Ellie Pride Read Online Free PDF

they had been shown into Amelia Gibson’s parlour, Lydia asked her sister, ‘Has the Isherwood house been sold, only we saw someone moving in when we walked past?’
    ‘No,’ Amelia replied. ‘It seems that Mr Isherwood’s daughter has decided to return to Preston. She was his only heir and, despite the fact that they quarrelled so badly that she left home, he left everything to her, apparently. I shall call and leave a card, of course, but I must say I always thought her rather odd. I mean, going off to London like that to live virtually on her own…
    ‘You look very pale, Lydia,’ she announced, changing the subject. ‘How are you feeling?’
    ‘I am well enough,’ Lydia replied.
    As she stood protectively beside her mother, Ellie saw the sisters exchanging looks.
    ‘Ellie, why don’t you go upstairs and join your cousins?’ Amelia suggested firmly.
    A little uncertainly, Ellie looked at her mother.
    ‘Yes, Ellie,’ Lydia agreed. ‘Do as your aunt says.’
    Obediently, Ellie got up, but once she was outside the parlour door she hesitated. From inside the room she could hear her Aunt Gibson’s voice quite plainly.
    ‘So it is true, then?’
    Ellie could discern the anger in her aunt’s voice, but before she could learn any more her cousin Cecily suddenly appeared on the stairs.
    ‘Ellie, come up quickly. I can’t wait to show you the trimmings I have got for my new hat. Mother and I saw them last week in Miller’s Arcade.’
    Reluctantly, Ellie started to climb the stairs.
    In the parlour Amelia Gibson shook her head as she looked at her youngest sister.
    ‘Lyddy, Mr Pride knew you were not to have another child. He was told that it would be too dangerous. Alfred is most concerned. He has sought the advice of an eminent specialist on your behalf but he confirms what has already been said.’
    ‘Yes, I know,’ Lydia replied wanly, before bursting out in a panic-stricken voice, ‘I am so afraid, Melia, and not just for myself. I have my girls to think about, especially Ellie. If anything were to happen I would want them –’
    ‘Lyddy, please, you must not distress yourselflike this,’ Amelia said firmly. ‘You may rest assured that we, your sisters, shall always do what is right and proper for your daughters. Even though you defied and hurt our mother when you went against her to marry Robert Pride, I know she would want and expect us to treat your daughters as our own.’
    ‘He has provided well for us,’ Lydia defended her husband quickly. ‘He has a good business and –’
    ‘He has got you with child again, Lydia,’ her sister interrupted, speaking with unusual bluntness. ‘And he was warned the last time. Had you married a man of our own class such a thing would not have happened. I’m afraid that men of Mr Pride’s class have…appetites that should never be inflicted on a lady!’ She added delicately, ‘Alfred made it quite plain to him that if he wished to indulge in…marital relations he must adopt certain…safeguards.’
    Lydia bowed her head, unable to make any response. How could she possibly tell her sister that she had been the one to urge Robert on?
    A dull smog from the factory chimneys was thickening the air when Ellie and her mother finally left Winckley Square.
    Ellie had noticed a tremendous difference in her mother these last few months. She no longer smiled and sang about the house, but had become critical and cross. Ellie couldn’t remember the last timeshe had seen her father come into the parlour and pick her mother up off her feet, as he had once frequently done, whirling her round in his arms and planting a kiss on her lips, whilst Lydia mock-scolded him for his boisterousness.
    Yes, there was a very different atmosphere in the Pride household now, and although Ellie, growing quickly to womanhood herself, longed to know if in some way the baby her mother was carrying was responsible for the change in her, she knew better than to ask such an intimate