Silken Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page B

kept the chicken warm for an hour, hoping it wasn’t destroyed. She had begun to suspect it wouldn’t be eaten that night. You’d think people could tell you if they didn’t plan to take dinner at home, she mused, but in her heart she was so happy Mary Anne had had an outing that she didn’t plan to scold.
    “I hope you didn’t hold dinner for us,” were the first words Miss Judson said when she came in. She could smell the aroma of roasted chicken in the air and suspected there would be a cake as well. “We ate at the inn, Mrs. Plummer. It was crowded to the rafters. We went to Folkestone and stopped at all the villages on the way home. We had lunch at Bates, and had a wonderful day. We met a man at the inn.”
    A person couldn’t deliver a lecture after that outpouring, so Mrs. Plummer said she was happy to hear it. “I’ll cover the chicken I roasted up, to keep the mouse from it, and serve it cold tomorrow.”
    “Did anything happen here?” Mary Anne asked.
    “Belle ate through her rope again and got into the home garden to gobble up anything that survived her last rooting. We need a steel chain for the beast. Other than that, it’s been so quiet you could hear the termites gnawing.”
    “I see the lugger is gone from the bay,” Lord Edwin said. It was the second thing he noticed as he came in. The first was that the hay wain didn’t appear to have been tampered with.
    “They had the tug pull it free this afternoon,” Mrs. Plummer told him. “Codey was here again asking questions and looking all around.”
    Lord Edwin jumped a foot. “Eh, looking all around? What do you mean? You said all was quiet.”
    “He didn’t come to the house. He hired a couple of his cousins as assistants and had them search the stables and barn and icehouse. He thought the smugglers might have hidden the silk here, as the boat was grounded so close.”
    Lord Edwin jumped like a gaffed fish. “They didn’t find anything!”
    “What is there to find?” Plummer asked in a purely rhetorical spirit. She knew better than any how empty were the stalls and stables of Horton Hall.
    “I must have a word with Fitch,” Lord Edwin said, and went scampering upstairs.
    Mary Anne regaled Mrs. Plummer with more details of her day till he returned. The name Mr. Robertson cropped up at every second phrase. “I’ll have to use two pages of my diary tonight,” she finished happily.
    “One on this Mr. Robertson, eh, missie?” Mrs. Plummer teased. “He sounds quite a swell. It figures, a draper would wear a fine jacket.’’
    “I couldn’t do him justice in one page. I wager Bess Vulch will throw her bonnet at him.”
    “Ho, that trollop would chase after anything in trousers. What did your uncle buy you for your birthday?”
    “I don’t know,” Mary Anne said, frowning. “We were in half a dozen shops, but I didn’t see him come out with anything. I fancy he had Jem pick it up after we left. He’s probably wrapping it right now. I think it might be material for a new gown,” Mary Anne said. A hopeful smile lit her eyes on this daring wish. “Do you think we could get it made up by Saturday, Mrs. Plummer? I’d like to wear it to the spring assembly.”
    “We’ll stitch to beat the devil. Between the two of us, we’ll manage.”
    Lord Edwin wore a kindly smile when he returned with a parcel all nicely done up in white paper and pink ribbons. It was his brief talk with Fitch that accounted for his good humor. That maw-worm of a Codey hadn’t even looked at the hay wain. Stood beside it, actually leaning on it while he discussed with Fitch where the silk could be. Fitch had led him a merry chase.
    “Happy birthday, my dear,” he said, and handed Mary Anne the parcel.
    They went into the Blue Saloon for the unwrapping. Mary Anne’s fingers trembled with excitement as she carefully untied the pink ribbons and lifted the lid of the box. She stared in wonder at the exquisite piece of fabric it contained. It shimmered a