Clarissa and the Poor Relations by Alicia Cameron Read Free Book Online

soon after her father’s death - it’s no wonder that this now should overwhelm her. She is such a redoubtable girl that she will no doubt seem fine in the morning but we must watch her carefully.’
    ‘Indeed,’ said Miss Micklethwaite, ‘She will feel better when we start to do something. Do you know, apart from not being able to face life with her prosy brother and his cooing little wife, I think it’s the doing that Clarissa craves. She needs this place so that she does not dwell on those subjects that depress her spirits. In that she’s her mother’s daughter. She’ll come about.’
    ‘Yes, all of us need that,’ Oriana took a turn about the room. ‘We’re freaks you know, Waity .All of us, except poor Appleby, perhaps. We are freaks of nature who would dare question the will of the men whose position it is to guide us. Some women would have taken the curate’s offer, or at least waited until a better one arrived; but the cast of our minds being as they are we can allow no man to rule without respect. At least here we should be free of those who would blight us with their attentions.’
    ‘Well, as to that my dear, I have seldom been blighted by a man’s attentions,’ said Miss Micklethwaite mildly, ‘but I am glad, in theory, to be free of it.’ Oriana smiled at this, but still looked tired. Her friend drew her from the room gently. ‘Time for bed before you work yourself into just such a state as Clarissa.’

 
     
     
Chapter 5
The Ladies At Home
     
     
    Clarissa awoke the next morning to the sight of a slight young girl wearing a cap, brown dress and apron pulling open the window drapes and letting the early sunlight seep over her counterpane.
    ‘But who are you?’ said Clarissa sitting up.
    ‘Why, your lady’s maid Becky, if it please you, miss,’ she replied and bustled forward with a shawl for Clarissa’s shoulders and a cup of chocolate into her hands. ‘Mr Sullivan employed me from the village, miss, seeing as how you had to leave your maid behind. I’ve not all the experience that you might like miss - this is a step up for me, you might say - but I can dress hair and I’m clever with a needle.’ Becky’s round face looked a trifle anxiously at Clarissa.
    ‘I’m sure of that.’ said Clarissa, ‘Thank you Becky, you can go now, I’ll dress myself this morning.’ Becky looked disappointed, but bobbed a curtsy and departed.
    As she settled back on the bank of feather pillows sipping her coffee, Clarissa thought that she had never known such luxury. Her bed was big enough for a cavalry regiment to sleep in and was moreover hung with straw coloured silk. Her room was enormous, so it seemed to her, and was appointed with elegant furniture. She guessed this to have been her aunt’s room and her silver backed brush set still adorned the dressing table with its exquisite French mirror. That the maid was an elegance Sullivan had required to add to her consequence in the neighbourhood was something she did not doubt; but it was a welcome luxury. Well it was time to start her day as lady of the manor. Almost at variance with this thought was that she put on her oldest grey dress.
    The ladies cried out at her appearance, but Clarissa only said ‘There’s a great deal of work to be done and I don’t mean to spoil my dresses’
    And so it was that as she was unpacking their cherished books in the library, Mr Elfoy found her.
    That gentleman had come to the house, but on passing the library windows on route to the front doors, he had heard a shriek and entered. He found a young girl in a shabby grey gown and apron holding her toe and hopping about the room. She heard him laugh and looked around.
    She saw a young man of devastating attractiveness. He was tall and of athletic build and his rich chestnut hair, though severely brushed from his noble forehead, was a riot of curls, one having escaped across his brow in a way that drew the eye to his laughing eyes. These were of a velvet