Sabrina Jeffries - Swanlea Spinsters 05 by Married To The Viscount

Author:Married To The Viscount
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-11-25T23:55:30+00:00

Chapter 15

A household with children requires a butler with certain skills. Do not go to work for an employer of Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

child-bearing age unless you are prepared to learn them.

Suggestions for the Stoic Servant

Abby could hardly contain her pleasure. Surrounded by babbling children of varying ages, she sat at the long table in the schoolroom, cutting lengths of ribbon. It was hard to believe these sweet-faced angels had ever been thieves… except when they were working. Then their clever hands moved so quickly she could hardly follow them.

"What a delight they are," she told Clara. "You've taught them well."

Clara raised an eyebrow as she meticulously lettered a label. "You didn't see Jack trying to lift that porcelain figure of a shepherd on his way up the stairs or Mary gauging the silver with her eagle eye."

Abby's eyes went wide. "They wouldn't really steal from us, would they?"

"If they thought they could get away with it."

Clara reached over to steady the hand of a seven-year-old pouring finished perfume from a pitcher into a bottle. The girl, whose name was Lily, smiled shyly.

Abby melted. "Oh, I don't care. Let them steal if they want. God knows Spencer can afford it."

"Watch what you say," Clara warned, though her eyes sparkled. "I'm trying to teach them not to steal, you know."

"I wouldn't steal," Lily said stoutly. "Iain't stolen since I was a little 'un."

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

Clara laughed. "That's because you know you'd be in trouble with me if you did."

Lily screwed her face up as she poured more liquid into a new bottle. "I didn't like stealing anyhow. Too scary when you get caught."

Abby could hardly imagine a girl of seven having to steal, much less a "little 'un." But she'd heard it wasn't unusual in London. It wasn't even unusual in Philadelphia, but London seemed to have more pickpockets—and cruder punishments.

No wonder Clara was so dedicated to her Home.

"Will we be able to provide LadyBrumley with her bottles?" Clara asked, glancing toward the schoolroom windows and the darkening sky outside.

"I think so. How many are there now, Jack?" Abby asked the wiry-framed eleven-year old who was gluing labels on bottles.

"We're up to eighty-nine, milady." Jack scowled over at Lily. "It would be ninety-one if not for the two that Miss Fumble-fingers knocked over."

"But there was a spider!" Lily stuck her lower lip out petulantly. "I hate spiders."

"So doI ." Abby reached across the table to pat Lily's hand. "Don't worry, two bottles won't break us.

And we can work a while longer, can't we, Clara?"

"Yes, but I'll have to send word to the Home for them to keep dinner back for us."

"Nonsense, you're eating dinner here," Abby said. "I've already arranged it with Cook. It's the least I can Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

do after you've helped me so much."

Clara chewed on her lower lip. "What about Spencer? Are you sure he'll approve of having all these little devils at his dinner table?"

"He told me they could come here, didn't he?" she answered evasively.

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