A little while ago she had imagined herself begging a lift on one of the dray carts or farmers’ wagons out of the town, it didn’t matter where, just so long as she got away. There were bound to be barns where she could sleep. She hadn’t thought what she would do about food; or at least she had thought about it but put it from her mind, but now that immediate worry was gone. She had money. She would survive.
‘Goodbye, Patience.’ The two girls didn’t embrace again before Sophy left the bedroom, holding her boots and the carpet bag in one hand and the valise in the other. She trod carefully down the wooden stairs, which creaked and grumbled at the best of times, but then she was in the hall where she stopped and put on her boots.
The bolts on the front door rasped a little but not too loudly, and when she pulled it open the cold icy air took her breath away for a moment but also sent the adrenaline flooding her system. She shut the door quietly but her back was straight and her chin up as she walked down the drive, pausing only for a moment at the gates which led out on to the lane. But she didn’t look back. Instead she took a deep breath, squared her slim shoulders, and walked on.
‘What did you say?’
‘I said Sophy left for good early this morning and I gave her the contents of your cash box to help speed her on her way. I didn’t think you’d mind, considering you’ve wanted rid of her for years, Mother.’ Patience had been dressed for some time but had waited until the hall clock struck eight o’clock before walking into her mother’s room. This had once been the spare bedroom but her mother had moved into it shortly after she and Sophy had gone to school. Now, when the bishop came to stay, which was more and more infrequent due to his advanced years, he had David’s room and her brother shared with Matthew for the duration of the bishop’s visit.
Her mother had been sitting up in bed reading when she had knocked at the bedroom door. A book of devotional prayers. Now she slung the book aside and swung her legs out of bed as she cried, ‘Are you mad, girl? There was over four pounds in that box. Help me get dressed, I need to tell your father to go after her.’
‘There was four pounds and ten shillings to be exact, Mother. I counted. Of course, how much is in the bag in your wardrobe I have no idea. You would know that better than me.’
Mary froze. Her body remained rigid but her head turned, her eyes boring into those of her daughter’s. ‘You’ve been snooping in my room?’
‘Not exactly. The door was ajar one day and I saw you, that’s all.’
‘How dare you.’ Mary’s voice was low but deadly.
‘I haven’t said anything to anyone – anyone except Sophy, that is. She didn’t want to accept the money from the cash box but I explained you had plenty more, besides which she was owed a lot more than four pounds if you count all the years she has worked for nothing.’
For a moment Patience thought she’d gone too far. Her mother looked as though she was going to expire on the spot. She’d turned a dark shade of purple and her eyes appeared as though they were going to pop out of her head. ‘You stupid girl,’ Mary hissed. ‘You stupid, stupid girl. It would have been the workhouse for her mother if we hadn’t taken her in, have you considered that? And the girl would have been brought up within its confines. Far from being hard done by as you infer, she has been most fortunate, having a roof over her head for sixteen years and an education into the bargain.’
‘Can’t you call Sophy by her name even now when she’s gone for good?’
Mother and daughter stared at each other, neither liking what they saw. ‘Get out,’ Mary said at last. ‘Get out of my sight.’
Patience got out, but knowing that for the first time in her life she’d had the upper hand with her mother and things would never be the same again. Walking downstairs, she went into the drawing room where Molly was knelt at the huge hearth seeing to the fire. After a brief, ‘Good morning,’ she stood with her back to the room looking out over the snow-covered grounds beyond the house. The garden was bathed in a pale pink glimmer as the winter dawn rose in a crystalline sky and the light banished the darkness, and the hard frost caused the snow to glint and glow. Her heart swelled with the beauty in front of her and she remained for a long time soaking it in.