Free The Kidnapped Bride by Amanda Scott Page A

would have no excuse for remaining idle once Darcy arranged for the transfer of funds to his own name.
    She left the bedchamber and wandered back to the gallery, where faded spaces indicated that a number of paintings had once hung. They were gone now, and she was not particularly interested in architectural details, so the once-beautiful wainscoting and frieze work in the rooms she visited made little impact. She soon returned to Pilgrim’s Progress with near relief.
    Darcy was away for several days, but Sarah scarcely had any opportunity to feel lonely, for midway through the morning after his departure, a farmer’s well-worn gig rattled up to the front door, and a tall, rather lanky lady in dove-gray merino descended from the seat with as much dignity as if she were royalty descending from the state coach. Sarah, watching from her bedchamber window with Erebus curled companionably at her feet, threw up her hands with an unladylike shriek of joy, leaped up, and tore down the stairs, followed by the excited dog, to land breathlessly at the front door, throwing it open before the driver of the gig had a chance to knock.
    “Penny!” Erebus loudly echoed the welcome, emphasizing his pleasure with a wildly flailing tail.
    “Sarah, love, what manner of conduct is this?” the visitor inquired gently. “Remember … poise, posture, and propriety!”
    Sarah grabbed Erebus by the scruff of his thick neck and sharply commanded his silence. “Oh, Penny, Penny, do come in!”
    “One moment, love.” Miss Penistone turned to the young man beside her and handed him some money. “Thank you very much for bringing me, Mr. Henderson. If you will just put my trunk on the steps there, I shall do nicely.” He hastened to do her bidding, and she turned back to Sarah, eyeing her serenely from tip to toe. “Who on earth has been doing your hair, my dear?”
    “No one,” Sarah chuckled. “Oh, Penny, it’s been awful! But do come in, do!” Tom chose that moment to shamble in through the green baize door at the rear of the hall, and entrusting the reluctant Erebus to his charge, she asked him to see to Penny’s trunk and to ask Matty to prepare tea for them. “For I know you will want some refreshment after your journey, Penny,” she said, drawing that lady into the little saloon under the stair, and adding apologetically, once the door had shut behind them, “Not that it will amount to much, for the servants here are a disgrace. Oh, Penny, I have missed you dreadfully! How did you find me?”
    “Your Lizzie told me,” Miss Penistone replied placidly. “My sister was ill, you know, but she is quite well now and anxious to have her cottage to herself again, so I had planned to look about London for another position. But you know how it is when there is a gap in one’s references—at least, you don’t, but I assure you that it can make matters most difficult for one in my position. I went straight to Berkeley Square, however, where Lady Hartley very kindly provided what was needed. Lizzie was waiting for me in the street when I left Hartley House, and she explained things. Really, Sarah, you have not behaved at all well.”
    “Oh, I know, I know! But you cannot have heard the whole of it. Truly, Penny, it is not as you must have been led to believe!”
    “No, I am quite certain of it.” Miss Penistone removed her cloak and prim little hat and disposed them carefully over the back of a chair before taking her seat. Theft, she folded her hands in her lap and bent an inquiring, birdlike gaze upon her erstwhile charge. “I am likewise certain that you will wish to explain.”
    “Yes, indeed,” Sarah agreed. She began at the beginning and made a clean breast of the whole, feeling much as she had felt upon previous occasions when confessing some childish peccadillo to Penny, knowing now as then that she would feel much better afterward. As she had always done in such cases, Penny maintained a calm expression throughout the