Potent Charms by Peggy Waide

Author:Peggy Waide [Waide, Peggy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-10-20T07:22:00+00:00

When Phoebe awoke the next morning, all the light of day showed was more dirt, more cracks and the overall dilapidation of Marsden Manor, which was considerable. Hampson and Wibolt were still too old to do serious work and a pot of gold had not magically appeared from the end of a rainbow. Stephen's words the truth, but annoying all the same replayed again and again in her mind. What was she going to do? How would she ever find a man to marry her with Marsden Manor as the lure?

Restless and seeking answers, she skipped breakfast to wander the halls of the manor, every torn curtain, each bare room a greater source of confusion. Finally she faced her ancestors, their paintings a contradictory mix of either forbidding, imposing people or affable souls that she knew so little of. The portraits depicting her mother's easy laughter and her grandfather's kind eyes only increased her melancholy.

"Your mother was a lovely young woman."

Spinning about, Phoebe spied Hampson standing at the end of the hallway, a somber expression on his face. His livery, cleaned and perfectly pressed, was worn at the elbows and the knees. She simply couldn't imagine him masterminding a plan to rob her of her inheritance. She glanced at the painting again. Her mother sat on a stone balcony, the deep blue ocean and endless horizon her only backdrop. "How old was she?"

"Eighteen. The portrait was commissioned only two months before she sailed with your father. She was so happy. Your grandfather stored the picture in the attic for years. When she died, he returned it to its rightful place as a constant reminder of his foolish pride. He often stood here as you are and stared at the painting. He never forgave himself."

"She died when I was only six. I remember certain things she told me, but I wish I knew more about her life, her childhood. Daddy never spoke of it. He said it hurt too much."

"If you will allow me, miss, I think I can help."

Curious, she followed Hampson as he proceeded down the long hallway. Stopping now and again, he generously offered her a window into her heritage, something she'd never truly had before. She learned that her great-grandfather, a gentleman pirate for part of his life, commissioned Marsden Manor because of his love for the sea. He'd actually kidnapped her great-grandmother, which created a scandal only marriage could quell. They had loved one another desperately. Her Great-uncle Herbert, whose nose was enormous, loved hunting. Great-aunt Rosalund commissioned the building of an orphanage in London against her husband's wishes, and Phoebe's grandmother had been an expert horsewoman.

Feeling better than she thought possible, clinging to her newfound family, she stopped beside Hampson who waited near a pair of French doors. When he pushed them open, she stepped outside onto a long balcony a hundred feet above a sapphire sea and witnessed the most breathtaking sight she had ever seen.

Waves pounded the cliffs, crashing and echoing for what seemed miles, calling to her in a hypnotic rhythm.

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