Read Online The Grenadillo Box: A Novel by Janet Gleeson - Free Book Online

Wallace. His hand trembled as he spooned butter sauce onto his potato. “As they were from the moment of signing, before witnesses, as stipulated—”
    “Nothing can be done to alter them. They are all legally binding. Yes or no?”
    Wallace’s frog eyes blinked rapidly. He dropped the spoon in the sauceboat, where it slid beneath the surface. “They are all sanctioned and viable.”
    “And should I die this night, would remain so?”
    “I sincerely hope nothing will befall your lordship this night, but no, the time would have no bearing. The document would still stand. Unless of course you were physically indisposed…for instance as we discussed earlier…if for instance you were to take your own—”
    Montfort held up his hand to silence him, turning in the opposite direction as he did so. He caught his sister staring intently at him. Embarrassment etched itself across her face as she realized she had been apprehended listening to his conversation. I could not but sympathize with her predicament. Montfort’s face ripened from red to purple. He rose unsteadily to his feet. Miss Alleyn was an uncommonly tall woman, towering over her brother by several inches. Yet now, with his barrel paunch looming like a battering ram at her eye level, she was utterly overwhelmed.
    “Damn you, Margaret! Do you eavesdrop on my private discussions? Is this behavior to be endured? You are as insupportable as everyone else in this room, even if the subject is beyond your comprehension.” His words were slurred from the strength of the emotion he felt.
    Miss Alleyn retracted her neck into her bony shoulders and twisted her napkin helplessly, unable to meet his accusing glare. A pulse in her neck throbbed visibly. “Henry, I overheard nothing. I was merely concerned—as we all are—for your well-being.”
    Her contrition only added to his fury. “Do not treat me like an imbecile! Is it for this I have shown you hospitality these past years? Without me you’d have starved, as you still might if I choose to abandon you.”
    “But, Henry,” she stammered, “I have never forgotten how much I owe you. I depend on you. You have been the most generous of brothers to me. I did not intend to cause you distress. I simply chanced to hear the conversation…. It meant nothing, as you have acknowledged. I could not understand…”
    Montfort lowered over her, mute yet threatening. His eyes seemed swollen with rage, the expression in them wilder. Did I detect a flicker of lunacy? When he spoke it was to spit out his final rebuke.
    “What use is exerting myself over such conduct? Your disgraceful actions are no more than I might have expected. I believe you will drive me mad if I remain in your presence. I am leaving now, and understand this, all of you, I mean it when I say under no circumstances do I wish to be disturbed.”
    Then, with the eyes of the entire company upon him, he marched from the room, crashing the door closed behind him.
     
    A fter the echo of his footsteps had faded, his ill-humor remained in the room like some noxious odor that even a spring breeze cannot erase. The footman and I stood uncomfortably guarding each side of the serving table. Guests and family stared at the food congealing on their plates. At length Miss Alleyn calmed herself sufficiently to signal to John, who signaled to me to clear away the plates. Meanwhile Robert did what he could to break the chill.
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” he began hesitantly, “I apologize for my father, who as you see is indisposed. He hasn’t been well these past days. I trust his ill-health won’t intrude upon your enjoyment of this evening.”
    “But what has caused his indisposition?” demanded Elizabeth, alarm ringing in her voice, distress raw on her face. “This evening was arranged at his desire. The library is completed for him to unveil to his guests as he intended. Yet today he ordered the room to be left dark, the fire unlit. What has changed? Has he taken