A Bloom in Winter Read Online Free PDF Page A

wasn’t much, but she towered over Mrs. Tannin, who was as small as Victoria. “Pray remember that this is my home now, and it isn’t squalid or dirty. It’s clean and bright and very close to the Royal Veterinary College, where my husband will be attending. It’s just small is all.” She didn’t mention that it was one of four flats situated above a greengrocer. The ever-present earthy scent of potatoes told that tale.
    Mrs. Tannin subsided. Had Prudence been able to retrieve all of her things from her old home without help, she would have done so. Carl, the footman, was there to carry some of the heavier items, but she wanted Mrs. Tannin to supervise just to make it plain that Prudence hadn’t taken anything that wasn’t hers. She didn’t want the Earl of Summerset to accuse her ofstealing. She had been lucky to get inside and retrieve some of her belongings before the new family took over the house and perhaps denied her access to them.
    “My apologies,” the older woman finally said. “It’s just that I don’t understand any of this. Sir Philip dies, the family moves away to the estate, and you return a scant three months later, married to a man who, excuse me, isn’t a good match for you, and living in a flat in Camden Town. It’s hard for a body to get her arms around, that’s all.”
    Prudence took a deep breath, fighting to keep down her rising temper. She reminded herself how kind this woman had been to her mother.
    “Mrs. Tannin. I believe it’s your high regard for me that makes you say such things, but remember that my mother was a governess. I have no inheritance, no title, and no blood ties to aristocracy.” Prudence’s lips tightened for a moment as she remembered that she did indeed have illegitimate ties to the family that had brought her up, but she firmly put that out of her mind. “I was taken to Summerset as a lady’s maid and was made to feel as though my presence was a contamination. I have done the very best I can considering the circumstances.”
    “Not by the girls, surely?” Mrs. Tannin cried, her hand at her heart. Mrs. Tannin looked upon the motherless Buxton girls as beyond reproach, and Prudence decided not to tell her that Rowena was responsible for a good many of her troubles.
    “Of course not,” she said tersely. “Now can you help me move this table over by the stove? It may fit if we put it cross-ways.”
    After Mrs. Tannin had gone, Prudence looked at the trunks and pieces of furniture with dismay. She’d thought she had only brought a few personal items that were given to her especially,but in her small living area, they looked incongruous, not only for their size but for their quality. She had brought a small card table to use as a dining table, but even though it looked tiny at the Mayfair home, it barely fit in the small room that served as the kitchen, dining room, and main living area of the family. The bedroom, oddly enough, was the same size as the kitchen and living area. It was located at the back of the flat, behind the kitchen, and in the front, a small half-room made up the sitting room. Because they lived in a corner flat, the kitchen/living area had two large windows along one wall, and the small sitting room had three windows with a window seat that occupied half the room. There was barely space for her small wing-backed rose-print chair. After spreading a pink and white shawl over a trunk for a table and placing the gaudy standing lamp left by the previous tenant in the corner, almost every available square inch of the sitting room was taken.
    She picked up a tablecloth and flicked it over the card table. A piece of paper fluttered from out of the folds. Prudence’s heart caught. Victoria’s letter. She picked it up and scanned the lines again. At first, she had been undecided as to whether to answer it or not. Clearly, she couldn’t tell anyone at Summerset about her present living conditions. In spite of her bravado with Mrs. Tannin, her