The Schoolmaster’s Daughter — Episode 31
The Schoolmaster's Daughter by Suzan Lindsay Randle
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- 1. The Schoolmaster’s Daughter — Episode 31
DEFLATED, Louisa stayed to finish her tea alone. It was clear that Aunt Charlotte wouldn’t be in favour of her marrying George Jevcott, even if he did achieve his ambition to own his own shop.
Not that that was even a possibility now. Shouldn’t he have written to apologise for what he said about her father? Had all his fine words been meaningless? She feared George was as faithless as Aunt Charlotte’s young man.
Feeling tears starting to well up, she turned her face towards the window as Matilda came in with the tray and cleared away the tea things, taking them away with a clumsy rattle.
Through the window, the birds were chirping in the trees. Louisa wished that she felt so carefree.
She stood up and smoothed down her skirt. With Matilda back in the scullery and Aunt Charlotte no doubt still berating Cook in the kitchen, Louisa could go to her bedroom to be alone with her thoughts.
She was just about to step on the bottom stair when something caught her eye. A piece of paper lying on the tiles.
Her heart began to beat faster. Could it be a note from George?
She hurried to pick it up, then saw with a shudder that it was most definitely not a love letter.
On the same type of rough paper as before, written in the same shaky capitals, was another anonymous threat. YOUR SHOP IS DOOMED. GIVE IT UP NOW.
Holding the paper by a corner between her finger and thumb, Louisa carried it upstairs and secreted it in her writing desk.
She wanted to protect her father. If he wouldn’t go to the police, then she would have to track down the culprit herself . . .
* * * *
Whatever is the matter?” Aunt Charlotte asked Edward as the family ate dinner one evening at the end of summer. “I’ve never seen you look so glum.”
Edward carved a slice of beef from the joint on the table and put it on his plate.
“There were more than a few notable absences today. Boys who haven’t returned to school for the start of the new term. All of their fathers are tradesmen. Most of them own grocery or general provision shops, so I presume this is their way of showing they disapprove of my support for the community shop.”
“I saw Harry Hawkins this morning,”
Louisa said. “His father’s a grocer.”
“True. It’s not all of the shopkeepers.” Stephen looked concerned. “Is it enough to affect our income?” Edward furrowed his brow.
“Not yet. And I refuse to be bullied or blackmailed into giving up a cause that I believe in.”
Edith clapped her hands.
“Well said, Papa.”
“I had one absentee in my class today,” Stephen said. “Arthur Baines.”
Mr Baines owned the biggest butcher’s shop in the town centre, renowned for its pork and beef, and he supplied the schoolhouse with meat.
“Will they still want us as customers, do you think?” Louisa asked.
“I expect so,” her aunt replied sourly.
“They’ll soon put aside principles for profit. That boy who comes for the orders is useless, though, unless they’re deliberately sending us the worst cuts of meat.”
Louisa frowned. Were the tradesmen really boycotting the school?
Though proud of her father, she knew Stephen was right to be concerned about money. The school buildings always seemed to be needing some sort of repair.
She also suspected that Edward was more worried than he cared to admit. His hair was now more salt than pepper. His face looked older, too.
“Perhaps there’s an illness going around,” she said brightly. “I’m sure they’ll all return in a day or two.”
The community shop opened in the first week of September without fanfare, just a small notice placed in the Gazette. The vicar also spread the word on his visits to the parishioners he knew would benefit most from shopping there.