Free Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan Page A

is suitable. Your grandfather had it all fixed up for you. There’s a bath next door, and I’ve filled the tub with hot water. Your clothes are unpacked and tucked away in the drawers.” Ellie was young, not yet twenty, I guessed. She said, “You have such pretty things, Miss. It was a pleasure to unpack them.” She clasped her hand over her mouth. “I hope I haven’t spoken out of turn, Miss.” She put a serious look on her face and added, “You have only to ring if the fire needs tending to. Dinner will be at seven.”
    When she left, I looked about. There was a little desk with notepaper and pens laid out. A comfortable chair was drawn up to the fireplace. Books had been set out on a shelf; some of the titles, Dickens and Trollope, were my own favorites and had been a part of our modest library at home. Nothing could be cozier or more pleasant. For just a moment I was sorry I wasn’t Valerie. How satisfying it would have been to have such a room for one’s own. I allowed myself a little daydream. What if the grandfatherdid not die? What if he got better and I could live in the little room instead of an orphanage? Or if not that, perhaps he would let me work about the house like the young maid did. It was only a dream, for he would surely have me arrested as an imposter.
    When I had had my bath, I put on yet one more of Valerie’s dresses, and after wandering first in one wrong direction and then another, I found the stairway. Burker was waiting for me. Looking over his shoulder from time to time to be sure I had not wandered off, he led me to the dining room. As he seated me, I heard a slight groan as his crippled fingers lifted the weight of the massive wooden chair.
    Burker disappeared. I sat alone at a long table that could have seated two dozen people. The young man who had taken our coats brought one course after another and then embarrassed me horribly by standing in the room while I ate. Once I tried to get him to leave. “Thank you very much, Arthur,” I said. “I’ll be quite all right alone.”
    He merely turned red and averted his eyes. He stuck to his place as if he were the last soldier standing to protect the fort. I saw that he was as anxious to leave as I was to have him go, but it was his duty to stay.
    After dinner Burker said, “I believe your grandfather wishes to see you, Miss Valerie.” He led me up the stairway and into the grandfather’s room and then faded away, something he did very well.
    â€œWell, my dear, are you comfortable?” the grandfather asked. His voice was stronger and his eyes brighter.
    â€œOh, yes. My room is so pretty.”
    He scowled, and the strands of red among his white whiskers seemed to glow like fire. In an angry voice he said, “I suppose I must ask how your parents are.”
    A longing grew in me to tell him the truth, but I worried at what the truth would do to him. What if upon hearing the news he threw up his hands and perished in front of me?
    â€œMy parents are very well,” I said, and added under my breath, “and so they must be, for surely they are in heaven.”
    â€œIndeed.” He frowned, his bushy eyebrows meeting over his nose. “I have just today had a letter from them saying that there was considerable expense in suiting you up for this trip, buying fancy dresses and so forth. They are asking for money.” He stared at me.
    Eagerly I suggested, “You could sell all those dresses and send the money to them.” What a relief it would be to get rid of Valerie’s hateful clothes, which it tortured me to put on.
    â€œSell them? You want new clothes? The latest fashion from London, I suppose. The African fashions are not good enough.”
    â€œOh, no,” I said. “I don’t want any fashionable clothes. Just one dress that would be all my own.”
    His eyebrows shot up. “All your own? What in the world do you