Daughter of Mine. Anne Bennett

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       CHAPTER ONE

      Lizzie Clooney and her cousin, Tressa, almost danced along Colmore Row to the Grand Hotel where both girls worked. ‘Imagine, a Christmas social,’ Lizzie said, her eyes shining at the thought.

      ‘Aye,’ Tressa replied, almost hugging herself with delight. ‘And to be held on the nineteenth of December before the hotel gets really busy. I mean, we have to grab this opportunity while we can. It isn’t as if we are meeting Catholic men on every street corner.’

      Lizzie knew her cousin had a valid point, for although they enjoyed all the delights of Birmingham, the city they’d now lived in for nearly two years, they’d never encouraged any of the boys who’d pressed them for dates, certain they’d be Protestants. Never could Lizzie or Tressa contemplate marrying someone of another faith, for they both knew such a person would never be accepted into their families, who lived in Donegal in the north of Ireland.

      Small wonder really, when you looked at the history of the place. Hadn’t there been enough trouble between the Orangemen and Catholics there to last anyone a lifetime, without them adding to it? ‘Everyone had better watch out,’ Tressa said warningly, but with a bright smile plastered to her face, ‘for I’m after catching a rich and handsome man at this social.’

      ‘Tressa!’

      ‘Well, I am. Are you not?’

      ‘No,’ Lizzie said, and then added more honestly, ‘well, not really.’

      ‘Are you mad?’ Tressa demanded. ‘This is our chance. D’you want to be an old maid all your life?’

      ‘No, of course not,’ Lizzie said with a laugh, ‘but I don’t want to get married yet a while.’

      ‘Well I do,’ Tressa declared. ‘If one takes my fancy, that is.’

      ‘You be careful,’ Lizzie cautioned. ‘You’ll get talked about.’

      ‘Och, will you listen СКАЧАТЬ