The Girl is Not For Christmas - Emma V Leech Page 0,68
Mr Skewes….”
It was sometimes exhausting to be proven right all the time.
Livvy’s jaw was so tight it was an effort to speak at all, but she forced her voice to remain calm and pleasant. “And where, pray, did this piece of nonsense spring from?”
Mrs Cardy looked truly unhappy now and Livvy felt bad for making the woman so uncomfortable, but really, it was too much to be borne. If her brother had been spreading the news when he knew damn well….
“Well, it were Mr Skewes himself what said it, or I’d have never… well, he didn’t say it outright but he… intimated that….” Poor Mrs Cardy was hot and flustered now and looked very much as if she wanted to run from the room.
“Mr Skewes implied that… that we were engaged?” Livvy said, breathless but determined to know exactly what had been said.
“Yes, Miss Penrose.”
“I see.” Livvy’s stomach was a churning mass of fury. “Well, Mrs Cardy, you have my permission to refute that rumour in the strongest possible terms. Not only am I not engaged to Mr Skewes, having never been asked, but I have no intention of ever becoming engaged to Mr Skewes, not even if he was the last eligible man in the country. I do hope that clarifies things.”
“Oh, yes, Miss,” Mrs Cardy said with an earnest nod, wringing her apron between anxious fingers, her usually cheerful countenance at once too pale and flushed at the same time.
Livvy let out a breath. She did not wish to punish the poor woman for something that was not in the least her fault and reached out to take Mrs Cardy’s hand. “Don’t fret, Mrs Cardy. I know you would never gossip about me, but there are those, and…. Well, anyway. Do not disturb yourself, I am not the least bit cross with you. Indeed, it is a pleasure as always. Now, I have a few items I must get, but I cannot linger.”
“Oh, yes,” Mrs Cardy said, her relief palpable. “I can see the skies growing darker as we speak, so you just give me that list of yours and it will be done in a trice, and don’t you worry. I’ll make sure I set everyone straight, and with pleasure too.”
By the time Livvy exited the shop, she was seething with fury, though she had taken pains to ensure Mrs Cardy was unaware of it. Spargo, however, was family.
“Oh!” she fumed as she climbed back into the cart. “You’ll never believe what that wretched man has done.”
Spargo turned his head, eyes narrowing under his grizzled eyebrows.
“Mr Skewes,” Livvy said, correctly interpreting Spargo’s expression as a request for further information. “Has given everyone the impression we are engaged to be married.
Spargo sucked air in between his teeth and shook his head.
“Bleddy tuss,” he muttered.
“Quite,” Livvy replied. “If I were a man, I’d… I’d draw his cork.”
“Calm, now, Miss,” Spargo said, his gravelly voice low and soothing. “Won’t do no good. Set ’em straight, diddy?”
“Yes, I did. I told Mrs Cardy in no uncertain terms and gave her permission to tell anyone else labouring under the same delusion. I can only hope it gets back to Mr Skewes, and he takes the hint, once and for all.”
Spargo made a disparaging sound that Livvy did not find reassuring but understood to be true herself. Mr Skewes had decided to have her and believed it only a matter of time before she came to her senses. Not that he’d ever asked her to marry him. She suspected he wouldn’t go that far all the time he knew he’d be rejected, but he believed she would change her mind, and she knew why that was. Bloody Charlie had likely told the man he need only wait her out. He was betting on the fact that Livvy would do the decent thing to save the family. Well, she would, but not with Mr Skewes. There was not much she wouldn’t do for them, but she drew the line at selling her soul to the devil. Why she was being so dramatic she did not know, only that the idea made her breathless and panicky as nothing else could.
They made it back to the house, just as the heavens opened and Livvy hurried to the kitchen, eager for the comforts of home and a good hot cup of tea.
By late afternoon, Livvy had just about calmed herself, though only if she kept busy and her thoughts away from Mr Skewes. Once she’d peeled potatoes