The Irresistible Buck by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788673501
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
Published: 2020-06-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

There was the sound of birds singing and the soft buzz of a bee against the windowpanes. Clarinda lay listening for a little while before she opened her eyes.

The sun coming in from the big casement facing her was almost blinding and she stared about her in bewilderment at the carved posts of the great bed she was in, at the blue draped curtains, the gilt mirrors and gold framed pictures.

“Where am I?” she asked aloud.

In an instant Betty was beside her.

“Oh, Miss Clarinda, you’re awake!” she exclaimed.

“Yes, I am awake,” Clarinda answered slowly. “I seem to have slept for a long time.”

“Five days, miss,” Betty told her.

“Five days!”

Clarinda felt almost speechless.

“But why? And where am I?”

“You’re at Melburne, miss. His Lordship felt it best to bring you here in case when you was well again you felt frightened.”

“Then I have been ill?” Clarinda asked.

Betty shook her head.

“No, miss, only sufferin’ from shock, is what the physician said. You cried and cried and he gave you a sleepin’ draught. Then he thought, or maybe it was his Lordship, ’twould be best for you not to know what was happenin’ till it were all over.”

Clarinda raised herself on her pillow.

“What was all over?” she asked.

“The funeral, miss.”

“Then Uncle Roderick is dead!” Clarinda cried. “I ought to have been there, I ought to have been with him!”

“Now, miss, you’re not to upset yourself,” Betty replied. “The Master died peaceful-like the followin’ afternoon after his Lordship saved you. He didn’t know what had happened, no one told him and his Lordship has seen to everythin’.”

“When was he buried?” Clarinda asked in a low voice.

“Yesterday afternoon, miss, and Mr. Nicholas with him.”

Clarinda sat bolt upright, her eyes wide.

“Nicholas is – dead too!”

She cried the words aloud.

“Did his Lordship – ?”

“No, no,” Betty interrupted quickly.

“’Twas not his Lordship who killed Mr. Nicholas, ’twas Simple Sarah.”

“Simple Sarah?”

Clarinda stared at her maid in astonishment.

“Yes, miss, she killed Mr. Nicholas as I understands, when he came from the cave. She was a-waitin’ for him hidden behind the yew trees. She drove a knife into his back not once but half a dozen times.”

“So Nicholas is dead,” Clarinda sighed in a low voice.

“His Lordship’ll want to tell you about it himself, miss,” Betty remarked firmly. “The doctor said that if you woke you could get up today. And it’ll be better for you to walk about after all the sleepin’ draughts you’ve had. I’ll go fetch your breakfast, miss. You’ll feel quite yourself when you’ve had somethin’ to eat.”

Betty went from the room and Clarinda stared blindly at the sunshine.

So Nicholas was dead! She could hardly believe it.

Now the terror she had suffered in the caves came flooding back into her memory. She had been saved, saved by a huge miracle it seemed and she could not conceive how Lord Melburne could have done it.

She could hear the noise of the exploding wine bottles, she could feel him gripping her arm and pulling her away from the Altar,

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