Free Netherby Halls by Claudy Conn Page B

ye.”
    “It doesn’t matter, and the ride into town will be a
great help.” Sassy smiled brightly and added, “I have seen you in
the rose gardens, and they are simply beautiful. I suppose you have
double duty, here and the gardens?”
    He glanced over her approvingly. “Aye, though I get
help from town with the gardens and sech.” He nodded to her and
said authoritatively, “Up wit ye then, for I ’ave no time to spend
wasting it jabbering wit ye here.”
    Silence reigned as he tooled the pair of chestnut
cobs down the driveway. At their back was a large wagon, presently
empty but about to be filled with supplies in town, Sassy thought
with a smile.
    Suddenly, Gunther startled Sassy out of her
daydreaming by saying, “I been at Netherby nearly all m’life. It
has seen better days, when the school was looked after by ’is
lordship.”
    “His lordship?” Sassy encouraged him. “Lord
Devine?”
    “No, no, it was Lord DeWitts, before it was inherited
by the Devines’ end of the family branch.” He sighed heavily. “Not
saying Lady Devine, well, not saying she doesn’t care, but she
isn’t here long enough when she visits to do more than look about.
That’s the pity of it, for if she cared a bit more, well, maybe
things wouldn’t have gone the way they have.”
    “Whatever do you mean, Gunther?” Sassy sensed now,
more than ever, that what she suspected was in fact a truth. Things
were not what they seemed at Netherby.
    “Nuthin’,” he answered. “Said more than I should have
already.”
    She pressed by disagreeing. “I haven’t noticed
anything—the girls don’t seem neglected, and the food is quite
good.”
    “Course the food is good,” he cut in to scoff. “My
missus sees to that.”
    “Yes, that’s right, Cook is your wife.”
    “Aye, and Molly and m’wife, well, they both be pretty
special. Need this position. Had it for too long to lose it
now.”
    “Gunther,” Sassy said hopefully, “I have had a notion
since I got here that something, I am not certain what, is not
quite right at Netherby.”
    He gave her a sideways glance, and when he spoke, it
was conspiratorially. “Lookee ’ere, Miss, as I told ye, I love this
place. His lordship even allowed me and the wife to be married on
the grounds.” He shook his head. “In fact, we live in the stone
cottage near the far end of the stables, and I don’t know where we
would go if we got turned off, so what I am telling ye,”—he paused
and eyed her grimly—“is not to be repeated.”
    “I would never—”
    “My Molly has been fretting over Miss Saunders, and
m’girl is too smart by half. She loved her, ye see. Miss Saunders
was teaching her on her own time, everything she taught the other
girls.”
    “Oh, how lovely.” Sassy’s hands came together as she
smiled. “Someone like that wouldn’t just up and leave.” It
sounds like Miss Graves was correct .
    “Right ye be on that. Someone that dear doesn’t run
off and leave, now does she?”
    Sassy was chilled for a moment looking at his stern
face. “What did the headmistress say about the matter?”
    “I told her that I didn’t think that Miss Saunders
ran off, and she told me to mind my work.”
    “Could Miss Saunders have had a beau?”
    “Just a poor lass like that? No, no beau. She never
went anywhere, never had anyone call, and spent her spare time with
us at the cottage, teaching Molly her lessons.”
    “I see. What do you think happened, Gunther?”
    “Nuthin’ good,” was his answer.
    The rest of the ride into Bristol was spent in
thoughtful silence. A strange mystery, indeed.
    She shook her head to herself over the thought that
someone at Netherby was up to no good—but what? Just what was going
on at Netherby? Faith!
    Finally, just as they were arriving on the outskirts
of town, Sassy asked, “Did no one ever come inquiring about Miss
Saunders? Was she all alone in the world?”
    “An uncle came by, which is why m’Molly suspects foul
play. Her