Yesterday's Promise by Linda Lee Chaikin Read Free Book Online Page B

forthe Company, were even more insufferable. Two-faced and catty, all! She hadn’t a friend to confide in anywhere in Capetown.
    Is it my fault men prefer to dance with me? If I’d known last week that old lady Willowby would be there spying on my every move, I would have stayed home and not even bothered going to the silly old Company ball, anyway
.
    Arcilla swished her fan with renewed vigor. Now there was gossip buzzing in all the social circles, saying she was “carrying on” behind Peter’s back. She chewed her lip. If Peter ever found out…
    There was also Captain Retford. At Peter’s request the captain had been removed from regimental duty and sent to work as his personal assistant in an administrative capacity. Arcilla moved uncomfortably on the carriage seat. Was it her fault he was terribly handsome and that Peter often used him as her personal guard when she had business of her own to attend to about Capetown? But today she had refused his escort, knowing that idle tongues were already wagging and that Sir Julien was furious with her conduct. But she was growing tired of the expectations placed on her by her uncle. Oh, to be free and home again at Rookswood with her indulgent Auntie Elosia, and her preoccupied father, Sir Lyle. At least they allowed her to live her life as she pleased.
    But naturally, the gossip was all a pack of lies. Well…almost all. It was just that they didn’t understand her, these hard-nosed ladies in black. And they most certainly didn’t understand her constant need to be flattered. And Peter was always gone—and when he was home with her, his attention was on matters that bored her to tears.
    â€œYou weren’t this stuffy in London,” she had accused him.
    â€œThe honeymoon, my dear, is over. It is time to settle down and be about our work. What you need, Arcilla,” he said tenderly, “is a baby…”
    â€œI don’t want a baby! I want to dance and go places and have lovely people around me, the way it was in London. I want to go home!”
    Peter had looked at her bewildered, worried, and then had clumsily tried to make her “happy” for the evening by talking about how brilliant Cecil Rhodes was for wishing to bring all South Africa under the sceptreof Her Majesty. Arcilla had thrown a book at him, then raced up the stairs to their room and locked the door. The next day he had left with Parnell for Kimberly after receiving a message from Rhodes.
    Those women…the old cats! They were jealous, that’s all, because they were all getting old and wrinkled, and men like Captain Retford didn’t look at them with interest any longer. They had little else to do but make her life miserable here in Capetown.
    She swallowed an unladylike chortle. Imagine! That old dowager Jane Willowby daring, yes,
daring
, to come to Sir Julien on the matter. Arcilla felt her face turn warm over the humiliating memory of Colonel Willowby’s wife coming to Cape House to talk with Sir Julien about the “untoward behavior” of his London niece.
    â€œI do believe, Sir Julien, that the girl, married though she be, is young and willful. She needs an older, more sensible woman to keep an eye on her. I only mention this for her own good.”
    And then the final veiled threat. “I should hate to trouble Lady Elosia Chantry back in England. Elosia has been such a
good
friend of mine through the years that I wouldn’t want to bring her worry unless it became quite necessary…”
    Arcilla snapped her bright red fan open and closed. She didn’t want to bother Elosia, indeed.
Why, I’ll wager she can hardly wait to write her, filling Auntie’s mind with all kinds of silly lies
.
    And now! Worst of all, Uncle Julien had called her into his office yesterday morning and lectured her on her “untoward behavior.” She had bridled, a grave mistake when it came to Julien. He instantly became