Henrietta Read Online Free PDF Page A

am glad my feelings are reciprocated, Miss Sandford. May I kiss your hand?” He dropped a light kiss on her wrist and glanced up at her from under his lashes. Now how would Miss Sandford of the vicarage cope with that!
    Henrietta’s heart had given a painful lurch but not by one flicker would she betray to this heartbreaker the strength of her feeling for him. She held her wrist to her cheek and looked at him soulfully. “I may never wash this poor hand again,” she said on a fluttering sigh.
    Something remarkably like a giggle escaped from her elegant companion. “Why, you are the veriest minx,” he remarked rising to his feet and crossing to the pianoforte. “You were playing very beautifully when I came in,” he said flicking through the music. “What have we here…do you know this one…‘Early One Morning?’” Without waiting for her reply, he started to sing in a loud baritone and was soon joined by Henrietta’s clear soprano.
    “How could you use a poor maiden so,” they were carolling happily, when they were interrupted by an enraged voice from the doorway. “What is going on here?” It was Henry puffing and goggling like a turkeycock. Both singers stopped and stared at him, Henrietta in consternation and the Beau in surprise.
    “I repeat, what is going on here?” demanded Henry, strutting into the room. Lord Reckford raised his quizzing glass and glared awfully at the irate vicar. “I think you should explain your manner,” he drawled. “I am not accustomed to provincial drawingrooms.”
    Henry flushed in confusion. He did not want to offend Lady Belding but, on the other hand, he did not wish to annoy such a notable man of fashion as Lord Reckford. “I was taken by surprise, my lord,” he explained hurriedly. “My little sister has led a very sheltered life and perhaps I am over-protective. You were coming to the end of your call no doubt.”
    To his horror, Lord Reckford ignored this patent hint and sat down on the piano stool next to Henrietta and began turning over the music.
    The vicar sat on the edge of the sofa and surveyed the pair in dismay. Why they had their heads nearly together as they discussed various composers. With relief, he rose to meet a new pair of arrivals. Lady Belding and her daughter sailed in and halted in frozen dismay at the sight of Henrietta and her companion. Alice and her mother had spent a frustrating morning chasing from house to house after the Beau. They had run through all his dancing partners of the night before and had finally thought of Henrietta. Lord Reckford had made his first duty call on Alice but he had stayed only for a few minutes to say that he would be departing for London that day. So the redoubtable Lady Belding had decided to hunt him down to acquaint him further with the charms of her daughter.
    They were further frustrated when the infuriating lord rose immediately to his feet, made a magnificent leg, and departed. Alice and her mother ran to the window and watched him drive away through the now heavily falling snow. To Henrietta, it was as if the last little bit of light had left the room.
    She looked at the company and three pairs of baleful eyes stared back at her.
    Before Lady Belding could speak, Henry hurriedly outlined his plan of sending his sister out to earn her living as a paid companion “in order to teach her the virtues of Christian humility.”
    Immediately Lady Belding was all smiles. She knew the very lady, a Mrs. Grammiweather who lived in the next county. Mrs. Grammiweather, it appeared, was ailing and had run through a selection of paid companions in the past two years.
    Alice had recovered all her radiance. “It will serve very well, Henrietta,” she said taking that girl’s hand in a warm clasp. “And you will not be out of touch for I shall write to you from London when I have my Season and tell you all about the balls and routs and parties.”
    Henrietta made a last bid for independence. “I would rather you