AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I cannot speak for that man. But I can speak for our family. Teddy died of a broken heart. Without Eloise, he did not have the will or the strength to fight the illness that took him. That is all. I do not know of any journeys to Wales…”
“Did you see Teddy’s body?” Alice asked.
Simon frowned. “No, I did not. Mama told me that the illness had ravaged him, left him a wasted man. She said that I should remember him for who he was, as the portraits we have here show him to be. Not how he ended.”
“But he was not interred in the family crypt,” Alice insisted.
“Of course he was. I did not see it. Mama insisted that we commemorate his life, not dwell on his body and death.”
“Unusual, is it not?” Alice asked.
“Not for Mama. I need not tell you that. I think you inherited much of your wandersome streak from her side of the family.”
That much was true. Alice was her mother’s daughter and the love she had for adventure came from her. It would be just like their mother to conduct Teddy’s funeral in an unconventional way. But Alice could not put aside what she had learned and the suspicions that had begun to form.
“Perhaps, we should look,” she said.
Simon looked horrified. “What a suggestion! Let me ask you this. If Teddy were not dead, which is what you seem to be suggesting for some bizarre reason, then why would I now be Viscount. Surely, he would be still? That is how titles work is it not?”
Alice nodded slowly, looking down at her hands. It was a valid point that she could not argue. Mama would never have allowed Simon to become Viscount if her eldest son and rightful heir held the title. Teddy had always been the apple of her eye.
“I don’t know, Simon. I was so sure when I was talking to Charlie Hitch. So sure, that you and Ruth were hiding something from me once again. Treating me like the baby of the family. It made me so angry.”
“I can imagine. Perhaps, your anger was misplaced,” Simon said. “Perhaps, it should have been aimed at the man who has rejected you. But he is not here.”
This left an empty hole in Alice. A yawning chasm in the core of her being. She had to face it at some point. Harold was ignoring her. Occasional letters could go astray but after two weeks and multiple letters from her, it seemed ludicrous that at least one had not gotten through. She looked up suddenly, looking at Simon with sharp eyes.
“I did not tell you that I had not received any letters from Harold,” she said.
Simon stood, avoiding her gaze, and returning to his chair, picking up his paper. “Well, you must have done.”
“I did not,” Alice insisted. “And I have received other correspondence since I returned home. How would you know that none of it was from Harold?”
“What are you talking about now?” Simon said from behind the newspaper.
“You are truly obsessed, aren’t you?” Alice said, standing. “You would even stoop to opening my letters to check they are not from him.”
“Yes. I did. I apologize, but none of them were from him, were they?” Simon snapped. “You assumed he had abandoned you. I believe the same based on the same evidence as you have seen. So, my opening your letters is a minor transgression in the scheme of things. It does not change the facts. You are abandoned.”
Alice sat heavily. Her righteous indignation left her. She felt deflated. Simon’s words were cruel, knifing into her. But that didn’t mean they were untrue.
“But there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have invited a splendid young man to visit with us. I think he will help you forget Harold Clauder.”
CHAPTER43
Alice sat by the window in her bedroom. She had changed into a pale blue dress and had pinned her hair up. She watched the countryside outside and for once it did not touch her. For once she could not bring herself to wonder at what lay beyond the horizon. The people and places out of sight, waiting to be discovered. Since she was a girl, that had been what she saw when looking out of her window. Or what she yearned to see.
Now, the future seemed limited. Henry Gladwell was the man that Simon wished her to marry. It occurred to Alice that perhaps Gladwell came from a wealthy family, that in expectation of her marrying Henry, monies might have been given to Simon. It would explain his employment of new servants. She couldn’t summon any anger at the thought that she was being disposed of like a chattel. The emptiness now that Harold was gone, consumed her.
A figure appeared in the park, on horseback. For one moment, she was certain it would be Harold. Her heart leaped. But as it drew closer, she realized that it was not him. The rider had bright, yellow hair. Beneath the brim of his hat, a wide mouth was drawn tight. Even on horseback, Alice thought he looked awkward and gangly. She had never seen him before. Some way behind him came a farmer’s cart, driven by one of the Hathway tenant farmers.
Alice thought that it looked like the grown-up son of Mr. Much, a sheep farmer. Patrick Much had the same build as the solid wooden cart that he drove, with a thatch of thick black hair atop his head. Another young man, equally large, rode alongside him. And there was a man seated in the back of the cart. Alice recognized Silas Shepherd, a notorious troublemaker, drinker, and debtor who was on the verge of eviction from his lands by Simon.
Alice frowned when she saw that Shepherd was sitting with hands bound in front of him. She got up from her window seat and hurried from the room as the stranger on horseback vaulted from the saddle and strode towards the front door. She reached the hall at the same time as Simon. The man was removing his hat and striding to meet them without removing his coat or gloves.
“Lindley. The most terrible thing has happened. It concerns one of your tenants and occurred on your land. So, I have brought the miscreant to you until a constable or militia can be summoned.”
He looked at Alice and there was a moment of shocked recognition in his eyes.
