[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

story filled with crimes and horrors and vengeful phantoms. Doesn't it sound lovely?"
"1 thought your best friend in the world was Edwina Huddersneld," Win said with a questioning lilt.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"Oh, no, that was weeks ago. Edwina and I don't even speak now." Snuggling comfortably in her
corner, Beatrix gave her older sister a perplexed glance. "Win? You have the oddest look on your face.
Is something the matter?"
Win had frozen in the act of lifting a teacup to her lips, her blue eyes round with alarm.
Following her sister's gaze, Amelia saw a small reptilian creature slithering up Beatrix's shoulder. A sharp
cry escaped her lips, and she moved forward with her hands raised.
Beatrix glanced at her shoulder. "Oh, drat. You're supposed to stay in my pocket." She plucked the
wriggling object from her shoulder and stroked him gently. "A spotted sand lizard," she said. "Isn't he
adorable? I found him in my room last night."
Amelia lowered her hands and stared dumbly at her youngest sister.
"You've made a pet of him?" Win asked weakly. "Beatrix, dear, don't you think he would be happier in
the forest where he belongs?"
Beatrix looked indignant. "With all those predators? Spot wouldn't last a minute."
Amelia found her voice. "He won't last a minute with me, either. Get rid of him, Bea, or I'm going to
flatten him with the nearest heavy object I can find."
"You would murder my pet?"
"One doesn't murder lizards, Bea. One exterminates them." Exasperated, Amelia turned to Merripen.
"Find some cleaning women in the village, Merripen. God knows how many other unwanted creatures
are lurking in the house. Not counting Leo."
Merripen disappeared at once.
"Spot is the perfect pet," Beatrix argued. "He doesn't bite, and he's already house-trained."
"I draw the line at pets with scales."
Beatrix stared at her mutinously. "The sand lizard is a native species of Hampshire which means Spot
has more right to be here than we do."
"Nevertheless, we will not be cohabiting." Walking away before she said something she would regret
later, Amelia wondered why, when there was so much to be done, Beatrix would be so troublesome. But
a smile rose to her lips as she reflected that fifteen-year-old girls didn't choose to be troublesome. They
simply were.
Lifting handfuls of her skirts to pull them away from her legs, Amelia bounded up the grand central
staircase. Since they would not be receiving guests or paying calls, she had decided not to wear a corset
that day. It was a
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
wonderful feeling to breathe as deeply as she wished and move freely about the house. .
Filled with determination, she pounded on Leo's door. '"Wake up, slugabed!"
A string of foul words filtered through the heavy oak panels.
Grinning, Amelia went into Poppy's room. She pulled the curtains open, releasing clouds of dust that
caused her to sneeze. "Poppy, it's... achoo!... time to get out of bed."
The covers had been drawn completely over Poppy's Head. "Not yet," came her muffled protest.
Sitting on the edge of the mattress, Amelia eased the covers away from her nineteen-year-old sister.
Poppy was groggy and sleep-flushed, her cheek imprinted with a line left by a fold of the bedclothes. Her
brown hair, a warmer, ruddier tint than Amelia's, was a wild mass of tangles.
"I hate morning," Poppy mumbled. "And I'm sure I don't like being awakened by someone who looks so
bloody pleased about it."
"I'm sorry." Continuing to smile, Amelia stroked her sister's hair away from her face repeatedly.
"Mmmn." Poppy kept her eyes closed. "Mama used to do that. Feels nice."
"Does it?" Amelia laid her hand gently over the curve of Poppy's skull. "Dear, I'm going to walk to the
village to ask Freddie's mother if we can hire him as our gardener."
"Isn't he a bit young?"
"Not in comparison to the other candidates for the position."
"We have no other candidates."
"Precisely." She went to Poppy's valise in the corner,
and picked up the bonnet poised atop it. "May I borrow this? Mine still hasn't been repaired."
"Of course, but... you're going right now?"
"I won't be long. I'll cover the territory quickly."
"Would you like me to go with you?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]