Read Online The Bride Sale by Candice Hern - Free Book Online Page B

brought her up short and a tiny gasp escaped her lips.
    This could not possibly be the same desolate place she had been brought to the previous evening. The vista that stretched before her was lush, green, and wooded. Terraced lawns edged with flowers dropped away from the house and gave way to a plantation of trees, some still awash in their autumn colors.
    If not for the girl’s words the night before, Verity could easily have believed she had dreamed the whole trip to Cornwall and now was back in Berkshire.
    If the rest of Cornwall looked more like this than like the colorless granite town where she had been auctioned, she might find some pleasure in starting a new life here.
    Her trunk still stood near the foot of the bed. The clothes she had bundled and worn for her attempted escape were still flung in a corner. She untied the bundle and had begun to toss the clothes in the trunk when a soft rapping on the bedchamber door startled her out of her work. Recalling the strange woman in black the night before, she froze.
    The little maid, Gonetta, walked in, and Verity let out her breath with a whoosh.
    The girl bobbed a curtsy, her eyes downcast. “I come to see if ’ee did be awake yet,” she said. “I brung some hot water.” She walked to the washstand and set down the brass canister. She tested the waterand let out a soft sort of wail. “Ea, it do be cool already! I must’ve took too long.”
    She looked up with an expression of such distress it appeared she might burst into tears. “I had to go…I went somewheres else first and I hadn’t ought to have done that. I be right sorry, ma’am. I’ll go get more and do bring it right up.”
    â€œDon’t trouble yourself. This water will be just fine.”
    â€œIt won’t be no trouble,” the girl said, her voice high-pitched and unnatural.
    â€œThank you, but this water will do very nicely,” Verity said. “It was kind of you to bring it.”
    Gonetta looked up and watched as Verity flung more clothes into the trunk. “Here, now,” the girl said in a shocked tone. “Wot yer doing? Y’ain’t leavin’, is ’ee?”
    â€œYes, Gonetta, I am. Lord Harkness has agreed to drive me to Bodmin today. I have decided I would be more comfortable making my own way rather than living off my…my cousin’s charity.” She did not know why she felt obliged to explain anything to this young servant, but it just seemed to burst out.
    â€œOh,” Gonetta said, her tone now almost desolate. “I be right sorry to hear that, ma’am. Right sorry. Here, let me help ’ee with them clothes.”
    The girl moved to stand in front of the trunk and pulled out one of the wrinkled dresses. She shook it out, turned to the wardrobe, and hung it up. When she had repeated the process with two other dresses, Verity put a hand on her arm to stop her.
    â€œGonetta,” she said, “I am going, not staying. The dresses must go into the trunk, not the wardrobe.”
    The little maid looked up at Verity and her face crumpled. “Ea, Miz Osborne,” she wailed, “I do be so sorry. It be just…j-just—” She dropped her face into her hands and began to sob.
    Good heavens, what was all this?
    In any other situation, Verity would not have thought twice before putting her arms around the girl and comforting her. But there was nothing normal about this situation or this place. She was not prepared to trust anyone at Pendurgan. This might be some charade to put her off-guard.
    Yet the girl seemed genuinely distressed. Sobs wracked her small frame in a manner Verity was almost certain could not have been pretense.
    After an uncomfortable moment, Verity touched Gonetta’s arm and guided her to the edge of the bed. With a nod of her head, she indicated that the distraught girl should sit down. “There now,” Verity said, somewhat awkwardly,