Marrying Miss Hemingford Read Online Free PDF Page B

brought her here so quickly.’
    â€˜I know, sir, I know.’ She opened her palm to show the coins Anne had given her. ‘How much do I owe you?’
    â€˜Nothing,’ he said. ‘You spend that on a good dinner.’
    She thanked him and picked up the little girl. He put his finger out to touch the child under the chin and for a moment his eyes softened. ‘Take care.’
    â€˜You’re a fool,’ Mrs Armistead said, as soon as they had gone. ‘You can’t live on air, you know.’
    â€˜Neither can they. And Miss Hemingford has promised a donation, so we can carry on a little longer.’
    He only hoped she had meant it. After all, she had promised to return with Tildy’s mother and she had done that and perhaps that meant she was the exception to the rule and was a young lady who kept her word. If and when the donation arrived, he would write and thank her for it, which was only courtesy, after all, and then perhaps… He shook himself and went back to his surgery to call in the next patient.

Chapter Two
    â€˜W hat am I supposed to do with it?’ Mrs Bartrum asked. She and Anne and the cook were looking in dismay at a box full of mackerel, herring, whitebait, crab and lobster that had been dumped on the kitchen table.
    â€˜I never ordered it,’ Mrs Carter said, in an aggrieved voice. ‘Why would I ask for that amount unless you were going to hold a supper party and you didn’t say anything to me about any such thing, ma’am.’
    â€˜No, Mrs Carter, I had no plans for one.’
    â€˜The boy who brought it insisted he had come to the right address and he wouldn’t take it away again.’
    â€˜No, I don’t suppose he would,’ Anne said, trying to stifle her amusement. ‘It is a gift to me.’
    â€˜A gift? Whatever for?’ her aunt demanded. ‘Who do you know in Brighton to give you a gift, and such an extraordinary one as this?’
    Anne, who had slipped into the house the day before and changed her bloodstained clothes before joining her aunt, had not seen fit to tell her about the previous day’sencounter. She didn’t know why she had said nothing; it was not in her nature to keep secrets, but her meeting with Dr Tremayne had been so disturbing she wanted to keep it to herself, at least until she had analysed why he had made her heart beat so fast. If she had been young and silly, she might have said she had fallen in love with him on the spot, but she was not young and silly and so it must surely have another cause.
    Her aunt was looking at her, expecting an answer, and so she was obliged to explain that she had helped the child of a local fisherman and this was his way of saying thank you. ‘She was hurt in an accident with a curricle. I took her to a doctor and went in search of her mother,’ she said.
    â€˜I can see the child would need help,’ her aunt said. ‘But were there no gentlemen about who could have done so? It is unseemly for you to be associating with common fishermen.’
    â€˜I never met the fisherman, Aunt, only his wife. She is a hardworking woman who wanted to reward me…’
    â€˜Surely you can do a good turn without being rewarded?’
    â€˜Of course I can, but it would have hurt her pride to refuse. I didn’t realise she would actually send it, nor so much. I thought she would probably forget the minute I had left.’
    â€˜So now we have a box of fish that we cannot possibly eat before it goes bad.’
    â€˜If we knew anyone to invite, we could give a supper party,’ Anne said.
    â€˜You are right,’ her aunt said suddenly. ‘I think it is timewe began our social calls. Mrs Carter, take some of the fish for yourself and give some to the other servants and find a tasty recipe to use the rest. It gives us very little time, but a supper party it will have to be. Come, Anne, change your dress. We will call on Lady Mancroft