Summerset Abbey Read Online Free PDF Page B

no,” Victoria said.
    Rowena snorted. “I think it’s just a private place for couples to get away to kiss.”
    “I think it’s lovely,” Victoria said. She turned to Prudence. “We’re on Summerset land now. The manor is over the next hill. I can’t believe you’ve never been here before.”
    “It does seem strange,” Rowena agreed. “Victoria and I have spent almost every summer here since we were children.”
    Prudence looked down at her hands. “My mother was happy with the holiday to Bath your father gave us every year. She said there would be time for visiting later on.”
    “But you never did,” Victoria said.
    “No. I never did.”
    “Weren’t you born in the village?”
    She nodded.
    “Well, you could have family here.”
    Prudence had never thought about it, but it was entirely possible. So why had her mother never come back to visit? Most women can’t bear to be parted from their families, but her mother’s family was never mentioned. For that matter, her mother had rarely spoken of her girlhood and never about Summerset Abbey. Could it have something to do with the Earl, as those women at the funeral had suggested?
    “So tell me about Summerset,” she said, partly to change the subject and partly to pass the time.
    “It’s lovely, imposing, and terrifying,” Victoria said immediately.
    Prudence raised her brows. “Terrifying how?”
    “It’s a bit intimidating because it is so large and some parts of it are rather frightening. But it’s lovely, too.”
    As Victoria warmed to her subject, Prudence learned that Summerset was built in the early 1600s on the site of an earlier home that had been built on the ruins of a castle constructed in the eighth century. It sat on a park of over a thousand acres, with three formal gardens, a kitchen garden, its own lake, and several ponds. The house itself had over a hundred rooms and staffed a small army of sixty servants, which included not only housemaids, footmen, and gardeners but also a carpenter, a stonemason, and a mechanic to keep the motors in top shape.
    “I think you’ll like it, even if it’s very different from our house,” Victoria finished. “You’ll especially love the library, which has over five thousand books.”
    Rowena cleared her throat in a very nervous, I-have-something-to-tell-you way. Prudence and Victoria looked at her expectantly.
    “I’m afraid I wasn’t completely forthright about my discussion with Uncle Conrad.”
    “You mean about something else besides him selling our home from underneath us?” Victoria murmured, and Prudence hushed her.
    Rowena glanced at Prudence and then away. Prudence clenched her hands in her lap and tried to smile as a sense of foreboding shivered through her. “Out with it, Ro. You look as if you’ve swallowed a lemon.”
    “I feel a bit as if I have.” Rowena bit her lip. “He didn’t want you to come, you see. I don’t know why.”
    Prudence felt her smile slip from her face and her body tense. “Yes, you do,” she said quietly. “He feels you are far too familiar with the daughter of a governess who was a former parlor maid.”
    “That’s nonsense,” Victoria burst out.
    Prudence ignored her. “If he didn’t want me to come, why am I here?” she asked.
    “Because I couldn’t bear to part with you. Not now. We need to all be together.” Rowena gave her a pleading look. “So I made a deal with him. I said you would be our lady’s maid, and of course, he couldn’t deny you then.”
    The knots in her stomach tightened. “Well, that’s not so bad.” She tried to laugh, but it came out as more of a yelp. “I look after you both anyway.”
    The fine line of Rowena’s jaw clenched. “I’m afraid he was very adamant about your being staff and not a guest. I’m not sure what he meant by that, but it sounded rather ominous.”
    Prudence licked her lips with a tongue suddenly as dry as parchment. “Is there any reason why you are just now telling me