Joan Wolf by Fool's Masquerade

Author:Fool's Masquerade [Masquerade, Fool's]
Language: por
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

"Good afternoon," I said. "I have come to see Lord and Lady Ardsley. I am Valentine Langley, their granddaughter."

The starchy look on the butler's face altered. He held the door open.

"Come in, miss. I will inform my lady that you have arrived." I turned and waved to my faithful coachman before I followed the butler into the house.

Chapter 13

I was ushered into a very elegant, silk-covered room, and the butler aisappeared. I sat down on a fragile-looking chair, very different from the massive carved furniture that was so in evidence at Carlton Castle, and stared into space.

The door opened and an elegantly dressed and coiffed silver-haired lady came in. I stood up.

"Valentine?" she said, and looked at me as if I were an extremely unsatisfactory footman.

"Yes." I looked her over as well. "You are Lady Ardsley?"

"I am your grandmother." She came across the room to stand in front of me. Up close she looked much older. She was several inches shorter than I. "Where have you been?" she demanded. "We received notice of your father's death months ago."

She was every bit as bad as I thought she would be. I smiled. "Please don't exhaust yourself with condolences, Grandmother."

She gave me an icy stare. "Don't be impertinent. I never liked your father. You must know that. He ruined my daughter's life. Now, where have you been these last months? Your father's colonel was very upset by your disappearance. As were your grandfather and I."

"My father did not ruin Mama's life," I said flatly. "I have been staying with my old nurse and trying to get a job as governess."

"What?"

Oh, lord, I thought. If she's upset by the thought of my being a governess, I can imagine what she'd say if she knew the truth.

"That's right. But no one would hire me. I'm too young."

"Sit down, Valentine." We both seated ourselves and regarded each other warily. "Did your father not tell you that in the event of his death you were to come to Ardsley?"

"You never even wrote to my mother," I said woodenly. "Not once. She told me."

The old face in front of me became exceedingly stern. "I told Elizabeth how it would be if she went against our wishes and married that boy. She chose her bed. It seems she came to regret her choice."

"She did not," I said fiercely.

We stared at each other and then my grandmother said, "Am I to understand, then, that having failed to find employment on your own, you have humbled your pride and come to us?"

The old harridan. She thought she had the upper hand, and was she loving it.

"Was my father mistaken?" I asked. "Are you unwilling to have me?"

"I did not say that."

We were back to staring at each other. If she thought I was going to crawl, she was much mistaken.

"What would you do if I said we did not want you here?" she asked at last.

"Get another kind of job," I replied promptly.

She looked scornful. "What kind of job is open to a girl like you, Valentine?"

I gave her my nicest, my most charming smile.

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