Wentworth Hall by Abby Grahame Read Free Book Online Page A

she walked over to the floral-patterned wall and reached in. Doodles Worthless suddenly emerged. “What have I told you about standing so close to the wall?” her mother scolded.
     
“Don’t you have another daughter?” Richie recalled.
     
Lord Worthless turned to his wife. “Do we?”
     
Lady Worthless tittered with laugher. “Why, of course we do, you old fool. Our eldest daughter Snobby is around here somewhere.” Lady Worthless suddenly eyed Richie with a new alertness as if an idea occurred to her. “You might like Snobby. She’s going to make some lucky man a fine wife someday. She never lets her enthusiasms run wild, as some young women do. In fact, she has no enthusiasm for anything.”
     
“Hmm,” Richie demurred. “I don’t know.”
     
“Unless you’d prefer Doodles here,” Lady Worthless suggested, searching around for her youngest daughter who has dropped out of sight once more. “Doodles?”
     
“Yes, Mother,” Doodles’s voice wafted in from the wallpapered wall.
     
“Oh, not again,” Lady Worthless muttered. She headed over to retrieve her daughter but Richie stopped her.
     
“Never mind,” he said. “I’m too young to marry just yet.”
     
“Never too young when a fortune is at stake,” Lady Worthless disagreed. “A good wife can help you spend—I mean manage —it. Yes, manage is what I meant to say… not spend… manage. Snobby will be a very sensible manager.”
     
Snobby glided into the room. “Did someone mention my name?” she asked in her low, husky voice.
     
Lady Worthless smiled charmingly at Richie.“Why, yes, dear, I was just telling—”
     
“Never mind,” Snobby cut her mother off. “I’ve lost interest. My mind has drifted back to my days on the Continent where things were interesting, not like they are here in England. I’m never quite here because I’m always there .”
     
“Hopefully my sister and I will liven things up around here,” Richie suggested.
     
“I doubt it,” Snobby replied with a yawn.
     
“You look familiar. Perhaps you run in the same circles as my sister here,” Richie said.
     
Snobby cast him a disdainful glance. “I would never run in circles.”
     
“I could show you my diamonds,” Richina offered.
     
“Not interested,” Snobby declines as she glides out of the room.
     
“I’d like to see them,” Lady Worthless said excitedly, her eyes swirling once more as she went back into a diamond-envy–induced trance state.
     
“If you’ll excuse me, I must go and count the family heirlooms,” Lord Worthless said, checking the watch fob in his vest pocket. “I do it every day at this time.” He headed for the nearest door, but the crystal doorknob came off in his hand. Dropping it, he wandered off in search of another way out.
     
Richie turned to his sister. “See, Sis? It’s not so bad.”
     
“No, it’s worse!” Richina stated. She took Richie by the hand and headed out of the room, pulling him after her. “Come, Richie,dear. Let’s go call a man about putting in that tennis court. At least if we play tennis we won’t have to talk to these impecunious lunatics.”
     
The room empted but a small voice could be heard from the wall. “Where is everyone going? Can I come?”
     
Poor Doodles. Is there anything worse than being forgotten?
     
And so dear reader, we hope your imaginations can supply the further comings and goings at Faded Glory Hall until the next thrilling installment of MISFORTUNE MANOR.

Chapter Seven
     
    L ILA DARLINGTON WAS STEWING. IT WAS NOT an unfamiliar feeling.
    She’d tried going into the nursery to play with baby James, but Therese had told her he was asleep. Even baby James had better things to do than spend time with Lila. She was seated in the library, rereading The Secret Garden for what felt like the umpteenth time.
    She closed her novel with a heavy sigh, and walked over to see what other reading options there might be on the shelves. Maybe a new volume had