Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer Read Free Book Online Page A

it. I shall leave you now. When you are dressed, Ellen will show you the way to the Long Drawing-room.'
    She moved towards the door, and paused before it, looking at Ellen with raised brows. With a gasp, the girl scurried to open it for her, curtsying yet again. Having carefully shut it, she turned, gulped, and said: 'If you please, miss, I haven't finished unpacking your trunk!'
    'Well, you haven't had time, have you? Oh, pray don't keep on dropping curtsies! It makes me feel giddy! Have you found a pair of silk stockings yet? I think I should wear them, don't you?'
    'Oh, yes, miss!'
    'I bought them yesterday,' disclosed Kate, rummaging through the trunk. 'My old nurse said it was a sinful waste of money, but I thought my aunt would expect me to have at least one pair. Here they are! The first I've ever had!'
    'Oo, aren't they elegant ?' breathed Ellen, awed.
    'Well, I think so! Tell me, how much time have I before dinner?'
    'Only half an hour, miss. Being as it's half past six, and dinner's at seven. Generally it's at six, but my lady had it put off, in case you'd be late. If you please, miss!'
    Kate laid her furs down on the bed, and began to unbutton her pelisse, glancing thoughtfully round the room. 'It was very kind of her to make so many preparations for me,' she said. 'Are those blinds new?'
    'Yes, miss, and the bed-curtains, made to match!' said Ellen, with vicarious pride. 'Such a time as we all had with them, Mrs Quedgeley, which is my lady's sewing-woman, saying as they couldn't be made up, not under a sennight! So we was all of us set to stitching, and Mrs Thorne - that's the housekeeper, miss - read to us, to improve our minds.'
    'Goodness! Did it improve your mind?'
    'Oh, no, miss!' answered Ellen, shocked. 'I didn't understand it.'
    Kate laughed, tossing her hat on to the bed, and running her fingers through her flattened curls. 'My aunt must have been very sure she would bring me back with her,' she commented.
    'Oh, yes, miss! Everything always has to be just as my lady says.'
    Kate did not reply to this, possibly because she was trying to unfasten her dress. Seeing her in difficulties recalled Ellen to a sense of her new duties, and she hurried to her assistance, even remembering, once Kate had stepped out of the dress, to pour warm water from a brass can into the flowered basin upon the wash-stand, and to direct her attention to the soap, which, she said simply, was a cake of my lady's own, from Warren's, with ever such a sweet scent.
    Having washed her face and hands, Kate sat down at the dressing-table, in her petticoat, and vigorously brushed her hair, threading a ribbon through it, and twisting the ringlets round her fingers. Her handmaiden, watching with great interest, said: 'Lor', miss! Is it natural ?'
    'Yes, quite natural!' Kate answered, amused. 'Isn't it fortunate for me? Now, if you will do up my dress for me - oh, and open the package my aunt gave me! - Good God, what a beautiful shawl! It must be Norwich silk, surely! - Where is my trinket box?' She dived into her trunk again, and dragged from its depths a small box, which she opened. After critically inspecting its contents, she selected a modest string of beads, and a posy-ring; and, having clasped the one round her throat, and slipped the other on her finger, disposed the shawl becomingly, and announced that she was now ready.
    'Oh, miss, you do look a picture!' exclaimed her handmaiden involuntarily.
    Heartened by this tribute, Kate drew a resolute breath, and stepped out into the corridor. She was led down it to the hall, and across this to a picture gallery, where brocade curtains shrouded no fewer than fifteen very tall windows. Wax candles flickered in a number of wall sconces, but did little to warm the gallery. Kate drew the shawl more closely about her shoulders, and was reminded of a draughty chateau near Toulouse, where she and her father had had the ill-fortune to be billeted for several weeks.
    'This is the anteroom, miss!'