Chapters (50)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- The Pengarron Sagas
- The Harvey Family Sagas
Left out of all the talk, Oliver bowed silently and went looking for another drink. Kerensa looked about for him. So this was how things still stood between them. He would rather head off back to the dance or the card table.
‘Can we leave now, Rachael?’ she said miserably.
Twenty-One
Up in the tower room, Luke’s brow was furrowed over the manuscript on the shabby desk, a relic procured from Pengarron Manor’s attic. Try as hard as he could to focus on his writing, the words leapt about or blended together.
‘Damn, I drank too much yesterday. What think you of this, Jack? A woodland setting for the final scene. Twisted black trees with huge soulless eyes and branches that reach out like grabbing hands, mist wafting upwards and… and… What was I saying? I’ve lost the thread.’
‘You’re tired, you write every minute you’re not about your pleasures, you can’t expect to keep thinking clearly,’ Jack replied gruffly. ‘And that’s not what I call a new idea. Think of something else.’
‘I will!’
‘And take a wash and shave and get dressed. ’Tisn’t seemly for Miss Cordelia or the maids to see you slopping about in your nightshirt.’
‘By the devil’s teeth, how dare you speak to me like that!’ Then Luke recalled Alicia’s comments on how he managed his friendship with Jack. He smoothed his tone. ‘Listen, Jack, I’ve explained why I kept the true nature of Lord Longbourne’s correspondence from you. I’m sorry if you saw it as a betrayal of our friendship, but I considered that if only I knew of the document’s whereabouts there was no risk of us ever talking about it and being overheard. I had no idea Alicia knew of its existence. We all talked at length about it last night, we’ve all agreed that I alone should bear the burden of the document’s hiding place. What is wrong now? Don’t you trust Alicia? Is there something else?’
‘Course not. I’m off to the stables, Boy Hal and I are going to exercise the horses.’
Luke was left to ponder Jack’s dark humour. Had more hurt been done to him last night than that which he himself had been unwittingly responsible for? Exactly what had Alicia said to him when she’d brought the matter up? Could Alicia, after all, be trusted?
She had declared that as Alex’s common-law widow, she had the right to know everything connected to him. Her explanation for her silence over the document amounted to her having taken it for granted that Luke would inform her when he received it. Had she secretly been searching for it? If so, what had she intended to do with it? Retain it, as Luke was, as a form of leverage if circumstances ever dictated it?