Read Online Lord Deverill's Heir by Catherine Coulter - Free Book Online

have a relapse into common sense and sound reason? Perhaps even a bit of amiability? I shan’t repine if she only chooses to dip her finger into just a cup of benevolence.” Lady Ann held down the chuckle, gave him a frown, and said, “Are you and his lordship becoming acquainted, my dear?” She saw that Justin started in surprise. It was the new title, she realized. He would have to become used to it.
    “Oh, no, not as yet, Lady Ann. His lordship had to change his clothes, you see. He was really quite dirty from arguing with Arabella. He had been with me but a moment before you and Dr. Branyon arrived, but he does seem nice. He called me ma’am, at first, but I told him that since we’re cousins, he’s to call me Elsbeth.”
    “I like the sound of ma’am,” the earl said. “But if you prefer that I call you Elsbeth, I shall have to ask Lady Ann’s permission.”
    “Ma’am?” Lady Ann said, cocking her head to one side. “I think it dreadful myself. It makes a lady sound old. Do call her Elsbeth, Justin.”
    “Thank you. Would you like to sit on that very small crimson velvet and gold chair, Elsbeth? I don’t dare try it, it might collapse.” Lady Ann sat in front of the ornate tea service. “Do you take cream in your tea, Justin? Sugar? We must accustom ourselves.”
    “Just as it comes from the pot, Ann,” he said.
    “No frills, hmm, my lord?” Dr. Branyon said, raising his own teacup to the earl in salute.
    “On the Peninsula there was little milk unless we could catch a wandering goat. As for sugar and lemon, they were unheard of. One becomes very basic when one has to.”
    Dr. Branyon liked the new earl. He wasn’t pompous and utterly cruel like the former earl. He was a large man, much like his late relative, and carried his size with loose-limbed grace. Though his bronzed face looked more suited to rugged adventuring, his elegant fitted evening clothes were not at all out of place on him. He looked to be as much at ease in the drawing room as he would be on the battlefield. The earl sensed eyes upon him and turned to Dr. Branyon, an inquiring smile spreading over his face. It softened his features.
    Dr. Branyon was beginning to think that Ann was quite correct in her hope. The earl might be just the right husband for Arabella. At least he wouldn’t let Arabella walk all over him. On the other hand, she might shoot him if he believed, as had the late earl, that a woman’s only use was to bear sons. Or if he believed, as had the late earl, that a gentleman was free to betray his wife whenever it pleased him to do so.
    The earl shifted his attention to Lady Ann. “I compliment you, Ann, on your furnishing of this room. The Velvet Room, I believe it is called?”
    “Thank you for the praise, but it isn’t deserved. This room hasn’t been touched in years. The velvet has lasted beautifully, has it not? The earl’s first wife, Magdalaine, recovered all the furnishings. I believe the crimson velvet and the gold make a very rich effect. And with those white columns throughout the chamber, I sometimes feel as though I should be awaiting the king. Well, perhaps not George, for he is quite mad, poor man.”
    The earl sipped his tea. It was rich and dark, just the way he liked it.
    He said to Elsbeth, “Do you plan to make your home at Evesham Abbey?” Elsbeth’s teacup clattered into its saucer. “Oh goodness, no, my lord.
    That is, well, I do think it most kind of your lordship to perhaps not mind if I did stay, but now I can afford to have quite different plans.” She beamed at him. “I still have to pinch myself to believe it’s true.
    But it is, Lady Ann has assured me again and again that it is, that I did not misunderstand. It isn’t a mistake. Perhaps my father did care just a bit for me after all. Lady Ann assures me that he did. I never believed that he did, but he proved it in the end, didn’t he?” There didn’t seem to be a ready answer to that. The ten-thousand-pound legacy