An Introduction to the Pink Collection Read Online Free PDF Page A

cannot say about my house!”
    â€œLeave the house to me. Later, when I’ve seen you fed, I can bring you some vegetables from my own garden. And then there’s Clara.”
    â€œClara? I thought you said you lived alone.”
    â€œClara is a chicken. She lays eggs.”
    â€œAn invaluable addition to our community,” he agreed.
    Rena collected a shopping basket from the kitchen and hurried out to the village grocery. Luckily Ned, the owner, had been to the town the previous day, and was well stocked.
    She went through the shop like a whirlwind, buying in flour, milk, tea, coffee, meat, butter, sugar, paraffin for lamps. It wasn’t going to leave much of the sovereign, but she had a hungry man to feed.
    â€œAre you buying for an army Miss Colwell?” Ned asked in admiration.
    â€œNo, for the new owner of The Grange.”
    He stared. “I did hear someone had arrived but – owner? Are you sure?”
    â€œHe’s the Earl of Lansdale.”
    â€œBut the family died out.”
    â€œApparently not. It took time to trace him, and he was in the Royal Navy, which is why it took so long to get hold of him.”
    â€œThat’s good news,” Ned answered. “And, of course, if he’s opening The Grange, he’ll have to repair it and that’ll be a blessing to us all. There are too many workmen with no work now.” He added slyly, “Best not tell him about the ghost, then.”
    â€œI wasn’t going to mention the ghost,” Rena declared primly, for the simple reason that there’s no such thing.”
    â€œNo ghosts?” Ned demanded indignantly, as if she’d deprived him of a treat. “Course there are ghosts. What’s a house like that without a ghost?”
    â€œI suppose there’ll be a headless horseman galloping through the kitchen while I’m making pies?” she demanded. “Really Ned!”
    â€œWhy are you making pies?”
    â€œBecause I’m going to be the housekeeper there.”
    â€œParson’s daughter? Housekeeper?”
    â€œEven parsons’ daughters have to work to live.”
    â€œWell, you’ll be in the right place to keep him in order. You can make sure he knows what we all need.”
    There it was, the burden that was to be laid on the new Earl, the yearning expectations of ‘his’ people, who looked to him for succour and sustenance.
    But as she left the shop she was too cheerful to heed its warning.
    Since it was early in the year the light was already beginning to fade as she returned to The Grange. So she hastily filled an oil lamp with paraffin and ventured upstairs to the master bedroom.
    She soon found it, a grandiose room with painted ceilings and dirty gilt furniture, full of glory at the expense of comfort. A door stood ajar. Pushing it open Rena found herself in a small dressing room with a narrow bed. The Earl’s bags were there, and he’d made some attempt to unpack them, but the bed was bare of sheets and blankets.
    Further investigation revealed an airing cupboard containing sheets that were incredibly free from moths. She took out some bed linen and conveyed it to the kitchen, lit a fire inside, and hung the sheets on an old clothes horse in front of it.
    Then she put a kettle of water on the top. Now everything was warm and cosy, and the Earl, arriving soon after, stopped in the kitchen door and whistled with admiration.
    â€œNow this is what I call homelike,” he said.
    â€œSit down,” she said cheerfully. “The kettle will boil soon.”
    He drank the tea she set before him with an expression of bliss.
    â€œSweeter than the sweetest wine,” he said. “I see you’ve been busy.”
    â€œYou’re going to be really comfortable tonight. You’ve done the right thing in moving into the dressing room. I can put a small fire in there, but the big room would have defeated me. Can you watch the pots on the