"Hiatt, Brenda - Daring Deception" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hiatt Brenda)

sight of one of Frederica's pet mice. The maid was new, and had not yet
grown accustomed to her mistress's unusual menagerie.

On coming downstairs, Frederica had found that someone had neglected to latch
the scullery door, and one of the Angora goats had come into the kitchen.
Cook was furious and threatening to give notice, and by the time Frederica
had soothed him, her peacock, Fanfare, was screaming loudly for his
breakfast. An hour later, the steward appeared to inform her that the late
summer rains had ruined the barley crop. Mrs. Gresham, the aging
housekeeper, was in a sour mood after being wakened by the peacock and
aroused Cook's are in turn by suggesting the porridge was lumpy. Frederica
managed to smooth things over between the habitual combatants, pacifying Mrs.
Gresham with one of Cook's puff pastries in place of the reviled porridge.

Then the accounts had to be gone overand Frederica found that she had made
an error last month that necessitated re figuring two complete columns.

After mining three pen nibs, hunting down the housekeeper's missing keys and
separating two young kitchen maids who were pelting each other with flour,
Frederica finally retreated to the little back parlour with a tea tray,
determined to have an hour to herself to recover her spirits and energy. She
had taken only one sip, however, when yet another interruption occurred.

"Good afternoon, Freddie." A familiar figure appeared without warning in the
doorway.

Though the young man standing there possessed blond hair, while Frederica's
curls were the colour of brightly polished copper, there was a sire11 ilarity
between the two that marked them at once as brother and sister.

"Thomas! I thought you still in London." Frederica rose with a welcoming
smile. One look at her brother's handsome countenance, however, told her
that he was highly agitated about something.

"Is anything wrong?" After everything else that had happened today, it
seemed all too likely.

Despite the fact that she was a year younger, Frederica had tended to mother
Thomas ever since their own mother's death nearly ten years before. In vain
she reminded herself that he was one and twenty now, a man grown. Of late he
had begun to resent her ordering of their lives, she knew. In fact, when he
had left for Town a few weeks before, she had feared that he might do
something foolish merely to prove his independence.

"You haven't gotten into some sort of trouble, have you, dear?" she asked
with ready concern.

Looking at him now, she could not help seeing the scapegrace lad he had been,
to be soothed, shielded and' advised, as always. Thomas, however,
immediately donned a charming smile and came forward to embrace her.