The Prodigal Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page B

anonymously in the country was irrelevant. He must have known that she would never consider it, just as she knew he would never openly blacken her name in town. So the choice lay between surviving alone in London without help, or moving to Middleford and accepting an allowance.
    He probably wished her to remain where he could watch her, but now that she’d come into the open, he could do that anyway. Middleford was a charming market town of several hundred inhabitants. She knew many of them, though he might not be aware of that. And if she were honest, London was not the most congenial place for a woman alone. She had to walk to most of her lessons, and the streets were never safe – not even in the respectable neighborhood where she and Jessie lived.
    “The allowance?” she asked, for he had not actually connected it to Middleford.
    “A thousand pounds a year, but nothing if you remain in London.”
    It was more than twice what she had had to live on in even the most affluent times of her marriage and would allow her to survive in comfort for the rest of her life.
    “I will not claim any connection with you,” she agreed. “But I must visit my grandmother on occasion. She will wish to see me if I live so close, and you can hardly dictate her behavior.”
    He frowned, but finally nodded.
    “I will continue teaching music and French if there are students who wish to study those subjects,” she continued. “And you must understand my past. Many people in this area, including several in Middleford, know me. I have not changed that much since my marriage. You are mistaken to believe they will think poorly of me. Quite the reverse. I will not trade on your name, but I cannot control the tongues of others. Very soon, everyone in the district will be aware both of the connection and of the antagonism that exists between us. If you cannot accept that, then you must allow me to return to London..” Even as she spoke the words, she knew they would not matter. Thorne regarded the lower classes as little better than animals. Their opinions would affect him any more than those of a sheep. But she had to point out the obvious, lest some higher-ranking individual criticize his decree. She would no longer allow him to blame her for anything.
    Thorne paced the library, face contorted in thought. Finally, he turned back to Amanda. “As usual, you live in a dream world. But even if you prove correct, I care nought for the opinions of a bunch of motley peasants. Make yourself a laughingstock if you must. Every family has its black sheep, so worthy gentlemen will not blame me. But you will not interfere in my family’s life.”
    “Agreed.”
     

Chapter Three
     
    Amanda paused to admire an arrangement of roses on the hall table before joining her grandmother for tea. She had not seen the lady in nearly a fortnight, her own affairs keeping her too busy.
    After leaving the Thornridge library, she had walked back to the dower house deep in thought, trying to decide whether she had handled the confrontation well or had botched it. Though she was not unhappy at the thought of leaving London, perhaps it would have been better to live someplace that was not under Thorne’s nose. Had he outmaneuvered her?  She had little experience in manipulation.
    Yet there was another side to his terms.
    She laughed aloud as the truth suddenly became clear. Instead of the choice she had offered, she had won both options. The allowance was many times what she had requested, and enough people knew her identity that she would have little trouble securing students. An unexpected benefit was that Thorne was proving to all and sundry that he really was the unfeeling monster she had always known him to be. She doubted that he even realized she had won everything. Despite her efforts, he had not believed her. He was the one living in a dream world, a place where lords not only received obedience and respect from their inferiors, but could control their minds