Only by Chance by Betty Neels

Author:Betty Neels
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

WITH EASTER A WEEK away now, Henrietta was being put through her paces as a guide. Each day Mrs Pettifer led her round the vast rooms which would be open to the public, reciting their contents and making her repeat them until she was word perfect. There was the ballroom, the vast drawing room seldom used by the family, the banqueting room—‘Never used at all,’ said Mrs Pettifer in an aside, ‘except for weddings, christenings and funerals’—the main hall and the great staircase which led them to the only two bedrooms on view, both with canopied beds, vast wardrobes and Hepplewhite dressing tables with their giltwood toilet mirrors, and Regency day-beds and giltwood chairs.

The second bedroom contained a leather screen—Dutch painted leather, eighteenth century and worth a small fortune—‘And don’t forget the ormolu clock on the side-table—French, Louis XV,’ said Mrs Pettifer. ‘Pierre Leroy made it, just in case anyone asks. They seldom do. The carpet in this room is an Aubusson and in the other bedroom a Tabriz, but you already know that, for you helped me to clean them, didn’t you?’

By the end of the week Henrietta was a bundle of nerves. The house was to open on Easter Monday and she spent her usual Sunday afternoon sitting in the office, becoming more and more nervous—a state of mind Mrs Pettifer cured by coming over to the house before supper.

‘I’m a visitor,’ she told Henrietta. ‘Take me round the house. Don’t worry, there’s no one about and it’s a splendid chance for you to rehearse.’

Henrietta, very much on her mettle now, led Mrs Pettifer from room to room, trying to pretend that the lady was a group of interested tourists and succeeding very well.

‘Well done,’ said Mrs Pettifer. ‘You’ll be all right—remember that visitors have come to see the inside of the house and its contents, not you.’

* * *

A MOST SUCCESSFUL day, Lady Hensen assured Mrs Pettifer as the last of the tourists trooped down the drive. She had been presiding at the counter in the garden room, turned into a café for the occasion. ‘We did really well in the tearoom. It always surprises me that so many people want to see round the place. Did Henrietta manage? No gaffes?’

‘None. She is going to be very satisfactory. She’s intelligent and keen and she wants to know about everything she sees and does.’

‘Splendid. She will be capable of guiding each afternoon, you think?’

‘Oh, perfectly, Lady Hensen. You don’t want her day off altered? She has Tuesday.’

‘Why don’t we let her have Saturday? She has Sunday morning, doesn’t she? That will give her a nice break; she could even stay away if she wanted to for the night.’

Mrs Pettifer said bleakly, ‘She has nowhere to go, Lady Hensen.’

‘No, no, of course not. How silly of me. Has she made any friends in the village?’

‘Well, they all know her—she’s well liked there and she visits Mrs Tibbs sometimes—but friends, no...’ Mrs Pettifer frowned. ‘She’s shy and

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