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Martha smiled, perfectly contented, and rose to kiss her daughter on the cheek. “Goodnight, Lulu,” she said lovingly. “I’ll save you some Wensleydale for your breakfast.”
Louisa chuckled at her mother’s lack of attentiveness and hugged her. As she walked past her chair in the sitting room, she looked at the small dog sitting in front of the fire and called to him, “Come on, Lloyd! Bedtime.” At first, the dog’s ears perked up, and when his brain caught up with what was happening, he quickly rose and trotted beside her. He gave her one small bark, and Louisa bent down to pet the scruffy-looking black and white mutt.
Louisa had discovered Lloyd in the village one day, being tormented by a group of boys. They wanted to see how far he would go to get something to eat, and by the time that Louisa came upon them, they seemed to have already made him do some rather terrible things.
Louisa scolded the boys for such cruel treatment of a kind, harmless animal, and then she scooped him into her arms and brought him home with her.
“That is the mangiest mongrel I have ever seen,” her father had said when she came home. “No wonder those boys were having their fun with him, you should have left him there.”
“Archibald Reginald Pelham!” her mother had scolded him. “This is a creature in need of assistance, and you say that about him? You apologize to him right this minute!”
Archie had rolled his eyes good-naturedly and then obeyed his wife’s orders. “I am sorry, you mutt. But it is true; you are rather ugly.”
Lloyd had given him a yap in return, but Archie did not protest against him anymore. Louisa had him feeling and looking better in no time, and Lloyd quickly became an important member of the Pelham household. He even had his own little bed by the fire that Martha had sewn for him, but he much preferred sleeping next to Louisa, right by her head.
And so, the dark-haired, worried young woman and her loyal mutt had trundled off to bed. Louisa’s mind may have been plagued by worry and concern, but she knew that there was no point in ruminating on it tonight. She decided to wait and see what the morning would bring, and hopefully, that would be immediate interest in this house that she had come to associate with her family’s disgrace.
