At Home with Mr Darcy by Victoria Connelly Read Free Book Online

summoned.’
    Warwick grinned. ‘Good luck,’ he said, knowing full well what Dame Pamela had in store for the journalist and hoping that she’d fare better than he had.
     
    Katherine’s hand hovered lovingly over a hardback book about the history of Chatsworth which would look utterly splendid on one of their coffee tables at Hawk’s Hill. But did they really need another book? She thought about the heaps of books that they had yet to sort out and an internal battle raged within her.
    ‘Excuse me, madam. Do you intend to buy that book?’
    ‘Warwick!’ Katherine said, spinning around at his voice.
    ‘It’s a very nice book,’ he said, picking it up and flipping through the pages.
    ‘Don’t we have enough books?’
    He gave her a quizzical look. ‘How can a doctor of English Literature believe she has enough books?’
    ‘I was just thinking of the awful mess at home.’
    ‘Which we shall sort out,’ Warwick said calmly. ‘Just imagine them all neatly on their shelves. They’re going to virtually disappear.’
    She shook her head and laughed at him.
    ‘And then you will bemoan the fact that you didn’t buy this book,’ he said.
    ‘All right. All right! I give in. I’ll buy the book. Only, let’s get it later. I don’t want to cart it all around the gardens,’ she said. ‘How did you get on with Melissa?’
    Warwick’s face clouded over. ‘To be honest, I don’t really know. I’m not entirely sure she’s human. I just can’t seem to connect with her.’
    ‘Oh, dear,’ Katherine said. ‘Well, perhaps, the others will do better.’
    ‘Let’s hope so,’ Warwick said.

Chapter 7
    Annie Soames had hoped to lose her mother but she wasn’t having any luck.
    ‘Anne!’ Mrs Soames barked. ‘Wait for me and get hold of this bag.’
    The tartan bag held a tartan flask from the nineteen-seventies and went everywhere that Mrs Soames did even though Annie had told her that there were cafes and kiosks galore at Chatsworth.
    ‘Harrumph!’ Mrs Soames had said. ‘You won’t find me lining the pockets of the duke and duchess when I can take my own cup of tea.’
    The worst of it was that Mrs Soames expected Annie to share it with her.
    ‘Wouldn’t you like a fresh cup of tea, Mother?’ Annie asked her. They’d finished the tour of the house and were near one of the cafes. ‘We’ve got those vouchers to spend.’
    ‘No, I wouldn’t. Just look at those prices!’ Mrs Soames cried, causing several heads to turn. Annie was used to her mother’s head-turning capabilities but it never ceased to embarrass her all the same.
    ‘Look! There’s Rose and Roberta,’ Annie said, catching sight of the sisters who were seated outside the Orangery.
    ‘I’m not spending good money to sit with those two nitwits,’ Mrs Soames said, her voice loud and carrying across the short distance between them.
    ‘Well, I’d like to join them,’ Annie said daringly, her face heating in a ferocious blush at her mother’s words.
    She turned to join the two ladies but her mother grabbed her wrist.
    ‘Mother!’
    Mrs Soames looked shocked at the tone of her daughter’s voice and they glared at each other for a dreadful silent-drenched moment.
    ‘How dare you shout at me!’ Mrs Soames said, her bosom rising in a great fleshy defiance.
    ‘You hurt my wrist!’ Annie said, her voice sounding like a child’s.
    ‘I did no such thing,’ Mrs Soames told her.
    ‘Yes you did. Now,’ Annie said, taking a deep breath and trying to remain calm even though everybody was looking at them, ‘I’m going to buy a cup of tea and maybe even a slice of cake–’
    Mrs Soames tutted in disapproval.
    ‘And then I’m going to join our friends.’ Without further discussion, Annie went to join the queue, her heart racing wildly as she watched her mother leave the scene.
     
    ‘Did you see that?’ Katherine said to Warwick. After walking around the Canal where the Emperor Fountain was, they’d somehow found themselves in the