Remember Me - Regency Brides 03 Read Online Free PDF Page A

mind. He was invited to eat food he wouldn't have to cook, milk, or kil .

    ***
"Oh, this dress is wrong!" Helen wailed as she stood in front of her mirror, critical y surveying the light blue taffeta. "The ribbon is wrinkled, and the material just droops in this heat!" She dramatical y grabbed two handfuls of hair on either side of her head. ' And just look at my hair! It wil do nothing but curl! I look like a ragamuffin."
    Mil ie, the young slave woman who served both Helen and Josie, propped her hands on her slim hips and made a tsk-ing noise as she shook her head. "Miss Helen, I don't know what's wrong with yo' eyes, honey chil', but there ain't nothin'
    wrong with that dress or yo' hair." Mil ie took Helen's arm, pul ed her away from the mirror, and directed her to sit at her dressing table. "Now yo' jus' got yo'self al in a lather 'cause o' that young man who's comin' to dinnah, tha's al ! Now sit stil and let me fix yo' hair up real pretty."
    Josie took that particular moment to let herself in the room without so much as a knock. "1 knew it! 1 knew she was sweet on the preacher!" she crowed with delight.
    Mil ie stopped brushing Helen's hair to shake the brush in Josie's direction. "Miss Josie, I done tol' ya and tol' ya. You gonna listen at the wrong do' one day, and it's gonna get yo' in a mess 0' trouble!" She pointed the brush to the chair next to Helen. "Now sit yo'self down, and I'l get to yo' hair next." Josie did as she was told because Mil ie, slave or no, just had the kind of voice you obeyed. It was then Helen noticed the dress the younger girl was wearing. Josie, you can't wear that old dress to dinner!" she blurted with horror.
    Josie frowned as she looked down at the plain beige dress made of slightly wrinkled cotton. "What's wrong with it? I've worn this to dinner lots of times, and you've never said anything about it." Helen took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and then in her best teacher's voice, she instructed, "When guests are dining with your family, you must dress in a more formal manner." She noticed Mil ie looking for a hairpin and opened her drawer to find one for her. She then continued. "Especial y when you have a guest like the d-" She stumbled over the word duke and quickly corrected herself "Er, North." Josie let out a breath to show her frustration with the whole conversation.
    "He's just the preacher. It's not like he's the president of the United States." No.
    More like the Duke of Northingshire. If Helen's nerves were this frazzled with trying to keep her story straight and not saying the wrong thing, how was it going to be in front of North?
    What a mess she'd gotten herself into!
    In the end, Josie kept her plain dress on, and with her hair done up "pretty" by Mil ie, Helen decided, droopy or not, her dress would have to do, also. She noticed as she approached the three adults that the Baumgartners wore their usual casual attire; and when she saw North, she was glad they did. Of course he would have no other clothes! How sil y of her not to remember that al his belongings had not been brought from the ship. And even when they were, would he realize the garments belonged to someone else? Would he remember that his own trunks contained the finest clothes England had to offer and not those of a poor vicar?

    She had to remind herself not to get into a mental tizzy as she walked up and greeted him.
    "Hel o, Reverend," she greeted, as she tried to ignore the guilt she felt over cal ing him that false tide. "Are you getting settled in?"
    The smile he gave her was lacking in confidence, and his words were those of someone putting on a brave front ...and failing. at it. 'Uh, yes, I think so. I'l just need time to adjust to the …uh…culture change."
    The Baumgartners al laughed at that, and though Helen joined them, it was only out of politeness. Since she, too, was stil experiencing quite a culture shock, it was difficult to joke about it just yet.
    They were al seated in the dining