Ashworth Hall by Anne Perry Read Free Book Online Page A

… I think I’m on the wrong stair,” she stammered. “I’m sorry.”
    “The wrong stair?” he asked.
    “I … I must be on the menservants’ stairs, not the women’s,” she said, feeling the heat burning in her cheeks.
    “No,” he said quickly. “No, I’m sure it’s me on the wrong one. Sure I didn’t even think of it. You must be visiting here, like me, or you’d know for certain.”
    “Yes. Yes, I belong to Mrs. Pitt. I’m her lady’s maid.”
    He smiled at her again. “I’m Mr. McGinley’s valet. My name’s Finn Hennessey. I come from County Down.”
    She smiled back at him. “I’m Gracie Phipps.” She came from the back streets of Clerkenwell, but she wasn’t going to say so. “I’m from Bloomsbury.” That was where she lived now, so it was true enough.
    “How do you do, Gracie Phipps.” He inclined his head in a very slight bow. “I think there is going to be a rare party this weekend, especially if this fine weather holds. I’ve never seen such a garden, so many great trees. It’s a lovely land.” He sounded vaguely surprised.
    “Have you never been to England before?” she asked.
    “No, I never have. It’s not much like I expected.”
    “What did you think it’d be, then?”
    “Different,” he said thoughtfully.
    “Different how?” she pressed.
    “I don’t think as I know,” he confessed. “Different from Ireland, I suppose. And at least for this one bit of it, it could be Ireland, with all those trees, and the grass, and flowers.”
    “Is Ireland very beautiful?”
    His face softened and his whole body seemed to ease, till instead of standing to attention there was a grace in him as he leaned against the rail, his eyes bright.
    “It’s a sad country, Gracie Phipps, but it’s the most beautiful God ever made. There’s a wildness to it, a richness of color, a sweetness on the wind you couldn’t know unless you’d smelled it. It’s a very old land, where once heroes and saints and scholars lived, and now the memory of those days aches in the color of the earth, the standing stones, the trees against the sky, the sound of a storm. But there’s no peace in it now. Its children go cold and hungry, and the land belongs to strangers.”
    “That’s terrible,” she said softly. She did not know what he was talking about that was different from the harshness and the poverty there was anywhere, but the pain in his voice moved her to a swift compassion, and his words conjured a vision of something precious and lost. Injustice always angered her, more since she had worked for Pitt, because she had seen him fight it.
    “Of course it is.” He smiled at her with a little shake of his head. “But maybe we’ll do something about it this time. We’ll win one day, that I promise you.”
    She was prevented from replying by Mrs. Moynihan’s lady’s maid coming along the top corridor and reaching the head of the stairs.
    “Sure I’m in the wrong place,” Finn Hennessey apologized to her. “It’s that easy to get lost in a house this size. I’m sorry, ma’am.” After a quick look at Gracie, he went back up and disappeared. Gracie continued on her way, but her head was whirling, and five minutes later she had taken a wrong turning and did not know where she was either.
    Upon arriving Pitt had gone almost immediately to talk to Jack Radley about the situation which faced them, and to inform Ainsley Greville that he was there, as was Tellman. He must also learn what other provisions had been made by the local police, and by Ashworth Hall’s own menservants, and what Greville had told them of the situation and its dangers.
    Charlotte went straight to see Emily, who was in the upstairs boudoir, having expected her arrival and longing to talk to her.
    “I’m so glad you came!” she said, throwing her arms around her and hugging her tightly. “This is my first really important political weekend, and it’s going to be absolutely fearful. In fact, it already is.”