A Woman's Estate Read Online Free PDF Page A

those of Lord Lydden and his sister
will be provided for amply. And this is a dreadful season to be in London—so
hot and oppressive. Will you not allow me to arrange transport for you to Rutupiae
Hall? Sir Arthur will explain to you—”
    “I cannot see why Sir Arthur should be required to travel
heaven knows how far—”
    “Ah, how thoughtful you are!” Mr. Deedes cried with the
enthu­siasm of relief. “But it is no distance at all. Stonar Magna—that is Sir
Arthur’s most important country seat—is no more than ten minutes’ walk from
Rutupiae Hall. Sir Arthur is your nearest neighbor. How stupid of me not to
realize that you did not know and to fail to mention it. No wonder you have
been in so much doubt about these little details, thinking it might be days or
weeks before Sir Arthur could be made aware of any difficulty. No, no, he will
be instantly able to help you.”
    “I see,” she remarked in a colorless voice.
    Abigail had forced herself to speak calmly, but she was
growing alarmed. She did not like the resistance Deedes was showing to
discussing the will with her, nor his anxiety to hurry her off into the country
where somehow relatives Francis had never mentioned were established in the
house he had spoken of frequently and where this Sir Arthur lived so
conveniently close. She was alone with two young children in a country where no
one knew her. Who would care if they should all disappear?
    A wave of panic swept over Abigail, receding only when she
recalled that she was not friendless. She did have a friend in England,
Alexander Baring, nor was he a negligible person. Alexander Baring was the head
of the great banking house of Baring Brothers and a Member of Parliament. She
had met him at the home of Commodore Nicholson, Albert Gallatin’s
father-in-law, who also lived on Williams Street, and had later several times
entertained him and his American-born wife. Baring was a kind and courteous man
and had offered to facilitate her orders and payments to French and English
booksellers by doing the foreign banking necessary for her bookshop, despite
the fact that ordinarily such small accounts were more of a nuisance than a
profit. And over the years, their correspondence had contained many personal
friendly notes amid the business matters.
    “Will that suit you, Lady Lydden?”
    Abigail became aware that Mr. Deedes had been expounding
some plan while her mind had first recoiled in fear and then found an answer.
She shook her head. “I cannot commit myself,” she replied, curving her lips
into a smile. “We only arrived in London late yesterday and I came to you
immediately, but I must first inform my friend Mr. Alexander Baring that I am
here in England. I am afraid that my letter to him, which went at the same time
as the one I wrote to you, has also been lost. Mr. Baring has shown me much
kindness, and it would be extremely rude for me to leave the city without
informing him of my arrival.”
    Mr. Deedes’ face immediately displayed relief and pleasure.
“How fortunate!” he exclaimed. “I happen to know that Mr. Baring is still in
town—you do mean Mr. Alexander Baring of Baring Brothers, do you not?”
    Abigail nodded, her smile warming as she realized that her
fears must have been bred out of anxiety. Mr. Deedes could not have any nefarious
purposes if he was so delighted at her friendship with Alexander Baring. And,
indeed, on the following afternoon when she was invited to tea with Mr. Baring
and his wife, Anne Louisa, she discovered that her suspicions of both Mr.
Deedes and Sir Arthur St. Eyre were totally unfounded.
    “No, no,” Baring said, smiling, when she asked if Sir Arthur
were the kind of executor who would plague her, particularly about Victor’s
upbringing. “I don’t know him very well, although he’s a fellow M.P. and a
fellow Whig—though heaven knows he seems to spend more time attacking the party
than supporting it—but I’m sure that he will be more than happy