Read Online Patricia Veryan - [Sanguinet Saga 05] - Nanette by Patricia Veryan - Free Book Online

travelling pistols flashed into
his hand as a horseman galloped after them.
    An arm was waved vigorously. "It do be I, sir!"
    The footman hove into sight, mounted on his old cob, a
carpetbag slung behind the saddle. Thankfully, Harry restored the
pistol to his deep pocket. Braggs announced his intention to go with
them as far as the Priory, and although Harry was vehement in his
protestations, the man said stubbornly, "Give me too much pay you done,
sir, and well I knows it. I'll find myself another situation
prompt-like with that letter you writ. I owes you more'n this, Sir
Harry, so let me help, do!"
    Harry was both touched and pleased. He'd had no intention of
leaving Joseph alone on the roads with the wagon, but his need to
confront the man who had so carelessly allowed his friends to plunder
the Grange was a consuming flame. He gave one of his pistols to Braggs
and insisted they should pass the night at "The Georgian" where he was
well known. Promising the worried Joseph that he would travel to the
Priory the following day, he funded them, waved a farewell, and was
away at the gallop.
    Looking after him, Braggs smiled admiringly, "A reg'lar out'n
outer, our Sir Harry, eh Mr. Joseph?"
    "Who's about to get his head blown off!" Joseph worried. "I
know plenty about the Sanguinets, Braggs. Let me tell you… Poison, they
are! Poison!"

Chapter IV
    It began to drizzle shortly after nine o'clock, and by eleven
was coming down in torrents. Lace was tired, Harry was cold, and the
darkness had become so absolute that only his familiarity with the road
enabled him to go on. To journey any farther tonight would be folly,
but although he was well known in Tunbridge Wells, it appeared there
was to be a large wedding on the morrow and that every available
hostelry was filled to overflowing with those guests the bride's
parents were unable to accommodate. Shivering after his third
rejection, Harry made enquiries at the nearest stable, where an
obliging ostler directed him " 'fust right, second left, dahn the lane.
Missus Burnett's. Can't miss it, guv!" Harry had never been adept at
recalling directions; he could and did miss it, and was drenched and
half frozen when at last he came upon an inviting looking three-storey
house set back from spreading lawns, before which a lantern illumined a
swinging, rain-beaded sign that read "Mrs. Burnett's" and beneath this
disclosure, "A Refined Boarding House for the Genteel Traveller."
    Harry dismounted wearily and bestowed Lace and his
instructions for her care, together with a shilling, upon a lad who ran
up, poorly protected by a square of sacking. He strode up two steps,
across a small porch, and opened the door into a warmly lamplit
vestibule giving onto a parlour wherein several people sat about a
leaping fire. They looked very genteel, indeed, but the thin and neat
little lady behind the desk scrutinized the newcomer from sodden beaver
to muddied boots and with folded arms and chilly mien informed him that
regrettably she was "Full Up! And—what's more—"
    Harry snatched off his hat as she spoke, and now, pushing wet
locks back from his brow, said ruefully, "And what's more you run a
respectable house and do not take in stray travellers with neither
valise nor valet to recommend 'em, eh, ma'am?"
    She eyed him warily, but the cut of the coat was awesome; his
clumsy efforts had sent his dark hair into wet curls that made him show
beguilingly youthful; the deep voice was gentle and cultured, and she
liked his wide mouth and the set of his chin. A good deal of the starch
had gone out of her voice, therefore, when she said, "S'right, sir!"
    "Don't blame you at all, ma'am." He looked wistfully into the
parlour, encountering the eyes of no less than six pretty young ladies
who had been surveying his tall figure with interest. "My loss, for I
can see your establishment is the kind we used to dream of in Spain.
Oh, well…" He shrugged. "Best be on my way."
    Hostility reeled before the full impact