Sweet Rogue of Mine (The Survivors #9) - Shana Galen Page 0,21
you, Miss Howard. You will have to return it.”
“It’s already been cut. Mr. Clark will not take it back.”
Mrs. Northgate raised a brow. “We shall see about that. Sterns!” The door opened and the maid who had shown Pru inside appeared.
“Yes, Mrs. Northgate?”
“I am going out. I want my coat and my walking stick.”
“Yes, Mrs. Northgate.” She held the door open and Mrs. Northgate started out, still holding the yellow fabric. “Come along, Miss Howard.”
Pru moved to follow then dashed back to collect the paper for the fabric. By then Mrs. Northgate was in the vestibule and Sterns was assisting the older lady in donning her coat and hat.
“Where are you going?” Pru asked, feeling as though she had opened a book to the middle instead of the first chapter.
“We are going,” Mrs. Northgate said. “Put on your hat and coat and come along.”
Pru looked at the maid, hoping for some assistance or explanation, but Sterns merely stared back at her. Pru shoved her arms into her coat, hastily buttoned it up and grabbed her hat just as Mrs. Northgate was gesturing for the maid to open the door.
“Grandmama,” said a high voice. “Where are you going?”
Pru looked back to see Miss Eliza Northgate standing in the doorway of what was most likely the family drawing room. Like her sister, she had blond hair, though hers was pinned up. She wore a pink dress that was somehow feminine but not too frilly and which showed off her figure to perfection. Pru glanced at her face, judging that the color of the dress suited Miss Northgate’s complexion quite well. Perhaps Mrs. Northgate knew what she was about.
“I will be back before dinner,” Mrs. Northgate said, not looking at her granddaughter. “Your mother needn’t worry.”
Miss Northgate’s blue eyes landed on Pru. “What are you doing here?”
Pru opened her mouth to answer but then was struck with self-consciousness. She did not want to tell this stylish creature that Mrs. Northgate was helping her with her dress. It was too embarrassing. But the girl was looking at her and even Mrs. Northgate had paused, waiting. Pru took a breath. “Mrs. Northgate has graciously agreed to help me make a new dress.”
Miss Northgate’s pale brows went up. “How kind of you, Grandmama,” she said, making it sound as though Pru was a charity case, which Pru supposed she was. “I daresay we have all been wondering when someone would help poor Miss Howard. I just did not think it would be you, Grandmama.”
Mrs. Northgate turned steely gray eyes on her granddaughter. “Are you quite done?”
Miss Northgate curtseyed in response, directing a small sneer at Pru.
“Good.” Mrs. Northgate took her walking stick in one hand. “Then we shall be off. Come along, Miss Howard.”
Pru followed, tying the ribbons of her sagging bonnet under her chin as she followed. She wished she could return to the vicarage. She didn’t know what had possessed her to listen to Mrs. Blimkin and go to Mrs. Northgate in the first place. She did not want anyone’s charity or pity.
“You needn’t go out of your way or to any trouble on my account,” Pru said, as she followed Mrs. Northgate toward town. The older woman walked quite briskly for her age, and Pru had to increase her own pace to keep up. Mrs. Northgate made no indication she had heard Pru, so Pru felt compelled to go on. She often felt so whenever there was a silence. She did not like silences. “I do not want your charity or your pity. I had only thought to ask for your advice.”
“And I am giving you my advice,” Mrs. Northgate said. “I call that neither charity nor pity, though I cannot entirely rule out pity for I did pity that awful dress you wore yesterday. It should be burned. Why on earth would you or your mother purchase material in that shade of...” Words seemed to desert her. She made a gesture with her hand and finally said, “In that color?”
Pru explained that the dress had come from the bin for the poor and that since it had fit her, she had been given it to wear. “My parents give almost all of their money to the church, and there was seldom ever any left for frivolities.”
“I hardly think a decent dress a frivolity. How many dresses do you have? Four?”
“Three,” Pru said.
“The third is your Sunday dress,” Mrs. Northgate stated. “Is it any better than the two I have seen?”