Protection by Elise de Sallier

Author:Elise de Sallier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Writer's Coffee Shop

Chapter 17

Ruse

With less than a week to the wedding, Lisa found herself torn between excitement that it was finally going to happen and anxiety over the public nature of the event. With Nathaniel busy preparing for the upcoming antislavery vote, her father off visiting Penelope, and Michael and Eleanor due to arrive at any moment, she was in desperate need of a distraction. Since baking wasn’t an option, she hoped doing some sketching would help calm her nerves. But after her third failed attempt at achieving a reasonable likeness of the Stanton House cat, Lisa threw down her pencil in disgust.

“You seem a little out of sorts.” Margaret’s smile was sympathetic. “Would you like to accompany me and Rebecca on a shopping expedition?”

Lisa hesitated to say yes, as there were only so many fripperies one could possibly need.

“We’re visiting a bookstore,” her future stepmother-in-law added, and Lisa’s reluctance disappeared.

Returning to the charity home several times since their first visit, she had discussed with Miss Wright ways in which she could be of more direct assistance. While females of the lower classes were almost never given the opportunity to learn to read and write, the charity home director was of the opinion a basic education could open up a world of opportunities for the girls, an opinion Lisa shared. When young Sam, the kitchen-hand-cum-stable-boy who had defended her in the markets of Worthey, learned of Lisa’s intentions, he volunteered to be her first student. Since he was keen to better himself, and she was determined to develop her teaching skills, they made a good team.

When Margaret sent word for Ben to bring the carriage around, Lisa asked if Sam could accompany them. Twenty minutes later, they were ensconced in the bookstore, Lisa with an eye to adding another Jane Austen novel to her collection once Sam had finished making his selection from amongst the children’s books.

“Excuse me, Lisa.” Rebecca approached from where she had been studying the latest fashion journals. “There’s a quaint little shop just two doors down that sells parasols and fans. Would you mind if Margaret and I go take a look and meet you back here when we’re finished?”

“Of course not. Take as long as you need.”

With Sam engrossed in the pages of an illustrated copy of One Thousand and One Nights, Lisa looked forward to exploring the shelves without interruption, or so she hoped. Recognised from the drawings of Nathaniel and her that regularly appeared in the papers, she was having to adjust to being somewhat of a public figure, anonymity now a thing of the past. So it was with a resigned sigh she turned to face the fair-haired young woman, a commoner by her plain attire, who approached her a few moments after Rebecca and Margaret departed.

“Are ye Lady Anneliese?” The woman’s gaze flitted from side to side. “The one the paper says is ’elping young girls wot need rescuin’?”

To Lisa’s dismay, word of her involvement with the charity had escaped after a canny reporter followed her to the home on one of her recent visits.

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