The American Earl Read Free

old.  You cannot possibly ‘look after’ Stoverton. Nor can you be left here on your own.”
    “I’m eighteen,” I corrected her, my voice matching the haughtiness of hers.  “And who else has looked after Stoverton for all these years, do you think?  Mama was rarely here and my father not much more.”
    “You have a steward,” Aunt Barbara said. “It is his job to look after things, not yours.”
    “The last steward left two years ago,” I said flatly. “I’ve been doing his job ever since.”
    My aunt stood and began pacing the room. “This whole situation is outrageous. I knew I should have insisted you come to me after your mother died.” She stopped and glared. “But you carried on as if I was taking you to a house of torture. And Philip, weakling that he was, stood by you.”
    Maria’s soft voice made itself heard. “Please don’t argue. It’s upsetting.”
    “Of course it’s upsetting,” Lady Barbara snapped. “That is precisely why you should not be here. But Julia insisted….”
    I went over to take Aunt Barbara’s seat next to my sister and picked up her hand.  “Our aunt is right about one thing,” I told her.  “You should go to Mereton. I’m sure Aunt Barbara will get you a governess and a music teacher, and you’ll have Lizzie to talk to. It would be the best thing for you, Maria.”
    Aunt Barbara backed me up. “Of course we’ll get you a governess, Maria. I’m sure Flora has tried, but … well, best not to say anything more. And your cousin Elizabeth will be happy to have your company.”
    Maria sat up straight. She had the Marshall family height as well as its coloring. At fourteen, she was four inches taller than I. “I won’t go without Julia.”
    Her blue eyes held mine steadily. Everyone always talked about how stubborn I was, but Maria wasn’t far behind.
    “I can’t leave,” I told her.
    “I never thought you would.”
    The two of us looked at my aunt. I said, “If Cousin Flora stays with us, everything here will be perfectly proper. No one has questioned its propriety for the last few years, and I don’t see why that should change. It’s not as if my father was ever here.”
    Aunt Barbara and I went back and forth for another half an hour on this topic, but, since she couldn’t tie me up and carry me out of the house, I won. As she swept out in high dudgeon to return to her own respectable household, her final words were: “When you’re hungry enough, send me word and I’ll come and get you.”
    “She doesn’t really want me,” I said to Maria. “She’d take you happily, but she and I dislike each other intensely.”
    “I didn’t want to go either,” Maria said.
    “Are you certain?” I asked, looking intently into her eyes.
    “Yes.” Maria grinned. “You’re much more fun than Aunt Barbara, Julia.”
    I laughed and hugged her, but the thought of Aunt Barbara’s last words was chilling. Where was I to find enough money for us to live on?
     
     

Chapter Three
     
    I imposed an even stricter regimen than we had been following.  We cut further back on coal consumption and went to bed early to save on candles. 
    Sir William Hartly, our Master of Fox Hounds and my best friend, sent us hams and haunches of venison.  Maria kept chickens so we could have eggs.  We were cold and often hungry, but we were still at Stoverton.
    Then, two months after my father died, I received a visit from Mr. Shields. We sat in the library and he told me he had thought further about our situation and decided it would be appropriate to advance me an allowance from what was left in Papa’s personal account.
    I was hugely surprised. He had made such a point of not being able to do anything until he heard from the new earl. When I queried him on this, he looked uncomfortable.
    “I…er…decided that the earl would not like it if his cousins were left penniless and the house was not attended to.  Isn’t a munificent amount, Lady Julia, but it will enable you