The Maid of Fairbourne Hall Read Online Free PDF Page A

stillroom of Lime Tree Lodge, enjoying a snug afternoon baking biscuits with Mrs. Haines or listening to the housekeeper and nurse swap stories of their lives before entering service.
    Margaret descended two flights of stairs. Then, passing silently along the ground floor on her way to the basement steps, she heard muffled voices coming from the study and paused outside its door, which was slightly ajar. She sidled closer and pressed her ear to the crack.
    â€œI have tried.” Marcus’s voice.
    â€œThen try harder.” Sterling.
    â€œWhat would you have me do? I have been as charming and attentive as I know how. She does not like me.”
    â€œShe once did. When you first came.”
    â€œWell, apparently she has revised her opinion. She is cold to me now.”
    â€œThen warm her. Have I not placed you here under my very roof? Given you every opportunity?”
    Marcus grumbled something Margaret did not hear.
    â€œAnd last night I saw her talking with Lewis Upchurch. A man who paid her every attention earlier this season. I fear she will stir his interest again, and we shall lose her.”
    â€œLose her money, you mean.”
    â€œNeed I remind you that whoever marries the chit will control her inheritance?”
    â€œBut if she does not marry, she will control it herself.”
    â€œAnd no doubt spend it on gewgaws and falderals and I know not what.” A glass clinked against the table. Sterling’s voice had risen, but he moderated it once more. “I shall instruct Murdoch not to allow Upchurch to call—nor any other gentlemen, for that matter.”
    â€œAnd I tell you, Uncle, Lewis Upchurch is no longer interested in Margaret.”
    â€œLet us hope you are right. Even so, if you have botched things as badly as you say, we can’t have her eloping with some opportunistic buck while we’re not paying heed.”
    Marcus said, “A good thing the inheritance is a well-kept secret. If everyone knew, men would be beating down our doors.” Sarcasm curled his voice. “If only you had known, Uncle.”
    â€œYou forget yourself, Marcus.” Sterling’s cool voice held an undercurrent of warning. “Now,” he gritted out, “I don’t care how you do it, just get her to marry you.”
    â€œWhat do you suggest?”
    â€œDid I not pay for your education, Marcus? Can you really be such a simpleton?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œCome now. Charm and flattery never fail, at least where Macy women are concerned. Woo her, flatter her, make love to her. And if all else fails . . . compromise.”
    â€œYou are not suggesting . . . ?”
    â€œWhy not. You have done the like before.”
    Marcus hissed, “But she is a lady .”
    â€œAnd will be restored to respectability as soon as she weds you.”
    Margaret pressed a hand over her mouth, stifling a cry of outrage and swallowing the acid climbing her throat.
    Milk forgotten, she stole back upstairs. The vile lechers!
    Reaching her room, Margaret pushed a chair against the door, doubting it would slow a man for long. She paced back and forth across her bedchamber. She was no match for Marcus physically. If he forced himself into her room, she would be a caged bird, a cornered hare.
    One of her father’s sermons came to mind, the one about how everyone might take advice from young Joseph. When Potiphar’s lascivious wife tried to seduce him, he did not bar himself in his room.
    He fled.
    She needed to do the same. She would not stay in Sterling Benton’s home another night.
    But where could she go? She had only the few coins she had found on his dressing table. Those wouldn’t take her far. If only her mother were home. For though she had clearly taken Sterling’s side to this point, she would never stand for her daughter’s ruination!
    Margaret heard something and stood still, straining her ears. Had Marcus come to