by Hannah West
Chapter One
How to Become a Lady ~ Rule One: A lady is allowed to be rescued, but must first make best efforts.
Dear Cassie,
I do not write to you because I want too. I am desperate and knew not who else to turn to. You must still be mad about what happened between us all those years ago before you left. But you are my only sister after all and my only family I have left. I am ashamed I have to write to you about such a thing but there is not a gentle way to put this. Father died six months ago and I tried to keep the property, but Father had owed to much money. A little over a month everything had to be sold to pay off his debts. Also any money I had saved was taken to pay them as well and I was forced to leave my job. Our old neighbors, the Martins, have been kind enough to let me stay on and live in their barn for helping, but even my welcome here has to come to an end. They are sweet people, but with the children cannot keep up with an extra mouth. And no man wants to marry a poor young woman who works for a living.
All I ask of you is if you would allow me to come stay with you for a short while until I can find a job in the city like you have. One that would provide housing as part of the package.
You owe my nothing, but I still do love you. You do not have to say yes, but please remember me fondly.
Yours Kindly,
Emmaline
Emma read her letter over one more time, folded it, kissing it for good luck before she handed it over to the post and gave the last coin she had to her name to pay for its journey.
She hoped that her sister would read it and had forgiven her over course of the last eight years since she had left. Emma’s hope was slim, but without a hay-penny to her name and nothing more than a few dresses so worn that even her patches had patches, Emma was down to her last option. She had turned to her sister, who eight years ago had been ruined by the local lord’s son and had left after their father had tossed her out for it, hoping her sister did not harbor hate over Emma staying with their father.
Emma had only been fourteen at the time and had been too scared to leave with her older sister who had been seventeen. Her father had threatened to beat her if she even thought about leaving with her sister, but now their cruel father had died and Emma was alone.
She had not heard news from her sister other than one letter sent a year after she had left. Who knew if in fact her sister would receive her letter, or even if her sister still lived? Emma had heard tales of London and how hard it was to work there, to live there. It was rough, dirty and dangerous unless you could get good work from a good house with a good name.
With one more silent prayer she looked after the post and then started the fair trek back to the small Martin estate which was little more than a farm.
Anything was better then the dark future she would face without help from her sister. She refused to go down the road that most women left alone had to travel to survive.
Chapter Two
How to Become a Lady ~ Rule Two: A lady must always carry hope, but must never give up.
The Countess of Wenbrooke sipped at her cooling tea as a footman brought in the mornings mail that held a silver plate out to her with a single letter.
She smiled at the footman and took the letter reading who it was from. The porcelain cup that she had held in her other hand slipped from her fingers and fell to the ground shattering into a million tiny pieces while tea coated the marble floor at her feet.
Cassandra stared in stunned shock at the handwriting on the front of the letter. She had never expected to see such handwriting again as long as she lived.
Cassandra’s husband, Lord Wenbrooke, came running into the room. “Are you alright?” he demanded as he came over to her.
He took her hand and inspected it for any cuts then looked her in the face. She had gone pale, deathly pale and felt on the edge of a faint.
“What’s wrong,” he demanded.
She handed her husband the letter with a shaking hand. After he saw who it was from his face darkened.
“It is a fake or a cruel joke,” John said darkly. “It was badly done. Come let us get you upstairs and rest.”
He started to pull her up but she pushed him away and suddenly found her voice.
“It’s from her!” Cassandra cried. “I know her hand writing and this is from Emma! She yet lives, John! I knew it.”
John frowned and sat next to her. “Cassandra, your sister died of the fever shortly after you left. Your father reported it so and there was even a service.”
Fire blazed in her eyes. “God-damn that man,” she spat, “I never believed she truly died, I hadn’t even been allowed to go to the service for her. How are we to know if there really was one?”
She waved the letter in front of his finely pointed nose.
“Are you forgetting what he had done to me? He could have stopped her from coming to me or even sending me letters.” The light faded from her face as she thought on it. “He must have stopped all of mine to her for she never wrote back. I wonder why now of all times she finally wrote.”
She tore open the letter but before she could read it her husband covered her hands with his. He gave her a solemn look.
“Before you read this, please, do not get your hopes up. It may not be what you are expecting,” he said gently.
She gave her husband a watery smile. “No matter what it says, I now know she is alive. That is all that matters.”
She opened the letter back up with shaky fingers and took a steadying breath before she started to read. She knew her expression changed many times while reading it, but when she came to the end her expression was grim and determined.
Cassandra stood and went over the door to call for a footman. She gave the man orders and then she pulled her husband up from the spot he had been sitting in.
“What did you tell Stevens?” John asked of her.
“I sent him to ready the carriage for travel and have Molly pack my things.” She lifted a hand to cup her husband’s cheek in her palm. “I am going to get my sister. She needs me, John. She is all alone and has been left with nothing. We must bring her home.”
Chapter Three
How to Become a Lady ~ Rule Three: A lady must always be aware of herself and her actions.
Emma was out tending the garden and humming to herself as she picked weeds. The beds had overgrown themselves and weeds need to be picked so that the vegetables could breathe and grow.
She worried over her letter, hoping her sister would get it and then come racing for her, but sometimes things do not go as planned.
Emma sighed as she pulled the last weed and stood up, stretching because her back was sore from all the work she and done this morning. She was about to bend over to pick up her tools when she noticed a carriage coming down the road, but was unsure of the color at this distance.
She narrowed her eyes. The only carriage is this part of town belonged to the local lord’s son, Avery. Blast it, she hated that man, what could he want this time? Had he not hurt enough people in the village, her sister included?
She was surprised when it looked as if the carriage was coming to the Martins’ home. She forgot her tools and bolted for the house. This could not be good since it was coming to the house; she had to warn them before it got there.
She doubled her speed and went crushing in the back door to the kitchen, scaring the life out of Mrs. Martin.
“What are you doing, girl?” she asked.
“There is a carriage heading for your house. I’m not sure, but I think its Lord Avery,” Emma said out of breath.
A dark look crossed Mrs. Martin’s
face. “You take the girls upstairs with you and don’t let them out of your sight. I’ll keep the boys with me and bring Judd in from the front. Do not come down stairs until I come to get you, you hear?” she ordered.
Emma swallowed and nodded. “Yes, I do.” Before she passed by the older woman she kissed her on the cheek, “Thank you.”
“Nothing I wouldn’t do for my own,” Mrs. Marin said. “You are like family. Now go and be fast.”
Emma didn’t hesitate. She grabbed up the two girls from the front room on her way up the stairs and locked the door behind them, taking it one step farther she propped a chair under the nob.
She was scared and nervous. Avery had never come after her before, but this was the same as thing that happened the day he had raped her sister.
Emma would fight to the death before his foul self-touched her or the girls.
“What is going on, Emma?” Amy asked.
“We’re scared,” Elizabeth added her eyes wide.
“I am not sure what is happening yet, my sweets, but your mother told us to come up here and be quite. She will come get us when it is alright for us to go down stairs,” Emma told them with a fake smile plastered on her face.
The girls didn’t buy into her story but she would not move from in front of the door.
At the ages of thirteen and fifteen the girls were curious about anything that happened since they never left the farm much, but she would be damned if Avery got his hands on them. If only she had the power to do something about the worm of a man.
She was considered a ‘lady’ by birth since her father had been a baron, but she had been raised as any other country girl would have, making her a commoner. Emma had no complaints about how she was raised because she knew no difference. But that alone should have been enough to stop Avery from taking her sister and trying to do the same to her.
He had only tried once and she had bloodied his nose for it, he had never come after her again but always had that threatening looking on his face.
She did not want the girls to feel like this, like her every time something happened. They didn’t need to be fearful of the world and of people. They should be happy and care free.
Well, now all they had to do was wait.
Chapter Four
How to Become a Lady ~ Rule Four: A lady is compassionate to others.
Cassandra looked out the carriage window at the area she had grown up from. Everything still looked the same as before even in the years she had been gone. She had expected to feel panic about coming back, but all she really felt was the worry over her sister.
Cassandra bit her lip. What if something had already happened to her sister? The letter had been post marked from two weeks ago after getting turned around to find its way to her.
A warm hand slid over hers and gripped tightly. “It will be okay, Cassandra, I have faith that she is doing well. You said she had someone helping her. She is well, do not worry.”
“I can’t help it, John. Who knows what has truly happen to her since I left? Father was a cruel man; I should have come to take her sooner. I had the power to do so,” she said softly.
“You could have do nothing as your father led you to believe she had died. You truly did not know.”
“I should have. I should have sent someone to search and find out the truth, I knew what the man was capable of doing.” Her lower lip trembled, “I left her to live in poverty when I have so much. My pin money for a month could have paid for everything she would have in a year ten times over.”
John cupped her cheek. “My dear, you are here now and that is what matters. We shall get her everything she needs. You know she will want for nothing. With the Season coming up soon, maybe you can give her one if that is her wish.”
“Think you that she will be mad at me? After only showing up now after all this time?”
“No, she will love you as I do. Was it not she who wrote to you?” he asked with a smile.
Cassandra nodded and looked back out the window of the small rundown manor house they were going to stop at. Soon she would know of sure just how her sister felt.
Soon the carriage came to a halt and the door opened to left her husband out first. She stepped down taking her husband’s hand for support and stared at the old stone house.
An odd feeling came over her as she stared at the place. It had been a long eight years indeed.
Before they could go up the steps to ask the door was opened by a giant of a man that Cassandra knew was Mr. Martin.
He eyed them both before asking. “What do you need? The inn is up the road.”
Cassandra walked forward and gave him the best smile she could manage. “Do you not remember me Mr. Martin? Although it has been some time since I last saw you. I believe my sister is staying on with you.”
Mr. Martins blue eyes widened behind his spectacles and he stepped forward out of the arched doorway.
“Miss Cassie, is that you? Your sister did say that she had written to you, but we did not except you to come,” he said in slight surprise. “You have grown into a beautiful lady.”
She smiled at him. “Yes, well, thank you. I am the Countess of Wenbrooke now. This is my husband, Lord Wenbrooke.”
Wenbrooke came forward and shook the man’s hand outstretched, dumb-founded hand.
Cassandra tried to look around Mr. Martin. “Is my sister here, Mr. Martin? I have come to take her home with me. Had I known she was alive, I would have come for her years ago.”
The mention of her sister being dead puzzled Mr. Martin and he said her, “What do you mean that ‘had you known she was alive’?”
She scowled. “Father led me to believe she died shortly after I left, of a fever. He wrote that a service had been done for her and that I could not attend. I felt guilty over leaving her here with the blasted man.”
Mr. Martin’s eyes widened farther at her cursing, but he said nothing on it. Instead he to cursed her father.
“That rotten old bugger. If he was still alive I might clock him one for it. I don’t like to speak ill of the dead but I am glad he is gone.”
She nodded in agreement. “Me as well. So is my sister here? May I see her?”
The giant man nodded and gestured her into the house. “Do please come in. My lady,” he added quickly after.
“You may still call me Cassie, that is what I have always been around here,” she said with a smile before she went in.
Mrs. Martin stood by the front window and smiled as she looked over Cassandra. “You have changed so much since you have been gone. I never thought to see you again, dear.” Her smile faded. “Your sister has fallen on some hard times, I’m afraid, since the passing of your father. The rotten man left her behind with all his debt. She was left with nothing more than a few dresses, poor thing.”
Cassie came forward and gave Mrs. Martin a hug. “Thank you so much for taking her in.”
“If only we could have done more. We turned the old hay loaf into a room for her since there was no more room in the house, but she has been safe here. She was the one who spotted your carriage. She thought it was Lord Avery so she and the girls are up in one of the rooms.” She gave Cassandra a watery smile, “I’ll go get her and bring her down to you.”
Mrs. Martin went up the stairs and Cassandra found she was nervous. Her hands shook the slightest bit and her heart hammered in her chest, trying to escape.
She looked back at her husband who gave her a reassuring smile. She turned back to the stairs as she heard someone coming down them.
The young woman who walked down the stairs was not someone she knew. While the long braid of silky blonde hair was familiar and so were the dark green eyes, the young woman had a thin face and slight frame that showed a lack of proper eating. The expression on her face was fearful and unsure.
She stopped short of reaching Cassandra and was silent as Cassandra came closer and looked her over.
Tears bit into Cassandra’s eyes as she looked over her sister
, seeing just how hard things had been on her.
She looked nothing like Cassandra remembered. The sweet chubby cheek girl who laughed freely and had not a care in the world. She was taller and looked as if she had worked in one of the factories in town. Her poor sister had been living like a poor villager while she had been living like a queen.
Without another moment notice she launched herself at her sister, promptly burst into tears.
Chapter Five
How to Become a Lady ~ Rule Five: A lady must know when to give in, but never give up.
Emma stood stock-still for a moment as this beautiful, fancy lady hugged her and started to cry. She was not really sure who this lady was or why she was crying.
Emma did not think this woman could be her sister, she looked nothing like the sister she remembered and this woman was dressed up as a noble lady in a pale green day dress with flawless hair piled high on her head with a pretty heart shaped face.
Surely this lady was not her sister. Her sister had gotten a position of a governess to a well-to-do family in London to their three children. She could not imagine that her sister would have married, and if she did it would not have been a peer of the realm, a lord, like their father. She had hated the peerage do to their cruel father.
The woman pulled back from her to stare at her face with searching, teary eyes.
“Do you not recognize me?” she laughed softly, “I would not guess so, I have changed a good deal since I left me. I am no longer the same person who left the county. Emmaline, it is me, Cassie. I have come to bring you home with us.” She smiled slightly.
Emma searched her face and found a few familiar features that she knew. Her sister’s matching green eyes, just like her’s and the little beauty mark at the corner of her mouth. She reached out and took her sister’s face in her hands and tried to memorize her face.