The Indebted Earl by Erica Vetsch (best new books to read .TXT) 📗

on the front steps, his back to the windows. The captain’s hands, clasped behind his back, fisted. Grayson hovered by his side, mauling his cap. The young woman said something. The captain jerked as if he’d been slapped.

“I don’t think this is good news,” Sophie said. Burning with curiosity, she told Mamie, “Wait here, love. I’ll be back.”

She slipped out as unobtrusively as possible. The steward scuttled away a few paces to make room for her on the top step, and the captain sent her a bewildered, half-angry look.

“There you go, guv.” The coachman touched his hat brim. “Your girls delivered safe and sound.”

“There must be some mistake. I don’t have any girls,” the captain protested. “You’ll have to take them back wherever they came from. You’ve brought them to the wrong place.”

“Oh, but he hasn’t, sir.” The eldest of the three girls spoke rapidly. “This is our destination. Gateshead. The school has closed. Miss Fricklin had no choice, with so few students and the earl not paying our tuition any longer.” She tucked the littlest girl into her side, her arm about her shoulders in a protective gesture. “The headmistress put us on the mail coach and sent us here. She said as we were the old earl’s wards, and we were his responsibility, now that he’s dead, the chore fell to the new earl.”

“Are you the earl? The dead earl was really old.” The redhead hopped up onto the mounting block and then back to the grass, her hair flopping on her back. “Though you are a bit long in the tooth, aren’t you? Penny said maybe you’d be young and romantic.” She put her hands under her chin and fluttered her eyelashes. Then she stuck her tongue out at her older sister. “Guess you can give up on the idea of the earl falling in love with you, Pen. He’s old enough to be our dad. Maybe older.”

A bewildered cast overtook the captain’s features, even as a fierce red crept up Penny’s cheeks.

“Oh, do be quiet, Thea. You’ve got a mouth like a leaky bucket,” Penny scolded.

“Maybe, but at least I don’t fall in love with every pair of trousers that crosses my path,” Thea shot back.

The coachman had climbed aboard once more and now threw down three identical bandboxes. Grayson stepped up to retrieve them, setting them on the grass.

“No returns. They’re yours now, guv.” With a flick of the reins, he set the horses into motion.

As the clatter of hooves faded, the three girls faced off with Captain Wyvern. No one seemed to know what to say.

Sophie stepped forward, her heart going out to these little strangers. “Perhaps we should go inside. The girls must be tired from their trip. There’s much to discuss, and I’m sure everyone has questions, but it would be better done in the house, don’t you think?”

The captain seemed to come to himself. “Yes, of course.” He stood back. “See to their bags, Grayson. Put them in the upstairs hall with the rest when it arrives.”

The littlest girl’s eyes were wide and wet, and her lower lip trembled. She reached up and tugged on her earlobe. Thea crossed her arms, one foot forward, her chin out in undisguised skepticism. And Penny looked about to cry.

Sophie couldn’t help but put herself in their slippers. What uncertainties had they suffered? How far had they come, not knowing what would greet them at journey’s end?

“Come, girls. Welcome to Gateshead. I’m sorry we’re all at sixes and sevens. We’ve only just arrived ourselves.” She held out her hand, guiding them up the stairs. Thea, the redhead, regarded her from the corner of her eye as she passed, then hopped on one foot up the steps. The baby put herself on the far side of Penny as they went by, sheltering in the protection of someone she knew.

“This place is filthy.” Thea tilted her head way back to look at the coffered ceiling three stories above, where cobwebs wafted in the sunlight from a large fan window. “That’s a cracking banister, though. Miss Fricklin wouldn’t let us slide on the one at the school. She said we’d break our heads, and then where would she be? I always thought she wouldn’t be half as bad off as we’d be with broken heads, but she still wouldn’t let us.” She shrugged, her narrow shoulders lifting beneath her plain yellow frock.

“And neither will I. Keep your feet on the deck.” The captain frowned, his tone dry. “Into the parlor.”

Mamie smiled welcomingly from the bench seat beneath the front window as they trooped in. “Who are these delightful young ladies?”

“I’ve no idea, but I intend to find out. Sit.” Captain Wyvern pointed to a sofa, and the girls lined up and sat, the smallest one in the middle. The captain took up station before the fireplace, his hands clasped behind his back. He sent Sophie a look of pure frustration.

Sophie bit back a sigh. He looked quite forbidding, every inch the commanding officer. How would she have felt as a young girl confronted with such a stern visage? “Perhaps we should start with introductions? My name is Lady Sophia Haverly, and this is Lady Richardson. And you are?”

“Penelope Pembroke, and these are my sisters, Dorothea and Elizabeth.”

The redhead scowled. “Why are you being so grand and snooty? You aren’t the lady of the manor. You’re Penny, I’m Thea, and she’s Betsy.”

Trying to stop a fight before it began, Sophie smiled. “Those names suit you perfectly. I’m known as Sophie, myself. Now, how old are you?”

Penny put her arm around Betsy. “I’m sixteen.”

Thea straightened and opened her mouth, but Penny rolled her eyes. “Well, very nearly. I’ll be sixteen in two months. Betsy here is five. She was really too young to be at Miss Fricklin’s, but there was nowhere else for her to be, and the old earl paid extra for Miss Fricklin to keep her.”

“I’m eleven.” Thea pointed to her chest with her thumb. She twirled one