"Good afternoon, Jennifer,"said Kitty.
Jennifer said: "Good afternoon. Madam.”
It was Kitty who apologized.
"The children so wanted to show me round...”
"And you so wanted to see. Madam. I quite understand that." She was staring at the bottle and her rage got the better of her.
"And you wanted to see what was in my private cupboard, so you...”
"Not at all," said Kitty with dignity.
"I did not know this was your cupboard. The children showed me ...”
The children stood awestruck, aware that this was a battle between two powerful grownups.
"My own possessions are private. Madam; I will thank you not to pry into them." Kitty's temper flared up.
"You are insolent," she said, 'and I will not tolerate that. You shall go at once!" Jennifer retorted: "Perhaps you will speak to the squire about that... I myself will speak to him.”
Kitty was really angry now. She had not sought this opportunity, but now that it had come she would take it.
"You may pack and go at once." she said.
"I shall myself tell the squire that I have dismissed you." How insolently the woman stared. Knowledgeably? What did she mean...?
Could she know...?
Kitty began to feel very frightened. She was dizzy with fear; the room swayed; she clutched at the bureau. One of the children began to cry.
Kitty saw Jennifer's face close to hers, and Jennifer was smiling; her cunning black eyes were like monkeys' eyes. Jennifer's arms were strong about.
When Kitty opened her eyes, she was lying on the sofa and Jennifer was kneeling beside her, holding hartshorn under her nose. The children were not there.
Jennifer said: "Madam should be more careful ... her condition... I had not thought that it would be possible for Madam to be so far gone in pregnancy! The greatest care must be taken Kitty managed to get to her feet.
"I am all right now.”
"Oh, yes, Madam, you are all right now. It was just a little faint ... so natural really. But Madam must take care...”
That will do," said Kitty.
"And do not forget you are to pack your bags and go at once!”
Jennifer's eyes were downcast, but her mouth mocked. Kitty went unsteadily to the door. In her bedroom she bathed her face; her hands were hot and clammy, for she knew now that the moment had come. She prayed silently to her mother: "Mother, what shall I do now? What can I do now?”
She thought of the new tenderness which had sprung up in the squire.
Words came into her mind.
"We loved each other; we were going to marry. It seemed so safe, so right. He was always so careful of me, so eager that I should not suffer any hardship. Do not be cruel to me now. If you will only help me I will try to love you.”
It seemed to her that she stayed in her room for hours ... waiting.
She heard his horse's hoofs in the courtyard. It was some time before he came into the room, and she knew, as soon as she saw him, that Jennifer had waylaid him, had spoken to him. His big eyes bulged and there was a knotted vein on his forehead. Fearful as she was, it occurred to her that he was both like a dog that had received a whipping and an enraged bull.
His eyes searched her face, and his hands moved as though they would tear her secret from her.
There was no need; she would tell him now.
He stood before her, and she was aware of his hands again; now they were hanging limply at his sides.
He said: "What's this I am hearing? What's this that girl is saying?
By God...”
And he wanted her to deny it, and he wanted to send Jennifer from his house; he wanted her to lie to him... anything so that he need not believe these suggestions of Jennifer's. He could still hear her voice, soft and insinuating: "I think I should tell you... Madam fainted clean away in the nursery this afternoon. She must take greater care of herself. I feel and I am no fool in these matters that she is farther advanced in pregnancy than it seems possible to believe ..." The fury that had surged up in him! He had gripped the girl's shoulder and glared down into her impudent face.
"Do not be angry with me. Is it my fault that she should use you so cunningly because her lover has deserted her?" Jennifer's eyes were full of the light of battle. She had been told by the mistress of the house to pack her bags, and if she did that and went away she would have lost everything she had fought for; but here was a chance of regaining a good deal. She was bold therefore; and she even laughed when he brought up his great hand and hit her on the side of her head so that she fell to the floor.
And well she might laugh, for he was a fool indeed. He had only to look into Kitty's eyes to see what a fool, for her guilt was there and she made no attempt to hide it. What was this she was saying? He could not hear properly because his blood was pounding on his eardrums, but he grasped its import.
"We loved each other. It was so right... And then the press gang took him from me ... We should have been so happy ..." He shrieked at her: "I'll kill you for this!" And he would have killed her if he had not felt so miserably brokenhearted.
She said: "Please, George ... I was wrong ... I was wicked. But I will try, if only... There is the little baby to think of...”
He pushed her from him, and she fell onto the bed and lay there staring up at the terrible line of his mouth and the red tinge in what should have been the whites of his eyes.
He said: "So that was why you agreed to marry me, Madam!" He laughed and his laughter was horrible to her ears.
She hated him; and she hated herself for not hating more violently the last weeks during which he had been her lover. She answered with spirit, just as Bess would have answered: "Why else should I have married you!”
He had his riding-whip in his hand now; he thought of beating the life out of her for what she had done to him. He would take her life, for she and Bess between them had taken all that mattered in his.
He saw himself as a complacent fool; and later, people would know, and they would whisper together and laugh at him.
"Poor Squire! Caught proper, he were!" His own people laughing at him! He was going to kill her; he would beat the life out of her.
He let out a string of epithets, but his voice broke suddenly. He was afraid that he was going to blubber just as though he were a schoolboy; there was nothing to be done but get out quickly.
He strode from the room.
Carolan Haredon
They were all going to pay a visit to the rectory.
Charles said: "Jennifer, must we take that silly little Carolan?”
Carolan made a face at Charles, for it was safe to do so since his back was turned to her. Charles was eleven almost a man; Carolan was only five quite a baby by Charles's standards; even Margaret thought her very young.
Carolan struggled with her sash; Jennifer never helped her to dress; she would come along afterwards and do up a button perhaps; then she would say: "I do declare you are a little slut!" And she would repeat the word slut, as though it gave her pleasure. And Carolan would retreat a pace or two and grimace at Jennifer, for grimaces were her only method of registering defiance, she being so small and 'they so big. Sometimes Jennifer merely laughed and said: "Go on! Make yourself uglier than you already are!" Sometimes though she would fly into a sudden rage and slap Carolan's face or beat her with a slipper.
Margaret and Charles were talking about Everard, who was twelve and wonderful. Everard must be very good, thought Carolan, for one day he was to be a parson like his father. He was taller than Charles, and he had kind eyes; and although he never took much notice of Carolan, he had never called her silly or a baby; he had never pushed her nor pulled her hair nor teased her about being afraid of darkness. Carolan was tormented so much that she felt quite a fondness for people who ignored her. Mamma was the only person whom she could really trust; Margaret next, she supposed, only she never knew when Margaret, even after a show of friendship, would say: "Oh, go away. You are such a baby!" And if there was one thing Carolan hated more than the dark it was being called a baby. Mamma sometimes said: "My baby!" but that was a secret between them and it did not hurt at all; it just meant that Mamma was her mother, and once she, Carolan, had been her mother's baby. Why, perhaps dignified Mrs. Orland called Everard her baby sometimes. She laughed at the thought.