“My old Nanny and my father’s soldier servant, who has been here since Papa retired and bought the house.”
“Surely you have friends in the neighbourhood?” he asked.
“There are very few people round here and most of them are not well off themselves.”
As she spoke, Noella thought how embarrassing it would be to have to beg from her neighbours.
They had actually paid very little attention to her since her mother’s death.
They were mostly old, and their families, if they had any, had moved to London or to other parts of the country that were more attractive than this isolated part of Worcestershire.
They certainly had not sent her many invitations and then she had been too shy or too proud to deliberately seek them out and plead for help.
Mr. Raven turned round from the window and walke
