The Folly Read Free Page B

so that she had once tried to drown herself. She remembered the little boy, Mark, saying that the house was haunted, and wondered if there was something supernatural about Mannerling that kept them all in its spell.
    Betty, the little maid, piped up from the bottom of the stairs, “A carriage from Mannerling.”
    They ran to the window. Their former coachman was driving a carriage. There were two footmen on the backstrap and Rachel recognized in one of them the unlovely features of John, who had once worked for the Beverleys.
    “You had best go downstairs,” urged Lizzie, “for Mama is indisposed.”
    “I shall change my gown,” decided Rachel. “Send Betty to me quickly.”
    Miss Trumble received Charles Blackwood in the little parlour, regretting, not for the first time, her mistress’s parsimony in leaving the drawing-room unheated.
    “I am sorry Lady Beverley is ill,” said Miss Trumble after studying his card. “I am Miss Trumble, governess to the Beverley sisters.”
    His harsh face lightened as he looked down at her from his great height and Miss Trumble wondered rather sadly whether her poor old heart would everlearn to stop beating faster at the sight of an attractive man.
    “Then you are the very person I need to see,” he said.
    “Indeed? Pray be seated, sir.”
    He sat down in an armchair by the fire and looked around him with pleasure. The room was full of feminine clutter—bits of sewing, books, and magazines. There was a large bowl of spring flowers by the window on a round table.
    “Were you aware,” began Charles, stretching out his long legs, “that I met one of your charges yesterday? She left her hat. I brought it back and gave it to the maid.”
    “Yes, Rachel. She told me about it. She should not have been trespassing, but she misses her old home.”
    “I was grateful to her for bringing to my attention the fact that my children had been subject to harsh attention from their governess. Excuse me, Miss Trumble, but there is something faintly familiar about you. Are you sure we have not met before?”
    “Oh, no, sir. A governess such as myself, immured in the country as I am, hardly moves in the same circles as such as yourself.”
    “Still, there is something…Never mind. The reason I am come…”
    The door opened and Rachel came in, followed by Lizzie and Belinda.
    Charles Blackwood got to his feet and bowed. Rachel was very beautiful and seemed even more so than the first time he had seen her, her fair looks contrasting with Belinda’s dark-haired beauty and Lizzie’s waiflike appeal.
    They all sat down.
    Charles turned to Rachel. “I was just beginning to explain to your governess that after your visit yesterday I told Miss Terry, my children’s governess, to leave immediately. I am looking for a suitable lady to tutor them and am come to you for help.”
    “I think I can help you,” said Miss Trumble, adjusting the folds of a very modish silk gown. Rachel looked at that gown. It was one of Miss Trumble’s best, almost as if she had been expecting such a call. “My girls’ schooling has been cut back to a mere two hours in the afternoon, and time lies heavy on my hands. With Lady Beverley’s permission, of course, I could offer to tutor your children if they were brought over here every day. My girls could help in their education, and company younger than mine would benefit them.”
    “I would be most grateful. Are you sure Lady Beverley will allow you to do this?”
    Miss Trumble rose to her feet. “I will ask her now.”
    She left the room with her graceful gliding walk.
    “An exceptional lady,” said Charles to Rachel after the door had closed behind the governess. “Where did your mother come by such a treasure?”
    Rachel laughed. “Our Miss Trumble has certainly made an impression on such a brief acquaintance. What makes you think her a treasure?”
    “She has great style and dignity. And I am sure I have met her somewhere before.”
    “There is a mystery