Storm In A Rain Barrel

Domine put her hands over her ears. ‘Don’t say it!’ she cried, half angrily. ‘It’s not your fault!’

He shrugged. ‘Well, anyway, when she found she was pregnant, she went to old Henry for help. Who else could she turn to? Who else was responsible? And do you know what he did? He turned her out! Just like that! Alone and friendless!’

‘Oh, no!’ Domine pressed a hand to her throat.

‘Oh, yes. If it hadn’t been for my father—for Lewis Mannering, that is—she’d probably have killed herself. As it was, Lewis married her, knowing all the facts of the case. My mother is nothing if not honest. I suppose in that respect I may take after her. I’ve never had any time for subterfuge.’ He drew out some cigarettes and dropped them in her lap. ‘Do you want one?’

Domine nodded, and lit one, her hands trembling a little as she used the lighter he handed her. Then he continued:

‘It wasn’t until years later that my mother became Henry’s housekeeper, and by this time his wife was dead, of course.’

‘But why did she do that?’ Domine was puzzled. ‘I don’t understand why she should have gone back to him after the way he treated her.’

‘Don’t you? Well, perhaps not. But you’ll learn as you go through life that there is such a thing as vengeance, and that was the reason why my mother went back. Old Henry didn’t suspect, of course, when he employed her. It wasn’t until afterwards when he saw me that he realized why she had done it.’

Domine was still bewildered. ‘But where was your father?’

James Mannering sighed. ‘My father was a farmer. He only had a smallholding, but it was quite prosperous in its way, and when my mother married him she left Hollingford and went to live with him near Beverley. I doubt very much whether Henry Farriday realized she actually had the child, you see. But unfortunately my father contracted cancer of the throat, and he died when I was only fourteen. That was when we went back to Grey Witches.’

‘Oh, I see!’ Domine began to understand. ‘And Great-Uncle Henry recognized you.’

‘Oh yes. Unfortunately, although I resemble my mother in temperament, my physique is wholly Farriday. You can imagine the stir it caused in the village, our living there, at Grey Witches, and nothing old Henry could do about it.’

‘Why? Couldn’t he have dismissed your mother?’