The Colonel's Spinster - Audrey Harrison Page 0,5
handed around the cups. When the cups were emptied, she collected them and rang for the tray to be removed, reinforcing Fitzwilliam’s assumption that she was being used as a companion.
“Prudence is fitting in nicely,” Aunt Catherine informed Fitzwilliam, unconcerned that her words could be heard. “We hardly notice Mrs. Jenkinson’s absence at all.”
Fitzwilliam rolled his eyes at the crass comment but used the opportunity to bring his cousin into the conversation. “Do you live in Manchester, Cousin?”
“No. Just on the outskirts. A little place called Stretford,” she said. “Although the city seems to grow daily, so I’m sure that soon our house will be absorbed into the spread.”
“Her father contacted me a few years ago to say that he thought she should spend some time with her mother’s family,” Lady Catherine informed Fitzwilliam.
“How many years ago?” Fitzwilliam asked incredulously. His aunt couldn’t hold her tongue about anything, except when it came to poorer relations, it seemed.
“Oh, about ten. Soon after her mother died,” Lady Catherine shrugged.
“I’m sorry we did not know about you then,” Fitzwilliam apologised to Prudence. “I know Darcy and myself would have liked to be acquainted with you.”
“He had Georgiana to bring up, and now he has his hands full with that family he insisted on connecting himself to.”
“The Bennet family are a delight to be around. Most of them,” Fitzwilliam said with grin. “Every family has the sort of relations who one would wish to hide from society.”
“I am to be yours, Cousin,” Prudence said, but her twinkling eyes laughed their understanding of his comment. “My Papa had ideas that I would want to be a genteel lady and be brought out in society. I have never aspired to that lifestyle. I’m happy with my upbringing, although it is nice to meet some of my mother’s family. The older I get, the more curious I am, especially as father always said I resembled that side of the family more than his.”
“It was impossible for me to sponsor you for a season with Anne being so ill,” Lady Catherine defended her actions. “And how could I introduce the daughter of a cotton-spinner into the finest society?”
“Aunt!” Fitzwilliam hissed, mortified that she could be so rude.
“Don’t trouble yourself on my account,” Prudence said to Fitzwilliam. “When you have spent as much time around a cotton mill as I have, you would realise I’ve heard far worse insults.”
“Have you really?” Anne was stirred into asking.
Turning to her cousin, Prudence smiled. “Oh yes. Mill girls work from ten years old. They’re as tough as the clogs they wear on their feet, and if they have an opinion, they say it. Mind you, if you are in a spot of bother, they will be the first to offer help. They’re the kind of people you want on your side in any situation.”
“It sounds an utterly barbaric place,” Lady Catherine shuddered. “How your mother could sink to such depths, I will never understand.”
Fitzwilliam noticed the darkening of Prudence’s expression, even if his aunt did not, but it passed quickly enough, to be replaced by a bland gaze. He suspected his cousin was restraining herself in their aunt’s presence ― something he could empathise with completely.
“My mother, because of love, willingly joined a community that welcomed her wholeheartedly. She was more than happy, working by my father’s side until the day she died,” Prudence said firmly, unable to let her aunt’s comment go completely unchallenged.
“We should all be allowed to marry for love,” Fitzwilliam interjected.
“Are you a romantic, Cousin?” Prudence asked. Her laughing look returned as quickly as it had disappeared.
“I’m too poor to be so,” Fitzwilliam shrugged. “A second son needs to find a rich wife or a career.”
Raising an eyebrow, Prudence assessed him. “And which are you choosing?”
“I’ve picked a career that doesn’t pay as much as my tastes would wish.”
“Where I come from, we cut our cloth accordingly. People live within their means,” Prudence said.
“We have a duty to keep tradesmen in work,” Lady Catherine interpolated. “What would happen if everyone were frugal? I could employ half the servants I do, and many families in the village would suffer as a result. Is that what you would want?”
“Not at all. It’s to your credit to be so generous in employing the numbers you do,” Prudence said quickly. “My objection is spending when the bills can’t be paid. That can result in real hardship for families while they wait to see if the gentry pay their debts. I would suggest