The Innkeeper's Daughter Read Free Page A

only a second before giving a slight nod and continuing to eat, but Joe stared at his father and then cast a glance at his mother, who simply raised her eyebrows and returned his gaze.
    ‘What about Nell?’ Joe asked. ‘Is she to do owt or is she just to swan about like she usually does?’
    ‘Nell’s onny a bairn,’ his father replied, ‘but she’ll help Bella wi’ some jobs after school. Your ma will be ’innkeeper for a bit until – until I’m able to get back on my feet. After that, well, we’ll see how we get along.’
    ‘But apprenticeship, Father?’ William said. ‘Why now? We should have started when we left school. We allus thought you wanted us to tek over from you at ’Woodman.’
    ‘Aye, so I did.’ Joseph took another breath. ‘But things are changing and it’s as well to have another trade at your fingertips. There’s allus a need for a joiner or a blacksmith; there’ll be plenty of work in that direction if ’beer trade falls off.’
    William said nothing in reply and Bella, watching and listening, knew that he was thinking of his own plan and realizing that a working knowledge of the blacksmith’s trade wouldn’t go amiss.
    ‘How long?’ Bella asked her mother, as they stood alone in the kitchen that night after everyone else had retired upstairs. Bella had checked the bolts and locks on the doors and windows; her mother had raked the fire and set the table for breakfast. ‘How long has Father got? I need to know, Ma,’ she pleaded. ‘To prepare myself.’
    Her mother sat down abruptly. ‘How is it possible?’ she said in a low voice. ‘How’s it possible to be prepared for such a thing?’ She gazed into the damped-down fire and spoke as if to herself. ‘Your father and me have been married for sixteen years. I never wanted another man, though I had my chances. Now he’s being snatched away.’
    ‘Doctor might be mistaken,’ Bella ventured. ‘They don’t know everything.’
    ‘Six months, he said.’ Sarah looked up at her daughter. ‘A year at most. They can’t do anything for a weak heart, everybody knows that.’
    ‘If he rests,’ Bella said. ‘If we all pull together.’
    Sarah gave a grimace. ‘What sort of existence is that for a man like your father? To be an invalid, tied to an armchair for ’rest of his life?’ She got up and absently rubbed her hands together. ‘No. He’ll forget what ’doctor said to him and carry on as usual – and then, and then …’
    ‘Will you tell him about ’bairn?’ Bella asked.
    Her mother shook her head. ‘Not unless he notices.’ She gave a slight smile. ‘And he won’t. Never has done afore, no reason why he should now. I’ll tell him when I’m in labour.’
    She turned her head away, and Bella realized that her mother didn’t expect that situation to arise.
    They were busy for the next few weeks. The weather was perfect for haymaking and the workers came in after a full day’s work to slake their thirst and enjoy a slice of Sarah’s ham and egg pie or fruitcake. Some of the casual day labourers, who were hired at especially busy times and were not local, couldn’t always be accommodated on the farms and so stayed at the inn. The loft at the back of the building was fitted out as a dormitory and held six beds, though it was rarely completely full. It meant extra money for Sarah, but also extra work; although the room was basic she always fed the men well and provided clean fustian sheets and blankets. Some of them had been coming for years.
    Joe and William would normally have been taken on as extra field hands, but instead they were thrust into the busy lives of carpenter’s shop and blacksmith’s forge. Joe rebelled, though didn’t tell his father. He was essentially lazy and clumsy and received a sharp rebuke from his employer on his very first day, which made him irritable and antagonistic. William sweated in the blacksmith’s forge but didn’t complain, determined to listen, look and learn and