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.”“Did you accompany him dressed as a boy?”“Of course not! I stayed here and then Papa made excuses as to why I was not with him.”Alister did not reply and after a moment she said,“I suppose that only people in the County and on the estate knew I was the son Papa did not have.It made him extremely happy and that was more important than anything else.”“I can understand in a way you doing what he wanted, but now he is no longer here and you have become a woman, which you might have found rather difficult after being a boy for so long, you must go away.Even if you do not trap me personally, the scandal, talk and laughter of the family and of the locals will be difficult for me to combat.”“May I please stay in the Dower House?” Georgina begged.“At least then I will feel at home whereas if I go anywhere else I will be entirely alone.”There was silence.Then she thought that he was about to say ‘no’, so she carried on,“Please, please let me stay here, at least until I can find something to do elsewhere.As you know, you have a house in London and if I go there I might be talked about even more than I will be here.”“You must have some relative who will be prepared to have you,” Alister replied.“What about Lady Crawford herself, who persuaded you to dress up on my account?”“Lady Crawford has a large family of her own and she has always disapproved of the way that Papa brought me up,” Georgina explained.“I could not bear to hear her finding fault with him as she undoubtedly would.”She paused for a moment before she added,“Anyway she would not want me and, even if you paid her extra to have me, she would resent me intruding on her family.”“And who could blame her?”Alister walked back to the window and stood once again gazing out.There was a long pause before Georgina said,“I will go to the Dower House tomorrow and I am afraid it will want a great deal doing to it as it is in a very poor state of repair.But I daresay I can find a couple of women from the village to look after me until the rooms are more or less habitable.”“Very well, if that is where you wish to go, then I must agree,” he replied, turning from the window.“At the same time I hope that you will make the effort to find something else which is not on top of The Castle, where it will not raise the attention of our family and neighbours.”As he finished speaking, he walked out of the study shutting the door behind him.Georgina put her hands up to her face.She could hardly believe that what she had heard was really true.That she was to leave her home and everything she loved and go to the Dower House which was, she believed, uninhabitable.It was so like Lady Lawson to come in and create trouble, so much trouble that now her life was turned topsy-turvy.‘There is nothing I can do but leave, as Alister has told me to do,’ she said to herself.‘But it will be very very lonely without anyone to talk to.’Suddenly she put her hands up to her eyes.“Oh, Papa, why did you have to die? We were so happy and had planned so many marvellous things to do together.”There was no answer, only the quiet of an empty room.She felt as if she was utterly and completely alone in a world where there was no longer any love or even a kindly word.CHAPTER SIXGeorgina packed a few clothes, thinking that once she was settled there would be a place for them to hang.Then she would send for the rest or perhaps would go herself to The Castle when Alister was not at home.Because she was frightened that, if she had to speak to him again, she might say a lot of things she would later regret, so she went out through the back door to the stables.She supposed that she would be able to ride her own horse in the future, but at the moment she was not certain of anything, but felt that her whole world had fallen beneath her feet.She reached the Dower House and opened the door with a key she had brought from her bedroom.There was a stale smell where the windows had not been opened for ages and everywhere was thick with dust.She walked into the drawing room, which at one time had been very beautiful, but now the windows were so dirty that it was difficult to see through them.She knew that it would take days or perhaps weeks to clean all the rooms.Now she went to look at the bedroom which would be hers and it seemed to her even worse than the rest of the house.‘How can I stay here?’ she asked herself.She went downstairs again, having put her case that carried her clothes down on the floor.The kitchen seemed slightly cleaner than the rest of the house, although she might have been imagining it.Then she suddenly realised that she had nothing to eat for her dinner.‘I cannot bear it,’ she thought.‘I will have to go to a Posting inn or perhaps ask the Vicar to have me for the night.’Then there was a knock on the door and she went to open it.To her surprise it was Dawson holding a tray.“When I heard you’d left, my Lady,” he said, “I knew you’d want somethin’ for dinner.”“Oh, Dawson,” she cried with a break in her voice, “you are the only person who has thought of me.I cannot bear this dirty empty house.”“Now don’t you upset yourself, my Lady,” Dawson said.“Things’ll be better soon and it’s just like that Lady Lawson to stir up trouble.”He walked into the kitchen as he spoke and then he put the tray he was carrying down on the kitchen table.There were silver covers over the dishes which now might be cold, but at least would be well cooked and tasty.“I’ve sent to the village,” Dawson told her, “for two women who’ll give you a hand tonight.Tomorrow I’ll ask for someone to clean up the whole place.”Georgina gave a laugh.“Oh, Dawson, you are so wonderful.I might have known you would come to my rescue.I was just feeling that I must run away to a Posting inn rather than stay here with all this dirt and dust.”“It won’t look so bad for long,” Dawson promised.“I’ll soon get it clean for you and the Missus’ll cook you somethin’ nice every day till you have time to find a cook.”Georgina wiped away the tears in her eyes.“You are very kind, Dawson.I am so miserable leaving my home and everything I love.”“I can understand that, my Lady, but you can make this place as pretty as it was in your grandfather’s time.At least his Lordship’ll have to pay for that.”“I hope he will, but I need to find out how much money I have myself.”“If you asks me,” Dawson went on, “there be a lot of things at The Castle that belong to you.So don’t you leave them behind, you move them in here.If you’re hard- up, there are pictures and your mother’s jewellery which’ll keep you goin’ in the way you’ve been brought up.”Georgina wiped her eyes.“I feel better – simply because you are here and I know that you will look after me,” she whispered.“I hope I will be allowed to ride the horses.”“Well, two of them at any rate were given to you by your father,” Dawson said.“One for your birthday and one for Christmas.”“I had forgotten that,” Georgina replied.“I am so used to feeling that everything in the home was part of me, it’s difficult to remember that it’s now his Lordship’s.”“If you asks me his Lordship’ll feel ever so lonely when you’re not there,” Dawson remarked.“He hates women because he was so unhappy when he was married,” Georgina explained
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