Read Online Crossed Bones by Jane Johnson - Free Book Online Page B

pitcher down, took a pace forward and stood over her, hands on hips, declaiming her words at full volume like one of the tub-thumpers who now so regularly toured the region.
    ‘The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.
    ‘And on her forehead a name was written: “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.”
    ‘Shame on you, Catherine Anne Tregenna, in your scarlet dress and your fornicating ways, for thou art truly Babylon!’
    ‘Whatever is going on here?’
    The Mistress of Kenegie stood framed in the doorway, her hands balled into tight white fists. She took in the scene at a glance: John Killigrew striding away towards the stable yard, his pipe in his hand; Catherine in the dust with her hair rumpled and her face as red as her dress; Nell Chigwine a figure of righteous triumph. ‘Such an unholy row,’ she scolded the pair of them, ‘when Sir Arthur is trying to hold a civilized conversation.’
    ‘Unholy is thy servant,’ Nell sniffed. ‘That dress the temptress wears is enough to provoke the very Devil.’
    ‘My husband’s guests are not all angels, that is true,’ Margaret Harris said quietly, ‘but I think none of them are quite as bad as all that. You had best speak plainly, Eleanor, and explain to me why you were shrieking so stridently.’
    Nell Chigwine’s eyes went as small and black as sloes. ‘I came out to fetch a pitcher of water and found Catherine fornicating with a man, as brazen as you please in full view of all and sundry.’
    Cat leaped to her feet. ‘You did no such thing!’ she cried hotly.
    ‘By all that is sacred,’ Nell returned primly, her hand laid upon her heart, ‘I know what I saw. And all know she would do anything to land herself a rich husband.’ She smiled slyly. ‘Even one who has run himself into debt gaining an unholy divorce.’
    ‘Go about your duties, Eleanor,’ Lady Harris said sharply, ‘and speak of this to no one. If any gossip of what has passed here reaches my ears, I shall know immediately whence it came.’
    Nell shot Cat a malicious parting glance, took up the pitcher, carried it to the pump, filled it with insolent slowness and stalked back into the house. No one said a word in the two long minutes this took.
    When the door was firmly shut behind her, Margaret Harris turned back, pale and drawn. ‘I shall not ask you exactly what passed here, Catherine. But what I will say is that that man has a very bad reputation.’ Her eyes indicated the retreating back of John Killigrew, his red hair glowing through a cloud of smoke in the next enclosure. ‘For very many reasons it were best you kept out of his way.’
    ‘I did not invite his attentions, my lady, whatever Nell Chigwine says,’ Cat said in a low voice.
    ‘You are young, Catherine, and not as worldly-wise as you like to think. Not every gentleman by name is a gentleman by nature; and Killigrew is no gentleman. I can only imagine he does not know your identity – ’
    ‘I told him my name was Catherine Tregenna.’
    Mistress Harris’s eyes glinted. ‘Had you told him Coode, he would have turned on his heel on you and good riddance. Now go back upstairs and change out of that dress. Scarlet has no place in an honest woman’s wardrobe.’
    ‘It was my mother’s dress,’ Cat said sullenly.
    ‘I fear that is no great surprise to me. It may not be fair that the sins of the parent be visited on the child, but in your mother’s case personal sin was added to original sin, and it weighs heavily upon you, Catherine, though you know it not. For your own best sake I tell you now that there are men with no title, no estate and no riches who are worth a hundred of men like John Killigrew. Your cousin Robert is one, and you should look to him while you may, before your reputation is sullied beyond