Ravenstone (Book 1, The Ravenstone Chronicles) by Louise Franklin

Author:Louise Franklin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: regency england, female action hero, heroine in disguise, historical adventure romance, heroines on horseback
Publisher: Katharina Franck

12

As Georgiana expected he would, Mr. Madden appeared right after the carriage left for London. Edward, Charles, and her mother were not out of sight ten minutes but Elton announced a Mr. Madden to see her.

He bowed before seating himself on the settee opposite her, commenting upon the new furniture and rug her mother had been able to acquire from a nearby town. Although not up to standard, she had improved upon what had previously decorated the room. It would do until the new furnishings arrived from London. While he catalogued the improvements, she studied him. He was not at all what she had expected.

In her mind Mr. Madden was an old man marked by greed, with a fleshy form and perhaps scarred in some way by his misdeeds. His clothes should have been soiled about the edges and in disrepair, as befitting a lout unable or unwilling to perform his duties. Instead, across from her sat a neat, slight figure with the face of an innocent. He was older than she, but not by much. He seemed comfortable in his own skin, and even more so at Ravenstone. He had not waited for her to ask him to sit down. With that assumption, he was telling her what he wanted made clear from the beginning: he felt at home in her house.

They sat in silence, taking the measure of one another. Then she lowered her eyes, as was expected. “Your mother is better, I take it?” she asked.

“Improving, yes.”

“Most favorable news,” she said, letting the lie stand. “It is unfortunate you missed Sir Edward, for he has this very hour departed to London.”

“Did he not tell you?” Mr. Madden asked.

“Tell me what?” she asked, weary of the answer.

“He must not have,” he smiled. “Sir Edward and I met. He came to see me quite often during his stay here at Ravenstone.”

Already he had the upper hand, she thought, annoyed at Edward. “Indeed, no, he did not so inform me.” Why hadn’t he told her?

“And where exactly is it that you reside, Mr. Madden, for you do not seem to occupy your cottage?”

“It is of no consequence,” he shrugged. “You are making improvements to Ravenstone?”

“Yes,” she said. “They are much needed.”

He smiled but said nothing further. Why did he not wish her to know where he was staying?

“I have need to see the estate accounts,” she said.

“Of course, I shall bring them directly.”

“You do not have them with you?”

“Alas, no, for I do not carry those weighty tomes wherever I go.”

He spoke well for a steward, and she puzzled about his visit if it was not for the purpose of business.

“And so then, why are you here, Mr. Madden?”

He studied her a moment and she found his gaze bordering on insolence, but she awaited his answer.

“Curiosity,” he said simply and smiled.

“You have no skill as a steward, do you?” she asked.

His smile grew wider. “It is rather obvious, isn’t it?”

“The estate has slipped into disrepair in your hands.”

“I cannot claim full responsibility for that, Lady Fairchild.

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