CHAPTER TWOAurora awoke on Boxing Day to a cold white light streaming in through her bedroom window and to hear the parlour maid rattling in the fireplace as she raked over the ashes and laid a new fire.
“It be a cold one, Miss Aurora,” Phyllis remarked, as she placed a jug of hot water on the washstand.
Aurora threw off her covers and sat up to look out of the window.
Fog lay over all the lawns and gardens of Hadleigh Hall and everything bore a coating of crisp white frost.
“How is Papa this morning?” she asked Phyllis.
Her father had retired early to his bed on Christmas Day, saying that he felt tired and unwell after too much festivity, although in her opinion the day had in fact been very quiet.
Just herself, her Papa and her stepmother opening presents and eating mountains of de
