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“Why do you sound so surprised?”
“You never showed any inclination before. But who? Oh, do you want the fifty thousand for yourself?”
James gave a huff of annoyance. Michael could be remarkably obtuse sometimes. “Of course not. Rosie is very lovely, but I want no empty-headed beauty at my side. I am going to marry Julia Fletcher.”
Michael only goggled at him.
~~~~~
‘Chadwell Park, Friday, Disregard my last letter, dear friend. It seems Mr Michael Plummer is not to offer for me after all, for he has not visited once this week, and Mama thinks it will all come to nothing now. Thank goodness! There is still London to be navigated, but I am reprieved for now. Your very relieved friend, Rosie.’
~~~~~
MARCH
Mama had deemed Camilla’s two week visit such a success that it had been extended for a further week, and then to a full month, so that she could attend the Park’s first ball. Julia was less happy with these arrangements, for if her rôle was to contain Camilla, the effect of it was equally to contain Julia herself. Apart from a few occasions when she had dragged Camilla out to take a turn around the gardens, and once when Pa had taken pity on her and taken her out for a walk, she had not even been outside for weeks.
The extended stay had a happy side effect, however. The clothes Camilla’s father had sent from Yorkshire had grown rather tight — “We are feeding you too many sweet puddings,” Mama had said cheerfully, if inaccurately — and so Camilla was to spend a day with Madame Farage and her helpers, being fitted out with somewhat roomier gowns.
This was too good an opportunity for Julia to miss.
“Mama, since Camilla will be busy with fittings all day, may I go for a walk?” she said at breakfast.
“Must you, Julia?” Mama said. “With all this frost, you risk slipping over and twisting an ankle.”
“The early frost will have cleared by now,” Julia said.
“But it might rain — or snow! We have not seen a single flake of snow since we arrived, and that cannot last.”
“I shall not go far if it looks as if the weather will turn, but it is clear just now and I have had no proper exercise for weeks.”
“You can walk about the house,” Mama began, but Pa lowered his newspaper.
“That’s not at all the same, Lizzie. Jules, there is no hunt today, I take it?”
Julia smiled. “No. Mr Plummer told me there won’t be another now that the farmers are starting to sow.”
“Then I can’t see any objection. Your mama can spare you for an hour or two, I’m sure. I’d go with you myself, puss, if I hadn’t arranged to meet Kelshaw this morning about those cottages.”
“Mama?”
“Very well, but do not be wandering all over the countryside, Julia.”
“I won’t, Mama. Thank you! Thank you, Pa.”
Oh, the joy of freedom at last! She bundled herself up in her old woollen cloak and a multitude of scarves, for despite her brave words the air was bitter, stinging her cheeks as she strode up the hill towards the gate.Hergate, as she had come to think of it. She could not rest her arms on its gnarled and pitted wood without remembering her first sight of James walking up towards her, with his gun in his hands and his dilapidated clothes. The memory made her smile. It was no wonder she had thought him to be the gamekeeper!
From the gate she walked down past the little cottage and across a narrow belt of woodland, then another field. On previous walks, she had turned aside at this point to follow a series of open fields, but the wind was so bitter today that she was minded to seek a more sheltered way. She made her way through a small copse, and on the far side of it, only a narrow strip of pasture, dotted with trees, separated her from the river, close enough now that she could hear it burbling melodically in the distance.
Climbing a gate, she began to cross the pasture, humming quietly to herself. Ahead of her was only solid hedge, too thick to scramble through, even if one had no regard for scratches and tears. But surely there was another gate…
It was as her eye followed the line of the hedge that she realised she was not alone. Not far away a creature, who had been grazing placidly, had now raised its head and was looking directly at her. A very large creature, with a massive head and an unfriendly light in its eyes.
Julia was town born and bred, but she knew a bull when she saw one. Slowly, very, very slowly, she backed away.
The bull raised its head a little more.
Careful step by careful step, she inched towards the gate and safety. Was there a gap in the hedge through which she might squeeze? There was not.
