Daring Deception Part 3

How was it that Freddie could always make him feel so guilty?

"Now, weren't you going to show me the drainage ditches?"

To Frederiea's vast relief there was a letter awaiting her from Miss Milliken upon her return to the house an hour later. She tore it open eagerly, scanned its brief contents and went at once in search of her brother.

"Thomas," she said when she found him in the stables looking over the carriage horses, "I've just had a letter from Miss Milliken. You know, my old governess," she reminded him when he looked blank.

"She has asked me to visit he rand I mean to go. I believe I shall find her a soothing influence--something I stand in need of just now." She kept her eyes wide and guileless, a.s.suming a long-suffering look. "That sounds a capital idea, Freddie," her brother replied cheerfully.

"If I remember her rightly, she'll be just the one to talk some sense into you. Didn't she go to her father in the country somewhere?"

"Yes," said Frederica, not feeling it necessary to disclose the precise location of the house.

"I thought I would leave on the morrow.

"Tis less than half a day's drive."

"I'll be up to see you off. Write to me if you change your mind about the Little Season so that I may make preparations."

"Of course I shall." Frederica turned back to the house to make the necessary arrangements for her first-ever prolonged absence from Maple Hill, telling herself that it would do Thomas good to have the running of it to himself for a bit. Humming a stirring march under her breath, she thought over what she hoped to accomplish. Never inform the enemy of your intentions, that was what Miss Milliken had always said.

By2om~ TS~T~M~ the next day Frederica's carriage drew up in front of the Millikens' small, neat cottage. As she was giving the manservant directions about her trunks and caged pets--mice and peac.o.c.k only, for the goats would have been most impractical to transport--her old friend appeared in the doorway. Frederica hurried forward to embrace her.

"Milly, you look just the same as ever. I amso glad to see you!"

"And I you, Frederica," she replied in the low, melodious voice Frederica remembered so well.

At forty, Miss Milliken still possessed fine, aristocratic features and a striking style, though she could never have been precisely beautiful.

"You mentioned a problem in your letter and I can see that you have been worrying of late. I suggest you come inside and tell me about it at once."

She led the way to a tiny, immaculate purl our As always, Milly's mere presence helped Frederica to focus and marshal her thoughts. It was a practice Miss Milliken had encouraged from the time her young charge was eight years old.

"Thomas has done the most dreadful thing," Frederica began after sitting down and taking the requisite three deep breaths.

"Between us, I hope that we may undo it."

She went on to relate the entire situation as her brother had presented it.

Her old governess listened in silence, merely nodding once or twice. When Frederica concluded, Miss Milliken fixed sharp brown eyes upon her.

"Do you wish to marry?"

Frederica blinked in surprise.

"No! That is, well, I suppose .I rather expected that I would marry someday.

I had envisioned a gentleman with whom I would share mutual interests, a growing attraction, perhaps even love. Someone like Papa, perhaps, with estates that I could help to manage, who would be a good father to any children we might have."

She paused thoughtfully.

"I would like to have children, I must admit. The girls at the village school are very dear to me, but that is not quite the same." She gave a wistful sigh.

"And yet you have never made the slightest effort to meet such a gentleman,"

Miss Milliken pointed out.

"You refused every suggestion that you have a London Season."

Frederica grimaced.

"You have told me enough about the Season for me to know that I would dislike it excessively. To be thrust into a whirl of b.a.l.l.s and routs, paraded before countless gentlemen and then chosen by one like a prize calf ... that is not what I had in mind at all.

Besides, who would manage Maple Hill were I to leave for two or three months at a time? It took me hours with Mrs. Gresham and Mr. Bridges to prepare even for this visit. "

"Then it would appear that Sir Thomas has come up with a perfect solution.

You can scarcely expect all the eligible gentlemen in England to come to Maple Hill to be picked over at your leisure. By marrying Lord Sea brooke, you need not subject yourself to the anathema of parties and b.a.l.l.s to find a husband." Miss Mifliken's eyes were twinkling now.

"That is not what I meant, and well you know it, Milly!" said Frederiea with a reluctant smile.

"It is simply that I should Ytke to have a say in whom I marry--to choose someone with whom I can be comfortable, not have him thrust upon me. I know nothing about Lord Sea brooke beyond what Thomas has told me. He sounds little better than a rake, a do-nothing man about town. And for all I know, he could be much worse than that!" She shuddered involuntarily.

Miss Milliken regarded her steadily, her expression again serious.

"The unknown is always frightening," she said perceptively.

"However, I must agree that it was extremely ill-advised of Sir Thomas to make such a commitment on your behalf without your consent.

I would like to think that he has your best interests at heart, and indeed it may turn out so, but you dare not leave something so important as your future to chance, or to your brother's whims. Sir Thomas has not always shown the best of judgement. We ourselves must undertake to discover everything there is to know about Lord Sea brooke," she concluded decisively.

"Oh, Milly, i knew I could count on you!" exclaimed Frederica, vastly relieved.

"Where shall we start? You still have numerous acquaintances in Town, do you not?"

"I do. I shall write at once to Mrs. Pomfrey, as well as to two or three others who are not so highly placed but who may be in better positions to ferret out the type of information we require.

I should have some news for you in a day or two. Once we have more facts, we can decide what our next line of attack will be. "

Frederica smiled at her friend's phrasing.

"I doubt not your connections will uncover something about Lord Sea brooke that will force Thomas to change his mind. There must be something havey-cavey about him or he would never have agreed to this betrothal."

Miss Milliken nodded thoughtfully.

"You are very likely right. That did strike me as peculiar, particularly if the man is so popular as Sir Thomas says." She stood then and said briskly, "Now, I shall show you to your room so that you may tidy yourself before tea is brought in."

Falling easily into her old habit of obedience, Frederica followed Miss Milliken out of the room, her step far lighter than it had been when she entered.

For Frederica staying at the Milliken cottage was like being on holiday, free from her myriad duties and responsibilities at home. She suspected that over an extended period of time she would become bored with such a life of leisure, but for a day or two it was pleasant, indeed.

Miss Milliken's father was a kindly old man who appeared to take in little of what went on about him. Although he was delighted at his introduction to Frederica at dinner her first evening there, she had to be presented to him all over again in the morning.