Page 60 of By the Sword
My husband is dead, but that is nothing compared with this living death, Kate thought.
Mistress Barlow indicated a chair at the table, and while she busied herself with whatever was cooking over the fire, Kate exchanged a knowing glance with Jacob Howell. Small wonder the bailiff had no heart to turn this family out.
A tall, lanky boy of about fifteen stomped in from outside.‘What’s to eat, Ma?’ he demanded.
‘Now, Sam, mind your manners. My lady and Master Howell have come to visit,’ Susan Barlow said with an apologetic hitch of her shoulders in Kate’s direction.
The boy, to his credit, whipped off his hat and apologised. Kate smiled at him and he took a seat at the other end of the table, as his mother set out bowls of a thin gruel and a hard, almost inedible bread, made from the poorest grinding.
The boy hunched over his bowl, occasionally casting Kate furtive glances. Did he suspect the reason for her visit?
Kate finished the food she had been provided with and brushing the last crumbs from her skirt, she folded her hands on the table. ‘Mistress Barlow,’ she began. ‘You must know why we have come.’
The woman looked at her with wide, frightened eyes. ‘Aye, my lady. It’s about the rent. It’s just with only the boy and me’–she cast a glance in the direction of her husband –’we just can’t seem to make ends meet.’
‘Have you no one else to help?’ Kate asked.
She shook her head. ‘I’ve put five children in their graves, my lady, and my brother was lost in the war. I’ve no one but Sam and my girl Essie, who works up at the hall.’
Kate stood up and wandered around the room, looking for inspiration. She stopped to inspect the work on a loom that stood beneath a paneless window. She had been the daughter of a clothier and knew enough of the weaver’s art to recognize quality.
‘Did you weave this?’ she asked Susan.
‘Aye, my lady. I do a bit of weaving for the extra money it brings in.’
‘It’s good work,’ Kate observed. She looked at Jacob. ‘Master Howell, I believe there is a vacant cottage in the village?’
Jacob scratched his head. ‘Aye. Old widow Read’s place. It needs a mite of fixing up though.’
Kate looked back at Susan, seeing the small glimmer of hope begin to flicker in the woman’s eyes.
‘Mistress Barlow, it is plain that you cannot cope with the farm and the responsibility of caring for your husband. You must understand I have no choice but to turn you out of the farm.’ The boy jumped to his feet but before he could protest, Kate raised a hand. ‘Hear me out. If I were to offer you the cottage instead, as a grace and favour for the service your husband did for the Thorntons during the war, you could work full time on your weaving and earn an income doing what you’re good at. Would that be acceptable to you?’
‘And me?’ Sam glared at her.
‘There’s paid work for you on the other farms,’ Jacob Howell said. ‘Keep your peace, boy.’
The woman’s face broke into wreaths of smiles and she grabbed her son’s hand. ‘Oh, my lady, would you do that for me…for us?’
With Susan Barlow’s effusive gratitude ringing in her ears, Kate left the sad little farm. ‘Have we anyone to put into the farm?’ she asked Jacob.
Jacob thought a minute then nodded slowly. ‘Aye, Jeremiah Knowles’ eldest boy has just taken a wife. They’re an honest, hard-working family. They’ll soon put the farm to rights.’ He paused, before clearing his throat and saying gruffly, ‘You’ve done well, Mistress Ashley.’
Kate drew a deep breath. She could understand any reticence on the part of the tenants and villagers. Not only was she a foreigner but a ‘Roundhead’ as well, but if she had won Jacob Howell over, she hoped that general acceptance of herself and Thomas would follow.
***
As the days passed, it became obvious that she had underestimated the weariness of the Seven Ways tenantry. Of course, Jacob told her, they would have preferred to see Jonathan Thornton take his rightful place, but they had known that were that to happen the land would be immediately sequestered and some crony of Colonel Price’s assume the position. They had lived with penury and uncertainty for so long that Kate’s coming proved to be a relief.
Given a choice between that possibility and a boy of good Thornton blood, loyalty to Kate and Tom seemed assured. Respect still had to be won, but Kate’s fair treatment of the Barlows had been well received and Ellen reported the kitchen gossip that Susan Barlow had become Kate’s staunchest defender to any doubters remaining in the village.
The full impact of Kate’s influence came at the first market at Kidderminster following her arrival. For the first time in years, the Seven Ways tenantry received the full price for their stock. Kate attended in person and Colonel Price greeted the new mistress of Seven Ways with a polite doffing of his hat and a bow. For the time being, anyway, it seemed he was not willing to earn the enmity of a personal friend of the Fairfaxes.
The months began to roll into each other as Kate grew in confidence and asserted control over the estate. There always seemed to be some new problem, some knot to unravel, and some plausible reason to stay on a few more weeks.
Conscious of her promise to her sister, Kate wrote to Suzanne and told her that while she still planned to return to Yorkshire before winter, she could see no way to come earlier as there was too much to do before she would be content to leave Seven Ways in Jacob’s capable hands.
Chapter 18
