Alicia Read Online Free PDF Page B

through the viewers of the Punch and Judy show and bowed to Alicia.
    “I am delighted to see you, Lady Coombs. The fair brings more business than usual to town, so we have been busy, but I saw you a moment ago when I looked over and wished to come and welcome you to Tetterton.”Mr. Dean looked, if possible, worse than he had two weeks previously.
    “I cannot think it is wise for you to be out in this unruly crowd,”she murmured solicitously. “But we appreciate your welcome. I intend to come round first thing in the morning to start learning the business. Mr. Allerton is still agreeable to staying on?”
    “Indeed, yes. You will find him a most admirable young man. He has been with me for two years now and knows the business as well as I do. I wonder...”He hesitated, his body resting heavily on his cane.
    “Please do not hesitate to speak your mind, Mr. Dean.”
    “I have not been quite up to pluck these last weeks and wonder if you would mind if I left next week when the papers will be signed. I had intended to stay on a bit to assist you, but I fear in my present condition I shall not be of much use.”
    “I would have you do just as is best for you. Mr. Allerton can assist me in my learning, and Felicia and I look forward to moving into your charming cottage.”
    Mr. Dean sighed with relief. “As soon as the papers are signed then I shall plan to leave. I appreciate your consideration, Lady Coombs.”
    “Not a bit. Things are like to work out just as well for all of us this way. Now I hope you will not let me keep you standing here in this press. I shall see you in the morning.”
    When Mr. Dean had wandered off , Alicia’s attention was caught by an altercation taking place to the rear of her. She was about to turn to see the speaker, but the angry words froze her.
    “The damn fellow has put me out of my room! Griggs, my valet, you know, just came to tell me. I left him there to hold it for me, and he has let himself be forcefully put out, along with all my belongings,”the whining voice persisted.
    “To hold it for you? Why should you need to leave him to hold it for you?”a lazy voice queried.
    “Stupid oaf of a landlord said it was reserved for...You won’t believe this, Stronbert...said it was reserved for Lady Coombs. You remember Sir Frederick,”the speaker sniggered.
    “Sir Frederick’s widow? There could be another Lady Coombs.”
    “Doubt it. I asked the fellow if she was in mourning and he assented.”The speaker obviously found this very amusing. “Wonder what brings her to such a godforsaken place. Got too hot for her at the Grange, no doubt.”
    Alicia could feel the anger and humiliation swell within her. She checked to see that Felicia was engrossed in the show and sighed with relief. The voices at her back continued.
    “Really, Parker, you have the most vivid imagination, and it is so seldom based on fact that one wearies of your tongue,”the second speaker drawled.
    “Little you know!”Parker snapped. “I had it from Westerly himself that it was Tackar who killed Sir Frederick in the duel, though I have never seen any such affair so well cloaked in secrecy.”
    “That’s enough,”the second speaker rapped out, his voice of steel.
    His companion paid no attention to him, though his tone of command had almost made Alicia jump. “And Westerly knows Tackar, who comes, you might note, from the neighborhood of the Grange. You’ve met Tackar. Me thinks there is some hanky-panky between the neglected Lady Coombs and him.”
    This was really too much for Alicia, who had gone ramrod straight as these delightful bits of gossip were spread. She spun on his concluding words and lashed her hand across his face with all the fury of her pent-up anger and mortification. His astonishment more perhaps than the pain led him to utter the bellow that followed. Even in the din of the fair this attracted a goodly amount of attention, but Alicia merely turned away from his spluttering, took