True Colours by Nicola Cornick

Author:Nicola Cornick
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: 0
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

The study where previously James had entertained Caroline and Marcus Kilgaren was a small oasis of warmth and quiet, more intimate than the Great Hall, a place designed for confidences. It was lined on three sides with the bookshelves where reposed dusty tomes collected by generations of the Mullineaux family, some pristine and uncut, others whose well-worn covers bore testimony to their popularity. Once again, Alicia looked around her with interest. The furnishings were old and tattered, but had a comfortable quality that more than compensated for their threadbare appearance. It was a friendly house, Alicia thought, still showing the touch of Lady Rose, who had had the decorating of it thirty-five years ago when she had been a bride. Yet it was not just the outward appearance that was so welcoming; deeper than that was an atmosphere of warmth, of reassurance. Alicia shivered. She would need all that and more to help her tell her story.

Another exquisite plaster ceiling displayed the arms and devices of the Mullineaux family and those with whom they had intermarried. The only light came from the fire, which the servants had built up during dinner, and from one lamp which cast a golden glow in a corner of the room. In front of the fire was sprawled a very small black and white puppy. Alicia, recognising one of the Monks Farm litter, smiled to herself. The room was very quiet. The servants had seen to it that James and his guest had everything they needed, then they had slipped discreetly away, leaving the two in silence.

James could sense Alicia’s tension as she sat uncomfortably on the edge of the chair Caroline had occupied the previous week. The food and wine had revived her colour and animation, but there was a wary look in her eyes as though she had already regressed some way into the past and was thinking on the events of seven years previously. She watched silently as he poured himself a glass of port and took the seat opposite her. She had declined any more wine, requesting a dish of tea, which sat prosaically on the table in front of her.

After a moment Alicia made a little gesture, almost of defeat.

‘Well, I promised you the story, my lord, so I shall keep my word. First, however, I should tell you that no one else knows this, except my grandmother. I can only beg you to repay me by relating it to no one.’

James inclined his head. ‘You have my word. But may I also know why you chose never to tell anybody else?’

Alicia smiled, a little grimly. ‘When you hear the tale, sir, I doubt you will need an answer to that. Firstly, it was too...’ she paused, searching for the right word ‘...too personal for me to tell. I did not wish to make an avid Society free with the details. And the scandal at the time was dreadful enough without my fuelling it further. I suspect—no, I know—that it would have been even worse had I chosen to make people aware of the true facts.

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