The Rivals of Rosennor Hall by Rebecca Connolly

Author:Rebecca Connolly [Connolly, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-02T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

“Excuse me, Miss Anson, but I’ve a reply from Mr. Roth for you.”

Sophia looked up from her dismal attempt at learning the pianoforte without a capable instructor and heaved a sigh of relief at the housekeeper. “Oh, I hoped he would be in the mood to reply. I haven’t seen him in a week, so I wasn’t entirely sure he was in the house.”

Mrs. Sexton gave her a surprised look. “Did you not have breakfast together yesterday?”

A brief smile lit Sophia’s lips. “In a manner of speaking.”

The housekeeper folded her arms in a matronly manner. “Meaning?”

Sophia had learned over the past few weeks that while Mrs. Sexton respected and deferred to them, she did not approve of their mutual spite, or their frequent rearranging of Rosennor to inconvenience each other. She might have been dreadfully amused by it, but it was not uncommon to hear her sigh with a bit of impatience at the two of them.

Larkin grinned every time he heard it.

Sophia felt a slight twinge of guilt, but usually giggled in her embarrassment, and that somehow made it all right.

“Meaning,” Sophia answered, her smile turning wry, “that he forbade me use of his silver, as that apparently does not fall under the use of the room itself. So, I informed him that he did not have use or access to the larder, or indeed, anything within it, so none of the meat at breakfast could be consumed by him. After which came an almighty row about the gamekeeper’s cottage that we have no clear answer on, so he has written to Mr. Tuttle-Kirk for clarification.”

Mrs. Sexton looked somewhere between bewildered and bemused, and for a moment, Sophia thought she might get scolded for her childish behavior.

She’d have accepted it if she thought Larkin would get the same.

“May I speak frankly, Miss Anson?” Mrs. Sexton asked with a smile.

“Of course.”

The housekeeper shook her head with another long-suffering sigh. “I despair of you both.”

Sophia burst out laughing and folded her shawl around her more securely. “That is hardly surprising, Mrs. Sexton, and I do not blame you a jot.”

“So long as we are all aware,” Mrs. Sexton replied with a nod, smiling in all fondness before turning away.

Giggles still springing from her, Sophia unfolded the note Larkin had sent back, her eyes darting across his tidy scrawl.

Yes, you may enter the orangery. At present, I have no intent to use it myself. Kindly leave it as you find.

Well, that was unexpected. Larkin usually forbade her anything and everything without reason, but now he would let her sit in the orangery?

It went against their unspoken understanding to return to spiteful torment after the Cutting of the Roses.

Why would he do that?

She glanced down at the note again and smirked at his signature. Just his initials, L and R, without much by way of distinction between the two. One flowed right into the other as easily as a breeze, yet his penmanship in all else was careful, even, and nearly meticulous.

How curious.

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