House of Angels Read Online Free

need of his attention. In addition to the family department store, Josiah owned property around the town and was involved in a number of lucrative deals and land speculation. Kendal was expanding rapidly and he intended to share inits success. Then there was the town council, of which he was a member, with every hope of being elected as mayor in the next year or two. Later he might consider applying to become a Member of Parliament. And why not? In fact, he had his fingers in several interesting pies that would increase his wealth and standing in the community, so his patience with foolish, recalcitrant daughters was thin. Why did they persist in their obstinacy? Why were they not obedient and biddable, as girls were meant to be?
    He’d been deeply displeased and disappointed when Roberta had failed to give him sons as a wife’s duty demanded, but where was the use in even having daughters if they couldn’t be married off to good purpose?
    Josiah Angel was a self-made man who’d begun his working life apprenticed to a draper. It had soon become apparent to the young Josiah that other men did not appreciate the fact that although his employer’s daughter might be plain, her father was a man of means in poor health, clearly not long for this world. Josiah had made it his business to court and win the girl. In a very short space of time he’d married her and inherited the family’s draper’s shop, which he then set about successfully developing into a fine department store, using his father-in -law’s substantial savings, plus a few judicious loans over the years. But then Josiah was never afraid to take a gamble when there was a possible profit in sight.
    Admittedly his fortune had suffered something of a beating in recent months, due to one or two ill-advised property speculations, and other, possibly unwise, commitments. But that would all be put right soon, ifhe had any say in the matter. His latest project was the acquisition of a plot of land along Sedbergh Road. He intended to make a tidy sum by building several fine villas for the aspiring middle classes: the merchants and thrusting young managers of the district, assuming he could lay his hands on the necessary funds.
    All it would cost him was his daughter’s hand in marriage. A small price to pay.
    The project, once completed, promised to make good his losses with a sizeable profit on top, thus ensuring a substantial increase in his fortune. He could see no reason for the plan to fail, so long as he could bring Ella to heel. Which he fully intended to do. But then Josiah generally found a way to curb the excesses of female histrionics and stubbornness which seemed perpetually to blight his life.
    On his return to the attic, he took with him a towel, tightly knotted and wringing wet with ice cold water.
     
    As he entered, Ella was on her feet in an instant. ‘ No! ’ she screamed. ‘Don’t hurt her any more. It’s not true. I lied! I lied ! Dadda! I’ll do it! I will, I will. It was all lies about me being with child. Let Livia go and I’ll marry this farmer, I swear !’
    Maggie sobbed while Livia cried out in dismayed protest. Josiah offered what might pass for a smile, twisting his mouth into a grimace. Nothing about his face was symmetrical, neither side quite matching the other. Even his nose was slightly crooked and off-centre. The eyes were a dark, chilling charcoal, hooded beneathheavy lids, one tilted slightly upwards while the other dragged down at one corner. His mouth, more often than not, was clenched in a firm tight line, the chin jutting strong and square, evidence of Josiah Angel’s iron resolve to bend the world to his will.
    ‘I am mightily relieved to hear it, and thankful you’ve come to your senses at last, Ella. You could have saved your dear sister a great deal of suffering if you hadn’t proved so stubborn. Clearly you are in dire need of a husband to control this wilfulness you’ve displayed of late, this emotional