Carola Dunn Read Online Free PDF

himself, he said in a rush of generosity, “Lissa, you can have my share of the jammy bits.”
    Lissa hugged him. “Thank you, pet, but you and Peter may have the tarts. I’m not very hungry.”
    The day after her supper with Lord Ashe, she had awoken ravenous. Recognizing that her unwonted indulgence had roused an unsatisfiable craving for food, she had sternly disciplined herself to eat next to nothing all day. By the following day the gnawing pangs of hunger had faded. In fact she seemed to have altogether lost her appetite, and she ate only as much as she thought necessary to keep up her strength.
    If she fell ill, they would be in dire straits indeed.
    Lord Ashe’s provisions had lasted longer than she expected, but the last morsels were even now disappearing into the mouths of her two growing boys. And she did not dare try the same trick again. His lordship had made plain the risk she had taken, she thought with a shiver. How unbelievably lucky she had been to fall in with so kind and generous a libertine!
    “It’s off to market again tomorrow,” she said cheerfully, trying to forget the thinness of her purse.
    “Lissa, won’t you let me try to make some money?” Peter pleaded. “Lots of boys my age do.”
    “What of your studies? And I need you to take care of Michael while I am at the theatre.”
    “I can take care of myself,” Michael said stoutly.
    “No, you can’t,” said Peter. “You’re too young.”
    “I’m not!”
    “You are, too. But Lissa, listen, I can’t study the whole day, and I can find jobs in the streets where I can keep him by me.”
    “The street-boys are thieves and beggars.”
    “Not all of them,” he argued. “Some are quite respectable--well, honest at least. And people will trust me because I’m clean and decently dressed and speak properly. I can hold horses, and only the other day a hawker offered me a pocket full of nuts to watch her barrow for a few minutes. I said no, because I knew you would not like it, but truly, Lissa, I’d come to no harm.”
    “Nor me neither,” said Michael.
    The harm Lissa feared was nothing that could be explained to small boys. She was afraid they would associate with the unfortunate children running wild in the streets and absorb their values, losing sight of the principles instilled by their upbringing. The harsh, rigidly judgemental aspects of those principles she had somehow, against all odds, succeeded in softening. Her brothers were all she would wish them to be, but as they grew older her influence was bound to wane. She did not want it replaced by the influence of ragamuffins and guttersnipes.
    “We shall see,” she temporized. “For the moment, I have enough money to go marketing tomorrow. But now I must go to rehearsal. Peter, did you bring up enough water from the pump to wash these dishes?”
    “Yes, plenty. Lissa, I have a splendid idea! We don’t need all these pots--I am sure I can sell them.”
    “I expect you could,” Lissa said regretfully, “but they belong to the Piazza Coffee House. They only lent them. In fact, when they are clean you had best pack them all into the basket and return them right away. It’s in Covent Garden. Just give Lord Ashe’s name.”
    * * * *
    When she came home from the rehearsal, Lissa found the boys in alt.
    “They gave us money,” shouted Michael, racing down the stairs to meet her. “A whole crown!”
    “Two half-crowns,” Peter confirmed, standing at the top, holding out his hand to show her the two shiny silver coins.
    “Five shillings? Who?” Lissa enquired, bewildered and not a little mistrustful. “What for? No, let me take off my bonnet and boots and sit down before you tell me. My feet are tired.”
    Michael fetched her slippers and Peter moved two of their three wobbly chairs so that she could sit with her feet raised on one of them. They were too excited about their sudden riches, though, to wait to tell their story.
    “The man at the Piazza Coffee House gave