Drops of Gold Read Online Free

did not seem naturally destructive but simply insufficiently looked after.
    “Your hair is pretty.” The voice was no larger than a drop of rain and clearly belonged to a child still half asleep.
    Marion turned toward the sound, uncertain of what she would find. The child who stood before her could well have been an angel. Her ruffled white nightdress nearly glowed in the morning sun spilling in through the windows. A mess of blonde curls framed her face in something of a halo, her enormous blue eyes wide in innocent anticipation. The girl couldn’t possibly have been more than four or five years old. Too young for a governess. Marion pushed the thought from her head. This was, undoubtedly, Miss Caroline’s younger sister.
    “Hello,” Marion greeted the child, her smile emerging naturally. She dropped carefully to her knees, pulling her dress free at the last moment. She could scarce afford to replace her gowns should she manage to wear knee holes in them. “What is your name?”
    “Caroline.” She scrunched her eyes in the bright sunlight.
    Miss Caroline! Her charge was a tiny child, the appropriate age for a nurse, not a governess. There must be a mistake!
    “Are you my new nurse?” Miss Caroline did not look entirely sure of the arrangement.
    “No,” Marion answered carefully. “I am . . .” Well? What am I? “I am to be your governess.”
    “What’s a gubness?”
    Don’t ask me. But Marion smiled. “A governess teaches and tends to children.”
    “Sounds like a nurse.”
    “Except I will teach you to be grown-up.”
    The girl stood frozen, obviously scrutinizing this newest arrival into her small world.
    “Do you know how to curtsy, Miss Caroline?” She kept a cheerful tone in her voice lest the child think she was scolding.
    Miss Caroline offered an awkward dip then watched Marion uncertainly for her evaluation.
    Marion smiled more broadly, something she didn’t think she could have prevented herself from doing. “Very well done. You are quite a young lady, I see.”
    A smile tugged at the girl’s mouth. That was the right approach, then. Most little girls wished to be thought of as grown-up.
    “How old are you?” Marion sat back on her feet, trying to seem unconcerned.
    She held up four dimpled fingers. Four! Furuncle. Four was definitely too young for a governess. What was going on?
    “Oh my!” Marion allowed her eyes to widen. This mess wasn’t the child’s fault. “How old do you think I am?”
    Miss Caroline studied her for the better part of a minute, her eyes alternately narrowing and widening, her mouth pursing and twisting as she pondered the puzzle. Adorable!
    “Ten?” Miss Caroline guessed.
    “That is very nearly correct,” Marion replied. “I will be twenty years old in only a few weeks.”
    The girl’s mouth formed a perfect O as her eyes grew wide once again. Marion nodded her agreement. Twenty must seem positively antiquated to a child of four.
    “Are you leaving too?” Obvious uncertainty colored Miss Caroline’s tone.
    “Leaving?”
    “Everyone leaves,” Miss Caroline said quite matter-of-factly.
    Not I! For one thing, Marion had nowhere to go. For another, she had already begun to adore the fair-haired angel standing before her.
    Marion used her best pondering face, going so far as to tap her lip with her finger. “I had planned to stay here for some time. Would that be acceptable, do you think? Or would it be better for me to leave?”
    Miss Caroline shook her head so vehemently her curls bounced about.
    “Then I should stay?”
    “Forever and ever!” Miss Caroline declared before running across the room and throwing her arms around Marion’s neck.
    Pulling the girl onto her lap, Marion held the angelic child in her arms. It probably was not very governessy, but it felt right. How terribly lonely the girl must be to take to a stranger so quickly, so desperately.
    “Did you know today is Christmas Day?” Marion asked her armful. The girl nodded.