Susan Carroll by Masquerade Read Free Book Online Page B

against a cushion.
    "Sounds like someone is taking the devil of a
drubbing," Gilly said. "You'd best let me deal with this."
    Phaedra shook her head, her mouth compressing
into a hard line. Turning the knob, she flung the door open and
burst into the room. The sight that met her eyes occasioned more
rage than astonishment, for she had already guessed what was
amiss.
    The chamber, with its low ceiling and plain
white plaster walls, was a jumble of furniture discarded from the
elegant apartments below. Between a Jacobean daybed and an empty
bookshelf, cowered a tall, raw-boned maid, her flat bosom heaving
with sobs. The girl held her large-knuckled hands before her face
in an effort to ward off the blows. Her assailant, a wisp of a
woman garbed in black bombazine, brought her cane crashing onto the
girl's back with great energy, her lips stretched in a grimace of
ecstasy.
    Phaedra flew across the room, catching the
woman's arm in mid-swing, and wrenched the weapon away from her.
“Mrs. Searle! What is the meaning of this? How dare you strike my
maid!"
    From beneath the starched lace of her mobcap,
Hester Searle's colorless eyes glared at Phaedra with all the
malice of an adder contemplating its prey.
    "When yer ladyship hears the truth, ye'll
want to beat the wicked creature yerself. I caught Lucy fixing to
burn yer ladyship's finest gowns." The woman pointed an accusing
finger toward a pile of black silks strewn before the
fireplace.
    The girl scrambled over to Phaedra, shrinking
behind her skirts.
    "Oh, milady," she sobbed, "I tried to
explain."
    Phaedra glanced down at the purple swelling
which had begun to disfigure the girl's cheek. She shook with
anger, but she managed to place a gentle hand upon the girl's
shoulder. "Never mind, Lucy. I will settle this. You run along to
Thompson and have him apply something ointment to that eye."
    With a hiccup of relief, the girl bolted from
the room, nearly blundering into Gilly in the doorway. Phaedra
rounded upon Mrs. Searle. Never had she so loathed the sight of
that woman's sharp-featured face, the coal-black hair drawn back
from her brow in a widow's peak. A distant relative of Ewan
Grantham's, poor and untutored, Hester had been hired as the
housekeeper upon her late husband's recommendation. More often than
not, Hester had served as Ewan's spy. Upon her husband's death,
Phaedra had hoped that Hester would resign her post, but it seemed
she was never to be rid of the sly creature.
    "This time, you've carried your impertinence
too far, Mrs. Searle. In the first place, I've told you that I
consider this my own private room. I don't ever want you coming in
here. Secondly, that girl was acting upon my orders. I told her to
destroy those gowns. I no longer have a use for them."
    Hester Searle pursed her lips. "Begging yer
ladyship's pardon. How was I to know? Such a strange command,
burning these lovely silks. If you had but told me you wished to be
rid of them, I could have-"
    "You are only the housekeeper. How I dispose
of my personal wardrobe is none of your affair. "
    "Aye, but Fae, I fear for once I must agree
with Madame Pester about the gowns."
    Having all but forgotten Gilly's presence,
Phaedra twisted her head to glower at him. He leaned up against the
doorjamb. "'Tis more the action of a spoiled, highborn beauty than
the cousin I know, to so wantonly destroy such clothes as many a
poor woman would be glad to have upon her back. If you don't want
them, m'dear, give them away."
    Phaedra bit her lip. More than anyone else,
Gilly should understand why she despised those black gowns. With
irritation she realized that Gilly was right. It was wasteful to
burn up the gowns. She had seen enough of poverty herself to know
better. Before she could reply, however, she was distracted by the
sound of Hester hissing like a cat. Her pale eyes spit fire at
Gilly.
    "You. You, here in this house! If my dear
Lord Ewan were still alive, ye would never have dared.”
    Gilly gave the woman a