Princess of Glass Read Online Free PDF Page B

Orchid," she added to herself, but they weren't in Breton so it hardly mattered.
    Mrs. Mills leaned closer over the table. "Well, Your Highness, before I was at the palace I was the housekeeper for an earl's family. They had a daughter named Eleanora, just a darling little thing with dark hair like yours, but blue eyes." She smiled in reminiscence, and then her face clouded. "But the earl's luck turned sour overnight. First they had to sell their beautiful country estate, then they sold most of the furniture in the town house. They let the staff go one by one, including me." Her eyes were shiny with tears.
    "Still," she went on in a choked voice. "My lady was so good to me. She helped me get on at the palace. I was an under-housekeeper at first, but I've moved up smart enough." She took a sip of her own tea. "Two years later, they lost everything. The earl died of apoplexy, and my lady of heartbreak." A tear rolled down her plump cheek, and Mrs. Hanks put a hand on her sister's arm. "Oh, silly me!" She wiped her face with the corner of her apron. "A month later, who should knock on the kitchen door but my own little Eleanora, without a friend
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    in the world but me. I got her a job as an upstairs maid where I could keep an eye on her ...," she trailed off.
    "But that girl," Mrs. Hanks finished for her sister, her voice hard. "That girl, who now insists on being called Ellen because it's more 'common sounding,' has caused nothing but trouble. Sulking, ruining things, shirking her duties, and quitting jobs or being fired!" She gave her sister's arm a squeeze. "You always were more patient than I, Louise. I'd have boxed the girl's ears and set her to peeling potatoes in the scullery if she'd given me a tenth of that trouble."
    Poppy rather agreed with Mrs. Hanks. She'd often wondered what would happen to her if she was disowned (something her father frequently threatened). She had watched the maids, and decided that she could probably make a go of it. She certainly wouldn't beg help from someone and then treat her the way this Eleanora/Ellen was treating Mrs. Hanks's poor sister.
    "Mrs. Shields, the Laurences' housekeeper," the sister said, having composed herself, "says that if she makes one more mistake, she's out on the street for sure. They made her hide in the scullery during the ball, so she wouldn't accidentally injure a guest or set the house on fire!"
    "If she's sacked just send her here," Mrs. Hanks said. "I'll give her a job."
    Poppy finished her tea in silence, wondering how soon Ellen would be working for the Seadowns, and if she was really as horrible as Mrs. Hanks made her out to be.
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    ***
    Odd
    Ahem, ahem, Your Highness?"
    By now Christian was so used to the red-haired maid's skittishness that he didn't look up from the letter he was writing. Despite her years serving the Bretoner royal family, she seemed to find Christian highly intimidating.
    "Put it on the table, please," he said, and went on describing the opera he had seen the night before. He was writing to the oldest of his sisters, ten-year-old Margrete, and he knew that she would want each act described in detail.
    The sound of an entire tea tray falling to the hearth was too much to ignore, however.
    "What in the world?" He dropped his quill and turned to see the girl standing in the middle of a pile of broken china, tears welling from her eyes.
    "Oh, Your Highness! I'm so sorry!" She pointed to the puddle of tea. "It looked green!"
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    "Green?" He frowned at the brown liquid. "I thought... it glowed ... just for a moment. I was so startled.'"
    "Glowed green? That is odd." He shrugged. "It looks fine now, though. Here, I'll help you gather it up."
    She turned bright red and gave a little laugh, wiping her eyes with her apron. "No, no, Your Highness! I'm not half so bad as Ellen; Mrs. Mills won't sack me over this."
    "Ellen?"
    "Oh, a maid from a few years back," the girl chattered, now suddenly at ease with him as they squatted by the hearth and