Polly's Story by Jennie Walters Read Free Book Online

landing, so long as we were careful to keep out of sight. I saw William down there, looking very smart in his best livery, and hoped his poor head wasn’t itching too much.   The second footman Thomas stood opposite him on the other side of the double doors, and the gentlemen and ladies went through between them, two by two. Lord Vye led the way with an elderly duchess hanging off his arm, followed by Her Ladyship, who was escorted by some officer or general with hardly enough dinner jacket for all his rows of medals. She was wearing the most gorgeous blue velvet gown, and diamonds sparkled around her neck and in her hair.
    ‘Master Edward will be a catch for one lucky girl some day,’ Becky said, peeking at him through the banisters. ‘In line to inherit the whole estate, and handsome to boot! I don’t know why he has to be so solemn and serious all the time.’ It was true: there was a rather brooding air about Edward’s face. His eyes were dark and deepset, and he did not seem to smile very often.
    ‘Isn’t Miss Eugenie a picture?’ Mary sighed, and we all agreed that Agnes had done her proud. She did look lovely with her hair piled up in a mass of dark ringlets, dressed in pale yellow silk and pearls - like some fresh spring flower, I thought to myself. ‘A lamb to the slaughter,’ Jemima remarked, which was just the sort of thing she would say. Miss Eugenie looked more like a cat who’d got the cream to me. A fair-haired young man was taking her into dinner and paying her a great deal of attention, although I couldn’t help noticing that he had a boil on the back of his neck and not much chin to speak of.
    ‘Back to work!’ Mary said at last, when all the guests had gone through to the dining room. There must have been ten extra bedrooms to attend to, and they wouldn’t tidy themselves. For much of the evening, gales of laughter had come floating down the corridor from the nursery, where Miss Harriet was entertaining her younger cousins. I was hurrying past the room a couple of hours later with some clean towels when suddenly the door burst open and a rabble of children came tumbling out, most of them riding on the back of a young man on all fours with tousled chestnut hair, who was roaring like a lion. He suddenly reared up with a particularly fearsome growl and Master John fell off, shrieking with delight, which only seemed to add to the general enjoyment.   It was hard not to smile at the sight: John was such a sweet child, for all the world like the boy blowing bubbles on the Pears’ soap picture, with his blond curls and dimpled chin. I could see the poor nurserymaid in the doorway behind, wringing her hands in anxiety, and Harriet, carrying a fat moon-faced baby which was laughing louder than anyone.
    ‘Oh, Polly, this is Rory!’ she cried as soon as she saw me. ‘He has arrived at last!’
    The young man struggled to his feet, shaking off the last few riders. ‘I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Polly,’ he said, somewhat out of breath, and then took my hand and pressed it to his lips. I wasn’t quite sure what to do, not being in the habit of having my hand kissed by a gentleman; besides, he had made me drop the towels in a heap on the floor. So I muttered some hasty reply and dropped a curtsey before stooping to pick them up - upon which we cracked heads together, as he had bent to do the very same thing! I was in some confusion by now, especially as it was a hard blow and I knew it must have hurt him too (although he had no one to blame but himself). The children, of course, thought all this was very funny.
    Master Rory managed to recover his wits more quickly than I did. ‘Look at all the trouble I’ve caused,’ he said, bundling the towels untidily back in my arms. ‘You are probably thinking I should be downstairs quietly eating my dinner and making polite conversation, instead of whipping these poor little children into such a pitch of excitement they will never get to