Love With the Proper Husband by Victoria Alexander Page B

manner, nothing more than a ploy to gain a moment to marshal her thoughts and make sense of her feelings, far too tumultuous to understand at the moment. The only thing she was certain of was that for the first time in her life, she was not alone. The fate of someone other than herself lay in her hands. Even if those others were children.
    She drew a deep breath. “Do you like living at Townsend Park?”
    “It’s a lovely house with wonderful grounds,” Charity said staunchly.
    “But do you like it?” Gwen wasn’t sure why it mattered, but it did.
    “It’s quite the nicest place we’ve ever lived.” Patience’s voice was cool. Gwen sighed. “Very well then, if you’re happy, I can scarcely—”
    “No!” Hope shot a panicked glare at her sisters, then stepped toward Gwen. “We’re not at all happy. We hate it here. It’s horrid. Truly, truly horrid. No one, not even the servants, talks to us. Pickleface constantly looks at us as if she’s just eaten something nasty.”
    “Oh dear,” Gwen murmured, wondering how some of her charges might have described her and suspecting it was no better, and possibly a great deal worse, than Pickleface.
    “Yes and do you know what else?” Patience sank on the sofa beside her. “She sniffs. All the time. Not like the sniffles but like she’s smelling something the rest of us can’t see. Something really nasty.”
    “Like a dog.” Hope plopped onto the sofa on Gwen’s other side. “Did you know dogs are remarkably good at sniffing? They have excellent noses.”
    “I had heard that somewhere,” Gwen murmured.
    “She doesn’t like us.” A vague edge of surprise sounded in Hope’s voice. “And she says…”
    Hope’s bottom lip trembled.
    “She says…” Patience slanted a glance at her older sister, then drew a deep breath, her words coming in a breathless rush. “She says we’re a dreadful inconvenience and a terrible burden and when her brother returns he shall probably send us away.” Patience’s eyes glistened. “One at a time.”
    “One at a time?” Gwen drew her brows together. “What do you mean?”
    “She means we won’t be able to stay together,” Charity said sharply. “Pickleface says no one will take three girls, particularly girls who are as old as we are.”
    Hope sighed. “She says girls of our age are costly to maintain. Dresses and seasons and dowries and all sorts of things.”
    “We won’t go, you know.” Patience crossed her arms and settled deeper into the sofa. “We’ve already decided.”
    Gwen didn’t like the sound of that, not that she blamed them. “Exactly what have you decided?”
    “We’re going to run away.” Patience grinned in a smug manner. “We’re going to the Friendly Islands. Do you know where they are?”
    “Of course.” Gwen nodded. “Polynesia.”
    “We visited there once with Mama and Papa.” Hope paused. “Before they were eaten by cannibals, of course.”
    “Cannibals?” Gwen studied the child. “I thought they were—” Three challenging gazes met hers.
    “Never mind. Do go on.”
    “The Friendly Islands are very pretty and we quite like the name.” Hope nodded eagerly. “We shall live on the beach in little huts and catch fish for our supper.”
    “Running away never solved one’s problems,” Gwen said without thinking. Admittedly, while she spouted the time-honored advice, she’d never paid any heed to it herself. Still, who should know better than she the truth of it? “Besides, I suspect you need a fair amount of money to get to the Friendly Islands. Do you have a fair amount of money?”
    “I hadn’t thought of that,” Patience murmured.
    “I have.” Determination sounded in Charity’s voice. “And we won’t need money. We shall stow away on a ship and it won’t cost us anything at all.” She slanted Gwen a triumphant look.
    “I daresay that is clever.” Gwen pulled her brows together. “Dreadfully uncomfortable though, I should think. You would have