Say You Love Me by Johanna Lindsey Page B

from her larder. “It’s just down the east road a’ways.” And she pointed in that direction.
    Kelsey left the manor in a quandary. If she hadn’t lied in saying she’d rented the cottage, she might have gotten the help she needed. But she’d tried to keep her relationship with Derek quiet, as he’d wanted, and look what that got her. A persnickety housekeeper who hadn’t even offered her tea and cakes.
    She returned to the cottage even more downhearted and much more hungry. She had no way to obtain credit, of course. She could just see herself asking for a loan on the basis of being Derek Malory’s mistress. A banker would laugh her right out of his office.
    But she did have a few things she could sell in town to at least buy some food for the moment. She had a pocket watch, which was a fine piece with two inset diamonds, a gift from her parents on her fourteenth birthday. She also had that horrid red dress. She was going to hate giving up the watch, but she really had no choice.
    She stuffed the dress into Mrs. Hershal’s basket, which she would need to carry back the food she was going to buy, and set out on the long walk to town. The cottage might nothave any of the proper necessities, but there was plenty of fresh water from the pump in the kitchen and plenty of firewood in the shed out back to at least keep her warm. And she even had one plate to eat on, and a jar of jam.
    Kelsey was almost feeling a little better as she walked to Bridgewater late that afternoon. Almost. But the small bit of optimism she was clinging to didn’t last long, not when each jeweler she found and talked to had no interest in buying the watch from her.
    It was almost dark when she gave up on the watch and tried to sell the red dress.
    The seamstress, a Mrs. Lafleur, had been about to close her shop for the day when Kelsey arrived and pulled the red dress out of the basket for her to examine. But after she explained that she would like to sell it, you’d have thought she’d insulted the woman.
    “In my shop?” the woman exclaimed, eyeing the dress as if Kelsey had let a snake loose on her counter. “I don’t cater to that sort of clientele, miss, nor will I ever.”
    “I’m sorry,” Kelsey was forced to say. “Perhaps you know someone who does?”
    “Not likely,” Mrs. Lafleur huffed. “I might give you a few coppers for the lace—if you can remove it without damaging it. Don’t have time to do it myself. Lost the girl was helping me, and Lady Ellen has ordered a new wardrobe for her daughter, to be delivered next week. She’s my best customer, and I’m going to lose her if I don’t get it finished on time.”
    Kelsey hadn’t asked to hear the woman’stroubles, when she had so many of her own. But at least they did give her an idea.
    She suggested, “Buy the dress from me for five pounds and I’ll help you with Lady Ellen’s order—for further compensation, of course.”
    “ Five pounds! When all I can use is the lace? One pound for the lace, and you finish three dresses that need completing—without further compensation.”
    “One pound for the lace, and another ten pounds to finish two dresses,” Kelsey countered.
    “Ten pounds for two dresses?” the woman sputtered, her already ruddy face getting even redder. “I don’t even pay that much for a month’s work!”
    Kelsey rubbed the sleeve of her spencer. “I happen to know what clothing of good quality costs, Mrs. Lafleur. If you weren’t paying your helper that much per month, then you were robbing her.”
    Unfortunately, Kelsey’s stomach growled very loudly at that moment. By the look that entered Mrs. Lafleur’s eyes upon hearing it, Kelsey knew right then that the woman had the upper hand.
    Kelsey was once again forced to change her tune, saying, “Very well, ten pounds for the completion of three of the dresses—and my stitching is excellent, by the way.”
    By the time Kelsey finished haggling with the woman, it was full dark. But she