Sea Mistress Read Online Free PDF Page A

you can still patronize us, you are one of our most regular customers.’
    Ellie could not help feeling dismissed even as Arian accompanied her down the stairs and right to the door of the office. She studied Ellie for a long moment in silence as though weighing her up. ‘I hope to see you again, Mrs Hopkins,’ she said at last.
    â€˜Yes, of course. Thank you for your time.’ As Ellie turned she came face to face with Bridie Marchant. Her head high, her neck stiff, she looked every inch the lady; her eyes swept past Ellie’s unfashionable figure without interest.
    Bridie Marchant was the wife of one of the richest shipping merchants in Swansea, part owner of the fleet and she appeared determined to let everyone know it. Her carriage stood near the kerb, the paintwork gleaming, even the wheels looked as though they had been polished. The horses, immaculately groomed, stood as if to attention and Ellie wondered if Bridie’s formal, almost regal air had affected the animals as much as it affected her.
    â€˜Morning, Mrs Marchant.’ Arian had stepped back to allow Bridie inside the door and for a moment, the three women stood as though posed for a tableau.
    â€˜It’s about the tide tables,’ Bridie Marchant began without preamble, it seemed she had no time for pleasantries. ‘They have been wrong on two occasions over the past week. We shipping folk rely on you people at The Times to get it right. I’m sure you will appreciate that if our loads miss the tides the delay costs us good money.’ She sounded cross and Ellie, feeling she was eavesdropping on a private conversation, stepped outside into the street.
    â€˜Good day to you, Mrs Hopkins.’ Arian sounded pleasant, unruffled by the attack on her paper and Ellie watched for a moment as the two women disappeared into the offices of The Swansea Times and the door swung shut as if to exclude her.
    Ellie smiled, coming to Swansea certainly made her realize how the other half lived. Once she had been part of the other half herself. But that was some years ago now, when she was single, when she was the pampered mistress of Calvin Temple. Then her family had turned a blind eye, after all, the inclusion of lord into their circle was a welcome event. It was only when Ellie was alone, alone and with child, that her father showed his disapproval in no uncertain terms.
    In marrying Jubilee Hopkins Ellie had married beneath her but, even as her father had digested that information, he had been relieved that he no longer need feel any responsibility for his daughter or the twins that the local midwife had assured them Ellie was carrying.
    Would she ever learn to forgive her parents? Ellie turned towards the seashore, it would be good to breathe in the clean air and watch the waves if only for a few minutes. Perhaps one day she would forget her father’s rejection of her but she imagined it would be a long time before she could forgive.
    Her mother was weak, subservient to her husband’s will. She could no more help her attitude than she could abandon her comfortable lifestyle. Her mother Ellie could understand, she was a victim of her own strict upbringing and failed totally to understand her modern-minded daughter.
    The waves were washing the golden sand of Swansea bay. The curving stretch of coastline was breathtakingly beautiful on this crisp spring morning. Suddenly Ellie felt an excruciating sadness for all the things she would never have; a young, vigorous husband, a brood of children round her skirts.
    She turned in sudden determination towards home, she would just have to be content with what the good Lord had chosen to give her.
    â€˜It really isn’t good enough, you know.’ Bridie knew she sounded sharp, shrew-like even but she couldn’t seem to help herself. She sat in Arian Smale’s private rooms in the same chair Ellie had occupied a little earlier, but unlike Ellie she didn’t admire the