The Soldier's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page B

herself.’
    ‘You had a
nanny?
’ Briony gasped incredulously, and Lois grinned.
    ‘Oh yes, and the gardener-cum-handyman used to take us both to school each day in the pony and trap until Seb was old enough to go away to boarding school. Mummy was determined that he should have the best education possible.’
    ‘Did you get sent away to boarding school too?’
    Lois shook her head. ‘No, although Daddy did put me into a private one, much to Mummy’s disgust. She believed that girls didn’t need an education and that he was wasting his money, but Daddy put his foot down on that score on one of the very rare occasions that I can remember and told her that I deserved a decent education too.’
    ‘What does Grandmother look like?’ Briony asked next.
    ‘She looked a lot like me when she was younger,’ Lois said thoughtfully. ‘But Seb looked like Daddy, the same colouring and build. Mummy was beautiful, and sometimes when she came into the nursery to kiss us goodnight before an evening out with Daddy, I used to think she looked like a princess. She always smelled wonderful too. Daddy would buy her these lovely French perfumes that lingered in the room long after she had left. I dread to think what they must have cost him, but what Mummy wanted, she had. I don’t think Daddy could ever say no to her. He was totally besotted with her, which was no wonder really as she was incredibly pretty. I dare say she still is.’
    Briony was bemused. Whenever she had tried to imagine what her grandparents might have been like, she always thought of elderly, jolly people, nothing at all like the ones her mother was describing now. On occasions she had visited Ruth’s grandparents with her in Priory Street. They were both elderly with a ready smile and a little treat and a hug for any of the family that came to visit them, and they sounded a world apart from these people. But perhaps her grandmother wasn’t as bad as Lois was painting her? Perhaps Lois was just embittered because of the way her mother had turned her back on her when she met James Valentine?
    ‘And my uncle?’ she dared to ask.
    Lois chuckled. ‘What can I say about Seb?’ she shrugged. ‘He was spoiled rotten from the second he drew breath, and he soon learned how to make the most of it. He could wrap Mummy around his little finger, although Daddy did try to rein him in a little. When he finally got kicked out of the last boarding school he attended, Daddy set him on in the family business. Seb was not amused, I don’t mind telling you, but I think Daddy gave him an ultimatum – either he knuckled down and learned the trade or he made his own way in the world. He had no qualifications and had failed all his exams, so needless to say he reluctantly did as he was told, although it was obvious he wasn’t happy about it. I think he had every girl in the county drooling after him, and to say he was a bit of a Casanova would be putting it mildly. Seb could have charmed the birds off the trees, and I often wonder if he’s settled down with anyone yet.’
    Briony’s head was spinning. There was so much to think about and she was glad when she could finally say goodnight to her mother and sidle off to bed, cuddling up to Sarah’s warm little body for comfort as she tried to get her head around it all.

Chapter Three
    It was the middle of the following week when Briony returned home from work one evening to find the house in chaos. The fire was almost out and the minute she stepped through the door the children complained that they were hungry.
    ‘All right, all right, give me a chance to get in!’ Briony sighed wearily as she took her coat off and hurried across to the fire, only to find that the coal scuttle was empty.
    ‘I shall have to go out to the coalhouse,’ she said irritably, snatching up the old beaten-copper coal scuttle. ‘But where’s Mum?’
    ‘She went straight to bed once she’d fetched me from school. She said she had a headache,’