The House at Bell Orchard Read Free

carefully upon the ordered curls of a powdered wig. The younger Mr. Fenshawe was very clearly a dandy.
    “Well?” Harry spoke sharply, a trace of anxiety sounding again in his voice. “Did you find Dunton?”
    Miles shook his head, his dark eyes mocking as they studied the speaker’s face. The antagonism of which their father had spoken was unmistakable, and even the most casual observer could not have failed to realize that these brethren were bound by few ties of fraternal affection.
    “No, dear brother, I did not!” Miles’ voice was a high-pitched, lazy drawl, deliberately affected. “I sought our Jacobite friend in every kennel, and could glean no news of him. He has covered his tracks well, wherever he has gone to ground. It is of no importance! Although it would have been more satisfactory to find him, he can do no great harm.”
    “No harm?” Harry repeated indignantly. “The fellow knows the truth, or enough of it to make a shrewd guess at the rest.”
    “And by whose fault does he know it?” Miles asked with lazy malice. “Not by mine, dear brother! Not by mine!”
    “Peace, the pair of you!” their father interrupted curtly. “You plague each other like two schoolboys instead of grown men. Miles is right! Dunton cannot betray us without betraying himself, nor will he make any move against us until he has accomplished the mission upon which the Prince sent him to England. That will take precedence over all else.”
    “And when it is accomplished, sir?” Harry asked bitterly. “Are we to spend the rest of our lives with the knowledge that Rob Dunton has the power to ruin us if he can find the means to use it? That is a prospect which I, for one, do not relish.”
    Miles helped himself to brandy. “For once, Harry, I am inclined to agree with you,” he remarked. “We shall all sleep more soundly when Dunton has been found and silenced. The only obstacle appears to be that we have no idea where to seek him.”
    “Precisely!” Colonel Fenshawe signed to him to fill another glass, and when he had done so; took it from him and sat down. “Therefore we must persuade him to come seeking us.”
    The brothers exchanged a puzzled glance; Miles said slowly: “May I inquire, sir, how you propose to do that?”
    “Very simply. Dunton is known to the Government as an active supporter of the Stuarts, and therefore can make no accusation against us in person, but I am sure he will realize, as I have done, that there is one person who would have both the means and the will to destroy us, if she were put in possession of all the facts. I refer, of course, to Miss Tarrant.”
    Understanding dawned upon the young men. Harry gave a satisfied chuckle, and Miles said thoughtfully: “You propose, then, to use Miss Tarrant as the bait in a trap?”
    The Colonel nodded. “That is exactly what I intend. Your stepmother and I will leave for Richmond as soon as the last of our guests have departed, and you may be sure that we shall not permit Miss Tarrant to be parted from us again. It will seem natural for us to offer her guidance and protection at such a time. As soon as the funeral is over we will take her to Bell Orchard, for I believe that Sussex will be more convenient to our purpose than London. That, too, will occasion no surprise. Her father’s suicide is bound to give rise to a deal of nasty talk, from which it will be our natural desire to shield her.”
    Harry was frowning again, and as soon as his father paused he said uneasily: “Bell Orchard? Is that entirely wise, sir?”
    Miles laughed unpleasantly, but though the Colonel glanced sharply at him, he did not inquire the cause of his amusement. Instead he said:
    “Are you thinking of Piers Wychwood’s troublesome activities? We must be careful not to arouse his suspicions, of course, but otherwise I do not think we need trouble ourselves unduly. His efforts have met with singularly little success so far.”
    “What is this?” Miles asked