Free Holiday in Bath by Laura Matthews Page A

a suitable situation for the ladies. I have sent off an inquiry to a friend of mine who will have some information for us by the time we arrive, no doubt.”
    “I have every confidence in you, my boy,” Mr. Storwood said as Trelenny stood staring at Cranford. “We’ll just have their luggage put up and you may be off. Do you think you can make Preston tonight?”
    Never once had it occurred to Trelenny that Cranford had been to Bath before. In her mind she had been offering him a treat, if a limited one, a chance to see some Roman antiquities, if he could find them, which were sure to be a source of interest. While the carriage was being loaded and her mother and father talked quietly to one side, she marched up to Cranford. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “Tell you what?”
    “That you have been there before! Oh, you have spoiled everything!”
    “You’ve lost me, Trelenny. What difference can it possibly make that I’ve been to Bath before?” He raised an impatient eyebrow as he watched the small trunk being strapped to the roof of the carriage.
    “There is no reason at all for you to go, if you’ve seen all those old stones before.”
    “I didn’t have time to look out antiquities when I was there previously. Do be a good girl and get in the carriage. I want to get started before your mother sheds any tears, and the longer we stay, the more likely that is.” He watched nervously as Mrs. Storwood clung to her husband’s arm with one hand and helplessly gripped a limp handkerchief in the other.
     “Here.” Trelenny thrust the leather pouch into his hands and left him with a swish of her skirts. The footman assisted her into the carriage and she called lightly to her mother, “We are ready to go, Mama. Goodbye, Papa. We will miss you."
    Cranford absently stuck the pouch in the pocket of his coat and nodded his thanks to Trelenny, who glared at him in return. Lord, wasn’t the girl ever pleased? Gently he disengaged Mrs. Storwood from her husband and handed her into the carriage, saying, “I shall ride for the first two stages, ma’am. If you need anything, have Trelenny call for me. There are warm bricks for your feet, and a carriage rug,” he instructed the maid, who was already seated across from the two ladies.
    The coachman set his horses into motion at a signal from Cranford, and Mrs. Storwood waved until they were out of sight, whereupon she quietly wept into her handkerchief and Trelenny put her arm about her to comfort her. Cranford stayed to have a word with Mr. Storwood.
    “Very good of you to take them with you, Cranford,” the older man said gruffly. “I’ve made a rough reckoning what the trip will cost, and their lodgings, and doodahs and such, and it’s all here in this purse. I hope you won’t mind being Mrs. Storwood’s banker, for she’s a bit rusty at this sort of thing. You have only to write for more should this be insufficient. It’s been so long since I’ve been away that I doubled what it would have been years ago, but that might not be enough. Trelenny has her own pocket money, of course, though I don’t expect her to buy any new gowns out of it—there’s hardly enough! But she’s to have what she wants, provided her mother agrees. I just don’t want her to have so much that it burns a hole in her pocket, so to speak.”
    “Well, she won’t lose it, sir. She assured me once that she’s never lost so much as a tuppence,” Cranford replied with a rueful grin.
    “She’s not as shatterbrained as she sometimes appears, and she’s a good-hearted girl, when all is said and done. Mind you, she’s not been anywhere before, and her mother will tell her how to go on, but I depend on you to see that she gets in no trouble. It’s a large responsibility, I know, but you aspire to her hand and it is in your own interest to see she behaves herself.” He stared for a moment at the spot where the carriage had disappeared from view and then transferred his gaze to his