next door almost so.
Allie was cross, of course. The house should have been solely hers, as she whispered to anyone who would listen. As the eldest daughter of the family, the abandoned family home should rightfully have come to her, and not to Ted, who wasn’t even a legitimate son, for all he’d taken the Fletcher name. Now they were all to live together, Allie and Jack, and their three bairns, and Ted and Cathy with their four, all crammed in together, and Cathy ruling the domestic sphere. But Pa had been unmoved.
“You’re a Ewbank now, Allie,” he’d said, smiling ruefully at her. “You made your choice, and you must live with the consequences. Ted’s my son and my blood, just as much as you are, and he bears the family name, too. I want a Fletcher to have this house that’s been ours for so long. Four generations of Fletchers have lived here, and it’s right and proper that it should pass to a fifth. Will won’t need it, for he’ll inherit this grand estate of ours down south, and Johnny’s well set at Cambridge and needs nothing from me, so Ted’s the best person to have it. He’s got the warehouses to manage and the business to tend, and he can do that better from here. He’s the only Mr Fletcher of Fletcher’s Import and Export Company now, and he needs to live according to his position in this town.”
“But it will be so crowded, with two families living in a house intended for one.”
“It’s generous of Ted and Cathy to offer to share,” he said. “It’ll save you all a bit of money, and you must approve that, the good little housewife that you are. In time, Jack will have enough saved to buy you a house of your own, but it’s a good arrangement for now, and I shall be glad to think of you all living in this house, where we’ve all been so happy. Be content, Allie.”
Ted and Cathy seemed rather stunned by their good fortune, but the papers had been drawn up that day, with the whole family watching.
“Bridges are burned now and no mistake,” Will had whispered in Julia’s ear as Pa signed his name with a flourish.
“You ought to be cross about it,” Julia whispered back. “You’re the eldest legitimate son, the family house should be yours.”
Will had shrugged. “I’ll get a better one. Chadwell Park… I shall be master of Chadwell Park, in the far distant future, and I shall like that very well, I assure you.”
That evening, the two stood a little aside from the crowds thronging the drawing room.
“Aren’t you the least bit sorry to be leaving?” Julia said to him. “You have friends here, and favourite rides, and… and female friends.”
Will laughed. “I have other friends, friends I made at Harrow and Cambridge, and I shall make more. And there are females in Hertfordshire, I am certain. What about you? What will you miss?”
“My walks, I suppose, but there will be hundreds of acres of walks in Hertfordshire. I can’t wait!”
“No friends?”
“Myrealfriends are going with me — Rosie, Angie, Bella, you, Johnny. Pa and the new Mama, too. I shan’t be leaving anyone behind that I regard as an intimate friend. Unlike Rosie. How will she manage without Belinda Jupp? Look at them, weeping together over there.”
“They will write each other huge letters, every page double crossed,” Will said with a shrug.
