Molly Read Online Free Page B

And, ugh, that China tea. I’d have given anything for a really strong cup of coffee. I—”
    She broke off, as a loud masculine voice could be heard from the garden next door. “Damn and blast this dead—alive hole,” it said.
    Both girls giggled nervously. “Let’s go see,” whispered Molly. “Sounds like a fellow spirit.”
    They got up and walked quietly through the trees, over a springy carpeting of moss. A crumbling fern-covered stone wall marked the boundary between the Holdens’ property and next door. A screen of trees blocked the view of the neighboring garden. Mary tugged at Molly’s sleeve in a kind of pleading way but Molly was determined to have a look at this angry neighbor.
    Pulling Mary behind her, she edged her way along the wall until she came to a gap in the trees. She found herself looking along a sort of narrow green tunnel of briars and bushes to a vista of cool lawns and garden chairs. One of the chairs suddenly went flying and there, in the gap, was the angry neighbor. He was a tall, swarthy, harsh-featured young man. His black slanting eyebrows under hair as thick and black as Molly’s own gave him a Satanic look. He was wearing an old pair of riding breeches and an open-necked white shirt that accentuated his tan.
    He was slashing at the bushes with a riding crop in a moody, vicious way.
    Molly responded this time to Mary’s tugging. Both turned and scampered back through the wood.
    “Isn’t he
terrible
,” gasped Molly when they felt it safe to speak. “He looks like the devil!”
    “Gels! Gels!” summoned an imperative voice from the house. Feeling as if they were back in school, the two sisters trudged toward the mansion.
    Lady Fanny was dressed in a long velvet dinner gown, showing exactly the correct expanse of bosom in front and the correct amount of vertebrae behind.
    “You are no longer schoolgirls,” was her opening remark. “You are covered in bits of leaves. Retire to your rooms and change for dinner immediately. On second thought, perhaps you have nothing to change in
to
. Get yourselves brushed up and don’t be long. We dine in twenty minutes.”
    In less than the twenty minutes, the Maguires were timidly seated at an expanse of dining table and the nightmare began. “You must learn to take a little wine,” ordered Lady Fanny. “Fill their glasses, James,” she ordered a footman.
    Mary rebelled. “I don’t gotta take wine if’n I don’t wanna.”
    Lady Fanny closed her eyes as if in pain. “This is going to be worse than I thought. You
must
have elocution lessons as soon as possible. Do
not
use double negatives, Mary. A little wine will do you no harm. No, Molly, one does
not
eat asparagus with a knife and fork. With the
fingers
, girl. The fingers.”
    Both girls occasionally looked toward Lord Toby. Several times he made a few deep rumblings as if indicating that he was about to erupt into speech, but each time Fanny quelled whatever it was he was about to say with one pale, cold eye.
    Molly and Mary labored through exotic course after course, praying that each one might be the last. “Are you enjoying your first English dinner?” queried Lady Fanny.
    “Sure. Swell,” said Mary dreamily. The wine was going to her head.
    “There will be
ready-made
clothes arriving for you on the morrow,” said Lady Fanny. “These will have to do until your other clothes are ready. You must be prepared to change at least six times a day.”
    Molly choked on her food. “Six times!” she exclaimed in dismay. “That doesn’t leave us time to do anything else.”
    “There will be
plenty
of time,” retorted Lady Fanny. “You will be busy at first with your lessons. You must have elocution lessons. Not so much you, Molly. There is no harm in an American accent, in fact some gentlemen find it piquant, but Mary’s grammar needs attention. Then you must have dancing lessons and lessons in deportment.”
    Molly made a bid for freedom. “I honestly don’t think