103. She Wanted Love Read Online Free PDF

anyone she was fond of.
    That, she thought, was one reference at any rate.
    She looked in the drawer, as she wanted to see if there was by chance a piece of writing paper with another address on it.
    Then she noticed stacked tidily in a corner some writing paper from a hotel, one her parents had stayed in when they thought the sea air would do them good.
    She tried to make her handwriting look different and wrote a glowing reference from a lady she invented who was currently staying in the hotel.
    She said that she had employed Miss Lawson only temporarily while she was in England and had found her excellent. Her French was Parisian and as good as she would expect to find in any French girl of the same age.
    She signed the letter with a French name and on the top of it she made the writer a Comtesse.
    As Eleta folded up the two letters, she thanked her Mama silently for helping her. She was almost sure that she was smiling and telling her not to be worried.
    She went back to her bedroom expecting to find Betty there, but she did not arrive for another ten minutes.
    Then she came bursting into the room dressed in the black bonnet and black cape she always went out in.
    “Come along then, my Lady,” she said, “the coast’s clear, Mrs. Buxton’s gone to rest and the kitchen’s empty.”
    “I was afraid you had forgotten about me,” Eleta said jokingly.
    “You know I’d never forget you,” Betty answered. “You mean more to me than if you were my own child and I’d help you if I could even with my dying breath.”
    “I know you would, Betty,” Eleta said and, bending forward, kissed her cheek. “Now come along, we have to think of this as a new adventure and I must not make any mistakes or I will find myself back here and married before I can say ‘Jack Robinson’.”
    “God forbid that should happen!” Betty exclaimed.
    They went down by the staircase which led to the back of the premises and out through the basement door from which there were steps into Berkeley Square.
    Then they hurried out and into Davis Street, just in case a footman was looking out from the front door.
    They did not speak until they were out of sight of the house and then Betty drew a deep breath.
    “I don’t think anyone noticed us,” she sighed.
    “I am sure that they didn’t and thank you, Betty, for being clever enough to remember that is the best way to leave the house when one does not wish to be seen.”
    “I hadn’t thought of it before and that’s the truth!”
    “Now where is this Agency you have been talking about?” Eleta asked.
    “It’s not far, my Lady, it’s just at the back of these shops and convenient for them as wants staff locally.”
    They walked on in silence until they came to what looked like an ordinary house, but the front door was open revealing a narrow staircase.
    “It’s on the first floor,” Betty said unnecessarily, “and I’ll be waiting for you here.”
    “You are not coming with me?” Eleta asked.
    Betty shook her head.
    “They knows me because I’ve been here once or twice for your mother when she wanted a kitchenmaid. Mrs. Hill, that be her name, might recognise me and that’d be unhelpful.”
    Eleta knew this was common sense, so she said,
    “Don’t go far away, Betty.”
    “I’ll wait at the end of the street. There’s no hurry and be careful where you promises to go.”
    Eleta smiled at her.
    “I’ll be careful, I promise, Betty. Now pray hard that I will find a place I can hide from Step-papa.”
    “I’ll be prayin’,” Betty assured her.
    Then, as if worried she might be seen, she walked off leaving Eleta alone outside the open door,
    She walked up the narrow stairs.
    At the top the door was open and she saw inside what looked like servants sitting on chairs against the wall.
    There were three young girls she thought must be housemaids or perhaps kitchenmaids. And several young men she was certain were looking for jobs with horses.
    As they stared at her, she