Marrying Miss Martha Read Online Free PDF Page A

though I made it very plain that I wasn’t happy about your taking up employment and—”
    “What is he offering to pay?” Martha inquired.
    ‘I will engage to make suitable arrangements for your remuneration.’
    ‘I’m doing nothing unless I know that from the start.’
    He breathed deeply and let out a sniff. “Wright is prepared to be generous, amazingly generous, actually—I should never pay a governess that much—and his friend Mr Seaton is to pay you an additional emolument as long as you will tutor his younger sister during the day as well.”
    “How—much?” she repeated.
    “If you didn’t interrupt me so often, Martha, I’d be able to get on with my tale.” He saw her opening her mouth again with that stubborn expression on her face and added hastily, “Mr Wright will pay sixty guineas a year for the two of you, plus providing the coal. Mr Seaton will provide the house and pay a further thirty guineas per annum. Oh, and Mr Wright will supply all the materials needed for teaching his girls—paper, books and so on—because he doesn’t want any skimping on that side of things.”
    Knowing that the more she questioned him, the more stubbornly Edward would withhold information, Martha picked up Penelope's embroidery to distract herself and began stabbing the needle viciously into the material. “Pray continue.”
    “Well then, where was I? Ah, yes . . . We decided in the end that I should take the two of you to Tapton because he wishes to meet you and introduce you to his wife before he will commit himself, which is only right and proper. And of course, for our part, we cannot decide anything either until we see the town and the house being offered, as I told him.”
    Martha opened her mouth to protest his assumption of having a part in the decision making, but Penelope forestalled her. “How very clever of you, Edward, to seize the opportunity so promptly! We're extremely grateful for your help, are we not, Martha?”
    “Yes. Extremely.” Stab went the needle, giving the flower a garish yellow stem with big, uneven stitches. “We must definitely arrange to go and see this Tapton place.”
    “My dear Martha, you cannot have been listening. I have already arranged it. That’s why I’m here today. Mr Wright is impatient to get matters settled, so if you could be ready by tomorrow morning and could offer me my old room for tonight, I’ll take you there in my own carriage. Two ladies travelling all the way to Lancashire without a gentleman’s escort is not to be thought of.”
    He leaned back in his chair and beamed at them, abominably self-satisfied, and they could do nothing but thank him and accept his kind offer, because this way they would not even have to pay coach fares.
    * * * *
    In Tapton Jonas Wright settled down in front of the blazing fire and looked at his younger friend, whom he hadn’t seen for several days. “Are things going any better at home, Ben?”
    “No. I had to threaten to drag Georgie to church last Sunday and well, you saw what she was wearing . . . ” He sighed and ran his hands through his short, dark hair. “I need to do something about her clothes, but what do I know about how a young woman should dress?”
    “Libby was wishing she could help you more, but she hadn’t been at all well lately. The slightest movement hurts her.”
    “I’d not inflict my sister on your wife, Jonas. Libby has enough to bear already. Quite frankly, Georgie’s been spoiled rotten since my father died, but neglected too, and although I blame Belinda for that, I must blame myself as well. I should have paid more attention to what my dear step-mother was doing, not let her move so far away—though she does have cousins in Bradford and it seemed reasonable for her to go and live near them. Anyway, she’s no longer my responsibility.” And thank goodness for that. Georgie was more than enough for a busy man to deal with.
    “Did the wedding go well?”
    “Very smoothly. His