One Touch of Magic by Amanda McCabe

Author:Amanda McCabe [Mccabe, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780451209368
Google: pte6jwEACAAJ
Amazon: 0451227832
Barnesnoble: 0451227832
Goodreads: 1899497
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2002-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

“It is good to see you again, Lieutenant—Mr. O’Riley,” Miles said. He poured out a generous measure of brandy and handed it to his guest.

Mr. O’Riley laughed. “Call me Patrick, please, my lord. I feel all stiff and formal enough in your grand house without looking about for my father or my uncle every time someone says ‘Mr. O’Riley.” ’

“Patrick it is, if there will be no more ‘my lording.’ I am Miles.” He poured his own brandy, and sat down in the chair across from Patrick’s. The library around them was dark and quiet in the after-supper lull, and, indeed, very grand. “I am glad you are here, but I would have looked for you several weeks ago. I thought perhaps you did not mean to take me up on my offer of a job. I take it you have not mended things with your family in Ireland.”

Patrick shrugged, and took a deep, appreciative swallow of his drink. “There is little chance of that, I fear, though it’s a pity. That estate was my father’s home, as well as his older brother’s, my uncle’s. And I could not afford to come to the country, until now. I got work, though, building a grand house for some earl or such, despite my bad leg. Then I got this cough. The apothecary I saw told me I should go the country, find work on a farm where there’s good, clean air. I remembered your offer, and I had heard one of the earl’s friends say you had inherited this place, so here I am.” He looked solemnly at Miles. “I wasn’t sure you would even remember me.”

“Of course, I remember you. You helped me a great deal.”

Patrick’s dark brows arched in surprise. “I helped you, Lord—Miles? How could that be? We only met so briefly.”

“I was quite lost when I came home to England,” Miles answered. “I felt useless, with no direction in this new life. A purpose was what I needed, and when I met you, I saw what that purpose could be. I could help men who had returned from brave service in the war only to find poverty and hardship.”

“A noble goal.”

Miles shook his head. “Hardly noble. It is only a tiny drop in the sea of trouble I have seen here. But when I inherited this title and estate, I saw a way that I could make some of those aspirations a reality. Ransome Hall is vast, and fertile.”

“And not used as it should be,” Patrick said. “I saw many fields that lay fallow.”

“You are quite right. I have been working with the bailiff to develop a plan, one which will call for many more workers.”

“The portion that that lady antiquarian—what was her name? Lady Iverson?—is using is a large one. The soil looks rich.”

“Indeed, it is.” Miles did not want to think of it, did not want to imagine what the scene would be when he asked Lady Iverson to abandon her village. But he knew that the day was coming, and coming soon.

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