The Adventuress: HFTS5 by Marion Chesney, M.C. Beaton Read Free Book Online

the unexpected warmth of the weak early spring sunlight.
    She had changed in appearance from the small, frail child who had taken up employ some years before. Her hair, regularly washed despite warnings from the other servants that it was a dangerous habit liable to cause all sorts of inflammations and “dampness in the brain,” was thick and glossy and of a rich brown. It was confined at the nape of her neck with a cherry-red silk ribbon, a present from a previous tenant. Her new cotton gown, made by herself under Mrs. Middleton’s instruction that winter, was white with a thin green stripe. It was of coarse cotton and unlike the fine India muslins worn by the ladies, but it looked fresh and neat.
    She was not looking where she was going as she turned into Clarges Street, being lost in her favourite day-dream of marriage to Joseph, and she nearly collided with Luke, the Charterises’ first footman. Lizzie murmured an apology, stepped backwards, and dropped Luke a curtsy, a first footman being high above a scullery maid in the servants’ pecking order.
    “Look where you’re going next time,” said Luke ungraciously. He was as tall as Joseph and wore his black hair powdered. He was wearing new livery, red plush laced with gold.
    “Yes, Mr. Luke,” said Lizzie meekly, anxious to get away, for she did not like Luke and thought he was a bad influence on Joseph.
    As she turned away, Luke noticed the wealth of Lizzie’s shining hair and the trimness of her figure.
    “Wait a bit, Lizzie,” he said. “You are looking very fine these days. Quite the little lady.”
    “Thank you,” whispered Lizzie, avoiding his bold gaze.
    “P’raps you’d care to step out with me of an evening,” said Luke.
    Lizzie was human enough to blush with pleasure. It was a great honour for a scullery maid to be asked out by a first footman.
    Although she had no intention of walking out with Luke, she did not want to annoy him be refusing his offer there and then.
    “I would need to have Mr. Rainbird’s permission,” said Lizzie. “We have a new tenant and we’re ever so busy.”
    “I’ll ask old Rainbird,” said Luke with a grin. “Tell him to expect me.”
    Lizzie bobbed another curtsy and then ran towards Number 67.
    “Fetching little thing,” thought Luke. “Bound to be grateful to me for the honour.”
    “Mr. Rainbird will tell him to go away,” thought Lizzie, but she still glowed with pleasure at the compliment.

Chapter
Four
     
    … land of
punch romaine
and plate,
Of dinners fix’d at half-past eight;
Of morning lounge, of midnight rout,
Of debt and dun, of love and gout,
Of drowsy days, of brilliant nights,
Of dangerous eyes, of downright frights
.
    —May Fair, Anon.
     
    Miss Emily Goodenough had not yet grasped that to know nobody in London was to
be
a Nobody.
    With the help of Mr. Goodenough, she studied the social columns in the newspapers and planned whom to invite to her first rout.
    She longed to plunge into that glittering world of society she saw all about her when she went out for walks accompanied by Joseph. And when she was at home, studying the magazines and newspapers, it was maddening to hear noise and laughter from the street as people made calls and received calls and went for drives, or to stand by the window watching them setting out for balls, glittering with jewels, and know that all these members of society were as yet unaware of Miss Goodenough.
    Mr. Goodenough was well-versed in all the names of the notables, having made a study of them all when he had been in service in Cumberland. That was why he had recognised the earl’s name so promptly. But, like Emily, he assumed a lavish entertainment would soon bring floods of invitations pouring in. Naively, the ex-servants thought that to be rich was enough.
    “Should we ask the Earl of Fleetwood?” asked Emily one evening.
    “By all means,” said Mr. Goodenough. “He is a social leader.”
    Emily hesitated before drawing forward one of the