The Abandoned Bride by Edith Layton Read Free Book Online Page A

“One way or another, my dear, you certainly shall.”
    The next few days wert among the most uncomfortable Julia had ever passed in her brief span. For now her employer exhibited not only the symptoms of jealousy, but those of deep distrust as well. Julia attempted to cope with the uneasy atmosphere as she had done in such situations before, by occupying herself completely with her tasks and by so doing blinding herself to hateful reality. But as the days wore on and she still did not get a response from her letter to the Misses Parkinson, the situation became increasingly less tolerable. The present so neatly imitated the past that the same learned responses were called into action. Thus, on a heavily scented late spring night almost a week after the mad baron’s visit, Julia began to pack her bags.
    Just as she had fled the comforts of her home when gossip and innuendo had become too distasteful to bear, now, even without assurance of a new situation, she prepared to bolt again.
    Mrs. Bryce was admittedly in an untenable position as well. Whether the captain’s good wife had stood in an adjacent room, or ordered the butler away so that she could actually put her ear to the door, there was no doubt that she had heard every word the baron had uttered in private to Julia. Now her sense of propriety obviously warred with her notions of morality. She could not bring herself to admit to having actually done something so crude as eavesdropping. So she could neither condemn Julia for her scandalous behavior, nor discuss the accusations with her to get at the truth of the matter. Instead, she consistently cast shocked glances toward her, or studied her with badly concealed amazement. She seldom directly addressed Julia if she could help it, yet her every action showed that she could not decide whether her governess -companion were something as exciting as a shameless Delilah, or merely as contemptible as a common lightskirt. In any case, Julia had not the heart to bring the matter up herself.
    For even if she told no less than the truth, the truth itself was enough to have her dismissed and lose her the foolishly effusive recommendation she would need to secure a new position. For, Julia thought as she opened her largest traveling case, although she had not deliberately committed any of the crimes she had been accused of, the bare facts were sadly true. She had been no more than kind to Jamie Pomfret, the young son of her first employer, and he had fallen immediately into calf love with her. His obsession had shown itself in no more than bad poetry, but it was that overheated verse that his mama had found, and it was her shock at the depth of her beardless boy’s ardor which had caused Julia’s dismissal.
    Mrs. Pomfret had been a fair-minded female and Julia had gotten her letter of reference. Similarly, her second period of employment had ended abruptly. Yet even as the Honorable Miss Carstairs had swallowed down her disappointment, she too had resignedly penned a glowing commendation. “For it is not your fault, dearest Julia,” the Honorable Miss Carstairs had sighed. “I know that Teddy will be a sadly unsteady husband, and there is nothing for it, because you see, I am unfortunate enough to love him. I know the world will hold many other decorative females, but at the least, I must remove a source of unhappiness from my own household. So you see, my dear, I’m sorry for it, but you must go.”
    Lady Wingate’s temperament had estranged her from every one of her relatives, and considering the amount of her estate, that was no mean accomplishment, but still Julia had managed to endure her company for a full year. That, Julia thought now, as she arranged her linen in the traveling case, was not due to virtue, nor was it any moral credit to her. She had stayed on solely because the Misses Parkinson, while sympathetic, had firmly told her that a succession of brief periods of employment would look badly upon her record,