Intrigued by Bertrice Small Read Free Book Online

there is nothing he can do but accept that with his daughter’s murder, his grandchildren are gone until this nonsense is settled,” the Dowager Duchess of Glenkirk concluded firmly.
    “He will come,” Henry said gloomily, “and you will deal with him, Mama, for you know I am very bad at lying.”
    She laughed. “So was your father, my dear, but you will have to deal with Welk, for I shall more than likely not be here.”
    “What?” Both the duke and the marquis spoke at once.
    “England is a very dour place right now, my dears. My responsibility as a mother is not done until Autumn is properly wed. We will find no bridegroom here for her, but perhaps in France or Holland we will. Do not argue with me, my lads. Your sister turned nineteen yesterday and is no longer in the first flower of her youth. Her beauty and her wealth will, of course, find us the right man, but there is little time before she will be considered past her prime, and it will be harder to make a brilliant match,” the dowager duchess told them.
    “We are going abroad?” Autumn smiled suddenly. “Oh, yes, Mama! That is the answer! Charlie said you would have the solution to my problem, and you have found it!” She hugged her mother happily.
    “So,” Jasmine Leslie said, “you have been discussing this situation with your sister, Charlie.”
    “Rather, Mama, she has been bemoaning the fact that she was about to turn nineteen, a fact we entirely overlooked, being on the road.”
    “I told you,” Autumn said firmly, “that I would celebrate no more natal days until I was wed.”
    Her family all laughed, but Autumn was adamant and shook her head at them.
    “When will you leave?” Henry asked their mother.
    “In a week or two, when my servants are rested from our flight from Scotland,” the dowager duchess answered. “It was not an easy trip, what with being stopped half-a-dozen times a day by Cromwell’s people and having the coach searched over and over. And remember, my servants are not young any longer.” She arose from the chair in which she had been sitting. “Come with me, Autumn. You look worn from your adventures and should rest before the evening meal.” With her daughter in tow, Jasmine left the Great Hall of Cadby.
    “When her servants are rested,” Henry repeated. “She could barely stand when she got here several days ago. Patrick sent a troop of men-at-arms with her, and a damned good thing too. They managed to skirt around Edinburgh, but in the Borders they had a bit of a run-in with a troop of Roundheads. Her coach outran them, but it was quite a struggle. Her driver took a musketball in the shoulder, but he never faltered. Fergus More-Leslie is a tough bastard,” the marquis said admiringly. “And Adali! My God, Charlie, the man is close to eighty, but he took the reins from Fergus so he could bind up his wound, and he brought the coach through the worst of the attack. None of them are young anymore. Yet here they are, leaving home and hearth for a new adventure.”
    “It has always been said that Mama is more like our great-grandmother than any of her children or other grandchildren,” Charlie noted. “Are the Glenkirk men still here?”
    “Aye,” the marquis replied.
    “Good! They can accompany me and the children to Scotland, then. We’ll take Mama’s coach for the children and their servant. I’ve just brought Biddy. I had to leave Clara and Mavis behind. Both have lads at Queen’s Malvern. Who knows how long my bairns will be at Glenkirk. I couldn’t be burdened with a household under the circumstances,” Charlie explained.
    “Can this Biddy ride a horse?” the marquis asked.
    “Aye. Why?” his brother inquired.
    “Don’t take the coach, Charlie. You’ll make better time and have a better chance of getting through without difficulties a-horse. The coach is cumbersome. One of the Glenkirk men will take William with him, leaving the serving woman free to concentrate on her journey. Brie and