Heiress in Red Silk by Hunter, Madeline (best mystery novels of all time TXT) 📗

Taller now. What had been awkward, over large features had suddenly found harmony on Lily’s face. Rosamund examined that face, young still, but now lovely and fresh. She pictured her sister a few years older, blond hair up and curled and her lithe body encased in a column of white.

“I’ll put your nightdresses in this drawer here,” Rosamund said. She closed the drawer and went to the window to peer out. “You’ve a nice prospect.” She glanced back at her sister. “The other girls looked nice too.”

“They looked proud. They’ll be saying things about me soon if they aren’t already.” She glared at Rosamund. “I said I be wanting to stay put. I don’t need no schooling. Not here, at least. This place is not for such as me.”

“It is for anyone who can pay, Lily. Mrs. Parker knows you have not been schooled much yet. She is willing to help you catch up.”

“I’ll be with the children, you mean. In that room with tiny desks. I won’t fit in one.”

“They will bring in one that you do fit.” She knelt in front of Lily and grasped her hands. “If you try, in a year you will be in the other room with girls your own age. You are smart and will learn fast. I know it.”

Lily shook off her hold and looked down belligerently. “Seems I should have some say in all this. It be me life, after all.”

“Well, you don’t. I want you to learn to speak well, and write well, and know how to read better than I do now.”

“So I can be putting on airs like you do?” She gave a derisive snort.

“Those airs mean I can sell a bonnet for fifteen shillings when without them I couldn’t sell one for more than three.”

“I’ll be the best-spoken farmgirl in England, then.”

“You will be far more than a farmgirl if I have my way.”

“Being a farmgirl not good enough for you?”

Rosamund rocked back on her heels and stood. “Not good enough for you, Lily.” She moved aside the valise she had unpacked and pulled up another one. She set it on the bed. “Look here, what I have for you. When you come to visit me, you can wear this in the carriage.”

She opened the valise. Lily peered in. Her frown softened to an expression of wonder. She reached in and lifted the garment resting at the top of the valise’s contents. “What’s this here?”

Rosamund took it and let it drop so she could hold it up. “Stand up so I can see if I got the length right.”

Lily stood. Rosamund held up the dress against her. Lily looked down at the beautiful, soft muslin. Cream with blue sprigs of flowers, it boasted a thin line of lace at the bodice and the sleeves.

“There be—is a blue pelisse to go with it,” Rosamund said, pleased at her sister’s reaction. “When you visit me in London, we will have more made.”

Lily ran her palm down the fabric. “It be beautiful. Nicer than what you be wearing.”

“I had some made for me too but asked this be finished first so I could bring it. Along with these.” She lifted out the school dresses and set them down. “There’s another nice dress that I will send to you once it is finished.”

Lily examined the school dresses, then returned to the cream muslin. “Where’d you get the blunt for this, Rose? Mrs. Farley said—” She stopped abruptly.

“What did she say?”

Lily shrugged. “When she saw you come up in that carriage, she got a funny look on her face. Last time a root cart, and this time a closed carriage, she said. Your sister’s done made the devil’s bargain. Now this fancy school, and this dress.”

Rosamund had not missed that look on Mrs. Farley’s face. It had remained there the whole time she visited and gotten worse when she explained she was taking Lily out of the Farleys’ care and putting her in a school.

She took the dress from Lily and set it aside. Then she made Lily sit beside her on the bed. “I have made no devil’s bargain.” She wondered if Lily even knew what that meant. “I inherited a lot of money, Lily. It came as a surprise. An unexpected gift. And it changes everything for me and you. Everything.”

She described it all, then. About the legacy, and the new house, and her plans for her shops. “I would have written and told you but decided to wait so I could explain it all at once.”

Lily appeared skeptical. “That devil’s bargain is more likely than this tall tale.”

“I suppose so, but this is the truth. When you visit me, I will show you the documents.”

“Why would that duke leave you all that blunt after one talk?” She gave Rosamund a very mature look. “You can tell me if you were his woman. I won’t go scolding or acting like you be doomed.”

“If I had been, I hope I would have rolled up on the Farleys’ farm in more than a dirty cart last autumn when I came to see you. If I ever did make such a bargain, I’m not so stupid as to wait on getting my due till after the man died.”

Lily seemed to accept the logic of that. “So I be the sister of an heiress. That might make it easier, being here with those girls we saw.” She stood and lifted the muslin dress. “I want to try it on.”

Chapter Seven

Rosamund stepped out of the cabinet maker’s shop. Beatrice followed.

“That is a fine table you just bought.” Beatrice fell into step beside her, the ribbons of her bonnet flying in the breeze. “Big enough for a banquet.”

“I don’t think I be needing—I’ll be needing it for that, but the chamber it goes in b—is large, and anything smaller would have looked stupid.” She had been trying hard to catch herself on this small part of talking properly. Even after a