High Society novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Mill Court by Lamplight

I told Hugh at dusk that I was going home to see my mother.

"You may," he said at once.

"You said I could leave whenever I liked."

"I said you could leave."

"I did not say I would stand in the hall while you walked to Southwark alone."

"I walk to Southwark alone every Sunday."

"You were not wanted by an earl on every other Sunday."

The Dowager, in her chair by the fire, pretended to be deaf.

"One hour," I said.

"I will wait in the coach in the lane."

"You will not come in."

"I would not dream of it."

He came in.

She stood in the door of the room over the sheds with a candle in her fist.

She was a little woman with forearms.

She looked at me first.

Then she looked past me at the tallest man she had ever seen duck under her lintel.

"You're him," she said.

"I am Hugh Wrenfield, madam."

"You're the one who put fifteen hundred pounds in a box and sent a boy with it."

"Yes."

"Do you know what that does to a woman my age?"

"It frightens her."

"It frightens her half to death," said my mother.

"Sit down before you bang your head."

He sat on the stool by the copper, which was far too low for him, with his knees up around his ears.

She gave him tea in a cracked cup without asking if he wanted it.

He drank it to the bottom and said it was the best he had had in a month.

My mother melted on the spot.

It began to rain while we talked.

By ten it was coming down in sheets and drumming on the shed roofs, and my mother said, "You'll not go out in that."

"We have a coach," said Hugh.

"The coach has a roof, and you have a face like a wet week."

"Sit."

So we sat.

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