Jennie Kissed Me Read Online Free PDF Page A

devil, especially when they have no mother.”
    I ignored that blatant bid for sympathy. “All the more reason for their fathers to keep their wits about them, n’est-ce pas?”
    “A hit. A palpable hit!” He smiled and crossed his arms, as if planning to linger a while.
    I noticed that his eyes were roving with interest over my tousled hair and dressing gown. It was an unnerving experience, especially after his talk of abbesses. This man was no stranger to lightskirts, to judge by the assessing light in his eyes.
    I yanked my dressing gown more tightly around me and said coolly , “It is nearly morning.”
    Lord Marndale apologized once again and said good night. I closed the door and drew a deep sigh. “Well, that is that. Fancy that bold chit saying we had not beaten her, as though we had done every other horrible thing imaginable. And her father is as bad.”
    “Worse!”
    “You didn’t have to make such a Judy of yourself, calling him a rake.”
    “He oughtn’t to have called me an abbess.”
    “Well, he is a marquess, you know, and they feel the world is theirs. You probably hurt his feelings.”
    “You couldn’t hurt his feelings with a hatchet. I know his sort.”
    My working mentality still clung to me. This awe of the upper classes had to be beaten down before I got to London. “He was checking up on me, Mrs. Irvine,” I scolded. “Asking where I was from.”
    “That’s the only sensible move he did make. If you had any children of your own, you’d know how upset he was.”
    “You don’t have any children. What makes you an expert?”
    “We elderly ladies have seen much of the world,” she replied, with a rebuking look at my former description.
    “I only said it to justify not taking her back to the inn. Not that I feel I did wrong in writing to him instead! I expect we will be the talk of this inn by morning. So pleasant to look forward to.”
    We talked a little longer about the incident. “We’ve kicked this horse to death. Let us hit the tick,” Mrs. Irvine said.
    We returned to our beds and eventually to sleep. As I dozed off it darted into my head that if by any chance we happened to come across Lord Marndale in London there would be no cause for embarrassment on my side. The shoe was on the other foot now. If he was a gentleman, he ought really to repay my kindness to his daughter in some manner. A trip to the theater, perhaps, or a drive in the park. But then it was unlikely we would meet him. Where was such high society to be found, I wondered.
    As events turned out, we encountered the marquess and his daughter long before we got to London. But first I had the remainder of a night’s sleep.
     

Chapter Four
     
    When the inn servant brought us our hot water in the morning, she handed me a note. Marndale! was, of course, the first thing that flashed into my head. I opened the note and read with amazement an invitation for me and my companion to join him belowstairs in his private parlor for breakfast. I showed the note to Mrs. Irvine. “Surely he has not come to Farnborough this early in the morning just to thank us again.”
    She was as astonished as myself but more logical. “More likely they stayed here overnight. It was pretty late to be taking his daughter back to the Laughing Jack.”
    This, while less flattering to me, made eminent good sense. He knew we must meet downstairs, and by asking us to be his guests he was repaying any social obligation the breaking down of our door and calling us names entailed. I would have preferred to have the debt paid in London but sent down an answer that we would join him shortly. Next followed the important decision of what to wear. As we were travelling, it must be something fairly utilitarian. I had earmarked my green serge for travel and put it on again.
    “Don’t mention the navy, Mrs. Irvine,” I said as we went below. This was understood between us to mean she should not chatter too familiarly about the conduct of our Tars