Maggie MacKeever by Jessabelle Read Free Book Online

determined that I will depart London so as not to embarrass his new bride, and I am equally determined that I shall not.”
    Here Lady Emmeline proffered comment, in the form of a snort. “Em thinks it unlikely that anything could embarrass Lady Camilla,” Dimity explained, in response to Jess’s startled look. “And so she would tell you herself, except that she is not talking to me—Em, that is, and all because I sought to assure Lady Camilla that you are not a Jezebel! Em accused me of letting the cat out of the bag, which I thought very unfeeling, because she knows I am easily cast into the pathetics, and I meant it for the best. But you must not allow me to ramble on like this! What else did my nephew say?”
    “He decreed I must not renew my acquaintance with the two of you, because you are too unworldly to understand that I have sunk myself beyond reproach.”
    “Stuff!” Lady Emmeline said crossly. “We aren’t so unworldly as that.”
    “Oh, no!” agreed Lady Dimity, vastly cheered by her twin’s indication of imminent thaw. “No daughter of our papa’s could be! I distinctly recall when he excommunicated Charley Littledyke for refusing to repent of his shameful assault on Mrs. Pearpoint. Papa’s lack of religious conviction in no way interfered with his overall supervision of parish responsibilities, or at least not so very much!” She looked wistful, and sighed. “He was especially successful as a fund raiser for charitable institutions. Do you recall the tithe dinners, Em? They were like village feasts! There were races in the vicarage field and bazaars in the vicarage gardens—”
    “—where two of the prettiest girls in the village had a kissing stall under the cherry tree!” interrupted Lady Emmeline. “How I could forget those dinners, I do not know: we did all the work! Nor do I know what tithe dinners have to do with the present case.”
    “That is because you have no imagination,” explained her twin. “If you did, you would see that Charley Littledyke is very much like our dear Jess—not that she has assaulted anyone, or at least not without provocation, though I don’t think she should have bit Vidal, even if the Bible does say an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth! I do not mean that Jess had been excommunicated, of course, merely that she has come down in the world! And just as Charley reinstated himself in Papa’s good graces, so may she—not with Papa, naturally, but with everyone else!”
    Jessabelle glanced at Lady Dimity, who was looking flushed and excited. Beside her, Lady Emmeline gazed grimly heavenward, as if willing her Reverend papa to manifest himself and bid the more garrulous of his offspring to hold her tongue. “How did, er, Charley reinstate himself?” Jess cautiously inquired.
    “Why, by helping Papa to excavate that Anglo-Saxon cemetery he discovered on the cemetery grounds!” Dimmy beamed. “It was vastly exciting! They found male skeletons wearing necklaces of amber and brass, and a female buried beside a clay spindle—not that I mean you should go about excavating ancient cemeteries, dear Jess! Indeed it would be thought very odd in you, and I daresay Vidal wouldn’t like it above half. Still, there must be some way to reconcile him to you.”
    “But I don’t want to be reconciled with Vidal,” protested Jessabelle, a feral glint in her brown eye. “In point of fact, I bade him to the devil, which was no more than he deserved after accusing me of gaming away my allowance, and other such shabby stuff. I beg you, do not press me on this head! Between Vidal and myself there are differences that can never be reconciled.”
    Lady Dimity looked very sad. “But I thought—”
    “Dimmy!” interrupted her sister. “Do cut line!”
    This conversation was taking place in Exeter ‘Change, located on the north side of the Strand. In the lower of the portion of the ‘Change, numerous shops gave the appearance of a large bazaar. Thus far the