His Convict Wife by Lena Dowling

Author:Lena Dowling
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857991102
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises
Published: 2013-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

‘I’m done with sleepin’ out in the scullery,’ Colleen said catching another thread without even looking up from the piece of linen she was hemming, making out like it was nothing, even though she had been bursting to tell Thea ever since she woke up.

She had been in a good mood all morning and not just because of what had happened with Mr Biggs, although that had definitely left her in a good humour — so much so she had even broken into song and kicked up a little jig in the cabin when no one was looking.

But more than that, it was as if her whole life had changed and none of what had happened at O’Shane’s mattered anymore.

It was like turning over a new page of a book to find it all clean and shiny without any writing on or black splotches of ink.

Thea tucked her needle in to the fabric and looked up at her.

‘I just knew last night would do the trick.’

‘What about last night?’

Colleen made out she was concentrating hard on picking another thread out of the warp, so she wasn’t tempted to pull a face. Thea’s dinner had precious little to do with what had happened — that had all been down to her, giving up waiting on Mr Biggs and taking matters into her own hands.

‘The swimming, of course, silly.’

Colleen released the thread she had picked out and raised an eyebrow in Thea’s direction, who smiled cheekily back at her.

‘Weren’t we just tryin’ to make Mr Biggs look at me like proper lady-wife material. What did the swimming after have to do with it?’

‘Well,’ Thea said looking back over her shoulder. ‘James says it puts me in the mood, and he always comes along as well to ‘protect my modesty’ as he calls it and often we don’t even make it home before my modesty gets compromised anyway.’

Colleen clasped her hand to her own lips as if she couldn’t quite believe what she had just heard had come out of a real lady’s mouth and not her own.

‘God, Thea.’

‘That’s what James is usually saying by the end of it.’

Colleen released her hand to allow for the gasp that followed.

‘Thea, you are shocking.’

‘I can be.’ Thea laughed. ‘But it does make life so much more agreeable, don’t you think?’

Colleen and Nellie hated the toffs. After what Lady Mellwood had done to them neither one of them would have thrown so much as a bucket of water to a lady if her house was on fire.

Colleen hadn’t wanted to, but it was impossible not to like Thea, for all her mad ideas.

She was a strange one — not like a real lady at all. When it came down to it her ladyship just wasn’t ladyship material.

The haymaking gang were making expert work of the grass with their scythes, slashing through the grass at pace. Due to his strength Samuel could keep up, but if he had been able to master the right technique he would have outstripped even the fastest convict in the group.

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