Elisabeth Kidd Read Free Page A

competence!
    But Mr. Quigley was not finished yet.
    “In the event of Sabina Marie’s marriage to the Honorable Robert James Owen Ashton, Captain in the 1st Regiment of Dragoons, I leave her the income from the above-named estates unconditionally, and in addition a one-half part of the income from my estate at Carling and the use of the house and grounds there to her and the issue of said marriage, if any.”
    Mr. Quigley took a deep breath and looked cautiously around him for some reaction to this final revelation. For a full minute there was none, until Randolph remarked, with unwarranted composure, “He must have been delirious.”
    Sabina remained seated, her face paler still with that look of shock and her hands clenched so tightly together that the knuckles showed white. Henry stood up and snatched the will from under the solicitor’s hand to read the incredible passage for himself.
    “This can’t be,” he muttered, even as he read the words that told him it could be.
    Everyone but Sabina seemed to find their voices just then and broke into a low but intent exchange of speculation, which Mr. Quigley and the new Lord Bromleigh together tried in vain to stem.
    “Did you know about this, Fletcher?” Randolph accused his elder brother.
    Dulcie moved to read over her husband’s shoulder. Alicia remained placidly seated beside Lewis, who grinned impishly up at the rest of them.
    “He always said he wanted to mend the quarrel….” Sabina said at last, in a voice that seemed to come from so far away as to be barely audible. Henry dropped the will and went to her as she rose from the window seat. But when he put his hands on her arms, she appeared not to notice, but moved with deliberate steps towards the desk, where she looked first at Fletcher, then at the solicitor.
    For a moment, Henry had a clear look at his sister’s eyes, and he remembered then that the only difference Sabina had ever had with her father had been over The Quarrel. She had believed passionately that the Bromleys had always been in the right of it, and it had offended her sense of family honor even to hear her father consider making overtures of peace to the Ashtons. It must be doubly a shock, Henry thought, for her to hear now that not only had her father not taken her views into consideration, but that she was his chosen instrument of reconciliation. What could the earl have been thinking?
    The buzz of speculation concentrated itself now on Sabina. They all moved closer to her, as if encircling her with their concern. Sabina’s gaze darted from one to the other, then around the room, like an animal’s when it senses a trap. Suddenly, she gave a strangled cry and, pushing her way between Henry and Dulcie, pulled open the library door—revealing a much astonished footman on the other side—and ran out, leaving the door flung open behind her.
    “Sabina, wait!” Henry called, running after her.
    “Sabina!” Dulcie joined in. “Come back!”
    But Sabina had fled.
     

Chapter 2
     
    Captain the Honorable Robert James Owen Ashton stood up to the tops of his elegant boots in mud. Bill Theak, the captain’s former batman and now the keeper of a lock on the Grand Union Canal just south of the Welford Arm, admired the captain’s willingness to help with some necessary repairs to the lock—even at the expense of Lobb of London’s best. What was more, the captain’s assistance, while it had not initially been of much value, had rapidly succumbed to experience.
    Then again, he had always been like that. If something needed to be done, he did it. If the something required knowledge he did not have, he acquired it, and if in addition the job was a particularly difficult one, he simply applied more determination. That was how the captain had got himself amongst the leaders in the Union Brigade’s memorable charge at Waterloo, and it was how he met the challenge of lock engineering.
    “I think it will hold now, Bill,” Ashton said, stepping