Zina Abbott Books: Saturday Snippet: She Needs You to Teach Her

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Saturday Snippet: She Needs You to Teach Her

A little bit of a different banner because this book has barely been announced.

The following snippet comes from the start of the novel,

Two Sisters and the Christmas Groom

Book 18 in the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog authors' series,

Sweetheart of Jubilee Springs

...Annie held no grudges against Mr. Blakely. He had treated her with a reasonable degree of courtesy one in service could expect from an employer. At least, he had never trapped her in a secluded corner and tried to force himself on her like his daughter's fiancé, Andrew Sopworth, had.

Annie welcomed him into their apartment even though her face had flamed with embarrassment because of their mean living quarters. Fortunately, even though her mam pursed her lips, uncertain of the wisdom of allowing Annie’s former employer to visit, she also greeted him. However, Mr. Blakely did not seem to notice or mind their apartment. The request, and the offer he gave her that day filled her spirit with light and confidence in a bright future instead of the dreary cloud of failure and despair that had engulfed her since being falsely accused and dismissed by Mrs. Hamilton’s housekeeper.

Delphinia wanted her. She now lived in Colorado and had married—not to one of the miners with whom she had been corresponding, but to a man who owned a furniture store. He came from an Albany, New York family similar in station to the Blakelys. Her father, after realizing his daughter’s former fiancé was the scoundrel both Delphinia and Annie knew him to be, decided to release half her dowry to his new son-in-law. Actually, to Delphinia, he admitted, since her husband assured him she would be better suited to handle the investments than he would be.

However, Delphinia’s new husband did not have servants. For a wedding gift, she had asked Mr. Blakely to contact Annie and request—beg, he admitted with a smile—for her to come to Jubilee Springs, Colorado to work there as her maid. With the scarcity of women in the high mountain mining town, Delphinia had no prospects of finding someone already living there. She had complete confidence in Annie’s ability and honesty. He assured Annie that Delphinia promised, if for any reason Annie did not like Colorado or working for her, she would give Annie a generous severance pay, a train ticket back to New York, and another letter of recommendation.

Mr. Blakely had to explain the meaning of severance pay to Annie. All she knew was, when people in service were dismissed, they were lucky if they received the full wages owed to them before they were cast out to find other work the best they could. Delphinia’s offer to pay her in addition to any wages she earned, and a ticket back home if she did not like Colorado, left her stunned. Mr. Blakely did not allow her much time to muse over it as he continued talking.

“My daughter recognizes that, with the shortage of marriageable women in the region, she may not have you long before some young man claims your affection and offers you marriage. Before that happens, she needs you to teach her how to cook and clean.”