Lady Midnight Read Online Free Page A

her. He nodded pleasantly as she passed him a cup of steaming coffee. "Have you indeed, Mother? Hm, good news. Now, what could it be? Ah, I know. The cook was able to procure lamb cutlets for dinner. Or the milliner in the village has some new ribbons from London in stock."
    Jane Lindley, the Dowager Countess of Darcy (and she never let anyone forget the title!), laughed and shook an admonishing finger. "Oh, Michael, how you do love to tease! I think you are laughing at your poor mother. But this is serious. Do you not wish to know what my news is?"
    Michael reached for the platter of eggs a footman had left conveniently near. "You obviously want to tell me, Mother, and I do hate to curtail any of your pleasures. So why don't you go ahead and tell me?"
    "A letter came this morning from the agency in London. They have found us a governess for Christina and Amelia. At last! I thought no one who was suitable would ever be willing to come all the way to Yorkshire. I do think that they—"
    "Good morning, Mother! Michael!"
    Whatever his mother was going to say was cut off by the noisy arrival of Michael's younger sister, Christina. She burst into the breakfast room, as she did into every room she ever entered. Obviously, she had been ambling about outdoors again. Her light brown curls, the same color as Michael's own hair, fell in an untidy tangle down her back, and the hem of her dress was inches deep with mud. She had also obviously left her dirty boots at the door, because her feet were encased only in thick lisle stockings.
    She was fifteen now, a young lady, but anyone would have thought she was no older than Amelia with the wild way she behaved.
    "Sorry I'm late," Christina said, plopping into her chair and reaching for the rack of toast. "I went out for a bit of a stroll and quite lost track of time."
    Jane silently poured out a cup of tea and passed it to her daughter. The thin, pinched line of her lips was the only outward sign of her long-suffering exasperation. After a long moment when the silence was broken only by the sound of Christina's loud munching and a footman bringing in fresh eggs, Jane said, "Your brother and I were just speaking of a letter I received from London."
    Christina took a gulp of tea. "Oh? From Charles, then? What are he and Mary up to?" Charles was their eldest brother, the Earl of Darcy, who lived an active political life with his glamorous wife, a daughter of the late Duke of Salton.
    The beauteous Mary was one of the reasons their mother elected to make her home with her younger son and keep house for him. There was room for only one grande dame under each roof.
    "No, indeed. Not from Charles. We always hear from him on Thursdays, and this is Monday," Jane answered, delicately buttering her toast. "The agency has at last found us a governess."
    There was a sharp gasp, and then a horrible choking noise as Christina coughed on her tea. Michael obligingly reached over and pounded her on the back.
    She turned wide, appalled green eyes toward him, her mouth inelegantly agape. "A governess?"
    He gave her a wry smile—poor comfort, he knew. The subject of a governess had been a sore one at Thorn Hill for a long time, with Christina protesting at every turn. She had been at her freedom ever since her last governess left almost two years ago, and she took full advantage of it. There were great deluges of tears and shouts whenever their mother brought up the topic. Jane, of course, just used the tantrums as one of the foremost reasons there must be a governess.
    As the weeks went on, and no governess could be found who would make her home in the wilds of Yorkshire, a tentative quiet returned to Thorn Hill. Now the storm was breaking over them again.
    "Mother! No!" Christina wailed. "I told you I do not need a governess. I am too old! And she would surely make me give up my walks, my nature experiments, and tell me I should sit in the drawing room and—and stitch away my days!"
    Jane sighed with patient