Old Acquaintances: Christmas Regency Tale (Regency Tales Book 2) Read Free

As it was, she knew that she could do little but offer the girl some food for thought.
                  “Cecily, have you perfectly thought out what you are attempting? I know nothing of your circumstances, but surely your guardian would not wish you to disappear without some assurance of your continued well-being. And pray, how do you intend to live? Do you have relatives or friends who would be willing to take you in?”
                  Cecily shook her head. “I have no one but my cousin. And as for him, I think that he will be heartily glad that I am gone. He never wished to have me cast on him, you see, and that is why he came up with his horrid notion to marry me to the first gentleman that he found acceptable.” Her bosom rose as deep indignation overcame her. “Miss Grantham, the gentleman is twice my age and he is bald and he smokes a cigar, which I cannot at all abide! I shall not marry him, I shall not!”
                  There was a hint of hysteria in her voice that Judith was quick to note. “The gentleman in question is not clamoring for your hand at this moment, so you may rest easy for a while yet,” she said with deliberate callousness.
                  After a stunned moment, Cecily unwillingly laughed. “I am sorry, Miss Grantham! I never meant to treat you to a turn of drama. Only it is all so idiotic. Why, I have not even been brought out. I think it frightfully unfair of Per-of my cousin. I should so like to go to London.” She ended on such a wistful note that it touched the older woman’s heart.
    Judith shook her head. It would not do to become too sympathetic. Cecily’s story struck such chords of understanding within her and it was an effort to recall that there was another side. The overbearing guardian may have had his reasons. There, it is plain whose side I have aligned myself with, thought Judith with exasperation. Overbearing, indeed! And he very likely wears a corset and helps himself too liberally to snuff, she thought whimsically. Aloud, she said, “Cecily, in all conscience I must ask you to reconsider your ill-considered flight. I would feel responsible if something untoward should happen to you once I have set you down.”
    “Of course I appreciate your sentiments, Miss Grantham. But truly, I am quite capable of caring for myself. I have had the splendid notion to enter service, you see, and so I shall do very well,” said Cecily with bright confidence, her beautiful eyes shining from beneath the longest black lashes that Judith had ever seen on a female.
    “Oh, my dear,” she said helplessly, her gaze traveling from Cecily’s lovely fresh face to her slender figure and back again. She took a breath. “I am sorry to inform you of it, Cecily, but no one is likely to hire anyone quite as pretty as you are. Except perhaps just the sort of gentleman that you are so adamant against marrying. And I fear that it will not be the gentleman’s cigar smoke that you would find particularly objectionable, but his attempts to-to steal a kiss.” She felt herself entirely inadequate at relaying the realities of the world to a young girl such as Cecily and she waited somewhat uncomfortably for her companion’s inevitable query for enlightenment.
    But Cecily’s expression was not one of confusion. She looked surprised, then thoughtful. “Once, as a small child, I surprised Papa with one of the maids. I suppose that is the sort of thing you mean. No, I should not care for that. Perhaps I shall become a mantua maker instead.”
    Judith was taken aback. “Cecily, do I perfectly understand what you are saying about your father?”
    “Oh, yes. Before Papa died, he was a bit of a rake. And though I do not know precisely, I suppose it meant he was quite fond of maids,” said Cecily with an innocent and inquiring glance.
    Judith sat back against the seat, her breath quite knocked out of her. “Indeed, I suppose so,” she said weakly,