Free The Five-Minute Marriage by Joan Aiken Page A

evening gown with a demi-train and adorned with a great quantity of false pearls.
    “ Ah, there you are, dearie; what a mercy you are come back, I was just commencing to think that I must ring for Meg or Jill again, ” observed Jenny, desisting in her struggles with relief. “ Well-meaning gals, both of them, but that clumsy you wouldn ’ t believe! Be so kind as to do up the middle button, love—I have managed all the rest. ”
    “ But—do you intend to come downstairs, then? ” Delphie said in astonishment “ What about your inflammation of the lungs? ”
    “ To be sure I must come down! Since the gals told me his old lordship ’ s lying a-dying, I couldn ’ t be so thoughtless as to leave you to eat your supper all alone with two young men (for that ’ s all the company there is in the house, they tell me)—could I now? Unchaperoned? Why, it would be enough to sink your reputation forever; my conscience would be nagging at me for the rest of my days, ” Miss Baggott said virtuously. “ O ’ course after my being so nigh drownded, I had ought to lay down on the bed, I know that, but there! I was never one to desert a friend in time of need! ”
    And she favored Delphie with another large wink.
    “ Come, bustle about, my love! The maids told me they keep country hours, here, dine at three, sup at eight—you had best get yourself changed. And you need not be troubling your head about our quarters tonight—I have bid the servants fetch another bed into this chamber, so there can be no quizzing talk about our visit — all ’ s right and proper if we share the same room, nothing havey - cavey about that! ”
    Delphie doubted if there would be such talk, but thanked Jenny for the prudent forethought. She herself, since Mr. Penistone ’ s revelation, had doubted the propriety of their remaining at Chase at all—so unwelcome as they must be—but Jenny ’ s firmness dispelled any hesitations on that score.
    “ The sawbones said I must on no account stir out of doors until daybreak, or it might be the death of me, ” announced Jenny firmly.
    “ Do you really think it needful to change our dress? You are so very fine! It is more than likely that we shall be served with a tray of soup in the library, ” Delphie said doubtfully.
    Not if Miss Baggott had any say in the matter, proclaimed the gleam in her eye, but she merely replied,
    “ Certainly it is needful! We want them to see that we know ’ what ’ s proper. If there is trouble in the house, we should pay all due respect. Make haste; I ’ ll curl your hair in ringlets. ”
    Delphie, however, preferred to keep it in her plain bands, which her companion sniffed at, as the most unmodish style possible—but she did admit that in Delphie ’ s position, since it was her great-uncle who was dying, a plain style might be more suitable.
    While Delphie swiftly donned her white crape gown, Jenny, who appeared to have a positive genius for extracting information from the servants, imparted what she had learned of the family situation.
    “ Mr. Fitzjohn is the son of the natural son of your grandpa, the Fifth Viscount Bollington—did you know that? What does that make him to you, then? ”
    “ His father would be my mother ’ s half brother ,” said Delphie, working it out. “ We are therefore cousins, or half cousins. ”
    “ His father was the agent here, and so is he, now, ” Jenny went on. “ I think it monstrous unjust, do not you, that he don ’ t come in to the title, just because his Pa was a bastard? La, my dear, your grandpa seems to have been a sad old rip, from what I learn! Did you know that he died in a duel? ”
    No, Delphie certainly had not.
    “ A duel? Are you sure ?”
    “ Sure as sartin! In this very house, too. With his own brother, what ’ s more! Over a girl, into the bargain—a dairymaid, will you believe it! Plenty of the older servants remember it still, Meg said. It was a most shocking scandal. But since the actual death