The LadyShip by Elisabeth Kidd

Sally’s place!”
    Lucy, to no astonishment of Elinor’s, had already made a mental list of possible candidates for a temporary post at The LadyShip, and the sisters discussed them for a time—which was to say, Lucy scrupulously described their various qualifications to Elinor, who was not nearly so well acquainted with those neighbouring families with eligible daughters as her sister was.
    Elinor was no longer amazed either to be reminded that Lucy was in some ways more familiar with The LadyShip’s staff than its nominal mistress was, when it came to their personalities and idiosyncrasies, their aches and pains, and their el derly grandparents in Thatcham or Bucklebury. She re gretted that she was unable to take on this duty too, but she was thankful that Lucy, in her quiet way, had set about remedying the lack in the same way that she filled in at busy times by washing glasses in the taproom and carrying clean linen up to the bedrooms.
    As if aware that Elinor had already tacitly consigned the task of finding a replacement for Sally to her sister, Lucy let the matter drop from the conversation and said instead, “I’m sorry about this morning, Nell, about the...gentleman in the small parlour. But you are always saying we should be equally courteous to every person who avails himself of our hospitality.”
    “Good heavens, darling,” Elinor said, laughing. “You need not take me quite so literally! I never meant you to hide yourself away from our guests, but that does not mean you must personally wait upon each and every one of them. You know I do not like the world thinking of you as merely another servant here—for you must own that you do as much work as any of them—and I cannot like your going about in that shabby gown.”
    They had come into the kitchen, which was temporarily deserted, and Elinor had sat Lucy down beside her on the wooden settle to talk.
    “Dearest, I know you have no further ambition than to spend your life in tending the garden here and looking after wayward housemaids, but you can see from the not always respectable persons we must deal with that it is no life for a lady.”
    “But I am not a lady, Nell,” Lucy said quietly.
    This matter of Lucy’s future hopes was a recurring dif ference between the otherwise affectionate sisters. The younger girl’s golden hair, pale complexion, and clear, dark-lashed hazel eyes, which were so different from Eli nor’s and her twin brother’s, were at times a matter of amusement between them, Lucy joking that she must have been a foundling and Elinor countering that if it were true, she must have been of noble birth, a hint of which would be useful to speed her acceptance into genteel society—a course Elinor was as determined on as Lucy was indifferent to.
    Elinor was well aware that Lucy was perfectly happy at The LadyShip, where everything she loved also resided— from Boney to the stout and soft-hearted Mrs Nash—but she thought this could only be because Lucy did not know any other life than the inn and her school. When she had a taste of assembly balls and fashionable clothes, she would leave The LadyShip willingly enough. But Elinor could not help her make the break—it would have to be Ned who did that. If only Ned would come home soon.
    That Ned missed the inn was clear from his infrequent letters demanding to know everything that went on at home. In spite of his long absence, he took a continued interest in the details of the inn’s management and ex changed with Elinor any number of ideas for improve ments in food and service, and sources for the best horses to be obtained at a reasonable cost and the advan tages of stabling those of clients such as Marcus Allingham in order to take money in on them rather than laying it out for their own stock.
    Ned talked as if he intended to take up where he had left off, and although everyone recognised Elinor’s temporary authority, Ned was still re garded as “the master.” But Ned, too,