Songs of Love and War Read Online Free PDF

child.’
    ‘Did you ever want a husband, Miss Grieve?’
    The governess’s eyes shifted a moment uncertainly, revealing more to the sharp little girl than she meant to. ‘That’s none of your business, Kitty. Sit up straight;
you’re not a sack of potatoes.’
    ‘Are governesses allowed to marry?’ Kitty continued, knowing the answer but enjoying the pained look in Miss Grieve’s eyes.
    The governess pursed her lips. ‘Of course they’re allowed to marry. Whatever gave you the idea that they weren’t?’
    ‘None of them ever are.’ Kitty chewed valiantly on the stringy piece of beef.
    ‘Enough of that lip, my girl, or you can go to bed without any supper.’ But Miss Grieve had suddenly gone very pink in the face and Kitty saw a fleeting glimpse of the young woman
who had been crying over a letter in her bedroom. She blinked and the image was gone. Miss Grieve was staring into her plate, as if trying hard to control her emotions. Kitty wished she
hadn’t been so mean but took the opportunity to spit her beef into her napkin and fold it onto her lap without being seen. She tried to think of something nice to say, but nothing came to
mind. They sat awhile in silence.
    ‘Do you play the piano, Miss Grieve?’ Kitty asked at last.
    ‘I did, once,’ she replied tightly.
    ‘Why do you never play?’
    The woman glared at Kitty as if she had touched an invisible nerve. ‘I’ve had enough of your questions, young lady. We’ll eat the rest of the meal in silence.’ Kitty was
astonished. She hadn’t expected such a harsh reaction to what she felt had been a simple and kind turn of conversation. ‘One word and I’ll drag you by your red hair and throw you
into your bedroom.’
    ‘It’s Titian, not red,’ Kitty mumbled recklessly.
    ‘You can use all the fancy words you can find, my girl, but red is red and if you ask me, it’s very unbecoming.’
    Kitty struggled through the rest of dinner in silence. Miss Grieve’s face had hardened to granite. Kitty regretted trying to be nice and resolved that she would never be so foolish as to
give in to compassion again. When they had finished, Kitty obediently loaded the plates onto the dumb waiter and pressed the bell for it to be pulled down to the kitchen.
    She washed with cold water because Sean Doyle, Bridie’s brother, who carried hot water upstairs from the kitchen for baths, only did so to the nursery wing every
other
night. Miss
Grieve watched over her as she said her prayers. Kitty prayed dutifully for her mama and papa, her siblings and grandparents. Then she added one for Miss Grieve: ‘Please, God, take her away.
She’s horrid and unkind and I hate her. If I knew how to curse like Maggie O’Leary, I’d put one on her so that unhappiness would follow her all the days of her life and never let
her go.’

Chapter 3
    Maud Deverill sat in the carriage beside her husband in silence. Her gloved hands were folded in the blanket draped over her lap, a fur coat warmed her chest and back but still
she shivered. The night was clear and cold and yet a perpetual dampness hung in the air, rising up from the soggy ground, brought inland on the salty sea breeze, assertive enough to penetrate
bones. Bertie had returned in the early evening as was his custom, smelling of horse dust and sweat. He had greeted Lady Rowan-Hampton warmly but Maud wasn’t fooled by their veneer of
respectability. She had often smelt Grace’s perfume on his collar and caught the mischievous glances they slipped one another when they thought they weren’t being watched. Why, one
might ask, did she foster such a close relationship with her husband’s mistress? Because she believed, perhaps misguidedly, that it was important to keep one’s friends close and
one’s enemies even closer. So it was with Grace, the most dangerous of all enemies, who she simply couldn’t have brought any closer.
    The carriage lurched along the farm track that circled the estate, over puddles