A Poor Relation Read Online Free PDF Page A

will not mind walking home, will you, Rowena? It is not far and you know the way now. There is scarce room in the carriage for more than two.”
    Before Rowena could voice the least objection, the black-clad groom had helped her cousin into the phaeton and Mr. Ruddle, saluting her with a wave of his whip, had set his coal-black team in motion. She watched till they were out of sight, hoping that her aunt would not hold her responsible for Millicent’s escapade.
    She enjoyed the walk back up the hill without Millicent’s endless chatter. A blackbird sang to her and she was at leisure to admire the tall spikes of foxgloves by the wayside. She might almost have been at home, only there she would probably have been riding. Where was Vixen now?
    On reaching the house, she sought out Lady Grove at once and told her of her daughter’s defection.
    “I do not mean to carry tales,” she said, “but I cannot think it right to let her go off alone with a gentleman of whom I know nothing.”
    “It is perfectly unexceptionable as long as there was a groom present.” Her ladyship was complacent. “Mr. Adolphus Ruddle never goes anywhere without a servant. He is rich as Golden Ball and he admires dear Millicent excessively, but it is a pity that he has no title. Indeed, Millicent is quite fond of him, but naturally she cannot like to marry a man without a title even if he is wealthy and quite the gentleman. I have told her a thousand times that she deserves a duke.”
    “But perhaps she would be happier with Mr. Ruddle, if she is fond of him.”
    Aunt Hermione shook her head indulgently at this irrelevant comment. “Why, even I managed to catch a baronet, and I did not have one-tenth Millicent’s looks. And then Ruddle is such an unfortunate name! Ruddle Towers simply does not have that ring to it, though it is a splendid house, to be sure. I daresay they will be home before luncheon. I must see Cook.”
    Rowena soon learned that Millicent could do no wrong in her mother’s eyes. The combination of startling beauty and the fortune inherited from the great-aunt after whom she was named set her above reproach. Sir Henry had long since abdicated responsibility for his daughters, and only Anne ever crossed her sister, retiring to her books to escape the scolds this brought her for being disagreeable. As long as Rowena deferred to Millicent’s wishes, Aunt Hermione treated her as another daughter. If Millicent frowned, her mother frowned.
    Lady Grove was extremely conscientious about her duties as a landowner’s wife, visiting the tenants regularly to keep an eye on their welfare. Neither of her daughters ever offered to accompany her on her rounds.
    Rowena would have been delighted to do so, but she was not invited and she felt it was not her place to suggest it. Having little else to occupy her time, she had no objection to accompanying her cousin on walks and carriage rides, and calling on the neighbours with her when Lady Grove was otherwise occupied.
    Rowena met the Berry-Brownings, the Thorncrests and the Desboroughs, country gentry of the kind she had been on familiar terms with in Kent. Here, however, she found herself very much relegated to the background. This was only in part because of Millicent’s beauty and her long acquaintance with the families they called on.
    Millicent’s manners in company were charming, and the higher the rank of her hostess the more charming they became. They reached their acme wherever an eligible gentleman was to be found in the household. With such an air of commiserating sympathy did she mention Rowena’s unhappy status as a poor relation that it was difficult for her victim to take open exception to it.
    “It is so sad that dear Cousin Rowena has been left without a penny,” she observed on more than one occasion, “and prodigious gratifying, I vow, that we are able to offer her a home.”
    Though Millicent spoke nothing but the truth, Rowena had to battle a strong urge to express her