The eyes of both mother and daughter twinkled at each other as they envisaged how Hannah, sitting bolt upright, would by her very presence seem to cast a gloom over the other occupants of the stagecoach.
Those who might have been talking gaily and vociferously before would lapse into an uneasy silence and any man who dared to whistle beneath his breath would receive such a look of disapproval that he would hastily close his eyes and pretend to go to sleep.
The cards that men whiled away a long journey with were frowned upon by Hannah to a point where a game lost its interest and the small children who otherwise might have been obstreperous hid their heads shyly against their mothers.
“I shall be perfectly all right,” Ilouka insisted. “Don’t worry about me on the journey, Mama, but only
