Plain Jane Read Online Free PDF Page B

now, Martha.’
    During that night, Jane decided to marry Beau Tregarthan.
    As she grew older and plainer, she knew she could never hope to attract the attentions of such a god. But if she hoped and hoped and waited and waited and prayed very hard, perhaps the fates might allow her one glimpse of him – just one more time.

THREE

    There’s no use in being young without being beautiful, and no use in being beautiful without being young.
    LA ROCHEFOUCAULD ,
MAXIMS

    The arrival of Joseph Palmer at Number 67 Clarges Street was most unexpected. Neither Rainbird nor any of the other servants had expected him to venture out in such weather.
    The snow had fallen steadily for days and then had frozen hard, squeaking beneath the Londoners’ feet as they scurried through the cold. A biting north-easter had blown the fog away. Blocks of ice churned about the steely waters of the Thames.
    MacGregor fortunately had espied the stocky figure of the agent in Bolton Row and had rushed to warn the others of his impending arrival. The blazing kitchen fire was doused with a bucket of water and the back door was opened to chill the servants’ hall and kitchen. Palmer knew they had not any money for coal and would immediately demand to know where they had found it.
    Lizzie, almost completely recovered, had been moved out of the upstairs bedroom, but still Alice and Jenny flew upstairs to make sure there was not the slightest trace of her recent occupation.
    The wind had abruptly died and a pale disk of a sun was moving down the sky as Jonas Palmer stood on the step and scraped the mud and snow from his boots on the iron scraper set into the wall of the house. He performed a brisk tattoo on the brass knocker and then fidgeted impatiently on the step while the pattering of hastening feet crossed and recrossed the hall inside.
    At last Rainbird opened the door. He did not look in the least surprised to see Palmer, and the agent crossly guessed that they had been forewarned of his arrival. Palmer stumped past the butler and went into the front parlour on the ground floor. A dim white light shone through the frost flowers on the window, and the room was as cold as the grave.
    ‘The windows will soon be cracking with frost if you don’t fire the house properly,’ said Palmer sourly. He was a heavy-set man who looked like a farmer with his great coarse red face. There were tufts of grey hair sprouting from each nostril and adorning his cheeks.
    ‘You did not give us any money for fuel, and sea coal is dear,’ pointed out Rainbird.
    Palmer stared at the floor.
    ‘Should any tenant come to inspect the premises first,’ pursued Rainbird, ‘they might not wish to take such a cold house.’
    ‘Had a hard winter, heh?’ grinned Palmer.
    ‘Like everyone else.’
    ‘We’ll see about getting you coal, for the house has been let.’
    Rainbird’s face remained impassive.
    ‘It’s a member of the gentry,’ said Palmer. ‘A Captain Hart, his wife and two daughters. But there’s a problem of sleeping space.’
    ‘There is enough,’ said Rainbird. There was a bedroom at the back of the dining room on the first floor and two bedrooms on the second.
    ‘Mrs Hart is bringing a fancy French lady’s maid and wishes her to have a room separate from the common servants.’
    ‘Then it can’t be done,’ said Rainbird, surprised, ‘unless the daughters share a room and give the other on the second floor to the maid. I gather Mr and Mrs Hart will wish to take the large bedroom next to the dining room.’
    ‘Seems the daughters must have a room apiece,’ said the agent. ‘So Mrs Middleton will have to give up her parlour.’
    Mrs Middleton, the housekeeper, had a small cosy parlour on a half-landing on the kitchen stairs. It was her pride and joy, but Rainbird knew that not one of them was in a position to protest. They all desperately needed a tenant for the Season.
    ‘And the Harts’ is the only offer?’ he asked.
    ‘The only one that I’m