Summerset Abbey by T. J. Brown

Author:T. J. Brown
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781451698992
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2013-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

ELEVEN

Prudence’s garret looked as if a dress shop had been plucked from Bond Street by a mighty wind and tossed into her room. She had emptied the chests of all the dresses she had brought with her. Of course, she hadn’t known when she packed them that only three of them were even remotely suitable for the work she was now doing.

She stood in her chemise uncertainly, wishing she could ask Rowena for advice on what to wear, just as Rowena had asked her a few days ago. But Rowena had never returned from her meeting with her uncle and had been avoiding her ever since, and Victoria, too, was nowhere to be found.

So instead of Rowena or Victoria helping her choose a dress for her outing with Andrew, it was Susie, who was so awed by Prudence’s finery; she was much less helpful than Prudence had hoped.

“Oh, look at these stockings,” Susie moaned, pulling out a pair of silk stockings so sheer, you could almost see through them.

Prudence smiled indulgently. So far all Susie had done was create a mess as she dove through the chests, tossing things here and there in an orgy of delight.

“You can keep them if you like,” Prudence told her. “I’ve got six pairs.”

Susie’s blue eyes widened as she stuffed them in the pocket of her apron and then pulled out four pairs of soft kid gloves. Each was of a different length and she rubbed one of them reverently against her cheek. “The leather is so soft they feel almost like velvet.”

Prudence gave a sharp sigh. She’d been a different girl when she’d packed for Summerset, thinking that she, like Victoria and Rowena, would be required to change her clothes several times a day—that she might go visiting at nearby estates and need tea gowns and dinner dresses and riding clothes.

She’d been a fool, that’s what she’d been.

Biting her lip, she turned to Susie. “But what should I wear?”

Susie pointed at a wispy black lace dinner dress trimmed with lustrous jet beads at the hem and neckline.

“That’s hardly appropriate for a tour of Summerset and dinner at the inn.” According to Susie, who heard it from one of the housemaids, who heard it from the mechanic, who heard it from Andrew himself, he was taking Prudence to the inn for dinner. With a pang, Prudence realized it would cost him almost a month’s salary. She wondered how offended he would be if she offered to pay. Prudence had some money of her own, and her mother had left her eight hundred pounds when she had died. Sir Philip had told her not to touch it and she had taken his advice. And like Rowena and Victoria, she always carried the five pounds for emergencies he had demanded they carry on their person at all times.

She almost asked Susie about offering to help pay for dinner, but thought better of it. Susie’s admiration over her things made her uncomfortable, as though she were showing off.

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