The American Bride - By Karla Darcy Page 0,11

the dark buxom Janey offered.

"I appreciate your thoughtfulness," Cara replied cautiously, not wanting to get off on the wrong footing with the girls. "I've never had anyone to wait on me before. I'll feel like real gentry."

As Cara raised her nose in the air she smiled broadly at the girls which sent them into a fit of the giggles.

"Wait until you've seen some of the ladies what came up from London with Lord Wilton," Agnes gushed. "Oh the dresses are ever so fine and all their great jewels and glittery things."

"A houseparty?" Cara asked.

"Twelve of 'em, Miss," the irrepressible Agnes offered. "I peeked over the balcony just afore lunch. All prinked up and the ladies making eyes at his lordship. Not that he'd notice since Lady Valencia Greeley was hangin' on his arm, just like she couldn't make it all the way into the salon."

"Lady Valencia is elderly?" Cara asked hopefully.

This question set the girls off again into laughter.

"Not by half, she ain't," Janey volunteered. "A right tarted up beauty, if you ask me. Lots of town airs. Ever so sweet when any of the gents are around but a sly puss when they're not."

"Her abigail is done up by the end of the day what with her ladyship changing her clothes four times a day and wantin' this and that fetched 'til the poor gel is plumb wore out." Agnes lowered her voice to a confidential tone. "I was passin' her rooms after she'd gone off to lunch and the place was tossed all to pieces. Must have tried on ten dresses and each one of them thrown down in a heap. And she paints," she added, delicious horror in her voice.

"Lord Wilton don't seem to mind," Janey sniffed.

"I thought his lordship was married," Cara stated weakly.

"'At may be so, Miss," Agnes burst in. "But word in the Hall is that it was all arranged by his father. I hear she's a proper quiz. Comes from America which is full of rough brutish men and frumpy women."

Seeing Cara's startled expression, Agnes remembered the new governess was an American and clapped a hand over her mouth, rolling her eyes in embarrassment. Janey clutched her apron like a lifeline, her face mirroring the younger girl's discomfort.

"I'm ever so s-sorry, Miss," Agnes stuttered.

"Never mind," Cara replied. "I suspect most of the people in England think the same thing." Then changing the subject she asked about the children.

"They're better off orphaned, if you don't mind my saying," Janey announced in disapproving tones. "Their mother was a flighty piece of goods, no better than she should be. Some said if the carriage accident hadn't took 'em that their father would have been involved in an awful scandal. All set up for a duel, he was. Over some bit of muslin."

"It's lucky for the children that they've come to be with Lord Wilton,"

Agnes enthused. "He'll see to the right of things. A proper gentleman, his lordship is."

"He's not setting much of an example for the children if he's carrying on with Lady Valencia." Cara could not keep the note of censure out of her voice.

"Well, gentlemen must have their pleasures, Miss." Agnes, who Cara suspected was no more then fifteen, sounded for all the world like a weary matron. "He's a good man, is Lord Wilton."

"Got the Devil's own temper," claimed Janey. "Comes from gettin' his own way as a lad. But for all that, he's a fair man. He didn't used to spend much time in the country. He had his opera dancers and such in town. Lately he's been on the estate more and takes an interest in the doings. Fixed up all the tenants' cottages the last time. Better than most, I could mention."

By this time Cara had learned enough about Wilton to put her decidedly out of sorts. She had enjoyed the chatter of the girls but wanted nothing now except a wash and her dinner. She thanked the girls for their company, explaining that she would be delighted with a tray in the new schoolroom.

"Then after the children's dinner I would like you to bring them along to the nursery." At the girls' blank expressions she questioned, "Will they be going downstairs to Lord Wilton?"

"Oh no, Miss," chirped Agnes. "The children won't be seeing his lordship. He only sees them if they need seeing."

"I understand," Cara said although she really didn't. "Then bring them along and tell Mrs. Clayton I would like a pot of hot chocolate and some cakes