Abigail's Cousin Read Online Free PDF

secret.
    On opening the
door, she called out: "Now, little miss. Are you playing or!" upon
which note Sarah appeared speaking sharply: "Now child what is
going on?"
    The little
girl stood up offering her doll to Abigail who looked at Sarah who
said: "It's our coachman's little girl. Now Mary, run off into the
kitchen like a good girl!"
    "Take my hand,
miss Mary!" offered Abigail smiling defiantly at her cousin, "We'll
go to the kitchen, together, shall we? Are you going to show me the
way?"
    "Yes, please!" cried Mary taking the
proffered hand and off they went down the corridor leaving Sarah
feeling rather miffed that her cousin had not asked her leave nor
even given her a backward glance. Was it just thoughtlessness or a
defiant sense of independence? She hoped the former as she
h ad definite plans for
Abigail.
     
     

Chapter 2
    Roads in the
closing years of the seventeenth century were little better than
the farm tracks of today where the farmer will fill in holes to
even out bumps for a reasonably even ride on his tyred tractor.
Tyres however were well into the future and the inventor of the
modern macadamised road had not been born. However cantilever
springing had brought a degree of comfort and the Marlborough's
carriage was so equipped though the wheels were still of wood with
an iron band smithied onto the circumference with the object to
inhibit wear rather than provide any extra comfort.
    Having set out and joined the Cottonmill
Lane in the direction of the London road, they were at the
mile-house before Sarah ventured to say anything to her companion, Abigail Hill:
    "For once his
lordship, my lord and master, has seen fit not to take the carriage
and has taken Chestnut into the City."
    "The carriage
is much more comfortable than the wagon" replied Abigail, adding:
"But the great bonus is having Tom. His Grace will miss him keenly
today unless he has got to know London streets in the
meantime."
    Sarah agreed:
"Had I thought on him yesterday evening, I might still have my
hair. Denying his services to my lord and master put a different
complexion on things."
    Abigail in a reflective mood, said: "I'm
so looking fo rward to
meeting brother Jack."
    Lady Churchill
looked at Abigail with amusement as her memory of Abigail's brother
was of his maintaining distance between himself and his sister.
There seemed to be no brotherly longing for togetherness, but
perhaps, being an only child, she had little understanding of a
brother and sister relationship. To keep up the conversation, she
mused aloud:
    "It be strange
the preferences of princes."
    "I think you
mean," replied Abigail, "about my Jack being too tall for Prince
George's liking."
    Sarah hastened
to dispel any suggestion of lese-majesty, saying: "It be a little
unseemly I think that a great gallant like your Jack should tower
over a prince of the royal blood, and a foreigner at that."
    Abigail burst
out laughing and Sarah raised her eyebrows until Abigail explained:
"He wasn't too tall to reach the apples in the orchard, last
summer."
    "Or the ladle
to help himself of the cider" retorted Sarah sternly, "Otherwise I
scarce saw neither sight nor sound of him."
    "But he was
well liked," insisted Abigail though Sarah still was grudging:
"Especially with a few ladles of cider tucked away."
    "His
speciality was bottles, ma'am." Sarah looked up sharply to see the
little hatch open and Tom peering down. She said: "You gave me a
shock Tom as I didn't hear you open the hatch."
    Tom went on
garrulously: "Did you never 'ear 'is nickname, ma'am. That were
four-bottle Jack. Nobody beat 'is record, nor never will."
    Sarah reproved him: "You mind the
road , Tom. Never mind,
Jack!"
    "Just want to tell e ma'am. We be at
London Colney." And with
that advice he shut the hatch and Abigail commented that each
bottle held a quart so that her brother would have a gallon of
cider swilling round inside him to which Sarah wrinkled her nose in
disgust commenting:
    "I trust he paid for it,