Thrown Out on Christmas Eve, She Took Shelter in an Empty House — Unaware the Duke Was Coming Home
Chapter 9
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She showed him how the wick must be plaited, not twisted, so that it curls over as it burns and trims itself. She showed him how to dip the wick in the warm wax, lift it out, let it cool, and dip it again—30 times, 40 times, until it grew thick enough to stand."Slowly," she said when he dipped too fast. "If you hurry it, it goes lumpy. Beeswax doesn't like to be hurried.""I've noticed," said Edmund, holding up a candle that looked like a parsnip.Hannah laughed. It was the first time he had heard her laugh, and it surprised them both. She put her hand over her mouth at once as if she had done something improper, and Edmund found that he would have given a great deal to hear her do it again.They worked until nearly midnight. By the end, there were 11 candles drying on a rack by the range: not many, not enough for a great house, but 11 was more than the house had held in nine years.Edmund took one of them upstairs. Hannah did not follow him, and she did not ask. But when she went up to bed a little later, she passed the door of the small sitting room, and there was a line of gold light underneath it. And through the door, she heard a man's voice, very low, saying something she could not catch.She went quietly on to bed and did not mention it in the morning.Boxing Day came bright and blue. The snow had stopped in the night, and the sun on it was so dazzling that Sam went out into the yard and came straight back in with his eyes watering.It was Sam coming back in who said, "There are people on the drive."Hannah went to the window. Her stomach turned over.Up the long drive, wading through the snow, came a little crowd. At the front, on a stout brown cob, rode Mr. Silas Pike in his good black coat. Beside him walked Tom Fenn, the village constable, looking unhappy. Behind them came a dozen villagers—the two big Dawson brothers among them, and old Mrs. Tibbs, the baker's widow—and a cluster of children who had come for the excitement."They saw the smoke," said Hannah. "Yesterday. They must have seen the smoke."She turned to find Edmund already behind her. He had looked out of the window over her shoulder, and his face had gone very quiet."Stay here," he said, "with Sam. Let me speak to them.""No." Hannah took off her apron and folded it. "This is my doing. I'll answer for it. You've been kind, Ned, kinder than you had to be. I won't have you lose your place because of me."