– Katie, why doesn't she love me? – She asked quietly, tears welling up in her eyes.

Catherine smiled affectionately at her, put aside her work on the dirty clothes and sat down on her knees next to her sister.

– 'Well, what have you come up with, sweetheart? Chris loves you, she just has a very bad temper," she said, stroking Cassie's hair.

She knew Cassie was right, but she was a child and extremely vulnerable, so she was better off not knowing that Christine couldn't forgive her for her mother's death.

– Why? – Cassie asked, looking at her sister with her blue eyes: even during her illness she looked like an angel.

– Because she doesn't pray much and doesn't like to read the Scriptures," Catherine explained to her. – But you and I are good Christians and love the Scriptures, aren't we?

– We do.

– All right, do you want to sing a little song about chickens?

– I don't want to… Nobody loves me but you and Daddy! – Cassie wept bitterly, and Kate tried to comfort her, but her soul was torn by her favourite sister's cries, for she loved her as a mother loves her child.

Mr. Pilough, the architect invited from London, inspected the church, made measurements and calculations, drew the blueprints, walked round the building a hundred times, spoke to Pastor Glowford about the commencement of the work, and left for the Earl's estate, where he was staying while the parish church was being restored.

When Christine brought her father a bundle of food, the parson had already finished his grammar lesson and was preparing for vespers. Today he was busy: he personally pointed out to Mr. Pilough every crack in the walls, the nearly collapsed rim and the leaking spots in the church roof. He asked the architect whether the renovation would not be too ruinous for the noble landlord, but he told him that the Count had ordered that no expense should be spared. At vespers the parson announced to the congregation the joyous news of the Count of Draymore's generosity, to which the peasants immediately clapped their hands and enthusiastically raised a hymn to the Saviour.

In the evening the Glowfords were visited by Mr. Morris: he examined Cassie, and announced with satisfaction that her health was recovering, in spite of her strange walk to the old mill. When the doctor returned to Rivershold, he and Mr. Pilough wrote up the reports of their work and sent them to their employers. Mr. Morris, in a rather lengthy letter, reported to Viscount Wilworth on the state of Miss Cassandra Glowford's health, explaining in detail his thoughts on her recovery and the improvement of the family's living conditions. He also mentioned a couple of times that the family's beds were ordinary straw bunks, placed directly on the floor. He could not keep silent about Cassie's "escape" to the mill and the fact that during those hours the girl was dressed in only a nightgown and barefoot, and that he had advised Catherine to bathe his young patient. Mr. Pilough, on the other hand, wrote to Lord Draymore with his reasonings as to the possibility of rebuilding the church, and informed him of the amount the work would cost the Earl, and soon afterwards received a letter in which the Count informed him that the necessary building materials for the church had been bought and brought to Walsingham as soon as possible.

***

Following Mr. Morris's advice, Catherine heated two buckets of water, poured it into a small wooden tub, which she had to carry into the house, mixed boiling water with cold water from a nearby stream, and washed Cassie in it. Then more clean water was added to the tub, and Christine and Catherine bathed in it. Pastor Glowford seldom bathed at home: when spring came, he always bathed in the local stream, and used the tub only in winter. His health had always been characterised by an enviable resistance to disease.