My Earl the Spy by Audrey Harrison Read Free Book Online

altered their wedding trip in order that they could deposit her safely at home. Charles had again tried to persuade her to stay in London, waiting for Clara’s return, but she was sure that coming home was the right thing to do. Things had changed, as she had expected them to do, always presuming that Clara would marry, and so now she had to take control of her own future.
    Turning back into the small townhouse Milly closed the door and set her shoulders. There was nothing to gain in postponing the inevitable. She entered the front room of the house, and her mother looked at her in disgust.
    “I hope you’ve earned enough to pay for your keep while you’re here. I can’t be expected to pay for you!” The older woman said. She was as tall as Milly, but thinner; some would describe her as too thin. Her eyes were the same as her daughter’s but could not have been more different in the way they looked at the world. Mrs Holland was a woman who perceived herself to be hard done by; she took no responsibility for the way her life had unfolded, expecting everyone around her to shoulder the blame and at the same time provide for her. She had been a flighty young woman who had married a foolish man. Their lifestyle had ruined them and, from then on, Mrs Holland had been unreasonably bitter and twisted about life and what she thought was owed to her.
    “I was a guest of Clara’s not a paid member of staff,” Milly said quietly. She was relieved the onslaught had not started whilst Charles had been present; her cousin had done so much for her family, she did not wish him to witness her mother’s bitterness.
    “So, you’re as penniless as you left then!”
    Milly had been given an allowance, as well as her food, board and clothing for all the years she had lived with her cousins. She could have told her mother she had managed to save some money, although it was not enough to consider herself rich. It would be just enough to tide her over until she sought a paid position.
    “I shall be applying to be a companion to someone else as soon as a position is advertised,” Milly explained dully. “I’m hoping not to encroach on your hospitality for too long.” It hurt Milly and her siblings that her parent saw her three children as burdens to be got rid of.
    “I should hope not! I can’t afford luxuries that you’d be used too, swanning around London like you had no cares in the world!”
    “I escorted Clara, that is all.”
    “I’ve hardly two ha’pennies to rub together. You could have sent me any spare funds you had.”
    “I didn’t have any,” Milly responded, consoling herself that she was not unreasonable in lying to her parent. “Charles pays for everything you need, Mother. I know you have no financial worries; he makes sure of that.”
    It was true; the kind-hearted Charles had stepped in when Milly’s father died and left them all facing ruin. It had been shocking how fast the creditors had emerged, almost as soon as her father had taken his last breath, but Milly could not really blame them; her parents had lived frivolous, expensive lives. Charles had committed to paying for her two brothers to be sent to school; Milly had been sent to live with Clara, and her mother had received enough funds to live in a small house in the centre of town. Mrs Holland hated the fact that she had fallen down the social scale so much and blamed everyone apart from herself and her deceased husband.
    Milly was the main one of her children who her mother unfairly blamed for her straitened circumstances. “Mrs Connor visits me regularly,” Mrs Holland said, finally starting on the topic of conversation that had been inevitable but dreaded by Milly.
    “I hope she is well,” Milly responded, feeling dead inside.
    “She will be as she is living in the big house, which should have been yours!”
    “It was never going to be mine once father died, and the reality of our situation became clear.” It had been hard to grieve for