smart horse and carriage drew to a halt at the entrance. The master was the first to alight and after acknowledging her with a cheery wave he then proceeded to help his mother down from the carriage. Amy had to bite her lip to stop herself from giggling when the old woman appeared. With her heavily painted face and overly frilled attire she made an amusing spectacle at the best of times, but today she had truly excelled herself. The hat that perched precariously on her wig was so wide and so heavily laden with silk flowers that it barely fitted through the carriage door, and she cursed irritably as her son struggled to assist her down the steps.
‘Stop pullin’,’ she scolded him, slapping peevishly at his hand. ‘You’ll ’ave me go me length, man.’
Samuel merely sighed. He was well-used to his mother’s ways but eventually she stood in the road, straightening her hat and smoothing her voluminous skirts as she glared at him. When she spotted Amy standing patiently on the station platform she raised her hand in greeting and after waving back, Amy turned her attention back to the carriage. She had only ever seen Josephine Forrester from afar, and as yet had not been formally introduced.
As Mr Forrester helped her down from the carriage Amy saw that she was a very attractive woman. Although no longer young, her relatively unlined face was soft, and her auburn hair, although slightly faded in colour, was still thick and shining. But it was her eyes that were her best feature. They were a deep brown and, as Amy stared into them, she felt that she could almost have been staring into her own in a mirror.
The woman was dressed in a superbly cut velvet day costume in a rich ruby shade, and on her head was perched a jaunty little hat that Amy instantly recognised as one of her own designs. It was common knowledge in the town that Samuel Forrester had married far above his class, and from the way Josephine held her head high and her proud bearing, Amy could well believe it. Mary and Beatrice had told her that Mr Forrester obviously still adored his wife even after many years of marriage, and now that Amy had seen her she could understand why.
When they finally approached her, Samuel introduced his wife with pride. ‘Amy, this is my wife, Mrs Forrester.’
Amy bobbed her knee respectfully as Mrs Forrester smiled at her kindly and said, ‘How do you do, my dear. It’s so nice to meet you at last. I’ve heard so much about you, and I know my husband and my mother-in-law have very high hopes for you.’
Unbeknown to Amy, Josephine Forrester had in fact been watching her comings and goings at The Folly for some time, unobserved from her upstairs apartments. The first time she had glimpsed her she had thought she must be seeing a ghost, for Amy bore a striking resemblance to the daughter who she still grieved for daily. Now, face to face with the girl, she was more than ever reminded of her beloved Jessica and her heart ached afresh. Up close, Samuel’s protégée was very pretty, and Josephine warmed to her immediately. Unbidden, her thoughts slipped back to happier times but they were disturbed when the stationmaster blew his whistle.
‘All aboard!’ he shouted, and for the next few minutes they were all kept busy assisting the elderly Mrs Forrester into her carriage and settling her into her seat, which proved to be no easy task.
Amy finally stared out of the window, everything except the excitement of riding on a train for the very first time momentarily forgotten. She felt like a little girl again, all happy and bubbly inside, and it was all she could do to stop herself from laughing aloud with sheer delight.
Her excitement was not lost on the old woman, who winked at her son in private amusement. He grinned back, and as the last carriage door was slammed there was a final shrill whistle and with a jerk the train began to pull away from the station in a cloud of thick black smoke.
Just for a second, as all the old familiar places began to slip past the window, Amy’s face clouded as she thought of her gran all alone back at the cottage. But then excitement took over again and she gazed in awe at the fields as they sped along.