Lady Anthea's Choice: The Amberley Chronicles by May Burnett

Author:May Burnett [Burnett, May]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mind Games Publications
Published: 2015-11-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Think ahead to what will benefit your children and grandchildren.

Maxims for Young Gentlewomen, by A Lady, London 1823

“All these belong to you.” Lady Desborough upended a heavy bag onto the table in the morning room. Mrs Trevor, Cecily and Anthea looked on with interest.

Cherry gazed at jumbled brooches, necklaces, pins, rings and miscellaneous objects. She felt distaste rather than enthusiasm, but kept her expression noncommittal. Those had to be diamond-encrusted shoe buckles, and there were several hatpins…jewelled tortoiseshell or ivory combs … the pile resembled a moderately successful pirate’s swag.

“Here is the list – the inventory – I am afraid there are some items we could not locate after all this time, and of course a number of valuable pieces were stolen by the servants who abandoned you at that inn,” Lady Desborough went on.

Anthea looked intrigued. “Do we know which items they stole? Maybe they still have those missing jewels.”

“Most unlikely. They would have sold them as soon as it was safe,” Cherry surmised. And would not have obtained anything close to the real value; she knew all about selling jewels, when you had little else.

“Just what happened? Nobody has told me the full story,” Cecily said.

Lady Desborough looked at Cherry, who gave her permission to discuss the subject with a slight nod.

“Those unscrupulous servants were very crafty. The first Countess died suddenly during the night, in a small inn. Mariah had left precipitately with the child and wet-nurse, after an argument, not even taking her maid. From the location it looks likely she was going to a friend in the countryside, Lady Menzies, but she had not sent any message ahead, or told her household her destination.” She glanced at Cherry again. “Is this painful for you to hear?”

“Not really, it is difficult to connect those events with myself. After all, I was only a few weeks old and have no recollection of them.” She held a ruby bracelet against the window’s light, put it back down with the rest of the baubles. Her first inclination was to return the jewels to Lady Desborough, but she stayed her hand. In her penurious period only months ago, it had been her jewels that allowed her to survive, and given her a ray of hope for the future. These jewels might offer salvation to one of her far-off descendants one day.

Lady Desborough was not done with her story. “After Mariah died, most likely from her chronic cough and shortness of breath, the coachman and wet-nurse continued on their way without the babe, and returned to the London house a few days later. They claimed that Lady Desborough had absconded with a lover and was determined to go with him to the colonies. Everyone believed them, in view of that quarrel before she had left.”

“Poor Lady Mariah,” Anthea said, with a sideways glance at Cherry. “And how unutterably callous towards her small child.”

“The wet-nurse was let go after a few days, when no trace of the child was found. The

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.