Elizabeth Mansfield Read Online Free PDF Page B

been a subject of contention between them for years, and Camilla instinctively felt that the matter was about to explode in her face. She got up from the sofa and returned to her place at the window. Staring out on the prim grounds with unseeing eyes, she said hesitantly, “Perhaps you misunderstood … or didn’t hear him quite accurately … ?”
    “Camilla, I am sick and tired of listening to your weak-kneed defense of that incompetent, disobedient,
godless
knave! While this is, of course, just as much your home as mine—and the Good Lord knows that you may have an equal say in running it—you cannot expect me to have to endure obscenity and blasphemy from the servants!”
    Camilla’s fingers clenched.
An equal say in running it, indeed!
she thought, gritting her teeth furiously. Never once in the eleven years since she’d come to this house as a bride had Ethelyn permitted her to make a decision regarding the running of the house. Everything from the planning of the week’s menus to the decoration of the sitting room was decided by her sister-in-law. Even the servants knew whose word was law in this house. While Desmond had been alive, he’d been the undisputed master, but the domestic details had been the province of his sister, not his wife. And now that he was dead, nothing had changed. Even though he’d left everything to his only issue—his daughter Philippa—Ethelyn still ruled with an iron hand. Desmond had left both his wife and his sister generous independencies and had stipulated that the estate of Wyckfield Park should be open to them whenever they wished to reside therein, but Ethelyn still behaved as if the property were her own.
    Only two members of the household staff considered Camilla to be mistress of the house—Hicks and Miss Ada Townley, her old governess. Camilla had brought them with her when she’d come to Wyckfield Park eleven years ago. During all those years, Ethelyn had attempted to oust the two servantswhom Camilla had (as Ethelyn like to put it) “inflicted” on her. But Camilla, even though she’d been too young and frightened to take a stand on anything else, had been adamant about keeping them with her. She’d felt (and she
still
believed) that they were her only friends in the household of cold antagonists who surrounded her.
    In defense against the houseful of indifferent or icy adversaries, Camilla, Miss Townley and Hicks seemed to form a small enclave of cheerfulness and affection which embraced little Pippa and protected them all from feelings of loneliness and ostracism. But Camilla soon realized that it was an enclave which Ethelyn was determined to break apart. Ethelyn had often and openly declared that Hicks and Miss Townley encouraged Camilla and even Pippa in keeping secrets, in scornful attitudes toward the rest of the household, in engaging in frivolous pursuits, and in latitudinarian—nay,
godless
—behavior. Ethelyn had long ago convinced herself that she and she alone was responsible for the welfare of the immortal soul of every member of the household, even the staff. Anything which interfered with that Godly Mission was sinful in the extreme.
    Camilla knew that Ethelyn’s resentment ran deeper than her repeated protestations that she was concerned only for the welfare of their souls. The little circle of four had managed, by sticking together, to keep from being completely dominated by the strong-willed, dictatorial woman. The truth was that Ethelyn had convinced herself that if she could rid the household of Hicks, she’d be able to control the others.
    Camilla could feel, in the determined fury of Ethelyn’s voice, that her sister-in-law had made up her mind to force a confrontation. Hicks’s blunt, country honesty made it hard for him to hide his feelings, and his outspoken manner had always roused Ethelyn’s ire. But Camilla had managed, until now, to keep matters from coming to a head. With her legs trembling under the black skirts, she turned