108. An Archangel Called Ivan Read Online Free PDF

Mrs. Hill.
    Mrs. Hill then read them slowly and was obviously impressed.
    “You seem to be very talented,” she remarked. “I will be very pleased to find somewhere for you. But first of all you must give me your name.”
    “My name is Parker,” Arliva told her, “and I would like to be accommodated as soon as possible. As I worked very hard in the last place with two girls of seventeen and a boy of twelve, I would like to be with small children for a short time to give myself a rest.”
    “That should not be too difficult,” Mrs. Hill said reassuringly. “Do you mind being in the country?”
    “I was just going to say to you that I would want to be in the country and not in a town,” Arliva replied. “I find towns very tiring. Also it means that one has little time for riding and enjoying oneself with animals.”
    “Most young women of your age,” Mrs. Hill said, “find the country dull. But I have the very place for you if you don’t mind being isolated with children and animals. I understand from the Governesses I have already sent that there is nothing else.”
    “Where is it?” Arliva enquired.
    “It is Lord Wilson’s in Huntingdonshire,” she said. “He is an old man, but he has his three grandchildren with him. Two years ago their parents were drowned when the ship they were sailing in to America sank in a very rough sea. No one else in the family wanted three children, so his Lordship was obliged to take his grandchildren in and the trouble they’ve been to him in that the Governesses I’ve sent to look after them find the place too dull and too isolated.”
    She gave a little laugh before she added,
    “Young women want the excitement of shops even if they can’t afford to buy the goods in them. Shops, I do understand, are very rare where Lord Wilson lives.”
    “Well, I would like to go there,” Arliva answered. “I am sure that it will be a rest from the hectic life I have been having recently.”
    “I only hope you stay a bit longer than the last Governess did,” Mrs. Hill said. “She left after only four weeks and that, I can tell you, is a record.”
    “I promise you I will stay longer than that,” Arliva told her. “I would like to go as soon as possible, please.”
    “Well, here’s the address and I’ll write at once to his Lordship’s secretary who’s been bothering me day after day with letters asking me to send them someone. Your wages will be forty pounds a year paid monthly and they’ll refund all the expenses you’ve incurred in travelling there.”
    “I will definitely go the day after tomorrow,” Arliva announced. “I am quite sure, Mrs. Hill, I will be happy with the children. Are they boys or girls?”
    “There’s a boy of seven, who is his Lordship’s heir, and his two sisters who are twins of six years of age.”
    “I can only say that I am very grateful to you and, of course, I would like my references returned to me when I arrive at Wilson Hall.”
    “I only hope that you won’t be back asking me for another place like all the others I’ve said goodbye to,” Mrs. Hill replied rather harshly.
    “I hope not,” Arliva said. “I am looking forward to being in the country even if it is rather isolated.”
    “Well, very good luck to you and I hope you settle down,” Mrs. Hill replied. “I don’t mind telling you that it’s been a real headache finding young women today, who want to be gadding about in a town rather than attending to their pupils.”
    She spoke sharply and Arliva then appreciated that she must have sent a good number of applicants to this particular place.
    At the same time she felt that this position was just what she needed at the moment.
    At least no one from the Beau Monde would think of looking for her there.
    She thanked Mrs. Hill, signed her name on various papers and then went off down the stairs.
    She tucked her spectacles away in her handbag and then she hastily put on her earrings and pearl necklace and hurried across