Chapter EightI sat at the breakfast table as Father entertained Mr Ormiston, John Aitken and the hard-eyed Mr Elliot. Mother sat opposite Father as the men demolished all the food Cook could provide.
Once the initial grumbling about the state of farming and the price of grain had been disposed of, Mother steered the conversation away from Captain Ferintosh's mysterious escape to her favourite subject.
'You are a married man, are you not, Mr Ormiston?'
'I am, Mrs Hepburn.' Mr Ormiston did not strike me as the marrying type. I thought him sarcastic, unpleasant and nasty.
'Do you have any family, Mr Ormiston?'
'I have two sons and one daughter,' Ormiston said. I pitied these little ones under his sneering eye.
'Mrs Ormiston will be busy with all these children to bring up.' Mother looke
