Obsession by Claire Lorrimer Read Free Book Online Page B

six …’
    She broke off, the tears flowing again. Bessie regarded her anxiously. Six months – half a year … It was a very, very long time.
    She found another handkerchief for Harriet to replace the wet one, wondering as she did so how she could possibly find something comforting to say.
    ‘Does the master say what’s doing out there to keep him, Miss Harriet?’ she asked.
    In a choked voice, Harriet replied, ‘The man who was managing the plantations has been shot and killed. There’s been trouble amongst the Jamaican people and it’s gone on despite the slaves being given their freedom thirty years ago. Brook says his workers are all loyal, but the plantations are at risk and he will have to find a new manager and see him settled in and make sure the danger has passed before he dare leave the country.’
    ‘Six months is an awful long time!’ Bessie said, sighing. Then her expression brightened as she added, ‘I’m sure as how he’ll come back just as soon as ever he can, Miss Harriet, I never did see a husband as devoted to his wife as what the master is to you!’
    Harriet attempted a smile. ‘Even four months more without him is almost more than I can bear to think about!’ she said. ‘I miss him so, so much!’
    ‘I know you does, Miss Harriet but …’ Bessie had another thought. ‘You’ve the time to make that visit to Miss Una now. You said as how it was too long a journey to go for a short while: now you could stay for several weeks, couldn’t you?’
    Harriet drew a deep, shaky sigh. It was small consolation, but she could do as Bessie was suggesting. Una had been so disappointed when she’d declined to go before. She would take Bessie with her, of course. She had always wanted to go abroad again ever since her honeymoon. If they left for Ireland at the beginning of October she could stay at least six weeks with Una and still be home long before there was any chance of Brook’s return.
    Bessie replaced the breakfast tray in front of Harriet and went downstairs to get her a fresh pot of hot chocolate. Dry-eyed now, Harriet ate her breakfast as she considered the implications of her proposed absence from Hunters Hall. There were a number of invitations she had accepted which would now have to be refused. Harvest festival was in a week or two’s time and a basket of fruit and vegetables from their garden would have to be taken to the church for the parish. There was a garden party too, and she would miss the annual cricket match on the green. Brook usually took part while Harriet gave the prize to the winning team. She had also agreed with Felicity Goodall to spend a few days at her brother, Paul’s, house in London next month and go to an opera and a concert with them. That, too, would have to be cancelled or postponed.
    Although nearly ten years older than herself, Felicity had proved to be a welcome companion in Brook’s absence. Brook had suggested before he left that Felicity Goodall’s desire to be included in their coterie of friends might have something to do with the Denning family’s ambitions to raise their social status as they were still not accepted by all their neighbours, such as Viscount Harrogate and his wife and Lord and Lady Bancroft. Nevertheless, Harriet had begun to liken her to one of her older sisters who, regrettably, she seldom ever saw now because of their busy lives in distant parts of the country.
    When Bessie returned, Harriet was dry-eyed as she discussed with her how they would travel – not by one of the new trains, she said, because not only would they have first to go by coach to the nearest railway station at Leicester, but the train’s carriages would be cold and dirty. They would travel in their own coach.
    ‘We can stop on the way and spend a night at one of the inns,’ she said. ‘You could go down to the village this morning, Bessie, with Jenkins, and find out more details about such a journey. I will write to my sister and advise her of our