Free Candace McCarthy by Fireheart Page A

again with stark clarity. She allowed the images to come, hoping to face them and put them to rest. She recalled the first time she’d come downstairs to share supper with her Uncle Roderick....
    She had worn her new gown on the day she had arrived in England. Mary had seen that she had the new garment so that she would make a good impression on her uncle Roderick. But she saw Uncle Roderick only briefly that afternoon when she’d arrived at the house. Oh, and what a big house it was! Dark inside, but huge. She wondered if she’d get lost coming from her bedchamber to the dining room where she was to meet her uncle for dinner.
    After bathing, Joanna slipped on her Lenape doeskin gown. She didn’t want to wear her calico gown as it was stale. She had not been able to bathe often onboard ship. Her bedchamber on the second floor was pretty. The draperies and bed covers were in shades of blue, and the furniture, like the kind downstairs, was dark and heavy.
    Clean from her bath and anxious to get to know her uncle, Joanna skipped lightly down the stairs and asked a maid the way to the dining room.
    The maid looked at her strangely, opening and shutting her mouth, but she gave Joanna directions before nervously scurrying away.
    The dining room, like the rest of the house, had walls of dark paneling and a long table with seats enough for ten, but with place settings for only two—one at the head of the table and the other at the opposite end. There was no sign of her uncle so Joanna studied both settings and chose the seat nearest to the door that she thought led to the kitchen.
    She sat carefully with her hands folded neatly in her lap, waiting patiently for Uncle Roderick to come so she could talk with him.
    A manservant entered the room, saw her, then shooed her from the chair. “ ’Tis your uncle’s seat you’ve taken, girl. Get up and away with ya. Roderick Neville likes things the way they is. Your seat is at the other end of the table.”
    She stood, and the man looked at her with disapproval. “Is that all ya have to don? Roderick isn’t going to like yer garment any,” he said. “Ah, but well, then, he can afford to buy ya some new ones what with his money and all.” He narrowed his gaze. “Ye’re a lucky girl, Miss Neville. You’d best remember that. It isn’t every day that a man as rich as yer uncle comes to the rescue of an orphaned girl.”
    Joanna scowled. She didn’t understand the word orphaned. She knew she was a girl, but she didn’t think she liked him calling her “orphaned.” She didn’t like his tone that suggested that it was something unpleasant and unclean. And she had just had a bath!
    She also didn’t like the way he spoke of her garment. Her doeskin tunic had been lovingly crafted by her friend Little Blossom’s mother. It was of the finest deer hide and was beautifully adorned with beads, embroidery, and porcupine quills. She was proud of her dress and thought her uncle would like it too, once she told him of the painstaking effort made by She with a Smile on her behalf.
    The manservant had left the room, and Joanna was alone again.
    A closed door along one wall of the dining room opened, and Roderick Neville came in. Joanna stood, remembering the way her cousin had taught her to curtsy, then tumbled to the floor in her poor attempt to execute it.
    “Good God, girl!” her uncle exclaimed as she scrambled to her feet. “I can see you have a lot to learn!”
    “Yes, uncle,” she murmured, hanging her head.
    “Look at me when I talk to you,” he ordered, grabbing her by the chin and jerking her head upward.
    Shocked by his rough treatment, Joanna looked up and stared.
    His gaze treated her harshly as he studied her and apparently found her wanting.
    “What in God’s teeth are you wearing?”
    “It’s a Lenape tunic,” she said in English but with an accent that told of the years she’d spent with the Indians.
    “It’s hideous,” he said. “You are never to wear it