A Certain Threat (The Merriman Chronicles Book 1) Read Free Page B

properly concealed round the back of the main house.  From the raised position of the house there was a fine view over to the wide estuary of the river Dee.
    As the carriage turned into the driveway the grey-muzzled old dog lying on the front step of the house slowly climbed to his feet, sniffed the air and gave a tentative wag to his tail.  Half blind as he was he knew that t here was something new.  When Merriman stepped down from the carriage the dog launched himself off the step, took a few confirmatory sniffs at Merriman’s leg and then broke into a fit of wild barking, jumped up at him and then whirled round and round in a frenzy of excitement.  As his master bent down to scratch his ears his tail wagged so violently that it seemed liable to fly off at any moment.
    “ Old Jack hasn’t forgotten you it seems,” said Matthew with a grin.
    “ No, he’s pleased to see me, that’s obvious,” replied Merriman, kneeling down to make more fuss of the dog, which rolled over on to his back and squirmed in a paroxysm of delight as the man scratched his stomach..
    The sound of the carriage wheels on the driveway had brought servants running.  The fr ont door opened and Merriman immediately found himself in the midst of chaos.  His mother was there with tears in her eyes and her arms open to enfold him, his sister Emily, now some seventeen years old and torn between capering round like an excited girl and showing herself to be a prim and proper young lady.    Merriman disentangled himself from his mother, kissed and hugged his sister, made more fuss of old Jack and then tripped over one of several other dogs who, even though they did not understand why, thought it their duty to bark excitedly and get under everyone’s feet.
    Merriman sat on the bottom step, laughing with pure happiness, the others all smiling and laughing with delight.  He caught sight of Annie, his mother ’s housekeeper and friend, silver haired now but as buxom and round cheeked as ever, standing in the doorway.
    “ Bless you Master James, I’m so happy to see you again.  But you’re so thin!  We must get some meat on those bones with some of my good cooking inside you.”
    “ I’m sure that if I stay here long I’ll get as fat as a pig.”  He laughed, giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek and then she bustled off into the depths of the house pushing the servants in front of her.
    A growl from Jack diverted his attention and he turned to see his dog s niffing suspiciously at Owen’s trouser leg whilst the big sailor stood there hardly daring to move.
    “ All right Jack, he’s a friend, leave him alone,” said Merriman.  “Owen, do you follow them into the house, and I warrant you’ll eat better than you have done for many a day.”
    “ Aye-aye Sir!” said Owen who had viewed all the greetings with amazement.  The laughing lieutenant appearing to be another person from the serious disciplinarian who had been his captain in the brig Conflict .  He disappeared into the depths of the house carrying his own small bundle of possessions.
    “ Now then, inside with you or we shall all freeze out here” called his father, “James will need to freshen up after the journey and then we can gather by the fire to hear of his adventures.  Matthew, control yourself, your questions must wait awhile.”
    In the house, as Merriman ascended the great staircase with his old dog struggling to keep up, the memories came flooding back of his childhood here, of how once he ha d been frightened of the serious faces looking down from the portraits on the walls; there his grandfather, old Admiral Elias Merriman, here his grandmother, who so the story went, came from a distinguished and noble family that had rejected her when she insisted on marrying the young Captain Merriman.  And there at the turn of the stair, the newest portrait, that was his uncle Major Nathaniel Merriman who had fought and died with his regiment during the withdrawal of