Deception (Daughters of Mannerling 3) by M.C. Beaton

Author:M.C. Beaton [Beaton, M.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472112903
Publisher: Canvas
Published: 2014-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

FIVE

I’m not a jealous woman, but I can’t see what he sees in her, I can’t see what he sees in her, I can’t see what he sees in her.

SIR ALAN PATRICK HERBERT

Belinda confided to Lizzie in a hushed whisper that she could not help feeling excited at the forthcoming visit to London. Lizzie murmured back, ‘It does feel wicked to be looking forward to it so much, what with Mama confined to her room with another of her mysterious illnesses and Rachel and Abigail red-eyed with weeping. But it will be so wonderful to escape from here and the shadow of disgrace.’

‘It’s a shadow that will follow us to London,’ warned Belinda.

‘Oh, I know that. But we will be going out! Not sitting indoors mourning the Beverleys’ lost reputation. And Miss Trumble says that we must behave like perfect little ladies so that society will begin to remember Harry’s awful reputation and not think too hardly of Abigail. But I am so glad Miss Trumble is with us again,’ said Lizzie.

‘So am I. She is now so cheerful and reassuring, and keeps talking of how pleasant it will be to have a box at the opera again. I asked her when she had ever had a box at the opera, and how could a governess manage to be accepted by the opera committee to even have a box because, as you know, they are worse than the patronesses of Almack’s.’

‘To which Miss Trumble no doubt said that it was a previous employer who had the box,’ said Lizzie.

‘Exactly.’

‘There is a mystery about our Miss Trumble. Companions are usually bullied just like governesses, and yet Lady Evans treated her with every respect, quite like an old friend. A number of governesses actually come from very good families who have fallen on hard times,’ said Lizzie.

‘That must be the case,’ agreed Belinda. ‘But I am a little disappointed. I wanted the mystery about Miss Trumble to turn out to be something really dramatic.’

‘I cannot imagine anything at all dramatic in our sober Miss Trumble’s past,’ said Lizzie. ‘We have not really discussed this Lord Burfield, and yet I had some conversation with him at Lady Evans’s ball.’

‘You did not tell me that!’

‘I felt it was something I was supposed to keep a secret and yet I suppose I can tell you, now that he is to be our brother-in-law and has behaved most handsomely. I was sitting in a corner at the ball and Prudence Makepeace, a not-so-young lady, was sitting with him. When his attention was distracted, I saw this Prudence slip something into his glass. Well, I was afraid to make a scene but frightened she might have been trying to poison him, so I switched the glasses!’

‘Lizzie!’

‘She staggered off shortly after having drunk what was in the glass. Lord Burfield went to find out what had happened and it turned out to have been laudanum. I think she wanted to stop him calling on Abigail!’

‘This Prudence will no doubt be furious then when she learns of Abigail’s marriage.

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