A Singular Lady by Megan Frampton

Author:Megan Frampton
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Megan Frampton
Published: 2017-11-07T16:00:00+00:00

HIS IMPOVERISHED LADY woke up the next morning feeling as if she had just discovered Croesus’s riches. She practically vaulted out of bed, chirping merrily for Sarah as she foraged through the wardrobe for something to wear down to breakfast. Sarah came in, holding a pot of tea.

“What are you bein’ so dern cheerful for, then?” she asked. She watched as Titania hauled out her old riding habit, which Sarah had tried to make sure remained safely back at Ravensthorpe. She marched over, slopping tea onto the floor as she went, grabbing the habit from Titania’s hand.

“Miss! You cannot venture forth in public in that old thing! Besides being hopelessly out of fashion, it is altogether too tight! You are much—” She paused, searching for the right word.

“Sturdier?” Titania supplied helpfully, gesturing toward her ample bosom.

Sarah sighed, putting the tea down on the table. “Yes, miss, sturdier, if that is ’ow you term it. In any case,” she continued brusquely, “you cannot wear that in public, and that is final.”

With that, she folded her arms and glared. Titania, knowing when she was beaten, walked back over to the wardrobe and extricated another piece of clothing.

“Does this pass inspection, then?” Titania held out her new habit, a dark chocolate brown that fit almost as tightly as her maligned black one.

Sarah gave a reluctant nod. “It will contain you, at least, even if it shows just as much as that other one.”

“It looks good, then?” Titania asked, peering at herself in the glass. Sarah’s response was a low grumble, which Titania interpreted as a yes. Satisfied, she picked up her jacket and ran downstairs.

“Oops, sorry, Stillings.” Titania barely avoided a collision with her butler as she entered the breakfast room. She scooted around him, grabbing a piece of warm bread as she sat down at the table. Stillings gave her the same look he had always bestowed when she was dashing about the house as a young lady should not, and gestured toward the letters at the edge of her plate.

“Miss, it appears that there is some correspondence that deserves your immediate attention,” he said in his most butlerish tone.

“Yes, Stillings, I see,” she said meekly, quickly stuffing the last crumb in her mouth. She picked up the first letter and felt a frisson of fear down her spine. She had seen too many of them not to recognize a bill.

It was indeed a bill, and very large at that. It appeared that in addition to stealing the tenants’ rents and pocketing the money intended for improvements to the estate, the ridiculously greedy overseer had also bought many items on the Stanhope credit. As Titania stared at the paper in her hand, she glanced over at the remaining pile and realized there were many more such letters in the pile. She began to sort through them with a trembling hand.

Bills for jewelry, wine, and clothing. She quickly opened each one, consigning the bills to their own malignant pile. Totaling them all up, she slumped in her chair.

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