AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My mother raised her eyebrows at this, but to me, Father Fannon sounded rather interesting. Perhaps he wasn’t an ancient stick-in-the-mud as I had thought.
We reached the top of the stairs, and I saw that an intricately woven carpet runner stretched down the hallway to the main stairwell. My mother remarked on its fineness.
‘Oh yes, Father Fannon got that from his trip to Constantinople. ’Twas a mission to send it here, but he insisted on having it,’ huffed Margaret as she proceeded up the next flight of stairs.
I lingered behind, seeing a number of framed pictures mounted on the left-hand wall. I looked closer and saw they were pencil sketches of plants and trees. The right-hand side of the hallway was taken up with a series of latticed windows that faced the open field Margaret had described.
I peered through and thought I saw a figure moving briskly towards a large weeping willow. The glass was so smeared and grubby, though, that I couldn’t be sure. I made a mental note to put cleaning the windows at the top of my list of jobs.
My room was up a very narrow winding flight of stairs. Despite being in the attic, it was much brighter and more comfortable than my dark poky room at home, which, although it had been scrubbed thoroughly and all my clothes and bed linen burnt, held unwelcome memories of my sickness.
‘This is nice,’ said my mother as we looked around. The white-walled room had a sloping ceiling that, had I been taller, would’ve caused me to constantly duck my head. It was clean but sparsely furnished with a small oak dresser, a hard-backed chair, and a single bed made up with a plain white coverlet dotted with small scarlet roses. A fitting coverlet for one such as me, I thought ruefully, bouncing on the bed to test the mattress. It was firm, but not too hard.
I crossed to the window, which looked out onto the gravel path below and beyond to the road. If I kept myself concealed behind the soft blue curtain, I would be able to see anyone who approached the house, and they would not see me.
A door slammed somewhere below in the main part of the house, and Margaret started.
‘Lord love us, that’ll be Father Fannon come to meet you, and here’s me not even with the kettle on. Mrs Graham, you’ll be in with me for t’night in my room off the kitchen. Shall we get you settled in down there? Mercy, we’ll give you a moment to unpack. Just come down when you’re ready. The drawing room’s down the hallway from the kitchen, opposite the dining room. The first door on the right.’
I nodded.
‘Don’t say much, does she?’ I heard her comment to my mother as they went out of the room.
My heart was pounding as I left my room and ventured back downstairs to the warm kitchen. I breathed in the aroma of bread, rosemary, and freshly made seed cake. Then rather reluctantly, I set off to find the drawing room. I didn’t even know why it was called such a room. Is this where Father Fannon also does his sketching? I wondered.
I had changed into my best overskirt and a front-laced bodice of pale green. All had been newly acquired from the local seamstress on credit once my mother knew there’d be money coming in. A matching green velvet ribbon, last year’s birthday gift from Father, held back my dark hair. But however much I tried, I knew that my efforts to beautify myself were in vain. I could only hope that Father Fannon, being a man of God, would overlook the distasteful state of my face, for he would have far more opportunity to see it than I would.
I crept into the room so softly that Father Fannon didn’t see me at first, and I had the advantage of looking without being looked at. He was talking to my mother in the bay window while Margaret set up the tea on the sideboard.
He was much younger than I had thought, perhaps in his thirties, but only just, and of medium height and slim build. Thick flaxen hair fell in a lock over a broad forehead. He seemed ill at ease in a well-starched rector’s outfit with a black waistcoat, breeches, and a white silk cravat tied at his throat.
Margaret noticed me then and beckoned me to help her serve the tea, saying over her shoulder, ‘Father, here’s Mercy.’
Then before I knew it, my hand was taken in a warm grip, and I found myself staring into an inquisitive pair of green-grey eyes.
‘It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,’ said Father Fannon, scanning my face at a closer range than I would’ve liked.
‘How do you do, Father,’ I mumbled, dropping an awkward curtsy.
‘Oh, she does speak after all,’ I heard Margaret say and chuckle to herself.
‘Well, of course she does,’ said Father Fannon, helping himself to a slice of seed cake and sprinkling the carpet liberally with crumbs. Margaret subtly handed him a plate.
‘Mercy and I will be great friends, won’t we, child?’ he continued, sitting on the sofa and crossing his legs stiffly. I passed him a cup of tea.
‘Er ... yes ... Father,’ I said, not too sure about being called ‘child’ by a man barely out of his twenties. I myself was 18 years old.
‘Oh please, call me Sebastian. I can’t stand all this “Father” business, though I know Maggie here won’t hear of calling me anything else. Thinks she might get struck by lightning otherwise.’
He laughed at this, spraying more crumbs on the carpet. I wondered if I would have to clean them up. Margaret, or should I say Maggie, handed my mother a plate with a piece of cake and gestured to the sofa. Mother looked a bit surprised to be invited to sit with the rector but obediently took her seat next to him.
‘Well now, Father, if I may say, it is your title. And who am I to disrespect a man of the cloth?’ Maggie said, pouring tea for Mother. Sebastian seemed to find this very funny and guffawed loudly. Luckily, he wasn’t chewing on any cake this time.
My mother raised her eyebrows at me as if to say ‘Is this man mentally unhinged? Perhaps this was a mistake.’
Indeed, Sebastian seemed unlike any rector I had ever met. When I thought of our own in Chelmsford, with his balding head, spectacles, and habit of sticking his beak into everyone’s business, the difference was as chalk to cheese. Sebastian’s kindly, relaxed manner was refreshing and I felt relieved that I wasn’t going to be scorned as I had feared.
Chapter 3
