Chapter 2

Dear Miss Clarissa Banks,

I am your father’s family solicitor. Your father, as you know, was the second son of Mr. Paul Banks and it was his eldest son Roger who inherited the home and grounds when Mister Banks passed away many years ago.

Your father has steadfastly refused to return to the home, citing his duty to his parishioners as just cause, and the home has been maintained by an overseer by the name of Reynolds in the absence of family. Reynolds does not live on the property as his business affairs take him away frequently but he is capable and has ensured that the place has been well-kept in the family’s

absence. The caretaker hired by Reynolds is due to depart at the end of this month however, so a new one must be appointed, or you will need to care for the necessary things yourself until one can be found.

I have been notified of your father’s passing, as your father had instructed me to do in case of his demise, and so am writing you to make clear that you are now the sole owner and heir of the estate, which is small in grounds but the house itself is large.

There is little in the way of money but there is livestock and gardens, all taken care of in the interim, and one could live there comfortably for quite some time.

The keys are to be handed over upon your arrival at the house. You will be met by the overseer Reynolds at the train station. He is currently journeying through the country on business affairs of his own but should arrive back in time to meet you.

The train runs from the town not far from your father’s parish to the town set just below the house and grounds. I assume Reynolds will see to your transportation from that station to the house but you must make your arrangements to board and arrive.

I am enclosing a small amount of money to assure you of the fare. Sincerely,

L. Banister

Clarissa’s breath caught. Surely she was dreaming!

She’d known, of course, that her father came from a genteel, if slightly impoverished family, and that as was usual his older brother had inherited everything while her father had to make his way in the world.

She’d also known that he had come from the rolling green hills and the wild, rugged coasts far to the other side of the country, as had her mother— who’d been a governess before she’d married.

This letter was the answer to her prayers. The money she had managed to acquire would see her through for a short while, and if there was any money with the estate, small sum or not, she could survive. She was used to thrift, after all, and hard work.

She most certainly could not afford a caretaker for the place but if there were, as the letter said, gardens and livestock that had been properly cared for she could manage to keep them up on her own.

The caretaker was leaving at the end of the month. That was in just a few days. She had to leave the vicarage tomorrow, and there was a train tomorrow as well. The journey would take several days but she should be able to arrive just as the caretaker left, barring delays.

She was already packed as the new residents were arriving and she had meant to go down to the village today to purchase her train ticket, and she had been putting that off in the hopes of earning just slightly more before her departure. The fare enclosed was a boon. She fingered the notes with a frown, there would be enough for the fare and she could use her own money for something else she would need later.

Now that she knew she had a place she had so much to do! There were grape seedlings she had meant to leave and small and tender plantings she had nursed into life that she would like to take now that she knew she would have a place to plant them.

The books of her father’s that she had meant to leave must go too, but adding those things would mean taking along the heavy trunk she had also meant to leave behind.

She hurriedly grabbed her reticule and headed for the door. She had to get to the village’s small train stop to buy a ticket to her new destination. That train was always heavily crowded and if she didn’t get there in time today to purchase a ticket she might not have a seat available to her.

As she opened the door she was assaulted by the sight of the smoke-ringed village and the filthy coal being brought up from the mines. And it hit her.

She was free!

She was free of all of it. The mines, the need to curb her pert tongue, the rules and strict life her father had imposed upon her and that she had chafed under so terribly. From then on out she would keep her own house and do whatever she wanted with nobody to tell her otherwise!

Smiling and happy she raced toward the village and the train station.