Heirs of Ravenscar by Barbara Taylor Bradford

Author:Barbara Taylor Bradford
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780007279524
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2007-10-25T22:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-TWO

Kent

‘I don’t know whether you realize it, but George is drinking again, and rather a lot these days,’ Elizabeth said from the doorway, looking across the room at Edward.

He was seated in a chair near the French windows in the library of their house in Aldington. He put down the book he was reading, took his glasses off and stared at her. ‘Yes, I noticed that when I returned from Constantinople. But George has always been given to excesses, you know.’ Edward shook his head, and his face hardened slightly. ‘However, he does have a rather strong sense of his own self-preservation, don’t you think?’

‘I suppose he does,’ Elizabeth agreed, walking into the room, sitting down opposite Edward. ‘But what are you getting at? I don’t quite understand you.’

‘George overdoes things, and then he stops all of a sudden, pulls himself together. He … sort of pulls back, and starts being a good boy, behaving himself. It’s as if he has a demon … telling him things.’

Elizabeth answered, ‘On the contrary, Edward, it is George who is telling things these days.’

His interest immediately caught, Edward straightened in the chair and gave his wife a swift glance through narrowed eyes. ‘What exactly are you getting at?’

‘He’s gossiping. It was my friend Olivia Davenport who told me,’ Elizabeth explained. ‘She was at a dinner party the other night, and she said George was muttering something about you not being legitimate, and therefore you were not the rightful heir to Deravenels. That he was the rightful heir. Some such silly nonsense.’

Edward was completely taken aback, and he gaped at her, then spluttered, ‘Nonsense it is!’ Once again he was irritated with George. And then suddenly very angry. ‘That’s some old rubbish put about years ago by the Lancashire Grants! Scandal-mongering they were, making digs at my father, wanting to embarrass him, diminish him, making him look like a cuckold. George should know better.’

Edward sprang to his feet, walked across the room, his sudden anger turning into genuine fury. ‘George is so stupid. And it is quite scandalous of him to impugn the reputation of a woman like Cecily Deravenel. His own mother, for God’s sake! What can he be thinking of? If I could get my hands on him right now I’d give him a thrashing he would never forget.’

Edward’s fury with his brother had taken complete hold of him, and he was beside himself. How could George make their mother out to be a faithless wife who bore another man’s child?

Aware that Ned’s temper had got the better of him, Elizabeth stood up, went over to him and took hold of his arm. ‘Come and sit down, Ned. I do agree with you. He’s being awfully malicious about his mother – your mother – and you have to make him stop.’

‘Obviously.’ Ned allowed himself to be led back to the sofa, where they sat down together.

His wife went on, ‘He’s trying to diminish you, in his usual treacherous way. But he’s doing it in an extremely hurtful manner, as far as your mother is concerned.

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