Pretence & Reality

By Catherine Carson

Peggy Floyd gave up her high-powered city job as an Accounts Manager to return to her hometown of Coveroak to sit in the drawing room of Fordingham Manor pretending to be a simpering Georgian miss who spends her day embroidering or singing a sweet song whilst playing the pianoforte for coach loads of visitors who come to tour a Stately Home and find out about life in the seventeen hundreds.
In reality she is a modern young woman who prefers to wear jeans and a T-shirt and whose natural perceptiveness means she is not easily fooled by anyone purporting to be what they were not.
Therefore, when Nathan Watson is introduced as a Georgian Gardener her suspicions are aroused and she determines to find out the real reason for his arrival at the Manor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781326604776

Book preview

Pretence & Reality

Pretence & Reality

By Catherine Carson

Standard Copyright © Catherine Carson 2016

ISBN 978-1-326-60468-4 Paperback

ISBN  978-1-326-60477-6 eBook

About the author

Born in Scotland I now live with my husband in the North West of England.  We have three children who, between them have given us six wonderful grandchildren.

I studied commercial subjects at school and college and spent most of my working life in the offices of various companies, starting as a junior in a local garage typing invoices for car repairs.   I left Scotland and crossed the border to England to marry the man I met whilst on a holiday with my extended family and eventually became a secretary with a beer bottling company leaving six years later when the first of our three children came on the scene. 

Returning to the workforce when our children were young adults I finally untied the apron strings to join the offices of a large wholesale book supplier and embraced the advancement in technology since I had first learned to type on a manual typewriter and take notes in shorthand.

During the years I became something of a letter writer as friends and family lived in many parts of the country and indeed the world.  Often friends and family would tell me…..‘You could write a book’ to which I always replied…..‘But would anyone read it’. 

When my granddaughter asked if I would write a book especially for her I confided in my good friend Lisa Schmidt and she told me to go for it.  That book became the first of many stories which had been lurking in my imagination for a good number of years.

Once started I found the stories simply kept coming and often an overheard conversation or a glimpse from the passenger seat of the car would trigger a likely scenario which my imagination would then elaborate and weave into a story.

My hope is that my writing brings a little pleasure into the lives of my readers and allows them to leave the mundane world behind for a few hours as they meet the characters I adore creating.

www.facebook.com/catherinecarsonbooks.uk

www.catherinerenacarson.jimdo.com

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Other Books by this Author

Stand Alone                                           Series

The Mouse in the LibraryTapestry of Love-Bk 1

Family TiesTwins Exchanged-Bk 2

Overall ConstructionHighland Feud-Bk 3

Wounded Wolf

Coffee and CakesSoil, Seed & Betrayal-Bk 1

Memories RekindledDesert Prince, Exiled Princess-Bk 2

Wholesale Love

Hope’s ConflictAn Open Book-Bk 1

Estates of the HeartAfraid to Love-Bk 2

Sibling Rivalry

Fighting for CustodyA Second Chance-Bk 1

White Knight Black KnightTaming the Playboy-Bk 2

Through the Garden Gate…

Love Lost and FoundEstranged Husband & Father-Bk 1

Alphabet BachelorsIdentical Mistake-Bk 2

A Dreamer’s Tale

A Precious JewelSigh of the Claymore-Bk 1

Footbridge of SolaceBeyond Claymore-Bk 2

Demolition of the Heart

When Life Gives You Lemons

Return to the Past

Dedication

To lovers of romances with happy endings.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names.  They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author and all the incidents are pure invention.

Chapter 1  

Peggy felt as if she were on the set of the latest blockbuster period costume drama as she sat in front of the window in the drawing room of the Georgian mansion which had been owned by one of the richest non-royal families in the country.

Dressed in a gown straight from a Jane Austen or Bronte novel she contrived to look the personification of twenty year old Lady Felicity, the daughter of the Lord of the Manor.

Had she really been a Georgian maiden, at the age of twenty-four she would have long since been married or considered too long in the tooth to be pursued by any eligible bachelor of the day.

After working in the city with a large company of financial advisers as an accounts manager she had become disillusioned by the world of high finance and the people who sought to advance their careers at the expense of others and had returned to her home village of Coveroak.

Her father, Oliver Floyd, had been the vicar of the Parish Church for the past twenty years and Peggy had grown up reading the many archived records connected to the church and village.

A Tudor house had originally stood where the mansion now was but during the civil war period it had been razed to the ground and the land became government property.

By the early seventeen hundreds the monarchy had been restored and the House of Hanover had acceded to the throne thus began the Georgian period.  The young men who pioneered the advancing technology of the industrial revolution made their fortune and it was during this period the original owner of the house acquired the land and built his house and landscaped the surrounding gardens.

Unfortunately after years of being cossetted by an army of servants his descendants flittered away their inheritance and crippling death duties drove them to leave the house to the state.  During the First World War the Manor was commandeered by the War Office as a hospital for officers wounded in the battlefields of Ypres.

After the war the house again fell into neglect until the Second World War when it was recommissioned as a hospital for wounded soldiers, sailors and airmen. It remained a convalescent home for several years after the war but eventually the trustees of the house decided it was time to open the house and grounds as a tourist attraction.

It had been widely reported the trustees of the estate had found an heir to the estate and there was speculation amongst the staff as to his identity.  If such a person had been found he would have to be extremely wealthy to once again take full possession of Fordingham Manor and its surrounding grounds.

Everyone had their own interpretation as to what he would look like and in Peggy’s mind he was a short, balding man with a large paunch which he probably tried to hide by wearing his shirt draped over the waistband of his pants;  which of course would only accentuate his manly figure had long since gone to seed.

Her flight of imagination was interrupted by the arrival of the vintage coach which ran from the village twice a day full of people who paid a premium to arrive in style to enter the restored mansion and talk to its occupants.

The coach was owned by a local garage and he had approached the trustees suggesting he be allowed to ferry the visitors back and forth.  Finding approval from the chairman of the trustees the coach ride became incorporated within the entrance fee and had become a resounding success.

After being met by a Footman the visitors were directed to the study where they would find Lord Edward sitting at his desk going through the account books.   From there they entered the dining room to talk to Lady Abigail as she inspected the table settings for the dinner party to be held later in the evening.

The son of the family, Marquis Kenton, was to be found in the billiard room ready to give a demonstration of his skills and explain the rules of the rather complicated game.

The last room they visited on the ground floor was the drawing room where Lady Felicity could be found.

Each member of staff had been drawn from the local community and had been well versed in the history of the period they represented.  The character names were fictitious but the scenarios they imparted had been well documented in books and journals of the day.

When the door of the drawing room opened Peggy gave a short curtsey and went into her usual welcoming speech. 

‘Good morning ladies and gentlemen I trust you have had an uneventful journey to Fordingham Manor on this bright day.  My name is Lady Felicity and I am the daughter of Lord Edward and Lady Abigail.’  Peggy smiled waiting for the visitors to ask their questions.

The routine was the same regardless of the age of the visitors and this particular group seemed totally uninterested in talking to Lady Felicity and spent their short visit to the drawing room looking at the portraits hanging on the silk clad walls or inspecting the ornaments displayed behind the glass doors of the display cabinet, with lacklustre enthusiasm.

The wide staircase with its ornately carved spindles led to the master bedroom where a chambermaid awaited the visitors explaining her duties before opening a door revealing the less salubrious servants staircase which lead directly to the kitchen where the cook delighted in showing off her large array of copper pots and cooking utensils.

Thus the tour of the house ended and the visitors would then leave through the kitchen door and wander round the vegetable garden before reaching the formal landscaped grounds.

Feeling totally exhausted by her efforts to instil some enthusiasm into the whole procedure Peggy saw the