An Introduction To The Eternal Collection Jubilee Edition by Cartland Barbara Read Free Book Online Page B

the hoot of an owl and occasionally far away in the woods the bark of a fox and the high scream of a jay.
    They were the usual sounds she heard at night when she was awake, sounds which were not only familiar, but dear so that often she deliberately lay awake to listen for them, feeling they were part of her life and being proud that she could identify each sound.
    But tonight she was listening for other noises and she lay rigid in the softness of her bed, waiting for the soft creaking of a door and for footsteps coming up the broad oak stairs. She had heard footsteps descending those same stairs two or three hours earlier, and wondering who could be creeping about in the darkness of the night, she had opened her door and looked down the passage.
    She had just a glimpse of a figure with a lighted taper in his hand disappearing round the bend of the staircase. That brief glimpse had been enough for her to recognise Francis wearing his cloak and hat. She had resisted an impulse to run after him and to ask him where he was going, for she knew the answer well enough.
    It was the risk he took which horrified her; it was still early enough for her father to be awake and to hear, as she had done, the opening of Francis” bedroom door and the sound of his footsteps descending the stairs. But she knew that nothing she could say would deter her brother from his purpose and to argue would only increase the danger of his being discovered.
    Softly she closed her door and forced herself to go back and lie down on her bed. Yet from that moment it was impossible for her to sleep. In her mind she followed Francis across the garden and out through the lodge gates. It would not take him long to walk to the Keens house and there her imagination ceased to guide her and she was beset by innumerable questions.
    Was it a party that had drawn Francis from his home tonight on so late a visit to his friends, or was it something far more sinister? Lizbeth had heard her father’s arguments against Dr. Keen too often for her to forget them. There was no doubt that the Doctor was a clever man. The results of his experiments had brought him both scientific and social recognition, and yet there had always been something strange and slightly suspicious about him.
    He spoke very seldom of his life before he had settled in England, but it was understood that he had lived for many years in Spain. Local gossip related that he had friends who visited him late at night, cloaked and masked, and that, when visitors stayed with him, they were never seen even by the servants of the house and were waited on only by the master or his daughter.
    There were those who swore that his visitors were Jesuits, members of the Mission which had come to England in 1580 and aroused great alarm. Their aim, the Jesuits said, was to save souls and they were forbidden to meddle in politics, but the Government had denounced them as traitors and had declared that they were working for the destruction of the Queen.
    Despite stringent penalties if they were caught, the work of the priests went on with striking success. Moving about the country in disguise, hidden in gentlemen’s houses, they inspired Catholics with their fanatical fervour, and the fact that they were spied upon, hunted and persecuted only resulted in their being venerated as martyrs.
    Lizbeth knew it would be disastrous for her brother to be discovered associating with Jesuits either at Dr. Keen’s house or elsewhere. It was for Sir Harry Gillingham, as Lord Lieutenant of the County, not only to uphold the Queen’s dignity, but also to ferret out and destroy her enemies.
    He was, as he had said so often, deeply suspicious of Dr. Keen, but as yet nothing had been proved against him, and the Queen’s interest in his work had, for the moment at any rate, lulled many people’s suspicions into quiescence.
    Lizbeth’s dislike of Francis being a visitor to Dr. Keen’s house was also a feminine one. She distrusted Elita and