Lord of the Far Island by Victoria Holt

Author:Victoria Holt
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: castles, paperback, Victoria - Prose & Criticism, BCE, Fiction, Romance, hardcover, Romance: Gothic, Fiction - Romance, Companion Book Club, Holt, Social Classes, Adult, Suspense, Mystery, Man-Woman Relationships, read, Orphans, Romance - Historical, british literature, Marriage, Historical, the wife, sassy, Romance - Gothic, History, novel, island, TBR, gothic fiction, General, London, Gothic, English Light Romantic Fiction, Cherons
ISBN: 9780312384173
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2009-11-24T06:00:00+00:00

�gh! Morbid,�she commented. � can see you�e had enough, but you had to have a look at them, of course. They�e an important part of the castle.�

We climbed the stairs to the upper regions and she took me through so many rooms that I lost count of them. We explored the towers�orth, south, east and west; and we went along galleries and up and down staircases. She showed me the kitchens, the bakery, the buttery, the winery and the slaughterhouse; she introduced me to the servants, who bobbed their curtsies or touched their forelocks according to their sex and watched me guardedly and with obvious curiosity.

There was one room which led off the hall which interested me particularly because as we entered it she said: � heard this was your mother� favorite room. Her name was Frances, wasn� it? Some of the older servants still call it Frances� room.�

There was a step leading down to it and I followed Gwennol in. She seated herself on a settle which fitted exactly into an alcove.

�he used to paint, I heard,�she went on. �he couldn� have used this room as a studio. It� not light enough. I don� think anyone has used it much since she went.�

I looked round the room eagerly trying to picture her there. It was certainly not a bright room. The window was small and its panes leaded. It was furnished as a sitting room. There were a few chairs, a table, but little else apart from the wooden settle.

� wonder if any of her things are still here,�I said.

�ook in the cupboard.�

I opened the door of this and cried out in triumph, for inside was an easel and some rolls of paper.

�hese must have been hers,�I cried, and as I picked up the roll of paper I saw a sketchbook lying on the floor. Written across it was her name: Frances Kellaway. This was indeed a discovery and I was so excited by it that my hand shook as I turned over the leaves. Gwennol rose from the settle and looked over my shoulder. There were sketches of the castle from various angles.

�he was quite an artist,�said Gwennol.

� want to take this book and look through it at my leisure,�I said.

�hy not?�

�t� so exciting. You�e amused, but I knew so little of my mother, and my father I can� remember at all. You must have known him.�

�obody knew him well. I saw very little of him. I don� think he liked young people. He was ill for a long time and kept in his own rooms. I� see him now and then in a wheelchair; Fenwick, his valet-secretary, looked after him. Uncle Jago would spend a lot of time with him discussing business. But he hardly seemed like a member of the household.�

�t� strange when you come to think about it. I wouldn� be here if it wasn� for him and I never knew him.�

�onsole yourself that nobody knew him well either. Uncle Jago once said he was a loner.

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