Page 3 of A Heart Worth Loving

The maid’s eyes widened and she took a hasty step back. “Right then, Miss. I’ll send for your carriage straightway.” She quickly placed the linens in the armoire, then started toward the door. At the door, she stopped and faced them. “Will you be coming right along?”

“Aye,” Kyla answered before her mother could delay further. “Please ask for Mrs. Brodrick’s conveyance to be brought to the door, and if you will be so kind, please send Lady Ainsley our regrets.”

“There’s no need—” her mother began.

Kyla silenced her with a warning look.

“Aye, Miss,” the maid said, and hurried away.

Kyla shepherded her mother from the room. "We're going to wait on the drive, Mother," she said.

“But I am feeling much better now,” her mother insisted. “We mustn’t take Margaret away—”

“We shan’t.” Kyla nudged her mother down the stairs. “Margaret will stay.”

Her mother heaved a sigh. “They will think us rude.”

Kyla suppressed the retort: Better rude than thieves.

They reached the bottom of the stairs to find the maid waiting at the open door.

Sunshine warmed their faces as they stepped onto the drive. Dark clouds gathered in the near distance. Kyla pulled her wrap up over her shoulders. Soon, the spring rains would pour.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Brodrick, Miss Brodrick,” a gray-haired footman strode forward to greet them. “A groomsman is bringing your carriage, straightway.”

Kyla smiled her thanks and scarce a few minutes later, one of Lady Ainsley’s groomsmen rounded the manor house corner in a curricle.

“Looks like rain, Miss,” the groomsman said as he hopped down from the seat.

“Samson and Delilah will get us home in time.” She nodded at the old gray mare and gelding standing in the traces.

Despite their father’s current success as a smuggler, they had seen lean times in the past. As the overseer of the household finances, Kyla had thought the money better spent on a curricle rather than a carriage or chaise. Now, she wondered if she’d been a wee bit too frugal. The dark clouds racing across the sky promised rain, soon, and in large quantities. They’d rented a chaise over the winter, but with the spring weather ahead, her mother was sure to demand they purchase a barouche.

“Really, perhaps we should stay…” her mother began but sealed her lips as Kyla shot her a narrow-eyed glare.

After the groomsman handed them into the curricle, Kyla took up the reins and snapped them smartly. The horses jolted forward. She drew a deep breath of the crisp air. In truth, she didn’t mind not having a coach and driver. She loved the freedom of handling the reins herself.

“We should have stayed,” her mother complained. “Lady Ainsley threw this party to show us off to local society.”

“She is showing off Margaret, Mother.”

Her mother rolled her eyes. “If you hadn’t bundled me out of there so quickly—”

“Lady Ainsley would have caught you with both hands in her jewelry box,” Kyla cut in.

“Lady Ainsley and I are not so different,” her mother said.

“I wager Lady Ainsley does not hock stolen jewels to pay for her daughter’s wedding.”

“Mind your tongue,” her mother ordered.

As her mother continued to complain about being forced to leave the party, Kyla guided the horses onto the road and flicked the reins. She unexpectedly shuddered at the realization of how close her mother had come to being caught. Had the maid walked into the room before Kyla had, Margaret’s engagement—along with any prospects of a good match in the future—would have died that instant.

As of yet, her younger sister remained blissfully unaware of the nature of their father’s occupation, as well as their mother’s slippery fingers. Kyla intended to keep things that way. As the bonniest daughter of the family, she was expected to make a good match and, at long last, bring a title into the Brodrick family line. In truth, however, Margaret had fallen in love with Richard.

“And?” Her mother’s waspish demand cut through Kayla’s ruminations.

“And what?” Kyla said.