Page 145 of The King's Man
‘I would never … ’ Rebecca looked down at the prayer book in her hand. ‘Aunt … ’
‘Rebecca?’
‘Is mother dying?’
Thamsine sighed. Nothing would be gained from lies. ‘Yes, dearest. I doubt she will see the week out.’
‘What will become of us?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Father says that we must leave Hartley and return to the house in Turnham Green.’
‘Don’t you want to go home to London?’
Rebecca shook her head.
Thamsine put a hand over the small, fine-boned hand clasping the prayer book. ‘You will always be welcome to visit me here.’
Rebecca’s face brightened. ‘Promise?’
Thamsine nodded. ‘I promise.’
‘Will you come back to London?’
‘No,’ Thamsine said with absolute certainty. London held too many painful memories. Nothing would induce her to return to London.
‘Will you marry again?’
Thamsine smoothed the folds of her black skirt and shook her head. ‘No. I shall never marry again.’
‘What was he like?’
‘Who?’
‘Your husband.’
Thamsine swallowed and looked away. ‘I can’t talk about him, dearest.’
‘I would have liked to meet him. Mother says he was a rogue but in a nice way,’ Rebecca continued.
‘Yes, he was a rogue in a nice way.’ Thamsine smiled. ‘A terrible rogue, but you would have liked him.’
‘There you are, Bec!’ Rachel, her fair curls escaping from beneath her cap, bounded into the room. ‘We’ve been looking for you everywhere! What are you talking about?’
Thamsine looked at Rachel and smiled. She had just turned ten and promised to be everything her sister was not. Where Rebecca was the picture of the obedient, Godly child, Rachel was rowdy, untidy and lacked a scholarly bone in her body.
‘We were talking about Thamsine’s husband,’ Rebecca said.
‘Was he very handsome?’ Rachel asked.
Thamsine smiled, ‘Yes.’
Rachel sighed. ‘You must be sad he’s dead.’
Thamsine drew a heavy breath. ‘Let’s not talk about him anymore. Rachel, come here, your hair is a mess.’
She made a fuss of Rachel’s hair, trying to pin it back under the cap. If Rachel had been her daughter she would have given up the unequal struggle, but for Jane’s sake, she persisted.
