Beguiled (Enlightenment) by Joanna Chambers

Author:Joanna Chambers [Chambers, Joanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joanna Chambers Books
Published: 2017-04-22T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Tuesday, 20th August, 1822

Parliament House was deserted, the faculty library as bare of living souls as Greyfriars cemetery. David was the only man in the place. Even old Mr. McGilchrist, who’d sat at the same desk every day for the last thirty years, wasn’t in today.

The celebrations for the King’s visit seemed to have overtaken the city to such an extent that the ordinary everyday business of living, including the work of the courts, had ground to a halt.

It was a good day to catch up on work, though, and David had much to catch up on. Three opinions to write and a petition to draft by the end of the week. Strange to think that it wasn’t so very long ago that he’d been worried about where his next case was coming from.

Chalmers’s patronage had changed that completely. Not only did he get a steady stream of work from Chalmers himself, several of the solicitors who instructed Chalmers had taken to engaging him directly. And the cases he was being used for were getting bigger, more valuable, more complicated. More satisfying. Mr. Russell of Guild & Russell, one of the busiest firms in the city, had even proposed David to join Russell’s exclusive private club as soon as a space became available, and whilst David would never have sought membership for himself, there was no doubt it was pleasing to be asked. His sudden success—as unexpected as it was longed for—was heady. But he certainly had to work hard for it.

Without Donald Ferguson around to badger him to eat, David worked past the hour at which he usually ate luncheon and well into the afternoon, entirely caught up in answering the questions posed in Russell’s latest memorial. It was only when one of the library clerks touched his shoulder that he finally looked up from his books.

“Sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Lauriston, but there’s a gentleman asking for you. A Mr. MacLennan.”

David blinked his surprise. He hadn’t expected another visit, not after Euan’s hasty departure from his rooms.

“Is he waiting in the hall?” David asked, wincing as he straightened. Hours of stooping over books had left him stiff.

“Yes, sir.”

“All right, thank you, I’ll go and see him now. Would you replace these volumes for me?”

The clerk’s eyebrows rose to see the size of the pile of books David was referring to, but he agreed readily enough, and David left his desk, abandoning his scattered notes where they lay.

He made his way out the bowels of the library and entered Parliament Hall, his footsteps echoing as he crossed the empty floor to the man who stood at the other end, his hands linked behind his back as he contemplated a marble bust of some judge of the last century.

The last time Euan had come to this building looking for David, he’d been a boy, self-conscious of his lanky height and twisting his hat in his hands. Today, he was someone else entirely. He stood tall and broad and confident, smartly clothed and clean-shaven.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.