The Marriage Wheel Read Free Page B

agent.
    “ He deals in property, ” Lucille answered. “ On the grand scale, ” she amplified.
    “ And I ’ ll probably have to drive him about the country? ” Frederica said.
    “ You will have to do so sometimes, ” the housekeeper seemed to think it very likely. “ But Mr. Lestrode travels a lot by train, and your principal duty will be to meet him when he ’ s returning from a journey, and take him to the station or the airport when he sets off on one. It ’ s just possible he may want you to go abroad with him, but I shouldn ’ t think so, ” surveying her for the first time with real dubiousness.
    Frederica slept that night in a very comfortable bed in a room that had been got ready for her by Lucille. She telephoned her family before she went to bed, and they were eager for all the details she was unable to supply them with as yet. Rosaleen, in particular, seemed disappointed because she had not yet met Humphrey Lestrode, and therefore was unable to gratify her sister ’ s curiosity as to how he looked and how he reacted when coming face to face for the first time with Frederica as an employee.
    “ But don ’ t worry, pet, ” Rosaleen said cheerfully. “ I ’ m sure he ’ ll think you ’ re a nice little thing ... And it ’ s not as if you were a shattering beauty he ’ s adding to his pay-roll. Beauty and brains don ’ t always go together, and he might be suspicious if you looked like me ... And I can tell him that you ’ ve got all the family brains! ”
    Frederica retired to her room and pondered this one as she made her way up the handsome oak staircase to the distant wing she was to share with the housekeeper.
    She was very much aware that Rosaleen had no doubts about the quality of her own charms ... but it was the first time she herself had been accused of having brains.
    Beauty and brains didn ’ t always go together ... and she was a “ nice little thing ” . She could tell that even Lucille thought she was nice enough in her way, and if she did her job and acquired a mouse - like unobtrusiveness she might even last out at Farthing Hall. She might be driving Mr. Lestrode backwards and forwards to railway stations and airports years hence!
    The next morning she inspected the contents of the garage accommodation at the Hall. There were in actual fact two very large but somewhat primitive garages that had been converted out of the stable block, and another was in process of being added to them.
    The stable yard itself was most attractive. There were still a few loose-boxes and a harness room, and in one of the loose-boxes Mr. Lestrode ’ s favourite grey was being rubbed down by a man who rode over from a neighbouring estate to fulfil this useful function in the master of the house ’ s absence.
    Frederica was sorry that the appearance of the stable yard was so neglected, but she realised this was more or less inevitable in a day and age when few people could afford the staff to run a place like this. But perhaps, now that Mr. Lestrode—man of property—had taken it over, there would soon be a miraculous change in the whole appearance of the place. The weed-grown gardens would cease to be overgrown and neat herbaceous borders and rolling lawns would delight the eyes of anyone who gazed upon them from the house windows; and in connection with the house itself—a beautiful example of decaying Elizabethan architecture—missing roof slates would be replaced and greying timbers restored to their former eye-catching attractiveness. She had already noticed that one of the chimney stacks leaned badly, and she expected that would be restored, too.
    Before looking inside the garages she made a quick tour of the grounds, and proved how very feminine she was by gathering primroses in the woods. Somewhat to the astonishment of the new gardener, Jason, she approached the double doors of the garages with a whole armful of primroses hugged up to her chin.
    She deposited them carefully in a