Letters to a Lady by Joan Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

morosely.
    He was extremely dismayed, nor could he see any possible advantage to himself in helping Harrup.
    “Have you tried to be in touch with Harrup at all?” Diana asked.
    Shy and retiring. Ronald would as soon walk into Exeter Exchange and bite the tiger as ask a favor of anyone. Harrup, in particular, always made him feel as if his jacket was too small and his hair badly cut. “I didn’t like to pester him at home about a job, you know,” he said. “A man likes to take his ease at home.”
    “Oh, you went to his office.”
    His pale face looked diffident. “He would be so busy at the House that I didn’t think I ought to accost him there.”
    “Where on earth did you plan to visit him, then?” Diana asked, becoming impatient with his shilly-shallying way of going on. “The middle of the street is hardly the place for it.”
    “Now that you are staying with him, it will be unexceptionable for me to call at his home,” he decided.
    Diana shook her head. “Ronald, I despair of you. You’ll have to be thicker-skinned than this to get on in the world. You’re too modest.”
    “Pride is the vice of fools, Di. I hope I am not a fool.”
    His sister thought he had certainly not been proud in hiring himself accommodations. The rooms were neither large nor elegant, but they were at least conveniently located on a side street off Whitehall, with a view of the Thames from one window.
    Peabody strode from room to room, disparaging everything. “You’ll get an ague with that wind blowing off the river. Be sure to stuff your ears with cotton wool, Ronald. My, would you look at the filth of this place! A pack of gypsies is what’s been camping here. This boot box won’t hold your books, Ronald, let alone a desk and lamp. And look at the state of these furnishings. They haven’t seen a dust cloth this decade. We have our afternoon’s work cut out for us, Di.”
    Diana was familiar with Peabody’s love of overseeing work being done by others and had no intention of spending her day polishing furniture. “Yes, indeed, we must find Ronald a servant. Do you prefer a man who could act as valet, too, Ron, or would you rather have a woman-of-all-work? She would cook and wash for you, but you’d have no help in dressing.”
    “Well,” Ronald said uncertainly. “It would be nice not to have to go out to eat every day. On the other hand, I don’t want to be unquiet, having a woman forever dusting and polishing when I’m trying to work.”
    “You needn’t fear London servants will disturb you unduly in that way,” Peabody said.
    “Servants only come in two sexes,” Diana pointed out. “A woman, I think. We’ll go to an employment agency and have some sent along to be interviewed. We have a trunk of things at Harrup’s place. Peabody packed linens and candles, and I don’t know what all.”
    “That was kind of you, Peabody.” He smiled gently. “I wish I could find someone just like you to take care of me and make my little house a home.”
    Peabody’s face melted in joy. “What would they ever do without me at the Willows?” she asked. “Cook would poison your papa with burned meat and raw fruit—and as to that lazy Jennie who does the washing!”
    “We could not possibly give up Peabody,” Diana informed her brother.
    “I wasn’t suggesting stealing Peabody!” Ronald said, shocked that such a charge should be hurled at him. “Someone like Peabody is what I said.”
    “There is no one else like Peabody,” Diana said. “Let us go and see what we can find. But first let us have some lunch.”
    Peabody gave a warm, watery smile. “While we eat, we’ll send Harrup’s carriage back to Belgrave Square and have Ronald’s trunk brought here. I shall settle him in. I’ll make up your bed, Ronald, and tidy things up here just as you like, with plenty of candles.”
    The remainder of the day was taken up in hiring a servant, shopping, and making Ronald’s rooms comfortable.
    “I don’t know