The Phoenix Of Love. Susan Schonberg

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СКАЧАТЬ on you. Even though she disowned your mother some twenty years ago, it appears as though now she is willing to forgive past grievances and take you in. You are sensible of the honor she does you, I am sure.”

      The silence stretched on. Outside, the falling snow deadened all of the street noises, leaving the solicitor no hope of a distraction. He waited in vain for Olivia to agree with him. Then he took a deep breath and sighed. He should have known, he grumbled to himself, pushing his spectacles upright once more. Olivia could never be expected to do what she was supposed to. She was a very strange child.

      “Lady Raleigh is waiting for you at the Three Crowns even as we speak.” As Olivia’s eyes widened slightly at the pronouncement, Mr. Potts gave a humorless smile. Finally he had gotten some kind of reaction out of her. With relish he continued. “Yes, it was all somewhat of a surprise, actually. One minute Mrs. Potts and I were quietly having our dinner, and the next minute there she was, pounding on our front door.” He muttered almost to himself, “Never thought for a moment she’d answer the letter in person.”

      Olivia’s brain had almost ceased to function upon mention of her grandmother’s name. Surely she could not be going with her? It was beyond all thought!

      And yet, who else did Olivia have? All of her immediate family was deceased, and all of her father’s family, as well. That just left her mother’s relatives.

      But Lady Raleigh! Olivia’s father had never been able to mention the Duke and Duchess of Stonebridge without turning purple. He had been enraged at the way they had treated him and his poor darling wife. Why on earth did they want Olivia now?

      Her eyes came back into focus and met with the solicitor’s. With anger she noted that he was pleased by her discomfort. She chastised herself severely. She hadn’t hidden her feelings well enough again, and now he was gloating—gloating just as her father had done every time she let her guard slip. Well, it wouldn’t happen again. She had had enough derision. She had vowed to take charge of her life, and she was going to do it. She’d never be at anyone else’s mercy again. No one would ever be able to use her emotions against her again. She wouldn’t let them.

      Like a slate being wiped clean, Olivia’s face lost all trace of visible expression. She had her composure firmly in hand once again. Neutrally she repeated Mr. Potts’s earlier declaration, “She is waiting for me now?”

      Disconcerted with her abruptness, Mr. Potts replied a little harshly, “Yes, at the Three Crowns, as I said.” He relented a little as he reminded himself Olivia was only a child. This whole experience was probably a great shock to her. He paused before adding more kindly, “Shall I escort you there?”

      The child-woman speared him with her icicle eyes. Was he trying to manipulate her again? But no, that thought was too uncharitable. Mr. Potts was a fool, it was true, but he was not unnecessarily cruel. Still she would keep him on a short rein. Expressionlessly Olivia made her reply. “Thank you, Mr. Potts.”

      

      After accepting his offer as escort, Olivia and Mr. Potts arrived at the Three Crowns some half an hour later. The snow on the ground crunched beneath their feet as they walked toward the door. Stopping a few feet away from the entrance, Olivia turned around and faced her solicitor. With a dignity unusual for one so young, she offered him her hand.

      “Thank you so much for escorting me, Mr. Potts. You have been a tremendous help.”

      Astonished, Mr. Potts stared at the young girl before him. He couldn’t quite comprehend that he was actually being dismissed by a chit half his size. Before he could make a suitable reply, however, Olivia reached down, grabbed his hand with her own, pumped it up and down a few times, and turned and walked through the door.

      Somewhat uncertainly, Mr. Potts stared at the door that had closed with a solid thud behind Olivia’s retreating back. Finally, as if doubting the whole encounter, he shrugged his shoulders and began walking back to the carriage. He collected that this was one meeting where Olivia preferred not to have an observer. For once in his life, his assumption where Olivia was concerned was correct.

      Once inside the establishment, the innkeeper’s wife immediately spied Olivia and rushed over to her. She was a big woman, and her sheer girth was enough to intimidate the young girl, although Olivia was careful not to show it.

      “Well, little lovey!” she exclaimed, beaming. “You must be the little girl who must meet her granny!” She squeezed both of the girl’s shoulders in a friendly way, emphasizing her own excitement at the occasion.

      Olivia thought this had to be the worst misinterpretation of the situation she had ever heard, but she wisely kept that opinion to herself.

      Momentarily confused, the woman looked about them, still firmly grasping Olivia. “But where’s the little whatnot, deary?” she asked in her great booming voice. “Blimey if he didn’t tell me directly that you were both coming and that I should be preparing some refreshment. I don’t be understanding it at all. He shoulda come with you!”

      Olivia stepped back a pace, inadvertently taking the large woman with her as her grasp on Olivia’s person held firm. “Mr. Potts was unavoidably detained,” she responded with quiet authority. “I have come here by myself.”

      “Gone for a nip to stoke the fires, has he?” The innkeeper’s wife gave Olivia a searching glance. After a moment, she shrugged. “Well, it ain’t no never mind. The old lady’s been waiting for you.” She indicated somewhere behind her with the flick of her massive head. Then she maneuvered herself behind Olivia, taking hold of her shoulders from behind. “Just ‘round here, love,” she directed from the back, pushing Olivia toward the door of a private parlor.

      The giantess nudged the door open with her shoulder. Inside, the room was surprisingly warm and cozy. A cheerful fire burned brightly in the grate, and the room was well lit with tapers.

      In the center of the room sat Lady Raleigh. Her back was inches from the carved wood of an elegant Hepplewhite chair that she had no doubt brought with her, and her spine was as straight as a ramrod. Next to her elbow rested an untouched glass of water on an otherwise empty side table. Adorning the room was a comfortable-looking sofa, several armchairs and a pier table of cherry wood. But Olivia had eyes only for her grandmother.

      She was even more striking in person than Olivia had imagined. Lady Raleigh, her back to the fireplace, stared across the room at her only remaining grandchild with eyes almost as pale as Olivia’s. Her gray velvet dress, capped with a gathering of lace high at the throat, only seemed to emphasize the unusual color of her eyes. Added to that, Lady Raleigh’s white hair and pale skin, combined with the profusion of pearls she wore about her arms and neck, made her look almost colorless.

      She had a birdlike quality, thought Olivia. If she had any weight on her bones at all, she could have been a pigeon. As it was, however, her thinness undermined the comparison. For all her stern expression, she really looked to be a thin, frail old woman. That thought was oddly comforting to the girl.

      Olivia had been so mesmerized by her grandmother’s appearance, she was somewhat startled when the apparition before her actually spoke.

      “Leave us,” she commanded the woman behind Olivia in an imperious voice that only trembled slightly with old age.

      The innkeeper’s wife abruptly let go of Olivia and bowed her way out the door, taking Olivia’s cape with her. Olivia thought it rather mean of her to leave a child all alone with the strange lady before her. But she managed to hold her ground anyway.

      A few seconds СКАЧАТЬ