A Bloom in Winter Read Online Free PDF Page B

boardinghouse, they had just paid to have it done, as there were no facilities. He had been aghast at her insistence upon changing clothes every day, and she soon realized that she would spend all their money on washing if she continued that habit. Reluctantly, she had begun wearing her blouses and skirts for several days at a time and found that it really didn’t make much of a difference. She wondered how many other trappings of her former life she’d discover to be completely frivolous.
    His eyes swept their small apartment. “You’ve done a nice job. It looks very different.” The neutral sound of his voice stung.
    “I know it’s a bit crowded, but I just wanted to get as many of my things as I could before the new tenants moved in.” Her voice sounded apologetic to her own ears, which was silly. Why wouldn’t she want to save her own possessions?
    “I thought everything had been taken to Summerset?” He took off his jacket and handed it to her.
    She hung it up on a peg next to the door and answered him quietly. “Nothing of mine. I suppose Lord Summerset never intended for me to stay for any length of time.” She paused a moment to absorb the hurt and then continued. “I left several trunks of clothing in the attic that I supposed I wouldn’t need right away. I can send for them later.”
    “Righto. It’s not like we’ll be invited to any balls anytime soon.”
    His voice was light, but Prudence detected a bitterness underneath. “It’s just as well,” she answered, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice. “I can’t imagine trying to puzzle out how to press an evening jacket anyway. Would you like some tea?”
    “Aye.” He squeezed her arm lightly as she moved past him,and she knew he was sorry for his remark. She couldn’t help wondering, though, whether this was to be a part of their marriage from here on out, this envious contempt of her old life. Well, she wasn’t going to apologize for it.
    “I’m famished, too. Did you have a chance to bring in any groceries?”
    She put the teakettle on and flushed. “I haven’t had a moment. I was busy getting everything packed up and then moved over here and then unpacked again. I thought I could run down to the pub and pick up some cottage pie. Just for tonight,” she added quickly at the look on his face. She knew he thought she was a spendthrift, and she really was trying to be thrifty. It was just a whole different way of managing things. Plus, this would buy her one more day before she had to confess to him that she didn’t even begin to know how to cook. She cringed as she imagined the disappointment on his face when she eventually revealed her complete lack of skills as a homemaker. A few weeks into their marriage and she was already scrambling to cover up her shortcomings as a wife.
    He sat in a small, dainty satin tufted chair that had once sat in front of the fireplace in her bedroom. She had thought it perfect near the stove, but it looked ridiculous now with her husband’s long body draped over it.
    “Oh, Lord. I forgot how tall you are. I’m sorry. Let’s move the old chair out of the bedroom and put it next to the stove.”
    He glanced down at himself with a wry grin. “It is rather small,” he agreed as he carried it through the kitchen to the bedroom to exchange it for the old club chair that had been in the flat when they arrived. “This isn’t really good for much of anything but looking pretty.”
    “Kind of like your wife,” Prudence said under her breath.
    “What was that?”
    “Nothing.” Prudence took him his tea as he made himself comfortable in the club chair.
    He handed her the money he had made that day and she stared at it blankly. “My ma always kept the money in a cracked cup in the cupboard. Maybe we should do something like that with the money that doesn’t go in the bank.”
    She nodded and stuck the coins into a white glass vase that sat on their dining room table. A fire engine went clanging past