CHAPTER FIVEMariota came back from Church and put her prayer book down on the hall table before she undid the ribbons of her bonnet and threw it on a chair.
It had been a rather more boring Service than usual and she had thought that the sermon would never end.
Then she knew the truth was she was longing to go back to the house to see the Earl and everything that prevented her from doing so seemed like a gigantic obstacle in her way.
Because the living of the Church belonged to her father and he could not afford to pay a Vicar as had always been traditional, the Reverend Theodosius Dowty, the very old incumbent of the next village, now conducted the Services.
This meant that they had only one Service on a Sunday and everybody crowded into the small Church from the oldest inhabitant to
