Royal Sisters: The Story of the Daughters of James II (66 page)

Barbara, taken aback, stared at her, lifted her hand to retaliate and then remembered that there must be no brawling between women in positions such as theirs.

But her anger matched Sarah’s.

“I’m not surprised at your mode of behavior,” she said. “It is hardly to be wondered at. And besides being arrogant and ill-mannered you are also cruel. I should be ashamed, not to have poor relations, but to turn my back on them while they starve.”

“What nonsense is this?”

“It is no nonsense. I heard only the other day the distressing story of the Hill family. I was interested … and so was my informant … because of their connection with the high and mighty Lady Marlborough! Your uncle, aunt, and cousins … dying of starvation! Two girls working as servants, I hear, two boys running about the streets, ragged and hungry.”

“A pitiable story and one which does credit to your imagination, Lady Fitzharding.”

“A pitiable story, Lady Marlborough, but it owes nothing to my imagination. Go and see for yourself. And let me tell you this, that I shall not feel it my duty to keep silent about this most shameful matter.”

Sarah for once was speechless, and when Lady Fitzharding flounced out of the room she stared after her, murmuring: “Hill! Hill!” The name was familiar. Her grandfather Sir John Jennings, she had heard her own father say, had had twenty-two children and one of these, Mary, had married a Francis Hill who was a merchant of London.

Sarah had heard nothing of him since. One did not need to keep in touch with one’s merchant connections—except of course when they were likely to bring disrepute.

Sarah made one of her prompt decisions.

Something must be done about the Hills.

Read all of Jean Plaidy’s
Novels of the Stuarts
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The Royal Road to Fotheringhay
    The Story of Mary Queen of Scots
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The Captive Queen of Scots
    The Story of Queen Mary
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The Murder in the Tower
    The Story of Frances,
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The Loves of Charles II
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Health Unto His Majesty
    
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The Three Crowns
    The Story of William and Mary
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    978-0-307-34624-7

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Royal Sisters
    The Story of the
    Daughters of James II
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    previously published
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The Haunted Sisters

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Courting Her Highness
    The Story of Queen Anne
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    978-0-307-71951-5
    
    previously published as
    
The Queen’s Favourites
    
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To Hold the Crown
    The Story of King Henry VII
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    978-0-307-34619-3