“No?”
“The wet bed didn’t keep us apart.”
“What wet bed?”Papa’s puzzled frown made Jewel stifle a giggle.“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean,” Kendra said without elaborating further.“Note that it didn’t work, which makes your prank an unqualified failure, would you not agree?”
The pout on Papa’s face would have better fit a toddling two-year-old.“Whatwet bed?”
Jewel couldn’t draw it out any longer.“Margaret and I spilled water on their bed last night.”The grin she’d been hiding broke free.“Alotof water.And we stole all their blankets and pillows.”
“I was finished!”he burst out.
She feigned a nonchalant shrug.“I wasn’t.”
While Papa’s mouth hung open, Kendra pointed a forkful of sugared pan cakes at him.“I cannot believe you managed to bribe that sweet girl.”
He didn’t look the least bit sorry—for bribing Aunty Kendra’s maid, anyway.“Everyone has a price,” he informed her.
“What was hers?”
“Twenty pounds,” Jewel said.“But I think we should make him give her thirty, so she can marry her love immediately.”
Aunty Kendra dropped the fork.“Margaret has a love?”
“A grand love, from what she’s told me.His name is Richard, and he’s a footman at Foxbow Manor,” Jewel began, then regaled them with Margaret’s sad tale.
Kendra remained rapt throughout the whole story.“No wonder Margaret has been so upset about leaving Amberley,” she said once Jewel had finished.“That would also mean leaving her young man.”She turned to Jewel’s father.“Give me thirty pounds.”
“If you insist,” he said with a mock sigh.He pulled out his heavy pouch and counted out twenty-nine gold guineas, each worth a pound and a shilling, then shoved them toward her on the table.“Keep the change.”
“Margaret will keep the change—what little will be left after settling the debt with Richard’s odious employers.”She looked to Jewel.“I understand you’re in need of a maid.What do you think of Margaret?”
“I like her.”In fact, Jewel more than liked her—she felt a kinship with Margaret, having teamed up with her to play the prank.Lydia had never been willing to help her play pranks.“But surely you wouldn’t dismiss her over a prank?”
“Of course not.She’s a lovely girl and a fine maid.It’s just that I feel she’s ready to go out in the world, and I’d like to train another girl from the orphanage.”
“I’d be pleased to have Margaret for my maid,” Jewel said.“And Papa will also hire her love, so the two of them can marry and live together.”
“I will?”her father said.
“You will.At least until I’m wed, at which point Henry will hire them both.”
He only grunted.
“She always has had you wrapped around her little finger,” Mama pointed out to him as though Jewel weren’t there.“Is it any surprise she thinks she’ll be able to control her husband as easily?”
“I wish the young man luck,” Papa said dryly.
TWO HOURSlater, six empty carriages were queued up in front of Lakefield House, awaiting their occupants.
Uncle Jason’s family had left immediately after breakfast, anxious to attend to their annual Cainewood community Christmas.The rest of the family were still inside the house, sorting out last-minute details for their journeys home.Well, except for Uncle Ford and Aunty Violet, who were preparing to travel the mile to Trentingham for their Ashcroft holiday gathering, a week-long family tradition that would last till the new year.
Jewel left the house first, in search of Margaret.She’d been told she could find her directing the placement of Aunty Kendra’s luggage on Amberley’s baggage cart, and it looked as though she’d just finished.
When Margaret saw her approach, her big blue eyes filled with tears again.
Jewel hoped they were happy tears.“Did my aunt tell you the news?”
