Hello!
My Tailored Truths Blog Tour continues with the Coffee Pot Book Club where I have more Friday visits to make.
However, I did promise to share some of Tailored Truths on this blog, so here's another excerpt for you to experience what's happening in the eyes of my main character Margaret Law.
This excerpt is from near the beginning of the novel and gives a little idea of what Margaret's facing after she arrives in Dundee, Scotland. Grab a drink, find a seat and enjoy!
Almost
Penniless in Dundee
Margaret could barely believe that four whole weeks had passed since Jessie had confronted her father and had then left the next day to start work at Hawthorn House. So much had happened and yet, for Margaret, so little to show for it.
She
creaked-open the front door of Ada Webster’s house, trying to enter unheard,
but her landlady had the most acute hearing of anybody she’d ever met.
A
few minutes later, having unenthusiastically handed over the rent money that
was due, she cradled the now-lit candle and trudged up the narrow wooden stairs
yet another time, saying to herself that it would soon be the last week she’d
have to sleep under Ada Webster’s roof.
Unfortunately,
unlike Jessie, Margaret had yet to find what she’d call a proper job. Nothing
had come of her efforts to secure employment as a tutor, or to gain a position
teaching at a school for young ladies. The reference she had from Mister
Stewart Duncan in Edinburgh, though glowing enough in its own way, didn’t
satisfy any of the school administrators that she could cope with more than one
pupil.
She’d
even asked around if anyone knew of a lady’s maid position, like Jessie’s, but
to no avail.
Once
inside her room, she yanked off her cloak and shook it free of rain droplets,
drenching herself in the process, before she calmed down sufficiently to
stretch it out across the two door pegs, both of them now available for her
use. She couldn’t afford to mistreat the now very worn wool, her little supply
of money dwindling surprisingly quickly. Frustrated beyond measure, she dumped
the contents of her small drawstring bag on the only bed that was now in the
room that she’d shared with Jessie for such a short few days. The tiny pile of
coins staring up at her was horrifying. Worse still, her earnings would not be
in her hands for days yet to come.
Her
Uncle James, in Perth, would likely lend her money but she was resisting asking
him. She was keeping that strategy as a very last resort. She’d written to him
twice since she’d taken up residence in Dundee, mentioning her lack of success
in finding her father William, though she’d admitted that was mostly because
she didn’t really know where to ask. She’d drawn a dead end after unsuccessful
attempts at the United Presbyterian Churches that were close to Ada Webster’s
lodgings. There was some church, or other, on nearly every Dundee street so the
asking at churches might take forever. Her father had changed church
allegiances sufficient times when she was growing up in Milnathort that he
might well have taken up with a completely different church sect by now.
She
gathered up her meagre coin collection and dumped it back into her bag before
slumping down onto the bed. Finding her own father no longer seemed any kind of
priority. A confrontation with him would be very different from Jessie’s
situation though reluctantly, when she thought about it, it would be traumatic
in its own way. William Law had always acknowledged her as his daughter, she
had to admit to that, even if no real love had come her way. But if he hadn’t
treated her mother in the way he had, she wouldn’t even bother to try to see
him again.
Till next time, tak tent! (take care)
