Miss Fanshawe's Fortune - Linore Rose Burkard Page 0,10
perplexity, for her skill at lip reading left much to be desired, and all efforts at it failed her now. “What are you boys disagreeing on?” she asked.
“Nothing of import, Mama,” Edward said. “Go and have an early nuncheon, and we’ll see to getting your new companion settled.” After kissing her hand and bowing her off, they approached the parlour. Sebastian had one more objection. “If Miss Fanshawe is very genteel, she will shrink from hiring herself out.”
Edward said, “When her alternative is poverty and the street? I think not!”
Sebastian ground out between tight lips, “You had ought to have brought her to a clergyman!”
“To send her to the poorhouse? I didn’t even think of it, if you must know. I heard of her fortune and thought my elder brother, an intelligent and enterprising man—for even I can acknowledge you are considered as decent a buck as anyone—would do the pretties by her. Take care of the tangle.”
“That’s what solicitors and barristers are for,” Sebastian replied.
But Edward turned to look behind him at his brother and said, “She can little afford either! And you are more than capable of untangling this hobble, I’ve no doubt.”
Sebastian eyed him with his usual dispassion. “She will refuse. No properly bred young woman will accept a servant’s situation.”
“A companion ain’t like a servant!” hissed Edward. “All the old cathedrals these days have companions, they don’t attend a ball or rout without ‘em, and they’re as respectable as you please.”
“Are you referring to our mother as an old cathedral? She’d swoon if she heard!”
“O’ course not,” cried Edward. “I only meant that a companion is just the thing, these days. Miss Fanshawe won’t be insulted.”
“I suspect she will,” said Sebastian. “And then I’ll send her packing.”
It took only a few minutes for the gentlemen to ascertain that Miss Fanshawe was more than equal to serving as a companion for Mrs. Arundell. It had never occurred to Frannie that she might be of some service to the household, but the thought filled her with relief and gratitude. She wasn’t merely a pauper relying on their charity; now she would be of use to them. At the first mention of the situation, she closed her eyes and exclaimed, “Oh, thank God! I can be useful to you!” She looked up with eyes alight. “My prayer was, if you would be a blessing to me in my distress, that I would also bless this family in turn!”
Sebastian seemed at a loss by this reaction, for he hadn’t expected anything of the sort. He explained her duties, expecting objections to erupt, but she remained calm, eager to please, nodding sagely. Chief among her responsibilities, she was assured, was to listen to conversations and help their mama understand the gist so that she might participate, answer questions correctly, and hopefully without appearing as deaf as she was. They explained the terrible fall on the stairs six months prior which had resulted in utter unconsciousness and such injury that they feared the worst. Mrs. Arundell had finally come awake and seemed no worse for the episode, save that her hearing suffered lasting harm.
Frannie felt uncommonly suited for the role of companion. Indeed, it filled her heart with oddly familiar warmth, for Mrs. Baxter had been much older than she, and their relationship was almost the same. For most of her life, Mrs. Baxter had been the superior and Frannie, younger, the inferior. Both understood that upon her majority Frannie would assume the superior rank on account of her wealth, but as she was not in possession of that wealth at present, it seemed entirely fitting that she ought to be in subservience to Mrs. Arundell.
By the end of the interview, Sebastian felt almost satisfied with the day’s events. Miss Fanshawe’s presence, which at first seemed a vexation, did indeed answer the purpose for Mama, and saved the household the trouble of finding a better applicant. Whether or not he would exert himself to study her affairs was another matter. He’d never let a pretty face sway his better judgment. Indeed, he might have succumbed to the charms of countless ineligible young women and found himself ill-married but for a determination never to allow a female to turn his head for frivolous reasons. When he needed a wife, he would of course approach the softer sex in that light, searching for a possible future mate. But he wasn’t looking for just a pretty face. If and when he became the next baronet