The Baker’s Daughter Read Free Page B

true. It would be easier for Sue to come to them from the Darnays’ than straight from Will’s house to theirs.
    â€œThey’ll have to find some other body soon, then,” he declared, “for we’re wanting Sue ourselves.”
    * * *
    It was six o’clock when Sue got home, for she had some necessary shopping to do in the town. She found her father and her stepmother and her young brother sitting down to tea. There was a large piece of boiled bacon on the table, and a fine smell of kippers filled the air.
    â€œI’ve got a job,” she announced as she drew up a chair to the table. “I’m going to cook for Mrs. Darnay at Tog’s Mill.”
    â€œA job!” exclaimed Grace. “Where’s the sense of that?”
    â€œWhat do ye want to take a job for?” inquired Will. “There’s no need for ye to go out to service when ye’ve a good home.”
    â€œI want something to do,” she explained. “There’s nothing for me to do here.”
    â€œWhat’ll folks say,” Will grumbled, scowling at her gloomily. He knew quite well what folks would say. They would say he had remarried and turned his daughter out of the house—a nice thing to be said, and too near the truth to be comfortable.
    â€œIt doesn’t matter what folks say,” replied his daughter tartly.
    Will thought it mattered a good deal, for the truth was he liked to stand well with his neighbors. He would have liked folks to say, as they said of old Bulloch, that he was a fine fellow. He would have liked them to seek him out and talk to him—but nobody did. Will knew that he was unpopular in Beilford, but he could not change his nature and the knowledge that he was disliked made him more gloomy and taciturn than ever.
    He thought of all this and consumed a large slice of ham before he answered. “That kind of talk is bad for business. They’ll say the business is going down if I can’t afford to keep ye at home.”
    â€œI’m going anyway,” said Sue.
    He banged on the table with his hand. “Then ye’ll not come back,” he declared in a voice that trembled with passion. “Ye can go, and stay—I’ll have no defiance in my house.”
    The threat did not move Sue at all, for she did not intend to return home. When her time at the Darnays’ was over she would go to the Bullochs and help in the shop. She said as much to Will, and said it without tact, for she was too straightforward and independent to beat about the bush.
    â€œThe Bullochs!” cried Will. “I’m sick of hearing about them. It’s the Bullochs this and the Bullochs that from morning to night. It’s the Bullochs have put ye up to this nonsense—I know that fine.”
    â€œYou know wrong then,” she replied calmly. “The Bullochs aren’t wanting me to go, but I said I’d go, and I’ll go.”
    â€œGo, then,” raged Will. “Go for any sake. We’ll maybe get a little peace in this house when ye’ve gone.”
    Grace had been silent during the discussion, but afterward, when they were washing up the dishes, she had a good deal to say.
    â€œIt’s a daft thing to do,” she told Sue as she rinsed the plates and put them on the rack to drip. “Ye’d be much better off married, with a house of yer own, than cooking for other folks. Ben Grierson would have ye tomorrow—”
    â€œI don’t want him,” declared Sue. “I’m sick of hearing about Ben.”
    â€œYe’re daft,” Grace said. “Clean daft, that’s what ye are. Ben’s a good steady man and he’s mad about ye, forby. Ye’ve kept him dangling too long already—maybe ye’ll lose him altogether if ye wait much longer.”
    â€œIt’s you that’s kept him dangling,” retorted Sue with some heat. “It’s you that’s encouraged him, not