Page 123 of By the Sword
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Kate woke in the morning feeling better than she had done for months. Having the support of the Freemans shared the burden she had been carrying for so many months. They seemed as concerned as she about Jonathan and it comforted her to know someone else cared as much for him.
Ellen brought her breakfast and after she dressed she went in search of her hostess.
The faltering notes of a virginal guided her towards the parlour. She pushed the door open and to her surprise saw ayoung girl seated at the instrument, her ankles crossed and her forehead puckered in concentration. A small black and white spaniel that had been asleep at her feet leapt up and bounded over to Kate, jumping up in excitement, as young dogs are prone to do.
Its mistress stopped playing and clapped her hands. ‘Oliver. Bad dog. Come here.’
Reluctantly the puppy abandoned Kate and slunk back to the child who left the stool and executed a neat curtsy.
‘Good morning,’ she said.
‘I’m sorry to interrupt your practice,’ Kate said, ‘but I was looking for Mistress Freeman.’
‘Aunt Hen is in the kitchen, I think,’ replied the child. ‘Who are you?’
As she spoke the child flicked back a lock of dark brown hair that had escaped her neat, white cap. Kate stood quite still, her heart catching in her throat. A simple, common gesture but in its way, oddly telling. The child had to be a Thornton, a Freeman grandchild perhaps.
‘I’m Mistress Ashley,’ she replied.
The girl frowned and something that appeared to be recognition crossed the girl’s face. ‘Are you the lady who is going to marry my father?’
The world tipped on its axis as Kate stared at the child.
‘Your father?’
‘Yes, he told me he was going to marry a lovely lady called Mistress Ashley who has a boy called Tom. He is my cousin. Is he here?’
Kate shook her head. ‘No, Thomas is at school,’ she said.
A look of disappointment crossed the child’s face and Kate took a breath and asked, ‘What is your name, child?’
‘My name is Tabitha.’
Kate forced a smile and crossed to the virginals. ‘Tabitha is a pretty name,’ she said. ‘Are you Tabitha Freeman?’
The girl cocked her head to one side. ‘Well I used to be called Woolnough,’ she said, ‘but Aunt Hen says it is proper I be called Tabitha Thornton. I think Tabitha Thornton sounds better don’t you?’
Kate nodded, her throat constricting as the truth of this child’s identity began to dawn on her. Tabitha Thornton… Jonathan’s daughter? But he’d said nothing about a daughter–
‘What are you playing?’ she asked. ‘It was very pretty.’
The girl’s face lit up. ‘Shall I play it for you?’
‘Please do.’ Kate sank onto an aged darkened oak settle beside the fire. She needed time to think.
The girl’s fingers moved with a precocious surety over the notes. Watching the intent little face, Kate knew without a shadow of a doubt that this indeed was Mary Woolnough’s daughter, the child of her adulterous affair with Jonathan.
‘You wouldn’t think that the child had never seen music before she came here.’ Henrietta’s voice came from the door, as Tabitha brought her rendition to a firm end. ‘Her music teacher says she has a natural talent,’ Henrietta continued, crossing to the child and placing her hands affectionately on her shoulders
Any number of questions filled Kate’s head but she could not bring herself to articulate any of them.
Henrietta patted the child. ‘Run along, my dear. You can practice later. Mistress Ashley and I must talk.’
Tabitha bobbed a hasty curtsy and, freed from the tedium of practice, skipped from the room with Oliver at her heels.
‘Nathaniel gave her the puppy for Christmas,’ Henrietta said, seating herself next to Kate on the settle. ‘She said it was the first present anyone had ever given her. She called him Oliver after Oliver Cromwell dined here.’
