The English Heiress Read Free

came immediately. Then, seeing everything was in excellent order, he went back to help Alice with packing and moving. She was breeding again, and he didn’t like to leave the whole weight of shifting the household upon her.”
    Breeding or not, Roger thought, Alice de Conyers was perfectly capable of moving either a single handkerchief or a full household with the least fuss and inconvenience. Yet he understood quite well why her husband would gladly put himself out to spare her any effort. She was not a handsome woman, but had a sweetness of disposition for which Roger would have eagerly traded all of Solange’s beauty. However, he did not interrupt his father’s tale with his private reflections.
    “They took ship on June twenty-second on the packet Pride of St. George.”
    ‘The Pride!” Roger gasped. That disaster that had been widely reported in the London papers The Pride of St. George had been hit by a sudden squall and had gone down, nearly in sight of land. “But I didn’t see their names in the list of those lost.”
    “No, because some passengers were saved and several of them remembered Joseph. He had got his family and a number of other women and children into one of the small boats and lowered it safely. Then apparently he was washed overboard, but someone else saw him clinging to the side of the boat Alice was in. The winds were terrific and all those who managed to grab something that would keep them afloat were blown miles apart. If they had come ashore in one of the wilder areas of Wales, it might well have taken weeks to get word to Compton. He kept hoping…”
    “But it isn’t so very long,” Roger offered without much conviction, “less than three weeks. They might still—”
    “They have been found,” his father interrupted, his voice again harsh. “The bodies of Joseph, little William and Alice were washed up near Morfa Nevin. They haven’t yet found the little girls. They may never be found”
    “God rest them all,” Roger sighed. “I am really very sorry. I know how fond you were of Joseph, and he was your godchild. How awful!”
    “Yes, but I’m ashamed to say it was less grief than selfishness that gave me such a turn.” Sir Joseph looked at his son and smiled ruefully. “I was fond of Joseph, and I was truly shocked to hear of his death, but I’m old, my boy. I’ve lived through many deaths. It isn’t only affection that makes me wish Joseph alive again. He made me executor of his will”
    “Made you…but Father, how could he expect… I mean…”
    There was more amusement in Sir Joseph’s smile now. “All right, Roger, don’t confound yourself looking for a polite way to say that I can’t be expected to live much longer. In fact, I think I will be around longer than you believe.”
    Roger laughed. “You can’t be around longer than I would hope for, however.”
    Sir Joseph now laughed aloud also, a mischievous twinkle coming into his eyes. “Don’t be so sure of that” Then he frowned again. “Compton not only wrote to tell me that he had identified Joseph, William and Alice, but to say that he has tried several times to contact Henry with no success.”
    “Henry?” Roger asked, then nodded. “Oh yes, I remember. There was another brother. Whatever happened to him? I don’t remember ever seeing him at all.”
    “You must have, as a child—or maybe not. When you were still at home, Henry must have been at school. He has ten or twelve years on you, at least.”
    “Yes, and by the time he was out of school, I was in. I can see how I never came across him, but why can’t Compton reach him now? Where is he?”
    “In France.”
    “Oh, lord!” Roger remarked. “What a bufflehead to go to France now. Well, I—”
    “No, no,” Sir Joseph Interrupted. “Henry didn’t go now. He lives in France, has lived there since about 1770. Seventy-two or three was when he was married, I believe.”
    “He married a Frenchwoman and settled in France? I