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Still, it was that possible baby who posed the greatest dilemma She wasn’t sentimental about the life of servants She couldn’t condemn Rodney’s child to a life of servitude, which is what her life was bound to be if she ith child but nevertheless fled her intendedin the wind Finally, she made a decision: She would leave it up to fate If there was a baby, she would resign herself Walk down that aisle, sht
But if notshe’d steal freedoht, she discovered that Rodney had failed to "plant" anything, to use his repulsive ter about what it meant, and what she would do next, when she realized that Betty, the upstairson and on about a castle Elsewhere in England, people undoubtedly talked of the great castles of Windsor and Edinburgh, but around Little Ha’penny, there was only one castle worth discussing: Poreat forest, its turrets just tall enough to be visible on a clear day For years, Philippa had stared out herand dreah town and fall in love with her, sweeping her onto the back of his steed and taking her away
Away fro arlected for years until a real prince ner, from some place in Europe
As in a real fairy tale, the prince hadn’t lived in Po before he fell in love and married a princess Or an heiress, at the least No one really knew for sure because Little Ha’penny was far away froh Rodney puffed out his chest and boasted about his father’s connections, the fact was that Sir George Durfey was the sort of man who stayed very close to home He’d even kept his son home with a tutor rather than send hiood for the lad to be so provincial," her father had reentleh, and if the truth be told, he wasn’t all that interested in Sir George, nor in his future son-in-law What Papa liked was to investigate battles He spent the better part of his days in his study, surrounded byaccounts of Greek battles
In short, no one knew anything about the castle and its royal occupants, and in keeping with their provincial outlook, oodly inhabitants of Little Ha’penny had lost interest once the Prussian prince moved in
"I’ain? About the princess, Iwhat I heard fro mail"
"And?"
"She had a baby The princess that is, not Mrs Pickle"
"Oh," Philippa said "Very nice"
"You’ll be having one soon enough," Betty said co hs to know that he’s all man, if you knohat I mean At any rate, this baby up at the castle cries all the time Has the collywobbles, like my cousin’s second I shouldn’t wonder if it will die Some of them can’t take htened "Only if people insist on giving them cow’s milk as a substitute"
"Well,so well," Betty said "The coachman said that he’d dropped off a footman in Manchester who is supposed to round up nursemaids and doctors, as many as he can find"
"They must be desperate," Philippa said
"The baby’s a prince ’Course they’re desperate He’ll inherit the castle soh not if he’s dead"
It was that easy Philippa packed a s with her plainest clothes, and wrote a note to her papa Then she e and paid the old drunk, Fettle, who lay around in back of the Biscuit and Plow, to drive her to Bigger Ha’penny
There she covered up her hair, which was distinctively silver-colored and therefore annoyingly recognizable, and bought a coach ticket to London She hopped off in a bustling inn-yard in Lower Poers, no one would notice that she didn’t get back on the coach