Читать книгу The Earl and the Governess - Sarah Elliott - Страница 11

Isabelle allowed her hair to dry and changed into a fresh gown, unfortunately very wrinkled from travel. She’d hoped to hang it up overnight. Then she pottered about for another twenty minutes, opening every drawer in hopes of finding telling artefacts to illuminate the rakish Lord Lennox. Billets-doux from past mistresses, threatening letters from creditors…but she found nothing more than a broken fan and a ten-year-old receipt for roof repairs.

Finally, she knew she could put the meeting off no longer.

She left her room and walked down the corridor to the nursery. She knocked lightly, and when no one answered after several seconds she opened the door with trepidation. The walls inside were covered with rather tatty Chinese paper—birds and blossoming trees picked at by generations of young Stanton fingers.A dollhouse, made to resemble the grand house that contained it, stood on a stand to the side of the room. Its inhabitants made up a sorry skeleton crew: a wax-faced mother and her three children, each in a state of dishabille, a wild-haired maid and a decapitated butler. Other than that, the room showed little sign of recent occupation.