Polonaise Read Online Free

chit living in a palace.’
    â€˜Yes.’ Her mother swallowed a lump of tears.
    Peverel returned late, full of port and good news. ‘Took me a while to get his Lordship alone,’ he confided to his wife, who had already retired to bed. ‘Full house as usual: artists, children, dogs – fellow called Turner I never could abide. Open house, mind you. I always enjoy going there.’ He dropped his clothes on the floor and reached for his nightshirt. ‘Egremont says she’s a lucky young woman.’
    â€˜Jenny?’
    â€˜Who else? Now her mother and brother are dead, Princess Isobel is absolute mistress of the estate at Rendomierz and God knows what else. And won’t lose possession when she marries. I always knew those Poles were a set of barbarians. Wife setting herself up independent of her husband! No wonder she’s had a bit of trouble finding one.’
    â€˜Has she?’
    â€˜Must be rising twenty. They can’t have been exactly flocking forward, can they?’
    â€˜Maybe she’s hard to please,’ said his wife sleepily.
    He snorted with laughter. ‘Can afford to be, God knows. One other thing.’ He put the candle on the table at his side of the bed and climbed in. ‘You’ll have to say a word or two to Jenny about the husband, Ovinski.’
    â€˜Oh?’ She shifted a little away as his heavy bulk settled into the bed.
    â€˜An old rake, as I thought. Nearer sixty than fifty and a sick man, Egremont says. Never married before; wants an heir in his old age; dynastic arrangement; you know the kind of thing.’
    â€˜I don’t like it! Mark –’ How seldom she called him by hisgiven name. ‘Let’s not let her go.’ She reached out a hand to him.
    â€˜Nonsense. Gave my word, didn’t I?’ He blew out the candle. ‘My word’s my bond. Always was, always will be. No need to fret yourself about the chit. Plain as a pikestaff; probably why the Princess wants her. Lots of prettier girls in Rendomierz.’ Enflamed by the idea of them, he rolled over and caught her in the hot, familiar grip.
    â€˜It’s all settled,’ he announced at the breakfast table, to which the two women had come heavy-eyed from lack of sleep. ‘You’re in luck, miss. Egremont knows of a very good sort of merchant, a Mr. Richards, who is taking the chance of the peace to get his family out to Petersburg by the land route. Wife can’t face the Baltic. So they are going by sea as far as Hamburg, and then overland by Berlin and Warsaw. Egremont had heard from the Princess too,’ he explained belatedly. ‘Wasn’t a bit surprised to see me. She’d written to him, old friend of her mother’s, asking his help in a host of commissions for the wedding. It’s going to be quite an affair. She mentioned you, Jenny.’ His surprise was obvious. ‘She really wants you, seems like. You’d better bustle about, girl. The Richards leave in two weeks. Can’t waste a moment if they are to get to Petersburg before winter sets in; Mrs. Richards don’t stand the cold any better than she does the sea. Going to have a hard time in Petersburg, I fancy. Egremont’s written Richards telling him you’ll join them in town Monday week.’
    â€˜So soon!’ exclaimed Mrs. Peverel. ‘It can’t be done!’
    â€˜Has to be. You can have the horses tomorrow; go into Chichester; buy what you must. Little as possible. You should be there well before the cold sets in. Didn’t the Princess say something about that?’
    â€˜Yes.’ Jenny had the amazing letter almost by heart. ‘She gets her wadded clothes for the winter from Vienna, she says. It will be her pleasure to outfit me. Imagine Isobel so rich, so sure of what she wants! Do you remember, mama, what a little bit of a thing she was when they were at Petworth? She couldn’t keep up with Casimir and me; we