Chapter Four
Gussie’s first notice of Nell’s arrival was the appearance of Aunt Margaret.
The sight of that industrious lady greeted Gussie upon her stepping into the great hall at the Towers one afternoon.
‘Where is she taking all those linens?’ Gussie said to Miss Frostell, who attended her. ‘I must have seen her hauling those piles about any number of times.’
The two women watched in fascinated silence as the vision wafted from one side of the hall to the other. She had died in her fifties, by her appearance, for she moved with a brisk, efficient step, though her hair was fully grey. The voluminous skirts shrouding her portly figure proclaimed her to have lived some few decades before; her bowed posture implied a put-upon existence.
She had a kindness for Nell, Gussie supposed, for
