Convenient Women Collection Books 1 - 4 by Delphine Woods

Author:Delphine Woods [Woods, Delphine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pepper Pot Publishing
Published: 2020-04-05T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 4

O ctober 1853. Wallingham Hall.

SHE STARED at the wooden doe in the scene above her head. A crude engraving. How long until that doe was shot? Her body butchered and dismembered, her flesh stacked into roasting dishes, her head hung on a wall?

Cat closed her eyes.

There was a dull ache over her body from too long in bed. She had never lay down for so many days before, with nothing to do but stare at the flames or out of the window. She threw back the covers, swung her legs over the bed, and went to look outside.

Fields littered with towering trees and dotted with sheep stretched before her. Forests grew either side of the house, their leaves glowing red and amber and falling to carpet the ground. Sometimes, when she had rested her elbows on the windowpane before, she had seen Osborne go galloping across his land, his man close behind him, the sun making their horses' coats shimmer like spun gold. Perhaps they went hunting, for pheasants or deer; that was what his sort did for pleasure, wasn’t it?

Her door opened. The housekeeper, Mrs Lewis, came in without knocking, her arms filled with clothes.

‘Here you are.’ She plonked the dress and petticoats on the chair by the fire. ‘Washed and ironed for you.’

Whoever had taken the time and trouble to iron them would not be pleased with how Mrs Lewis had left them in such a rough pile, Cat thought. She nodded her thanks, feeling exposed in nothing but her nightgown, and waited for the woman to leave. She did not.

‘Shall I send for Nelly to help get you into them?’

‘No, thank you, I’ll be fine.’

Mrs Lewis, an old woman, perhaps in her fifties, smirked. ‘You can go back to where you came from now.’

Cat met her hard gaze. ‘Is that what Mr Tomkins wants?’

‘It will be.’ Mrs Lewis put her hands on her hips. ‘Don’t get comfortable here, Miss Davies. You’ll be out soon enough. He likes to do a good deed, makes him feel nice, but if you have any other ideas going on in that brain of yours, shake them out.’

‘I don’t have any ideas.’

Mrs Lewis took a long time to look Cat up and down. Cat held still, determined to be strong.

‘I don’t trust you one bit.’

Cat swallowed. ‘Thank you for my clothes, Mrs Lewis. I’ll tell Mr Tomkins what good care you’ve been taking of me.’

Mrs Lewis raised one thin, grey eyebrow, then slammed the door behind her.

A SMALL FIST pattered against her door.

‘Come in.’

Nelly poked her head into the room. Her lips smeared across her face as she tried to contain her excitement. ‘I’ve got something for you.’

She bustled into the room, her arms full of peach-coloured material. She stood before the fire, and with a flourish like any good showman, revealed the dress. The silk shimmered, and the sash around the waist glistened like a pink stream in the sunshine. Sheaves of golden corn were stitched around the circle of the skirt at calf-height.

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