Diamonds and Dreams Read Free

heard it said Lord
Tremayne’s got eyes fer ya!” Dora glared at Goldie. “Wot would His
Grace see in ya? Ya don’t even come up ter me shoulder, an’ wot
with yer chest bein’ as flat as it is...ya look like a child ! There’s nothin’ about ya ter attract a man’s eye,
there ain’t. An’ the only reason why Mr. Hutchins stares at ya is
because he ain’t never seen an uglier girl!”
    Big watched Goldie flinch and bring her
knees up to cover her breasts. “Goldie’s perfect in stature!” he
roared, more for Goldie’s sake than Dora’s. “She—”
    “Well, o’ course ya’d say that,” Dora said.
“Yer a midget ! Ye’ll be gone soon, I vow, Goldie Mae. Yer
uncle’s already bein’ watched real careful, he is at that. Aside
from bein’ a drunk, the man’s a thief. He stole Miz Crawton’s pie
from her window, an’—”
    “I made her another!” Goldie reminded
her.
    “Ten times better than the one Mrs. Crawton
made in the first place!” Big added vehemently.
    Dora smirked. “An’ nobody’s fergittin’ the
way the friggin’ sop staggered inter that freshly plowed field the
other day neither! Dancin’ an’ fallin’ all over... He made such a
bleedin’ mess o’ things, the men had ter plow all over again! Lost
a day’s wages, they did, an’ all because o’ yer stinkin’ uncle!
When the duke don’t come, he’ll be tossed out o’ Hallensham on his
bloomin’ arse!”
    With that, Dora turned and began to walk
away.
    “Oh, yeah?” Big stood and shook his fist at
Dora’s back. “Well, when Goldie brings back His Dukeship, we’ll
just see who has the last laugh, you...you—”
    “Great day Miss Agnes, Big, calm down. Dora
doesn’t bother me,” Goldie lied.
    Big looked at her, not missing the glint of
hurt in her golden eyes. “I can’t help it, Goldie. It’s the same
old story, over and over again. Asa finds trouble; you suffer for
it. When is the man going to straighten himself out, for God’s
sake? And the way he screams at you all the time! The things he
says to you! It makes me furious. He—”
    “Big—”
    “Look, Goldie. I just told Dora you’d be
Hallensham’s heroine. Now I want to know just how the hell that bit
of outrageousness will come about. Tell me the whole story about
this Duke Ravenhurst.”
    She took heart over his growing willingness
to understand and gave him her most brilliant smile. “All right.
Aunt Delia’s diaries say this duke is the landlord here. All that
land out there? What you can see and even further than that? Well,
he owns all of it. Owns all those farms too. But he hasn’t been
back since his parents died when he was ten. His daddy was killed
in a huntin’ accident, and his mama just sorta wasted away after
that. So his two aunts came and took him to London. But before he
left, he sobbed in Aunt Delia’s lap and told her he’d never come
back here because the memories would make him too sad. He wanted
her to go with him, but she said she just couldn’t leave her home.
That was twenty years ago.”
    Big felt impatience rise again when she
paused for a moment to rub her baby pig’s back. “Runt, go away!” he
snapped.
    “About five years ago the duke got engaged
to some girl named Angelica Sheridan.” Goldie continued to stroke
Runt. “Aunt Delia wrote that this Angelica came here one day. Duke
Ravenhurst didn’t come with her, but she had one of those lady
companions that rich folks always have. Aunt Delia said the lady
was old and slept all the time. Angelica told everyone here that
she was gonna be the duke’s bride, and that he’d consented to make
Ravenhurst their home. Aunt Delia wrote that he must have really
loved Angelica to agree to that. Aunt Delia and the villagers were
so excited about seein’ their duke again. Anyway, Angelica stayed
on here for a while. Things were kinda run-down, just like they are
now, so she decided to fix up some stuff. She started plantin’ a
huge rose garden. Aunt Delia wrote that