The Paradise Will by Elizabeth Hanbury

Author:Elizabeth Hanbury [Hanbury, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780709095095
Published: 2008-04-30T07:00:00+00:00

Sir Giles set the bell at the oak door of Frampton Manor pealing and waited impatiently for a servant to answer. He found even this slight delay irksome. Caroline’s reaction to what he had to say would be unpleasant but she deserved no consideration other than politeness; her Machiavellian endeavours should have been stopped long ago. Towards his friend, however, he did feel compunction. Gil liked the easygoing squire and although he had never spoken to Henry about marrying his daughter, and was under no obligation to cry off formally, he thought it the honourable course. Henry, he hoped, would understand.

Every day he delayed declaring his love was purgatory and he gritted his teeth at the thought of Charles Brook touching a hair on Alyssa’s head. When Brook returned, Gil intended to expose him for the uncaring portentous fraud he was.

The door was finally opened by Simmons the butler, who recoiled at the frown darkening Sir Giles’s brow and his forbidding expression.

Momentarily flustered, he said, ‘G-good morning, Sir Giles. May I help you?’

‘I wish to see Squire Nash and then Miss Caroline, Simmons. Pray inform them I am here.’

The servant bowed, and said, ‘I am sorry, but the Squire, Mrs Nash and Miss Caroline are away from home, sir.’

Gil stared in surprise. ‘Away!’ he thundered, ‘But where? I received no word of their departure.’

‘I believe their trip was hastily arranged. Mrs Nash’s sister in Lyme has received a new carriage from London, and Mrs Nash was desirous of inspecting it,’ he explained, with a speaking lift of one eyebrow. ‘They left yesterday.’

Gil muttered an expletive under his breath. ‘When will they return?’

‘Thursday morning, sir.’

‘That is the day before the evening party, is it not?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Very well – I shall call Thursday afternoon. Please advise the squire and Miss Nash on their return.’

Gil strode back to his curricle angrily. He vented his annoyance by springing his horses and made the journey home in record time, but on entering the hallway at Eastcombe, he found his anger had abated, but not his frustration: Alyssa was coming to dine tomorrow evening.

‘Gil!’ cried a voice behind him. ‘You have returned at last! Oliver and I arrived half an hour ago.’ The dark-haired lady who had spoken these words robbed them of censure with an accompanying smile very much like Gil’s own. She approached with hands outstretched and added mischievously, ‘How like you not to be here to welcome your own sister.’

‘My craven apologies, Marianne,’ he said, laughing and kissing her cheek. ‘I expected you this afternoon.’ Holding her at arm’s length, he looked down at his younger sibling. ‘My dear, you look lovely – marriage and motherhood agree with you. How is my nephew?’

‘James is well and troubled only by the appearance of two new teeth this week,’ she replied, gaily. ‘I know it is not fashionable to wax lyrical about one’s own children, but he is a darling little boy; even at the tender age of eleven months, I declare he is the most intelligent child imaginable.

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