Lady Charlotte's Ruse by Judith Harkness

Author:Judith Harkness [Harkness, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780786755165
Publisher: Argo-Navis

Chapter 13

As can easily be imagined, Gerald was eager to discover what had caused Miss Brown’s sudden disaffection. He questioned Canterby at the first moment of their being alone, which was not, however, at once. The steamer accommodated all the men together in one great bunkroom, and all of the ladies in another, only slightly more commodious. That night Gerald could find no opportunity to get Canterby aside, and so he told himself he would question the other on the morrow.

At dawn, as they had been told, the steamer docked at Garrison, which was hardly more than a village with some docks jutting out into the great stream and a small yard to attend the vessels. Along the banks of the Hudson, as they had neared the town, Gerald had seen several great villas on high promontories above the water, and one of these, barely visible from the river, Mr. Brown had pointed out as belonging to his family.

The party was met by a coach and four driven by a large black coachman who embraced Mr. Brown warmly and took the hand of each of them. Gerald was amazed—he had never seen a servant treated in so familiar a fashion before—but he was to see the same sort of greeting by nearly every one of the Browns’ many servants who appeared to feel themselves a sort of great extended family of the master. They were all, Harry Brown told them later, freed slaves who had chosen of their own free will to serve for wages the same family for whom they had toiled without pay for so many years.

The trek up the mountain to the Manor House was in itself an adventure. Seldom had Gerald traversed a road more narrow or more rocky. The steep track wound up the mountainside with, on one hand, a sheer drop of five hundred feet, and on the other, a rocky ledge strewn with boulders, some of which had already dropped onto the road. Indeed, they were several times, at the steepest places, forced to descend from the coach to allow the coachman to lead his team over boulders and great holes. It was hardly the best choice of vehicle for such a journey, but as Mr. Brown told them with a smile, the coachman, Jenkins, refused to meet any new visitors to the Manor House in any less grand a style.

For all the difficulty of the drive, it became immediately apparent when they had crested the last rise that the difficulty was well merited. The view which burst upon them at the moment of coming over that final steep stretch of road was sufficient to take the breath away. On one side beyond a long and stately avenue of chestnuts lay the Manor House, a large and handsome edifice built in the Georgian style of brick and rubble stone. On the other, beyond a rich green lawn and rocky ledge from which grew pine and rhododendron, stretched the real vista. Floating far below them in the crystalline light, the majestic Hudson waved and turned like a river of blue glass.

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