Read Online The Darcy Connection by Elizabeth Aston - Free Book Online Page A

are a marvel with your needle, I find,” she said.
    Annie blushed. “I should be, Miss, for my mother is a seamstress, and she taught me well.”
    â€œYet you work as a maid, wouldn’t you rather be a seamstress?”
    â€œOh, no. It is hard work, you know, and I love living in this part of London and being in a household like this. I have two sisters, and they are going into the trade with my mother. She doesn’t need any more help, and so I chose to go into service.”
    Annie tweaked the gown into place. “I understand that M. Gaspard, the dressmaker, is coming round today, perhaps you could ask her ladyship if she can make for you as well as for Miss Collins.”
    Eliza shook her head. “I doubt it. No, I must make do with what I have. Lady Grandpoint has said that she will buy me a new bonnet, and perhaps a shawl to make me more elegant.”
    â€œA bonnet? A shawl? Why, Miss—”
    â€œThat will do, Annie.”

    â€œThank you for sending a maid to me, so that Hislop can look after Charlotte,” Eliza said when she was downstairs with her aunt.
    â€œIt seems best. Apart from this tiresome headache—and I do hope your sister isn’t going to be falling ill all the time, London is so strenuous—Charlotte’s clothes and toilette will need a lot of attention if she is to appear at her best.”
    â€œAs to that, Charlotte always looks her best.”
    â€œI dare say, but in London a young woman on the lookout for a husband needs polish. She cannot afford to look countrified, that would never do.”
    â€œCountrified is what we are, I suppose. Annie is very scathing about my clothes.”
    â€œWho is Annie? Oh, the maid. It is hardly her place to pass personal comments.”
    â€œI fear she is right.”
    â€œWell, it is of no matter. I know she has some skill with her needle, she can smarten you up, I am sure. Have you a pattern gown? Yes? Then you may buy some muslin and so on, and she can make you one or two gowns, in a more fashionable style than you have brought with you from Yorkshire. Your father gave you a sum of money, did he not?”
    â€œNo. He was too angry with me.”
    Eliza had no intention of telling Lady Grandpoint that she had some money of her own, apart from the two guineas that her mother had pressed into her hand as she stepped into the carriage in Ripon. Her great-aunt would want to know how she had such a sum set by, and the source of the money must certainly remain a secret.
    Lady Grandpoint made a clicking noise with her tongue. “How like a man. Well, I shall give you a few guineas, and you must do the best you can with it, and let your maid look over such gowns as you brought with you.”
    â€œThank you, ma’am, but in truth I do not need to dress any finer than I do already.”
    â€œIt is a great pity you do not share your sister’s beauty, for two of you would be even more striking. I speak bluntly, do you mind? Do you envy your sister her extraordinary degree of beauty?”
    â€œNo,” said Eliza, and she spoke the truth. Charlotte’s beauty had come as much as a surprise to her as it had to everyone else, for as a child, there had been nothing remarkable about her sister’s looks. She had been inclined to chubbiness, with a bad skin, and her eyes, now so lustrous, had often been afflicted with the red eye, so that they were nearly always sore and inflamed. Then, over the space of a year or so, her complexion had cleared, her face fined down, revealing a rare perfection of feature, the infections to her eyes had gone away, her figure had grown pretty and graceful, and her formerly lank hair had become thick and lustrous.
    â€œSuch a beauty can benefit her entire family,” said Lady Grandpoint. “It is a blessing that her temperament is a calm one, there is nothing impetuous about her, she is unlikely to let her feelings run away with her, I would