With This Ring Read Free

perilously close to thirty, he concluded, and adept at wielding her innate gift for authority. Definitely a woman of the world. The sort who always got her own way.
    “Tell his lordship you’ll see him in half an hour?” Finch hunched his shoulders and lowered his head as if he were a bull preparing to charge. “One doesn’t order his lordship about as if he were a bloody footman, madam.”
    “Heavens, I would not think of giving orders to the Earl of Monkcrest,” Beatrice said smoothly. “But I would have thought that his lordship would wish to be kept apprised of events under his own roof.”
    “I can promise you, madam, that his lordship has ways of knowing everything that happens in his own house and on Monkcrest lands,” Finch said ominously. “Ways that are beyond the ken of ordinary folk, if you take my meaning.”
    “I assume you refer to those interesting rumors concerning his lordship’s habit of dabbling in supernatural matters. Personally I don’t believe a word of it.”
    “Mayhap you should, madam. For your own sake.” Beatrice chuckled. “Do not try to frighten me, my good man. You waste your time. I don’t doubt that the local villagers relish such tales. But I consider myself an authority on that sort of thing, and I do not put any credence in the nonsense I have heard.”
    Leo frowned. “An authority? What the devil does she mean by that, I wonder.”
    Elf sniffed the air.
    On the forecourt Beatrice had obviously reached the limits of her patience. “Sally, we are not going to stand out here another moment. Let us go inside.”
    She moved with a swiftness that clearly took Finch by surprise.
    Leo watched with reluctant admiration as she stepped nimbly around the butler. She swept past him up the stone steps and disappeared through the door into the hall. Sally followed close on her heels.
    Finch stared after the pair, openmouthed.
    The coachman clapped him sympathetically on the shoulder. “Don’t blame yourself, man. In the short while that I’ve been in her employ, I’ve discovered that Mrs. Poole is a force of nature. Once she’s set her course, the best thing to do is get out of her way.’
    “How long have you been with her?” Finch asked blankly.
    “She hired me just yesterday morning to bring her here to Monkcrest. But that’s long enough to tell me a good deal about the lady. One thing I’ll say for her, unlike most of the fancy, she looks after her staff. We ate well on the road. And she never shouts and curses at a man like some I could name.” *
    Finch stared at the empty steps. “I must do something about her. His lordship will be furious.”
    “I wouldn’t fret about your master if I were you,” the coachman said cheerfully. “Mrs. Poole will deal with him, even if he is a bit odd, as some say.”
    “You don’t know his lordship.”
    “No, but as I said, I do know something of Mrs. Poole. Your Mad Monk is about to meet his match.”
    Leo stepped back and closed the window. “The coachman may have a point, Elf. A prudent man would no doubt exert a great deal of caution in any dealings with the formidable Mrs. Poole.”
    Elf gave the canine equivalent of a shrug and padded back to the hearth.
    “I wonder why she has come here.” Leo shoved a hand through his damp hair. “I suppose there is only one way to discover the answer to that.”
    Elf, as usual, did not respond. He settled down in front of the fire and closed his eyes. 4
    Leo sighed as he reached for the bellpull to summon Finch. “I shall no doubt regret this. But on the positive side, the evening promises to become vastly more interesting than it was an hour ago.”
    Beatrice took a deep swallow of the piping hot tea. “Wonderful. This is just the tonic I needed.”
    Sally studied the contents of the tray the maid had brought up from the kitchens. “There ain’t no bloody gin.” She glared at the hapless girl. “See ‘ere, where’s me gin?”
    The maid flinched. “Cook sent some of her