Read Online Love by the Morning Star by Laura L. Sullivan - Free Book Online

historically strained. No doubt they’d want her to call them Aunt and Uncle, or something quintessentially English like Gaffer or Guv’nor.
    The poor little foreigner
, Sally thought.
She has no idea what’s in store for her
. Already the girl’s cheerful patter was lightening the kitchen, making that day’s vast and heavy labors seem slightly more possible than they had lately. But Sally knew from Trapp that where there was spirit it must be crushed, and where there was frivolity it must be bent and twisted into drudgery, else dinner would never be served.
    â€œYou will not be seen. You will never be seen by Lord Liripip. As for Herself, on most days she summons me to her morning room to discuss the menus, but occasionally she comes to the kitchen and talks with me here. She will not speak to you. She will not notice you. For her, you do not exist. Just consider yourself fortunate that you have a place at all, and don’t trouble your betters.”
    To think that only a few weeks ago Sally had been talking to Coombe of servants’ unions and the equality of all people, servant or served! She did not believe for one moment that Enid Liripip (it was Enid after all) was her better, or this new lass’s for that matter. Why, this girl had brought more nice things into the world in the last two minutes than Lady Liripip had in her whole life.
    Very politely, very diplomatically, Hannah folded her hands and said, “I understand that she might not want to spend a great deal of time in my company. I do not wish to impose. But it is only civilized that I thank her in person for her kind hospitality in allowing me to live here during my time of trouble.” She had rehearsed the speech, and thought she carried it off well. “I . . . we . . . my family and of course I am . . . are . . . Oh my, I have it muddled now. Let me begin again.” Her accent was encroaching. “Ahem. I know: hush. I mean you want me to hush, not that you should hush. I’m rarely rude except accidentally, and that doesn’t really count, but if I might just get through my speech to you I’ll do a much better job when I see Enid.”
    Enid! Trapp would have boxed her ears for that, though no one had had their ears boxed outside of stories for fifty years. Sally only just managed to suppress a smile and said sternly, “You will never dare to speak to Her Ladyship, or to any of the family. In fact, you will rarely be permitted to leave the kitchen.”
    It began to dawn on Hannah that something was most emphatically not right.
    â€œYou mean . . . they won’t see me? Not at all?”
    I won’t do it
, Sally told herself when she saw Hannah’s large, luminous eyes begin to well.
I
can’t
do it. I’ll be a Trapp later, promise, but not right now
. “What did they tell you when they arranged for you to come? Did you think you would be part of the family?” Trapp would have said the same thing, but the sympathy in Sally’s voice made one fat tear roll down Hannah’s cheek.
    â€œI didn’t think they’d love me,” she said, her rich, low voice cracking. “But I thought they’d at least see me. How can they be so cruel?”
    â€œThey don’t view it as cruelty. Come now, buck up. I put just the right amount of salt in all my dishes—I don’t need your tears brining everything. You’re German, are you, and a Jew?”
    Hannah nodded.
    â€œI’ve read about some of the unpleasantness going on in Germany, and I do think it’s a shame. But you’re safe here now. All you have to do is work hard, and maybe one day you’ll be a cook like me. There’s no better place to train than Starkers.” She forced herself to become Trappish again. “If you don’t obey, you’ll be out on the street. If you’re here on a work permit, that means deportation back to