My True Companion by Sally Quilford Read Free Book Online Page B

not concentrate. She put it back on her bedside table, and
lay down, thinking long into the dawn. About the two deaths. About escape.
About freedom from Mrs Oakengate’s condescension. But her last unbidden
thought, before drifting into a dreamless sleep, was about James Haxby and how
his lips might feel against hers.
    “Millie, Simon Brady and I are going back up to Masson Hill
this morning. Would you like to come with us? Another pair of eyes might be
very useful.”
    The breakfast table fell into silence as if the answer
mattered to everyone there.
    “I’m afraid I must stay here,” said Millie, looking down at
her plate regretfully. She would have liked nothing more than to go with the
two men and help in their investigations, and felt a small thrill at being
asked. “Mrs Oakengate needs me.”
    “Yes, that is true,” said Mrs Oakengate. “Besides, it is not
seemly for a young woman to go off in the company of two men.”
    “Did you think I intended to seduce her whilst Brady
watched?” asked Haxby. He threw down his napkin and rose from the table. “I may
have visited some savage places,” he said, angrily, “but I have never been
accused of behaving like a savage.”
    “Might I remind you, Mr Haxby,” said Mrs Oakengate in her
sweetest, deadliest voice, “that Millicent is employed by me as my companion,
and as such is subject to my commands.”
    “And don’t you just love that?” said Haxby. “Ordering that
girl around, questioning her worth in this world. Telling her whom she might or
might not love.”
    Millie gasped. Had he followed and listened to the
conversation of the night before? If so, why would he? Perhaps he suspected her
or Mrs Oakengate of some wrongdoing. Or perhaps he had merely guessed what her
employer would say to her.
    “Haxby…” Henry Fazeby’s voice was gentle, but firm. “You are
not really helping Miss Woodgate’s cause. Or your own.”
    Haxby had too much respect for Fazeby to argue back. He
merely nodded and murmured an apology, aimed mainly at Millie, before leaving
the room.
    “James has spent so long abroad, he sometimes forgets the
niceties of English manners,” said Cynthia. “You must forgive him, Victoria.”
Millie sensed an underlying plea to Mrs Oakengate to forgive Millie too, or
perhaps it was just wishful thinking on her part.
    “Forgive him? Why, there is nothing to forgive. I understand
men like Haxby,” said Mrs Oakengate, with an excited gleam in her eyes. “He
must be master of all he surveys. Of course, he would never be my master, no
man could. He obviously thinks about me constantly, don’t you think? The way he
takes such an interest in my dealings with my young charge here. That’s why
Henry had to warn him to behave, isn’t it, Henry? Showing such passion publicly
is unseemly, even if it is all rather exciting.”
    “Yes, of course, Victoria,” said Henry, his mouth turning up
slightly at the corners. “I knew there must be some reason I said it.”
    The morning passed by interminably for Millie. Henry Fazeby
was out on the estate, talking to his manager, and Alexander Markham had gone
into the town, having volunteered to deal with the particulars involving the
funerals of Mr and Mrs Parker-Trent. Count Chlomsky said he was going for a
walk, but did not divulge his destination or when he would return.
    Mrs Oakengate had very little use for Millie at all, having
Barbara Conrad and Cynthia Fazeby for company in the drawing room. She filled
up Millie’s time with errands.
    “Did I say my red scarf, Millicent? I’m sure I said my blue
scarf.”
    “You said your red scarf,” said Barbara Conrad, looking up from
her book.
    “No, I think you’re mistaken. Besides, it is Millicent’s job
to remember these things, not yours, though it’s very kind of you to take an
interest, I’m sure, my dear.”
    “No, not that book, the one in my other bag.” Her various commands
ensured was the Millie got plenty of exercise, and could at