Read Online Elizabeth Thornton by Whisper His Name - Free Book Online Page B

that there are housebreakers in the area.” This wasn’t true, but it was the best she could come up with. “From now on, I want all our doors locked and all the windows latched, and if you or any of the other servants see anyone lingering in the street, let me know at once.”
    Millie’s eyes went round with alarm; Miss Fairbairn began to chatter excitedly, asking questions she answered for herself; Abbie let her mind wander.
    She was well aware that locking the doors and securing the windows were on a par with barring the stable door after the horse had bolted, but it made her feel safer. And the next thing she was going to do was learn how to use a pistol. There was nothing she would like better than to put a bullet in that villain’s brain, just as he’d done to Colette.
    What was she saying? Pistols were made to kill people. She’d always hated them. She and George both were good, law-abiding citizens, and this shouldn’t be happening to them.
    When Olivia’s voice trailed away, Abbie gathered her wits. She waited till the tea was poured and Olivia had taken several sips from her cup.
    “The books we bought in Paris,” she said. “I mean, of course, the ones that are being held at customs. The period of grace is almost up. If I don’t claim them soon, they’ll be sold at public auction. I was wondering if it was worth our while to pay the duty on them.”
    “I thought you said that His Majesty could wait till doomsday before you would pay duty on your own property.”
    Abbie took a sip of tea and winced as her torn lipsmarted. “I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment. I’ve had a change of heart. Well, it was a great to-do about nothing.”
    “I don’t call nasty, officious men bullying two innocent women a ‘to-do about nothing.’ You were entirely within your rights.”
    That’s not how Abbie remembered it, not when she was honest with herself. She had been largely to blame for what had happened at customs. It had all started pleasantly enough. She’d answered the customs officers’ questions politely and truthfully. No, the books were not for personal use, she’d said. She’d acquired them to sell to her customers at home. The officers had looked impressed, and she couldn’t help boasting about how well she and Miss Fairbairn were doing with their fledgling business, or how much profit they would make when they sold the books.
    Hugh had been there, too, trying to shush her, but she hadn’t listened to him or understood what he was trying to do, not until the officer in charge informed her how much duty she would have to pay. “Articles of commerce,” the officer called her books, and after all her boasting she could hardly deny it.
    She saw, then, that the officers’ politeness and charm had been a blind to entrap her. In her stupidity, she’d exaggerated the value of the books and thus the amount of duty that was owing on them. She’d seen red, of course. On a matter of principle, she’d ranted, she wouldn’t pay them a penny, no, not even a farthing. The King could wait till doomsday before she would enrich his coffers by paying an unjust tax. It was getting harder and harder for decent people to make an honest living.
    There was more in this vein, and Hugh had hustled her out of the customs house before—as he’d said—theyclapped her in irons. His censure had kept her temper hot, and she’d turned on him too. He should have stood up for her, she’d raged. Anyone would think he was afraid of his own shadow.
    She always looked back on that episode with mixed emotions. She was sorry, deeply sorry, that she’d let fly at Hugh, but she was astonished and rather proud of the way she’d stood up for herself. The old Abbie would never have shown such gumption. But then the old Abbie wouldn’t have opened her mouth, and the question of duty would never have arisen.
    None of that mattered now. She had a book to find, and if it wasn’t with the lot that were still waiting