Haggard Read Free

on hers, and when they would not, brought them against the bodice of her gown. 'John Haggard, you must have some feeling for me.'
    'Indeed I do.' Haggard's knuckles rested against the pushed up softness of her breasts. 'I think you are a jolly good sport, Addy. But you are too serious to make a good mistress.'
    'Mistress?' she shouted, throwing his hands away. 'I have no intention of being anyone's mistress.'
    'And I have no intention of marrying again. Ever. So I would say we had best end this farce right away, and get back to the dancing.'
    'Why, you . . .' She glared at him in the darkness her brain consumed by a raging fury. 'You unutterable cad.'
    Haggard stood up, and gave her a brief bow. 'Your servant, Miss Bolton.' He turned to the door, watched Malcolm Bolton hurrying along the path. 'Ah,' he commented. 'A plot.' His voice remained soft, gave no indication of his sudden anger.
    'Plot?' Malcolm came up to the doorway. 'I heard Addy cry out. What has happened, Addy?'
    'He . . .' Adelaide sucked air into her lungs, noisily. 'He assaulted me.'
     
    'He did what?’
     
    'Your sister is an hysterical liar,' Haggard said, speaking very evenly, although his mind had already seethed into the black rage which left him wishing to hurt, and hurt. These people had made it plain to him, often enough during their youth, that they regarded him as an ill-educated lout. While at his wedding, with Sue still on his arm, incredibly lovely, incredibly willing to love him, he had heard Adelaide Bolton whispering to her friend Annette Manning, 'What a waste of a beautiful woman. She must love money even more than us, my dear Annette.' And now she would fill those irreplaceable shoes? 'With the instincts of a whore. I will bid you goodnight.'
    He stepped past the momentarily dumbfounded young man, on to the path.
     
    Malcolm caught his breath. 'Stop right there,' he commanded. Haggard stopped, half turned.
     
    'You'll apologise, sir,' Malcolm Bolton demanded. 'On your knees, you'll apologise for those words. ’
    'I have never apologised in my life,' Haggard pointed out. 'And certainly I shall never do so for speaking the truth.'
     
    Then you'll answer to me, John Haggard.'
     
    'Don't be more of a fool than your sister, Mal . Go to bed and sleep it off.'
    Once again Haggard turned, and walked towards the house.
    'Stop,' Malcolm bawled. 'Stop,' he screamed.
    Haggard ignored him, walked up the steps and into the suddenly overheated ballroom. He caught Willy Ferguson's eye, and the overseer hastily apologised to his dancing partner and hurried towards his employer.
    'I shall be going home now, Willy,' Haggard said. 'But you and the others stay to the end.'
    Willy frowned at him. 'Is something the matter?'
    'Probably not.' Haggard walked towards the head of the room, where the senior Boltons were sitting with the guests in their own age group. But he had not reached them when there was a shout from the doors to the terrace.
    'Haggard.'
    The music had just stopped, the dancers were about to leave the floor. Now they paused, and looked towards the door, and gasped in unison. Malcolm Bolton stood there, the sword which had so recently been the instrument of the wager held in his right hand, the arm itself extended to point at Haggard.
    'You'll apologise.' Malcolm's nostrils dilated. 'Or I'll kill you.'
    'With that?' Haggard inquired, softly. But the couple standing closest to him, and able to see something of the expression in his eyes, backed away.
    'Malcolm.' Papa Bolton was on his feet. 'John. What nonsense is this?'
     
    Malcolm Bolton came closer. 'He has insulted Addy.' 'John?' Bolton inquired, frowning.
     
    'He called her a liar, and a ... a whore,' Malcolm said.
    There was another gasp, and a woman pretended to faint.
    'John?' Papa Bolton's voice was an octave higher.
    'That is correct, sir,' Haggard said. 'I called your daughter a liar, because she had just told a lie, and accused her of having the instincts of a whore, because she