Delsie Read Free Page A

if Lady Jane was approaching yet. He had a fair idea why she wanted to see him. After a little while he saw her tall, gaunt figure, wrapped up in a huge cape of gentian violet, trundling along the footpath from the Dower House, her head bent. Poor old girl, she’s getting on, he thought. It was with solicitude that he welcomed her, took her shawl, and ordered her a glass of sherry.
    Her sagging cheeks waggled in pleasure as she took the glass. She had gray hair, a beaklike nose that always turned red in the cold, and a pair of mischievous blue eyes that lent an air of youth to her lined face. “Just what I need,” she told him in her deep voice, and knocked the sherry off at a gulp, holding out her glass for a refill. “Good stuff. Now, down to business. Tell me, Max, what is to be done about it?”
    This cryptic question was apparently clear to deVigne. “Something must be done at once. He was foxed again last night. That Miss Milne you hired to look after Roberta came dashing over here at nine o’clock close to hysterics, and the silly chit hadn’t even the sense to bring Robbie with her. She left the child there, in the house with a drunken father. I went over and got her, of course. They are here now in the schoolroom, the pair of them. I don’t mean to let Roberta go back to that house. With Grayshott drunk three-quarters of the time, it is no place for his daughter. God only knows what he might do—set the place ablaze one night and have them all burned to a crisp. Miss Milne, too, has begun dropping hints she means to leave, and who shall blame her?”
    “Dear me, what a fix. It begins to look as though we must have him put away at last, He has become a confirmed alcoholic. The courts surely will support our claim.”
    “They will agree to remove her from his charge, but it is his uncle, you know, who will be her guardian. I cannot like to see my sister’s daughter remove to Clancy Grayshott’s establishment, where she will be exposed to horse dealers, smugglers, and worse. That is no place for a deVigne to be raised, when there are our two houses eager to have her.”
    “It would be no worse than staying with her father, at least.”
    “It would be better, but not good enough. A dirty set of dishes we have got connected with through Louise’s marriage. When I helped Samson put Grayshott to bed last night, I was appalled at his condition. A room full of medication. I spoke to Samson about him, and he feels, from what the doctor says, that Grayshott hasn’t long to live. In his will, you know, he puts Roberta in Clancy’s charge. Spite. All spite because of the way Louise’s marriage portion was tied up in the child. He wants to get his hands on it and squander it as he did his own money. Ran through a handsome fortune in the space of three years. And because I refuse to comply, he has made Clancy the guardian in spite. Clancy has hated us forever. We’ll never be allowed to even see Roberta. I am at my wits’ end trying to sort this muddle out.”
    “Poor Louise. If only she had lived, things would have been fine. Grayshott only became a loony after her death. He was crazy about her. He has those uncontrollable emotions. The right woman could have done anything with him. It’s a great pity that young schoolteacher could not have seen her way clear to accepting him.”
    “Do you think he actually offered for her? I remember he used to run on about her soulful eyes.”
    “According to local gossip, he offered more than once and was roundly snubbed both times. I was sorry to hear at the time that he was interested in her, but I have often regretted since that time that she refused. One cannot but wonder why she did. Scratching for a living. You’d think even Grayshott would be better than teaching at the parish school. And she is the soul of propriety—would have kept him in line, or I miss my bet.”
    “Yes, it is a pity, but what is to be done?”
    “Do you think it is too late for her to