Carola Dunn Read Online Free PDF Page A

he’s not cheating you?”
     “I saw and heard the transaction, Papa. You would not have me default on a debt, would you?”
     Glumly he shook his head. “Nae, lass. ‘No legacy is so rich as honesty.’”
     With a teasing smile, she continued, “Especially a debt for the excessive sum of...sixpence!”
     Papa’s laugh was a trifle sheepish.
     “Of course it must be repaid,” her mother said. “Sixpence is no small sum for a shop assistant who has, perhaps, a family to support, and it was très gentil on his part to help you. But there is no need for you to go, chérie. I must send one of the footmen on several errands tomorrow. It will not take him far out of his way.”
     “I’d like to go, maman, if you have no pressing need of me. I’d like to see more of the fair. And if you can spare one or two of the girls, I should like to treat them as I did Betsy. There may never be another Frost Fair in our lifetimes. It would be a pity if they all missed it.”
     Madame Yvette pursed her lips consideringly. “We are well beforehand with the work. Yes, it will not do to single out Mam’selle Betsy for such a treat. Take the next two on the list to go with you to the City, so no one can complain of injustice.”
     Accompanying Rosabelle on her forays to the wholesalers was a jealously guarded privilege. “That will be fairest,” Rosabelle agreed. “Thank you, maman. Fortunately, tomorrow is the first of February so I shall have my whole month’s allowance.”
     “ Mais non, chérie , this is a business expense, to keep the employees happy.”
     “We s’ll all end up in the poorhouse!” Mr Macleod groaned. “How long is this Frost Fair to continue?”
     “Weeks, Papa,” Rosabelle said saucily. “There is no sign of a thaw.”
     “And if there were,” he grumbled, “I’d no be letting my lass venture onto the river ice, for all she’s wicked tease. Verra weel, then, a business expense it shall be.”
     Rosabelle blew him a kiss. “And I want to buy fairings for the rest, those who can’t go,” she coaxed. “Just in case the ice doesn’t last much longer. Nothing expensive. Gilt gingerbread, perhaps, so as to give my custom to the kind pastrycook.”
     “An excellent idea,” her mother approved.
     Outnumbered, Papa gave in, as usual. He kept a tight hold on the purse-strings, but once persuaded that an expenditure was reasonable—or would please his womenfolk for a reasonable sum—he was no nipfarthing.
     So Rosabelle would see Mr Rufus next day, and be released from her infatuation. He could not possibly be as wonderful as he had seemed. Could he?
     

Chapter 4
     
     Well before the landau reached Three Cranes Wharf, it was forced to a halt by the crush of carriages and pedestrians. As Mr Rufus foretold, news of the Frost Fair had spread and half the world was heading for the river.
     Which made him prescient on top of his other qualities, Rosabelle thought quizzically.
     “We shall get down and walk,” she decided, “or we’ll hardly have any time there.”
     Mary and Anna eagerly agreed. They were both young enough to be excited, for the older seamstress whose turn it really was had denied with a shudder any desire to spend more time out in the cold than strictly necessary.
     Rosabelle told the coachman to pick them up in two hours time. “Do you know any stairs west of here, Peters?” she asked. “This is probably the most crowded spot.”
     “There be Queen Hithe stair, Miss Ros. You can’t miss it, acos there’s a great dock cut into the bank.”
     “We’ll meet you there, then, when the church clocks strike four. If there is a great crush, leave the carriage as close as you can drive, and walk to the top of the stairs, or we may never find you.”
     “Right, miss.”
     As the three girls walked on down Queen Street, Rosabelle noticed several exceedingly smart vehicles, accompanied by liveried footmen. One or two even had crests on the doors. The Beau