The Captain's Daughter

The Captain's Daughter by Minnie Simpson Page A

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Authors: Minnie Simpson
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until doomsday. You have
gone too far. Now is the time for me to plan your demise.”
    Amy was not unlike her sister Emma
in some respects, especially when it came to excessive dramatics. She fell
asleep and did not wake until late the next morning.

 
     
Chapter 7
     
    Amy awoke the next morning—late the next morning—to a
light tapping. Effie the maid was timidly trying to wake her.
    “Miss. Miss. Your mother sent me to
awake you.”
    Effie was a locally recruited maid
who had never been schooled in all the niceties of being a maid, so she called
everyone either Miss or Sir. Her failure to use their proper titles did not
matter to Amy. And it did not matter to her mother, who despite holding a few
strongly held opinions, they did not extend to the proper formalities of the
gentry whom for reasons hard to fathom she felt were inferior her and her
family.
    The Sibbridge household, while not
anywhere close to being impoverished, was not especially affluent either. While
a great household would have many servants, they had only a few. In fact, it is
likely they would have been a source of pity to many of the gentry they
associated with in London or Bath. But they had sufficient funds to keep up
appearances during the curtailed season they spent in those splendid places.
     
    At least in the countryside you
never starve even if you are poor because there is always food available. It
would have shocked many a fine lady in London or Bath, but Amy ate breakfast
that morning at the kitchen table while she conversed with Mrs. Pemberton, the
cook, and Effie the house’s only maid and cook’s assistant.
    Sleeping late had melted away her
anger of the night before. It was only after she took her leave of Mrs.
Pemberton and Effie and was once again alone that thoughts of the night came
back to her. Even then, evidently emotionally drained by her outrage and
indignation, it took her a considerable effort to resurrect her fury. Since she
believed it was the proper thing to do, and by working hard at it, she was
finally able to rekindle some of the fire that inflamed her during the night.
    She found that pacing up and down
in the front hall helped quite a bit. Her mother passed through at one point
and for some reason asked about her health, but didn’t stop to hear the answer,
which was probably just as well. Amy proffered that her health was fine but
someone else’s might not be shortly. By that last part her mother was
thankfully out of earshot.
    Deciding that she had worked up
enough motivation she headed upstairs to Emma’s study room. Emma was looking
disgusted and working on some arithmetic. Mrs. Parkhurst was sitting in her
usual chair and appeared to be dozing.
    “I need you to come with me,”
whispered Amy while grabbing Emma by the arm and dragging her out of her room.
    As they left, Mrs. Parkhurst
sounded like she was waking up. Amy couldn’t be sure but decided it was best
not to find out. True, it would be nice to let her know why Emma was missing,
but then again it was not unusual for her to discover that Emma was no longer
at her desk.
    Dragging a mystified Emma
downstairs, she led her out of the house and in the direction of the stable.
    “Are my studies no longer of
importance to you?” asked Emma. “Do you not want to see me educated? Is it of
no concern to you that I might grow up illiterate?
    Ignoring her sister’s sarcasm, Amy
led her over to old Hubert who was weeding the same flower bed that he’d been
working on for what seemed a month.
    “I need to use the trap, Hubert,”
she told him and then continued to the stables.
    Knowing that it would probably be
more time than she was willing to wait for old Hubert to arise from the
marigolds, which were evidently so afflicted by weeds, and reach the stable,
she tracked down Daniel, who was not the smartest of the family’s servants but
had finally learned to ready the trap.
    They were leaving by the time old
Hubert rounded the corner to the stable,

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