The Luck of the Devil by Bárbara Metzger Read Free Book Online Page B

especially now that his young wife Eleanor had succumbed to an inflammation of the lungs. At least Lord Delverson had his and Eleanor's daughter Suzannah for company at Delmere in Dorset, and Eleanor's young sister Emonda too, while Carey had his men and madcap antics miles away and lifetimes apart, with his letters and a cameo brooch to remind him of home.
    Sweltering in a musty tent, with no water to wash and only his coat for a bed and a flickering candle to see by, Carey would flip open the locket and take heart from the woman who smiled back at him. He thought she must be the Wimberly chit's mother, for the girl in the tiny portrait had her hair powdered, but they were close in appearance from what he could remember. No matter, the lady in the locket was sweet and perfumed and floating on some gallant's arm at Almack's; she was England and home, and she smiled at him and wished him luck.
     
    "Bloody generals cannot get enough rations or ammunition here. You'd think the least they could do is deliver the mail! Look at this, Rudd. I get no correspondence for months on end, and now a blasted avalanche of—Oh, God, no."
    "Cap'n?" The batman looked up from where he was polishing Carey's boots. Delverson's tanned face was ashen and the hand that was clutching a tattered, black-bordered sheet was trembling. Rudd searched out the last bottle of Portuguese brandy he'd been saving. "Bad news, sir?"
    "My father. His heart gave out, the solicitor says, last March. Bloody hell, that was five months ago! Damn, I should have been there!"
    Rudd put a glass in the captain's hand. "If it were suddenlike, you wouldn't of known anyways, even if they could of sent for you. Is the man handling things for you?"
    Carey drained the glass and held it out for a refill. "Yes, I suppose. I don't know. He wants me to come home and decide about the tenants' roofs, of all the cork-brained ideas. What does the bastard think I am doing here? Having a picnic with the señoritas, that I should just pack up and leave, saying 'Sorry, I recalled another engagement'? Blast, the general is set to take a stand at Cifuente; I cannot ask for leave just days before an engagement."
    "I'm thinking roofs can wait. They waited this long, ain't they? Or send the bloke your dibs, if you trust him." Rudd pulled out the loaf of bread and slab of cheese he was hoarding for the coming battle, in case the supply lines were cut again. He didn't trust the commanders any more than he trusted the French. Captain Delverson, now that was another matter. Hadn't the captain hired him on as his personal servant when the surgeons declared Rudd unfit for battle? What was Rudd going to do in England with a wooden leg and a patch over one eye? Starve, that's what, and he may as well starve in Spain. Wouldn't do to let the captain drink on an empty stomach.
    Carey absentmindedly cut a slice of cheese. He too had learned to eat whenever he had the chance. "I trust old Hayes, but he's in London; Delmere is in Dorset. Besides, there's more. It seems I am now responsible for two females, my stepsister Suzannah and her mother's sister."
    Rudd thought about that one for a while. "Sounds like the second female is your aunt."
    "Emonda Selcroft my aunt? The chit is barely seventeen, I'd wager. She was a timid little wren when she came to live at Delmere, much younger than her sister Eleanor, who was considerably younger than my father. Even then Emonda was the biggest goosecap you'd ever find, a watering pot afraid of her own shadow. If a chap should even suggest that the wind noise in the chimney sounded like one of the ancestors, she'd shriek for days."
    "Bedeviled her, did you?"
    Carey had to smile. "Not me so much as Harry. He couldn't resist. And Joss was always fond of snakes and toads. We were invited to take school vacations at the Abbey, one county over, after Emonda came to live with Eleanor and the governor. What in bloody hell does old Hayes expect me to do about Emonda?"
    "What about