Quiet Meg by Sherry Lynn Ferguson Read Free Book Online Page B

her infatuation, Lucy had paid less attention to
her chosen one’s methods than Meg found instructive. And
having the two younger girls in the room with her proved to
be trying. As Lucy, holding her tea, moved to lean over
Cabot’s master plan, Meg could no longer restrain herself.
    “Do be careful, Lucy! You will spill tea all over his
work!”
    “I shan’t! And even if I did it would not matter. He has
another tiny one he calls a `thumbnail’ that he carries
about in his waistcoat pocket. He says it’s his insurance.”
    “I can see that he needs it! Can you not imagine the
hours of effort to reproduce this? You would not want Mr.
Cabot to be compelled to repeat it”
    “Oh, wouldn’t I?” Lucy declared archly. But she and
Amanda, mutely munching a biscuit, dutifully stepped back
from the table. “I intend to keep Charles here forever,” she
said boldly.
    “Do you?” Meg asked. “The gentleman might object. And so might father and Bertie. You’re much too forward,
Lucy.” The girls made Meg feel prim. And since just last
night she had suffered a similar impulse with regard to Mr.
Cabot, she also felt a hypocrite. She pointed to the sheet
before her.

    “Do tell me what this symbol means. ‘Tis for a stake in
the kitchen garden.”
    Her little nose held aloft, Lucy returned to the table.
    “I don’t recall that. In fact, I have not seen it before,” she
said airily. She glanced only briefly at the plan. “Everyone
has been most insistent about preserving your kitchen garden. I am surprised he would dare”
    With a sigh, Meg rolled the plans back up and stored
them to the side of the table.
    “It is frustrating,” she said, “not to understand this code.
Would Bertie know?”
    Lucy shrugged.
    “Charles has explained everything, and father and Bertie
think it is all wonderful and tell him to get on with it. When
he is here he goes out all day and comes in only to supper.
I hardly see him. And when he’s away, he’s gone days at a
time.”
    “It is his task, Lucy. ‘Tis why he is here. And Selbourne
does not command all his attention.”
    “That should have changed”
    Meg had to smile.
    “Because you did? I see”
    “Oh, I thought you understood! About love.”
    Meg glanced at Amanda with embarrassment. But apparently young Miss Burke was privy to all irrepressible
Lucy’s secrets.

    “I cannot claim your wisdom, Lucy,” Meg said lightly.
But she excused herself and went to share her own tea with
Bertie and her father, who restored her to some equanimity.
    The next morning she headed to the stables at dawn. A
cool breeze blew off the river, setting the fresh new leaves
of the beeches dancing. No crews were working at this
hour. Riding astride in Selbourne’s privacy, Meg raced
Arcturus across the deer park.
    They leapt the rill and carefully skirted the earthworks
for the expanded ha-ha. At the first evidence of the path up
to the knoll, Meg slowed the stallion and had him ascend at
a walk. Instead of proceeding directly uphill, they traversed
the slope in a series of wide turns, presumably intended to
ease the climb for her father’s chair. At the top, Meg noted
a roughly square layout of flat stones.
    She retraced the path down, then skirted the wooded
base of the knoll to reach the enlarged lake. On its shores
many trees had been planted, the banks reinforced, and the
shrubbery thinned. Much had been accomplished in little
more than a month. Despite the evidence of considerable
activity, the ducks, coots, and other water birds still found
the site congenial, waking noisily in the reeds and osiers at
water’s edge.
    Meg urged Arcturus to a quicker pace. As they traced the
edge of the woods bordering the north slope, she glanced
into the dense growth of trees-and spotted a shadow moving parallel to her own.
    At once sensing her tension, Arcturus shied and broke
stride. Meg had to struggle to control him. As she did so
she noticed that