THE BARONET'S DAUGHTER

CHAPTER THREE

                   CHAPTER THREE

Reluctantly taking leave of her father Eleanor climbed the staircase to the next floor by the dim light of an oil lamp left on a table in the hall below.

    She paused on the landing, listening. The house was very silent. It was strange, she reflected, that in a rooming house of this size there were to footfalls and doors slamming at this time of an evening, when roomers would be returning from their daily activities or going out for evening’s entertainment.

    She could almost believe that she and her father were the only roomers. The idea was disturbing, and she could not feel easy.

    She entered her room with a sinking heart. It was no more welcoming than that of her father’s. She lit the half of a tallow candle she had been given by Mrs Possimer, undressed and got into bed which, she was relieved to see, was quite clean.

    The room was bitterly cold and she felt the chill even under the bedclothes. She was hungry, too.

    Earlier Mrs Possimer had grudgingly supplied her with a meal; cold mutton and a glass of inferior beer. It had hardly satisfied her then, and now hunger gnawed.

    The idea that there were no other roomers in the house continued to disturb her and recklessly, she allowed the tallow to continue to burn as she lay there, sleepless.

    She considered and re-considered all that had taken place that evening. She had never spoken to her father in such a manner before, and felt thoroughly ashamed at her own thoughtless behaviour.

    With her cheek against the cold pillow she reflected that she could not believe her father meant her to marry Mr Granville against her own wishes.

    He had been tired and more than a little desperate. She was certain he would be of a different mind on the morrow, and she decided that she would delay her return to Charnock Park until they could speak again on the matter.

    She felt ashamed, too, that she had not told her father that her letter to Lady Constance Dunstan had contained a plea that Lord Dunstan should assist her father in some way. Was it already too late now that Mr Granville had bought up all his debts?

    The thought that Frederick Grandville should take possession of Charnock Park made her toss and turn fitfully on the narrow bed, and filled her with great anger and despair. These turbulent thoughts kept her awake until the tallow fluttered out and the room dropped into darkness.

Some time later the sound of someone pounding on her door made her wake with a start. For a moment she did not know where she was. A woman’s voice calling her name through the closed door soon brought reality crowding in on her.

    She slipped out of bed into the numbing coldness of the room, and reached out to find the tinder box, remembering then with a despairing groan that the tallow candle was finished.

    ‘Just a moment, Mrs Possimer,’ she called, searching blindly for her wrap to drape over her night-gown. On bare feet she edged her way to the door, turned the key and opened it.

    Mrs Possimer stood on the threshold. By the light of the candle the woman held Eleanor was surprised to see that she was fully dressed in the same high-necked black dress she had worn earlier.

    It occurred to Eleanor that Mrs Possimer had not been to bed at all, and she wondered why.

    ‘Why do you disturb me?’ Eleanor asked haughtily, not a little put out.