A Sisterly Regard Read Online Free Page A

Lady
Gifford's maternal grandfather.
    Lady Gifford and the sisters gaped at the room's overpowering
redness while Parsons fussed. "You must be particularly exhausted. Why,
we expected you an hour ago. Did you have trouble on the journey? Here,
sit down, this chair looks most comfortable. Miss Chloe, you get a pillow
for your mother's back. Miss Phaedra, pour her a cup and let her rest.
Poor thing, jogging along all day in that coach, with two chattering
magpies for company. Why..."
    "That will do, Parsons," her mistress said. "I am only a little
tired, and the magpies did not chatter. I am chilled, I will admit. We were
delayed because we came to the assistance of a young man who had had an
accident, but the delay was less than an hour. It was really a very easy
journey. No, Chloe, I do not want another pillow behind me. I just want
to sit here and drink my tea quietly. Do not fuss!"
    The dresser sniffed. "And it was helping the young man that you
got your skirt all dirty, I'll warrant." She frowned at the blood and grass
stains on the skirt of Phaedra's blue wool traveling dress. "And you too,
Miss Phaedra. I declare, you get out of my sight for one day and your
clothes are all rags. It will take a bit of scrubbing to get those stains out of
your dress, but I don't mind, I'm sure."
    "Do let Mama rest a bit," Phaedra told the dresser. "We will sit
here quietly for a few minutes, then I will send Mama straight to her bed.
Would you go up and prepare it, please, Parsons."
    "Thank you, dear," Lady Gifford said, as her dresser stalked
from the room in outraged sensibility. "She does tend to mother me over
much." She turned to Chloe. "Are you feeling better, my dear? You have
more color, but you are so quiet."
    "Yes, Mama, I am feeling much more the thing. This house does
not move, you see." Chloe smiled. "I was silent because I was thinking
about that handsome young gentleman we met this afternoon. Do you
think he will come to call?"
    "I doubt it. We only told his groom that we were traveling to
London and our names. We did not give our direction," her mother
replied. "Besides, offering assistance along a roadside does not constitute
an introduction. It would be the height of impropriety if he were to call
without one."
    "Perhaps he will write, then, and express his gratitude. I truly
would like to make his acquaintance." Chloe sighed. "He was so very
handsome."
    "Stuff!" Phaedra said. "He was not handsome, when you saw
him at close range. He was swarthy and scowly. You are romanticizing,
again, Chloe. You will probably never meet him again. Or, if you do, you
will find, as I did, that he is rude and overbearing." She began to walk
about the room, inspecting it.
    Although somewhat bare, lacking the usual porcelain figurines,
vases of flowers, and other decorative touches, its furnishings were quality
pieces, if ever so slightly shabby. Phaedra fingered the velvet draperies,
noting that they were slightly faded along the folds. Moving to stand
before the fireplace, she examined the careful craftsmanship that had gone
into the construction of the beautifully carved mantelpiece. "Do you
know, Mama, it is really outside of enough that this room is so very red. In
any other color, it would be truly lovely. As it is, one is
overwhelmed."
    "It does lack something of good taste," her mother agreed. "I am
reminded somehow of Carlton House, the Prince of Wales' residence. It
also is decorated in this style of overstated and tasteless opulence."
    "Do you mean 'Prinny', Mama?" Chloe asked.
    "Yes, Chloe. But I beg of you, do not use that name for him. It
is not polite in you to do so."
    "I have heard you and Papa call him that," the girl
protested.
    "What is acceptable for your father and me to do is not
necessarily so for a young girl in her first Season, so mind your
manners."
    "Yes, Mama," Chloe said, with a pout.
    "Are there really rooms at Carlton House like this one, Mama? I
cannot believe that our future king would be so lacking in good