The Gray Ladies

Chapter 3 - Young & Barnes

"Go after him!" mother demanded.

"No."

"Rosalind Janet Gray, so help me, if you do not..."

"What?! Do as I'm told? Learn my place? No, mother, I will not go after him nor will I bend to your will any longer." I bellowed. "I tried to be a good daughter, I tried to make you happy and please you after fathers' death but no, you just grew colder and meaner each day that has come to pass. Well, I am no longer a child and I will not marry who you deem suitable for me."

"You're being ridiculous. This childish fantasy..."

"Just because you married for money doesn't mean that I will. Nor will my sisters."

"We have nothing left, Rosa. We can barely afford the household staff. You need to marry to save this family."

"There are more ways to save this family than marrying me off to the highest bidder."

"Would you have us work, Rosa?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I would." Mother scoffed at me. "Or maybe I'd just sell the house."

Mother stopped her frantic pacing to stare at me, "You don't have the right to sell Gray Hall."

"I think you'll find I have every right. The only right, actually."

"What do you mean?"

"You left the paperwork and will and testament after fathers' death up to the lawyers, mother. But they called me in to read it and I did, thoroughly."

"You're just a child."

"I'm twenty-four!" I cried. "And as stipulated by father in his will, after his death I am the heir to Gray Hall. Not you!"

"Preposterous."

"Read it yourself, if you don't believe me."

Running back through to the kitchen, I left my mother and sisters behind when I picked up my bike and cycled down into town. Will's family would by now have had the news, Harry was the only one still unaware. He deserved to know.

My bike came to a screeching halt outside the Young family cottage, it lurched forward and I almost slid right off it in an unladylike way. Harry's mother, Yvonne, came running out with her curlers in her hair, a cigarette dangling from her red lips and a tea towel in her hands.

"What the bloody hell...? Rosa, love, are you alright?"

"Is Harry home?" I asked, trying to speak past the lump in my throat.

"He's running an errand for the butcher. Do you want to come in and wait? He'll be back soon."

"Yes, please."

I sat down with her in her small white and yellow living room and accepted the handkerchief she offered me before she went back through to the kitchen to find something for us to drink.

"I don't know what's the matter but I can tell you need some of this." She said, popping out her cigarette and pouring me a whiskey in an old chipped tea cup.

I tossed it back easily. "I received this whilst mother was trying to coalesce me with a gentleman from the RAF."

Yvonne took the telegram and perused it with a frown that soon smoothed out leaving her with wet eyes and a catch in her breath. Will was like another son to her. Yvonne was familiar to losing loved ones to the war. Her husband, brother and eldest son were all lost to it within the first year.