Read Online Dorothy Eden by Lady of Mallow - Free Book Online Page A

sensible young woman, I must say. You’ve no doubt had a good deal of experience with children?’
    ‘Yes, Lady Malvina,’ Sarah lied.
    ‘H’mm. Well, my son saw your points before I did, I admit that I thought you were a most pushing and impertinent young woman. So did my daughter-in-law. She was not at all pleased, I must say.’ The old lady paused to give a rich chuckle. ‘Not at all pleased. She suspected Blane had spied a new pretty face. He’s a great one, my son, for pretty faces. There was that dairymaid Maria when he was only a schoolboy. He’s conveniently forgotten that. His amnesia serves him well. But all the same I like a man to be a man, vigorous, lusty if you like. Better than that cold-blooded correct cousin of his.’
    Sarah lifted her eyes innocently.
    ‘Is that the person who would have inherited if your son hadn’t returned, Lady Malvina?’
    ‘Ambrose? Yes.’ Lady Malvina’s lips were turned down in eloquent distaste. ‘Oh, he’s well enough, perhaps. Industrious, righteous, doesn’t gamble, has excellent taste. But he’s a type I thoroughly dislike. Do you think he’d have paid my debts, taken me into his family, let me enjoy his children—if he ever begets any!’ Lady Malvina began to chuckle again at her obviously bawdy thoughts. Some of the thick white powder on her face had sprinkled on to the shoulders of her dress. Her cap was crooked. She was too fat, was no doubt greedy at the table, and on her own admission she was extravagant and foolish with money. She also was indiscreet with servants, as she was being indiscreet now with Sarah, a virtual stranger. The primness and prudishness of the times seemed to have passed her by. But already Sarah was conscious of an untidy warm-heartedness about her that was difficult to dislike. And there was no doubt that, with her careless talk, she was going to be of enormous help.
    Privately, Sarah was already resolving to keep a diary, to note down jottings of conversation that her memory might not otherwise retain. Snatches such as ‘Do you think he’d have paid my debts?’ She burned with indignation, for Lady Malvina’s assessment of Ambrose was so mistaken. But she must listen to this, also, without defence.
    ‘How very fortunate for you, Lady Malvina, that your son did come home. It was like a miracle, wasn’t it?’
    ‘In a way it was. Though there was no miracle about all those advertisements in papers all over the world. They cost a pretty penny, I can tell you.’
    ‘And was your son the only applicant?’
    She must attend to Titus, get him to bed, but this conversation was too valuable to miss.
    Lady Malvina’s heavy eyelids lifted. She gave Sarah a curious veiled stare that told nothing.
    ‘What exactly do you mean by that, Miss Mildmay?’
    ‘Only that the advertisement might have lured adventurers to try their luck for such an attractive inheritance.’
    Lady Malvina stood up, arranging her rustling skirts, haughtily.
    ‘And did you think, if that had happened, I wouldn’t have recognised them for what they were? I’m not a fool, Miss Mildmay.’
    She sailed out of the room. Sarah was fearful that already she had gone too far. She didn’t think so, however. Lady Malvina was garrulous and lonely. She couldn’t have much in common with her daughter-in-law. Because of Titus, she would be in the nursery constantly. She would talk again. There would be ample time in which to decide whether her first impression that the old lady was on the defensive and secretly a little nervous was true.
    Her spirits lifted. Already this adventure was full of interest and spiced with danger that made it intensely stimulating.
    Titus meekly ate his bread and milk, and allowed himself to be put to bed in the firelit nursery. It was a large comfortable room, too ornately decorated for a nursery, for the late elderly Lord Mallow could not have envisaged it would have such a use so soon.
    ‘Have you travelled in a train before?’ Sarah