The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy Read Online Free PDF

Figgins raised her eyes to heaven, gave the girl a hunk of bread and a piece of cheese—she’d been sent away without a morsel to eat—and gave her directions to Ma’s house. “You tell her what happened and that Martha sent you to her, do you hear me?”
    Figgins watched the forlorn figure dwindle into the distance, shrugged her shoulders, and went on toward Tyrrwhit. She reckoned the girl would never make it to Ma’s; with those looks and that ignorance of how many beans made two, she’d be snapped up long before she got to that part of town.
    It had given her an idea, however. Where one maidservant had been turned off, another would be sought. Moreover, the hapless Meg Jenkins had mentioned that they were short-staffed up at the house, they always were. Figgins knew that when Napier turned her off on his wedding day, it was not for dislike of her; he’d no more noticed her than he would a cur in the gutter. No, it was because she was part of his bride’s former life, and he wanted to cut her off from that as completely as he could. She felt she could count on his making no connection between his wife’s former servant and a lowly new maid called Susan Peters.
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    Lucky for them both that her brother was apprentice to a tailor, to a man in a good way of business near the Corn-Exchange. He didn’t cut and sew for the smart of smarts, but he did well enough by his prosperous and social-climbing customers, and Joseph Figgins had a flare for the work and had happily made several suitable outfits for Alethea, as well as more ordinary garments for his sister.
    â€œI don’t know what your game is, Sis,” he’d said to her. “But money’s money, and I dare say you come by it honest, for if you didn’t you’d be looking over your shoulder for Ma to strike you down, and you ain’t got any such shifty look in your eyes. I reckon it’s some prank to do with that Miss Alethea you was used to work for, and what tricks that sort of lady gets up to isn’t anything to do with me. I don’t ask, and I don’t want to know.”
    â€œJust as well, young Joe, for I wasn’t about to tell you. And if Ma starts asking where I am, which she may, you tell her that I’ve gone back into service with my last lady, and we’re away in—oh, I don’t know, tell her Yorkshire.”
    â€œAre you? You don’t look like you’re in Yorkshire to me.”
    â€œDon’t be cheeky, Joe, and look lively about getting those shirts done for me. Then I’ll hand over the ready for the coats and for you to pay the seamstresses for the other work, and you forget you ever had this little job to do. Seeing it’s outside your regular work, and your master would hang you up by the fingers if he knew you’d been sewing on your own account, that’s best for both of us.”
    â€œIt’s not like making for strangers,” Joe said uneasily. “It’s my own flesh and blood, after all. There’s no harm in that.”
    â€œNo, there isn’t, and no harm in keeping your trap shut, neither.” She was busily tucking away coats, shirts, and small clothes into a large bag she’d brought with her. Finished, she bent forward and gave her brother a peck on the cheek.
    â€œMind you visit Ma regular and don’t let her get worrying about me.”
    â€œAnd you did come by that money honest?” he asked again as he opened the door for her.
    â€œIt belongs to the person as will be wearing those coats and trousers, and every penny of it rightfully”—a slight pause—“rightfully his.”
    And it was honest come by, too, Figgins reflected. Most of the roll of soft, as the gents called it, and a heap of clinking gold coins besides were now tucked away about Miss Alethea’s person, with a reserve entrusted to Figgins, more money than she’d ever seen in her life.
    â€œEggs in