Read Online Friends and Lovers by Joan Smith - Free Book Online

can offer them everything; you—practically nothing. You mentioned taking it to the courts. Save your time and money. You’ll catch cold at that. You will gain nothing but my ill will. One hesitates to throw his charity in the face of its recipients, but you are of course aware who provides this home in which you live.”
    “This dismal, mouse-infested, dark, and draughty cottage in which we live is well paid for at ten guineas a year,” I answered, with more anger than common sense,
    “You would think otherwise if you tried to hire an alternative accommodation. It is a charming spot, every detail of the place authentic. You are outstandingly fortunate to have the privilege of living here.”
    “A privilege we share with two dozen mice in the thatched roof.”
    “The occupant has some responsibility too. It is possible to be rid of mice, by a judicious use of traps and poison.”
    “Yes, or by a good dry slate or shingle roof.”
    “Out of the question. The thatched roof is the making of the place. It would lose ninety percent of its charm if I changed the roof. Well, can we consider the matter resolved, then? I keep the children, you visit them when you wish, at your own convenience and their availability, giving due consideration to their studies.”
    “The matter will not be resolved in this high-handed fashion, milord. That is an ultimatum, not a compromise. Outside of your wealth and social position, you have little enough to offer. By your own admission, you consider them a nuisance. You spend more than ninety-five percent of your time away from the Manor. They would be abandoned to servants.”
    “Lady Menrod is always at home, at the Dower House. Naturally I shall hire governesses, tutors, whatever they require. As they grow older, they can accompany me on some of my trips. They might profit from a summer by the sea, at Brighton.”
    “If you really want to do what is best for them, you would let them stay with Mama and myself, where they would be every hour of every day with family who love and care deeply for them.”
    “Miss Harris, there is no if about it. I do plan to do my best for them. I can do better than abandon them, to use your hard word, to a crotchety spinster and a widow, who have never been beyond ten miles of home. You know nothing of the world. Your interests are confined to this neighborhood, your few friends such people as Mr. Everett.”
    “There is nothing wrong with Mr. Everett. As we are getting right down to brass tacks, Menrod, shall we take a look at your friends? Much of the society at the Manor is not suitable for children to meet. The whole neighborhood knows you had Mr. Kean and a bunch of actresses there last year. Women of that sort...”
    "They were employees, hired to entertain my guests.”
    “Yes, your male guests, and there was more than theatrics going on, to judge by local gossip.”
    “When you base your opinion on gossip, you make rational conversation difficult. Facts are what we are both interested in, I hope. You may be sure a gentleman never entertains his lady friends in the nursery, at any rate.”
    “Leaving the actresses aside, and omitting what rakes and scoundrels you associate with beyond this neighborhood, we are still left with your mistress. Mrs. Livingstone, I believe, is the woman’s name?”
    He turned a furious eye on me, his head jerking up, to allow him to look down his sliver of a nose at me. “Have you something against Mrs. Livingstone?” he asked.
    “Yes, the fact that she is your mistress, an extremely loose woman. Of more interest is the light the alliance sheds on your own character, for I cannot think that even you would be so low as to take the children to her. When a man is so steeped in lechery he must provide himself with a fancy at hand for the few days a year he spends at home, it stands to reason he is equally well provided for in those places he spends most of his time. A string of women stabled like horses across the