The Innkeeper's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page B

do a late shift.’
    I have to be up early too, Bella sighed. But in any case they won’t take any notice of me; at least William might but Joe won’t, not even if I tell him that Father says. She had only thought that if she could have a little time off, she could read a book to improve her mind, or even just for pleasure. She paused as she wiped down a table. But it’s not going to happen. Her mother wasn’t well, although she didn’t complain, and Bella knew that she would have many more responsibilities once the child was born sometime in November.
    William had had his fifteenth birthday in September and had whispered to Bella that only another year and he would be off to join the army.
    ‘I shan’t have finished my apprenticeship but the army won’t mind that; I’ll be able to shoe horses and fix bolts and hinges on waggons and carts ’n’ that.’
    ‘But will Harry ’blacksmith mind?’ she asked. ‘Father’s paid him and he’s training you up. It’s a waste of his time and Father’s money.’
    ‘No, it’s not!’ William’s unusual show of retaliation proved to Bella that his conscience was uneasy. ‘I’ve learned a lot already.’
    ‘You’ve not been there five minutes,’ she snapped back. ‘You onny started at ’beginning of summer.’
    ‘Aye, but in another year I’ll know all there is to know. Or at least as much as I’ll need to know to get into ’army,’ he added.
    And that was that, she thought. The army was William’s dream and nothing was going to stand in his way. As for Joe’s dreams, she didn’t think he had any, except to be the innkeeper at the Woodman and he expected that as his right because he was the eldest son and not because he was prepared to work for it.
    A week before Bella’s birthday her mother told her that she and her father had decided she could take a day off.
    ‘You’ve been working hard,’ she said. ‘Mebbe you’d like to tek a walk whilst ’weather’s still fine. I know you like to do that. Heaven knows our winters are long enough and we can’t get out.’
    Bella beamed. Yes, she would like that very much. She’d call to see Miss Hawkins and explain her situation a little better in person than she had in the hastily written note she had sent, telling the teacher that she couldn’t take up her offer of training to become an assistant.
    She rose early the next morning, intending to prepare breakfast and do the dishes before going out. It would save her mother having to do it, for she seemed rather sluggish and slow nowadays and often had to sit down in the afternoons, although her excuse was that if she sat down then so would Joseph.
    Joseph complained when his wife and Bella insisted that he take a nap. ‘I feel fit as a lop,’ he grumbled. ‘Nowt wrong wi’ me. Damned doctor’s barking up ’wrong tree. It was just a bit of a funny turn I had that time.’ He grunted. ‘Worrying everybody and putting ’fear o’ God in me!’
    It was true he did look better, although he had developed a persistent cough, and if he got out of breath when climbing the cellar steps, well, they were very steep, he argued, so it was to be expected.
    The kettle was simmering at the side of the range; Bella took a frying pan out of the cupboard and put it over the flame. She sliced a loaf, put bacon rashers in the pan to sizzle and then went to stand at the bottom of the house stairs, listening to hear if Joe and William were up. She could hear nothing apart from a creaking floorboard in her parents’ room, and guessed that it was her mother getting up.
    ‘Ma,’ she called as the bedroom door opened. ‘Lads aren’t up yet; will you give them a shout? I’ve started breakfast. Is Father getting up? Shall I put a couple of rashers in for him?’
    ‘He’s up already.’ Her mother came to the top of the stairs. ‘I didn’t hear him get out of bed. Is he outside?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Bella said. ‘I’ll go and look in a minute. Shall I cook you