Angel in my Bed by Melody Thomas

Author:Melody Thomas
Language: ron
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

“I’ve never seen fabric this beautiful.” Bethany pressed the blue velvet to her chest as if it were a living thing in her arms.

Victoria sat in front of her vanity watching the girl twirl about like a bright golden top. Bethany met her gaze in the mirror. “However did you afford this, Victoria?”

“Finished, mum.” Moira set down the comb in front of the looking glass.

Victoria didn’t answer Bethany’s question. She looked at herself in the mirror and raised her brows. The gown she wore was reserved in its lines but fit her like a glove. Since discovering the old forgotten trunk of clothes in the attic, and with a little alteration to update the style, she’d added three new gowns to her wardrobe. This afternoon, dressed in a red and green muslin skirt and ivory blouse belted at the waist, with her wealth of dark hair piled atop her head, she looked the picture of sophistication.

Shouts from downstairs roused her. “A carriage is approaching, mum!”

“A carriage?” Victoria stood in a rustle of petticoats.

The distant jangle of an approaching coach pulled her through the boudoir. She ran to the window facing the orangery. A black carriage rumbled past. Even before it came to complete stop, the door flung open and a boy leaped out.

“Nathanial.”

Victoria whirled in a flurry of muslin and hurried down the corridor. She stopped on the landing as the front door flew wide.

“Mama…” Her son hurtled himself up the stairs.

Tears in hers eyes, she met him halfway and, kneeling, took him into her arms. “Look at you.” Holding him at arm’s length, she examined his face and arms. “You’ve grown two inches since I saw you last.”

“I outgrew my trousers, Mother.” And he proudly displayed his arm in demonstration of his newly gained muscles from working real machinery. He filled Bethany in on the state of his many cousins’ affairs and that Janie kissed Peter at the apple dunking, which was why he had not arrived earlier than today.

“Because Janie kissed Peter?” Bethany asked from behind them.

“No, you goose.” Nathanial rolled his eyes and returned his attention to Victoria. “We stayed and celebrated the harvest.” He added with relish how his uncle Fred allowed him to sip a mug of the family’s ale.

Victoria looked over his head at David standing in the foyer, looking tall and beautiful, wearing a new suit of clothes, his hair nearly black in the sunlight of the day.

“Lord Chadwick let me stay.” He leaned nearer and whispered in her ear. “He danced with Bessie and Mildred and Frannie. She wants to marry him.”

“Frannie?” Bethany scoffed. “She’s hardly out of swaddling. What does she know about marriage?”

Frannie was Bethany’s age and her rival at family functions. “No doubt His Lordship has that effect on younger women,” Victoria said.

“Where is Zeus?” Nathanial leaned over the banister.

“The last I saw that cat, he was sleeping in the bookroom.” Victoria gripped the spindles on the stairway. “Be careful, Nathan. The floors have just been polished.”

But her son paid her no heed.

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.