Snobbery with Violence by MC Beaton Read Free Book Online Page A

captain says that for reasons of security you must be told, and all the servants as well.’
    Rose sank down into the nearest chair, her legs suddenly weak. From the look of amazement on her mother’s face, she realized it was a mystery to her as well.
    ‘Perhaps you will explain, Captain,’ said the earl.
    The captain courteously helped Miss Levine into a chair and then sat down himself.
    ‘His Majesty plans to come here on a visit,’ he began.
    ‘But that’s wonderful!’ cried Lady Polly. ‘It means our dear Rose is re-established.’
    ‘I am afraid not,’ said Harry. ‘It appears His Majesty means to try his luck with Lady Rose.’
    There was a stunned silence, finally broken by a giggle from Daisy. ‘Wish he’d try me. I’d be set up for life.’
    ‘He must be put off coming but in such a way as not to offend him,’ Harry went on. ‘Miss Levine is an actress. She will play the part of a servant who has contracted typhoid.’
    ‘Is that necessary?’ asked Rose, finding her voice at last. ‘Could we not just tell him one of our servants has the typhoid?’
    ‘I think someone from the royal household will be sent here to confirm the fact. We must be prepared for that. A telegram will be sent off tomorrow.’
    ‘The servants will all need to be told of the subterfuge,’ said Rose. ‘Would it not have been easier to pretend to hire Miss Levine? Then she could have pretended to have contracted typhoid. In that way, none of our servants would need to know.’
    ‘Miss Levine will be excellent in the part of someone dying of typhoid,’ said Harry. ‘I doubt if she would last a day as a servant without being dismissed. Besides, there is not time to find her fake references.’
    ‘I’m ever such a good actress,’ mumbled Daisy, beginning to be intimidated by the glacial stare the countess was turning on her.
    ‘Dinner is served,’ intoned Brum from the doorway.
    The earl and countess went first. Harry offered his arm to Rose. She ignored him and walked alone after her parents, so he offered his arm instead to Daisy.
    Dinner was a nightmare for Rose. She hated Harry. She was sure he must be mistaken.
    The earl was a kindly man, so he courteously asked Daisy about her theatrical career. Daisy, warmed by wine and attention, revealed she was a Gibson girl, one of that famous chorus line. She told several funny stories and the earl and Harry laughed appreciatively while Rose and her mother picked at their food.
    When Lady Polly finally rose as a signal to the ladies to follow her to the drawing-room, Rose pleaded a headache and retired to her room.
    She allowed Yardley to help her out of her dress and to unlace her corset and then dismissed her, saying she would cope with the rest herself. Rose found these days that she craved solitude. She had begun to slip out in the evening after everyone had retired, climb down the tree outside her window and go for a walk in the garden, so that when she did finally go to bed, she would be tired enough not to lie awake, playing her humiliation over and over in her head.
    When the house was finally silent, she put on a divided skirt and jacket, opened the window and began to climb down.
    Harry’s room afforded a good view of the moonlight-bathed rose garden underneath. He saw a dark figure slip across the rose garden and disappear through an arch at the end.
    He left his room and went down the staircase. He did not want to go through the process of unlocking the great front door, which had been bolted and locked for the night, so he went into the earl’s study, opened a window and stepped out onto the terrace.
    He silently made his way round the house to the back where the rose garden lay and walked across it and then through the arch at the end.
    He found himself in a knot garden, laid out in the original Tudor lines, the low box hedges protecting the flower-beds.
    The moon had gone behind the clouds and he could dimly make out a figure seated on a stone bench.
    He