Read Online Place of Confinement by Anna Dean - Free Book Online

resent me.’
    ‘No.’ Dido took up a shawl and folded it slowly. ‘It is not at all reasonable. You are not your son, and whatever he has done to offend, you are guiltless. The whole family should not be held responsible for one man’s sins.’
    ‘It is the way of the world, Miss Kent.’
    ‘Then the world is wrong,’ said Dido with quiet conviction.
    He retrieved the prayer book and smoothed out the creases from its pages. ‘And would you seek to change the world’s opinion on the matter? It would be a revolution far beyond anything the French and the Americans have achieved between them.’
    ‘I do not presume so far.’ She laid down the folded shawl on the pew, took up another and slowly picked fragments of rushes from its fringe. ‘I seek only to act as my conscience dictates. It is a matter of integrity, Mr Lomax, not revolt.’
    He looked down at her busy little fingers and shook his head. ‘I do not think we shall ever agree upon this point,’ he said.
    ‘But upon another point I am sure we are in complete accord: the necessity of finding your son and Miss Verney.’
    He rested his hand upon the pew’s end. ‘That is what has brought me here,’ he said quietly as the last footsteps echoed away through the west door, leaving them alone in the little church. ‘Mr Fenstanton wrote to enquire whether I knew anything of the business. I did not; but I hoped I might be able to talk some sense into Tom.’
    ‘And have you met with any success?’
    His face clouded. He beckoned Dido into the shelter of the pew and they sat down side by side. ‘No, I have had no success at all,’ he confessed. ‘Tom continues to tell this nonsensical tale of returning the young lady to the house. You have heard it?’
    She nodded.
    ‘It is a lie, of course!’ he cried, then shook his head. ‘And yet he insists that it is true. He will not be shaken from the foolish story.’
    Dido gazed silently into his grave, troubled face. She was so close to him that her hand rested against the sleeve of his coat; she could see the troubled little furrows between his brows. ‘And what is your opinion?’ she asked gently. ‘Do you believe that your son has persuaded Miss Verney to remove herself from her friends’ protection?’
    ‘I think he must have done.’ He looked at her very directly. ‘Unfortunately, my knowledge of Tom’s character makes me believe him very capable of guilt … And yet…’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘The business has been carried on so very oddly. Why is he not with her? I cannot understand what he would be about.’ He shrugged up his shoulders and sighed.
    ‘Do you think it possible,’ suggested Dido, ‘that he believes his own tale to be true; that he has somehow been mistaken … or deceived?’
    Lomax looked at her in surprise. ‘I cannot see how that might be—’ he began.
    But just then they were interrupted by the sound of footsteps in the aisle. Mr Lancelot Fenstanton had returned to the empty church and both Dido and her companion were suddenly aware of how very close they were sitting – and what an odd appearance their private conference might have to an impartial observer.
    She jumped up with a quick farewell and hurried forward to meet the gentleman, wishing with all her heart that she had been allowed a few minutes more to pursue the very interesting idea of Mr Tom being deceived.
    *   *   *
    Mr Lancelot insisted upon taking some of Dido’s burdens into his own hands as they left the church together. ‘I have been commissioned by our aunt to seek you out, Miss Kent,’ he explained with a smile. ‘There is some arrangement of the carriage windows, or some order to be given to the coachman which only you can properly accomplish.’
    Dido suppressed an answering smile. ‘I am very sorry to keep her waiting,’ she said quietly.
    ‘But,’ he continued, as they stepped out of the cool, damp porch into sudden sunshine and birdsong and the fresh, clean smell of daffodils, ‘I am