Page 9 of The Lady's Companion
“Is it that bad with him?” Lady Bushnell asked, her inquiry still polite.
Susan nodded, and gave herself a moment to reply. “There is very little between me and ruin, my lady,” she managed finally. “My father may mean well, but he cannot provide.’’
“You have an aunt, I believe?”
“I do. She would like me to be available to fetch and carry for her.”
“That’s what you will be doing for my mother-in-law, if I select you,” Lady Bushnell said, her words reasonable. “Why not stay under the protection of your family?”
It was a good question, quietly put and extremely apt. In a way that no words could express, Susan knew that her acceptancehinged on her answer. Joel Steinman felt it, too, and she was grateful. He stirred in his chair, his leg touching her dress briefly. She felt the movement of the material and took heart. It was as though he had taken her hand for support.
“I could, of course, my lady,” she said. “I am sure there are those who say I should remain under their protection, but it wouldn’t be any time at all before I vanished.”
Lady Bushnell cocked her head to one side. “Vanished?” she asked. She nodded when the maid entered quietly with the tea.
“She means well,” Susan went on when the door closed again, “but I would become Aunt Louisa’s unfortunate niece, and not a person in my own right.” She managed a smile with no mirth in it. “I am already Sir Rodney’s daughter, my lady, and that is difficult enough to bear.”
“Running away to the Cotswolds won’t change that,” Lady Bushnell interjected, her voice mild.
“It might,” Susan disagreed. “There I would be Susan Hampton, and I might discover that that is a nice thing.”
“Miss Hampton, my mother-in-law does not want a companion, and has told me this on numerous occasions. She is sixty-five and has buried a husband, a daughter, and a son. She followed the drum through India and the Peninsula, and is a legend in the army.” Lady Bushnell paused for the briefest moment, then continued in her masterfully calm voice. “She is independent, stubborn, and dear to me beyond all reckoning. I want great care to be taken of her without her knowing it. Do you think you could do that? Her bailiff does it, but he is busy with the estate. She will try you and exasperate you.”
Lady Bushnell sighed. “I fear she does not wish to give up even one inch of her independence.” She regarded Susan. “Something in your face tells me that you sympathize,” she said in amusement. Her voice turned serious again. “Still, it will be difficult. Are you equal to it?”
I must be, Susan thought. This is all the chance I have. “I do not fold easily, my lady.”
Lady Bushnell smiled. “Susan Hampton, I do not think you fold at all. Pour tea for us, won’t you?”
Susan eyed the teapot. “I think my hands are shaking too badly, my lady.”
“And you are an honest body, Miss Hampton,” Lady Bushnell noted. “That will suit Lady B’s bailiff. Pour it anyway.”
Susan did, picking up cup and saucer, and taking a firm grip on the teapot. She kept her back straight, as Mama had taught her, and even managed an artful splash at the end that sent a little geyser of tea evenly creating its cultured wave to the edge of the cup. Head high, she held out the cup to Lady Bushnell, who ac-cepted it with a twinkle in her eye.
“You are made of sterner stuff.”
Sterner than what, was unspoken. I will spend a lifetime living down my father, she thought as she poured a cup for Joel Steinman.
“The position is yours, if you want it,” Lady Bushnell offered, after a sip of tea. “Can you leave right away?”
“Tomorrow, if that’s soon enough.” Heaven knows Aunt Louisa will wash her hands of me.
Lady Bushnell smiled. “I think that will be soon enough, my dear! Now you have to see if you can please a woman who doesn’t need you, and a bailiff who feels the same. I don’t know which will be more difficult.”
Chapter Four
The job was Susan’s, but even Lady Bushnell was hard put to explain why. “I have tried many,” she said companionably over tea, and smiled when Joel Steinman nodded in agreement. “You’re forty years her junior, and I can think of little you two might have in common. And yet... oh, well. Only take good care of her.”
“If she will allow me,” Susan interjected.
“Yes, if she will allow you.” Lady Bushnell hesitated then, as though she wondered if what she requested would be agreeable to Susan. “Miss Hampton, I wish to do all I can to give my mother- in-law a free hand, but if she falls ill, or suffers an injury, I expect you to tell me. I will spare no effort to see that she is removed from her remote valley and cared for, no matter what my other responsibilities.”
“I will do as you ask, my lady.”
“I hope you will.”
It was a sobering reflection, Susan decided as they left the mansion in early afternoon. I am setting out for a place I have never been, to do something I have never done before, and among people who probably don’t want me. More than typically silent, she allowed Joel Steinman to walk her home the few blocks from the Bushnell residence.
