Page 114 of The Armor of Light

Deborah said: ‘Father, you’re talking like an old clothier who won’t use the new-fangled machinery. You should keep up with the times!’

Hornbeam was stung. He did not think of himself as a stick-in-the-mud. ‘That’s a ridiculous comparison,’ he said crossly. Deborahwas the only one in the family who could stand up to him in argument.

‘Perhaps just one or two waltzes?’

‘There will be no waltzing.’

The youngsters gave up and joined in the contradance. Hornbeam saw, with a grimace of distaste, that Amos Barrowfield was taking part.

There was always something to spoil his mood.

*

After the wedding party, Sal sat at the kitchen table with a borrowed quill and a little ink and opened her father’s Bible. She wrote the date, then the word ‘Marriage’, then she said: ‘How do you write Jarge?’

‘What are you doing?’ said Jarge.

‘I’m putting our wedding in the family Bible.’

He looked over her shoulder. ‘That’s a fine book,’ he said.

It was old, Sal reflected, but it had a good brass clasp and was printed with clear letters that were easy to read.

‘Must have cost a bit,’ Jarge said.

‘Probably,’ she said. ‘My grandfather bought it. How do you spell your name?’

‘I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it wrote down.’

‘So, if I write it wrong you won’t know.’

He laughed. ‘Nor care, neither.’

Sal wrote ‘Jarj Boks and Sarah Clitheroe’.

‘Very good,’ said Jarge.

It did not look right to Sal, but it was done now. She blew on the ink to dry it. When it stopped glistening and turned to a dull, unreflective black, she closed the book.

‘Now,’ she said, ‘let’s go and watch the guests arriving at the ball.’

*

Elsie was not much of a dancer but she liked dancing with Amos, who was graceful and precise. The contradance was energetic, and at the end they left the floor panting with effort.

The Assembly Rooms looked very different tonight than when Elsie used them for her Sunday school. This was how the place was intended to be, full of music and chatter, with corks popping and glasses being filled and emptied and rapidly refilled. But she preferred it when the only occupants were poor children determined to learn.

She said to Amos: ‘Well, now I’ve been to jail. That’s a first.’

He laughed. ‘I’ve known Sal a long time. She really loved her first husband, Harry, and I’m glad to see her happy again.’

‘You’re a kind man, Amos.’

‘Sometimes.’

She knew that Amos was embarrassed by compliments, so she quickly changed the subject. ‘I’m sorry the Socratic Society has been wound up.’

‘Spade and Pastor Midwinter think it’s for the best.’