Free A Christmas Kiss by Elizabeth; Mansfield

lady?”
    Nancy considered the question carefully. Then her face brightened. “Well, I s’pose they wouldn’t think much o’ me below-stairs if they knew, but I don’t care. I ain’t a real lady’s maid neither, so I got nothin’ to complain of.” She smiled her irrepressible smile. “We’ll suit each other fine.”
    Evalyn hugged the girl warmly. “I think so, too,” she said.
    Nancy happily set about her new duties. She bustled round the room collecting various articles of clothing for Evalyn to wear. As she opened drawers and chests, however, the brightness again faded from her face. “I wish ye ’ad more clothes t’ wear,” she sighed. “There ain’t enough things ’ere t’ keep me busy enough t’ earn me wages.”
    Evalyn shrugged into her least shabby daytime dress and let Nancy struggle with the buttons. “Then perhaps you can help me after breakfast. I mean to see what the twins are up to. If we can keep them quiet and happy, and out of the way of the other guests, we’ll have deserved at least some of the unprecedented kindness we’ve been shown.”
    But Lord Gyllford had been ahead of her here too. While she and Martha stood side by side at the breakfast buffet, Evalyn asked where the children were to be found. Martha, more relaxed and at ease than she’d been since her arrival, told Evalyn that Lord Gyllford had arranged for Jamie’s old nurse, now living in retirement somewhere on the estate, to take charge of the children for the length of their stay.
    â€œBut that wasn’t necessary,” Evalyn said. “I would have been most happy to take charge of them.”
    â€œNow, my dear Miss Pennington, that would have been most unsuitable. You are a guest here, as I am. I certainly would not have permitted … I could not so impose on you,” Martha said.
    â€œIt would have been no imposition. I most desire to make myself useful. However, I’ll not trouble you further on this matter. Please remember, Mrs. Covington, that I should be glad to be of service to you and the children whenever you have need of me.”
    The men had left for their day of shooting early, and the house seemed quiet and somnolent. Sally had made no appearance, but Clarissa knew it was her wont to remain in bed until well into the afternoon. Noting that young Marianne was drifting about the corridors aimlessly, Clarissa suggested that the ladies take a drive. Martha and Marianne agreed eagerly, but Evalyn declined, saying that a novel she had started the night before was engrossing her. When the others had left, she found her way up to the nursery. It was not a difficult place to find. Here, as in most of the great houses, the nursery was hidden away on the top floor of one of the wings. There she found the twins happily playing at spillikins on the floor before a cheerful fire. On a rocking chair nearby sat a wizened old lady knitting an already overlong muffler.
    â€œHow do you do, ma’am?” Evalyn greeted her. “Are you the lady who had been governess to James Everard?”
    â€œMore of a nanny I was,” the woman said, looking up with a smile. “And to his father before him.” She rose from the rocker with surprising grace and agility and came toward Evalyn with a firm, if slow, step.
    â€œReally?” asked Evalyn in surprise. “To Lord Gyllford himself?”
    â€œYes, indeed. And a fair handful he was in those days. He kept me hopping, I can tell you. Mrs. Noakes, I be.”
    â€œAnd I’m Evalyn Pennington. I, too, am a governess.”
    Mrs. Noakes bobbed a curtsey. “And a much better than I, I have no doubt. You’re a lady with learning. I could tell that the moment you opened your mouth. As for me, I could only watch over my boys and play with ’em. My boys had tutors enough to teach ’em their Latin and such.”
    â€œMy charges do