Read Online An Honourable Estate by Elizabeth Ashworth - Free Book Online

wished that not all the able bodied men had followed William so
eagerly.  The cold of the floor stung at her feet through the rushes and
when Calab ran to her she laid a hand on his soft head and shushed him. 
When he obeyed she was able to hear muffled barking from the other dogs
somewhere outside.  She stopped a few paces from the door and stood in the
blackness and listened.  Outside she could hear horses and men, several
men she thought as she listened to the exchange of voices.  It couldn’t be
William.  If it had been, she was sure he would have come alone and that
Calab would have been wagging his tail rather than making the menacing low
growl in his throat that he saved for strangers he distrusted.
    Mabel jerked again in alarm as the pounding
recommenced.  Whoever was there was not going to go away she realised and
with shaking hands she fumbled for a candle and flints, taking several strikes
to light the wick.  With the reassurance of the big dog pressing against her
legs she cautiously lifted the beam that secured the outer door and, with the
candle held high, pulled it back a fraction, afraid of whom she would see
there.
    “Ah!” said a voice.  “At last.  My apologies for
disturbing you Lady Bradshaigh.” 
    Mabel raised the flickering flame even higher to illuminate
the face of the tall man who stood at her door.  His hair was long and
dark and framed a thin face with an overlarge nose and pale inquiring eyes that
were fixed on her with interest.  Instinctively she pulled the unpinned
neckline of her gown together, allowing the door to swing open.  And, as
she watched him look her up and down, she wished she had put on her cloak as
she feared that the gown was clinging to her shivering, naked body and
revealing more than she wanted him to see.
    “Who are you?  What do you want?” she asked, grasping
for an authoritative tone but finding that the words came out as a frightened
squeak.
    “My name is Sir Edmund Neville.  I am sheriff to the
Earl of Lancaster.  I seek your husband, Lady Bradshaigh.”
    In the circumstances she was surprised that his voice sounded
so gentle, his tone so conciliatory, but as she glanced outside she saw, in the
early morning light, that he had men-at-arms all around both the manor house
and the barn.
    “My husband is not here.”
    “Mama?”  Bella’s frightened voice made her turn in
alarm.
    “Go back to your bed and stay there!” she told her
daughter.  “There is nothing to trouble you here.” She saw her daughter
look at the man who was now filling their doorway and she saw the raw fear on
her face.  “Go back to the bedchamber and look after your sister. 
Close the door behind you.”
    With relief she watched as Bella obeyed and she heard the
latch click shut.  She turned back to Sir Edmund Neville and held the
candle up again.
    “My husband is not here,” she repeated.
    “Then you can have no objection to us searching to be sure?”
    “This is my house...” she began as she held out a hand to bar
his way.  He paused and looked down at her.
    “Lady Bradshaigh, if your husband is not here then there is
no reason not to admit me and allow me to make sure for myself.  If you
will co-operate only I will come inside.  But if you are unco-operative,
then I will be forced to assume that you are concealing him and I will have my
men tear the place apart.”
    His threat was so at odds with the reasonable tone of his
voice that it took a moment for Mabel to comprehend what he had said. 
Then, glancing at the armed men waiting for a signal beyond the door, she
stepped back and allowed Sir Edmund access.
    “Wait there,” he told the men, then walked to the centre of
the hall and looked around.  “Tie up the dog and light some more candles,”
he instructed Mabel, taking the one she held from her hands.
    Trembling she slipped a rope through Calab’s collar and managed
to secure the growling hound to a ring in the wall near the hearth.