At Your Pleasure Read Online Free PDF

down at her husband’s dining table with the condescension of conquering emperors.
    Her husband’s sycophancy had encouraged their airs. It had been clear by then that Queen Anne must die of her illness. Towe had been making a frantic search for new friendships that might preserve his power in the coming era of Whig rule. Nora had sat frozen, watching him grovel through nine courses of rich dinner fare, while Lord Barstow had toyed with his fork and smothered yawns. Lord John had spoken in his father’s stead, a torrent of sly insults that had made Towe’s face whiten.
    But her husband had conceded to their every demand. He had borrowed and begged and robbed his own tenants to pay for the Gardiners’ friendship. Shortly thereafter, in the Parliamentary debate regarding her father’s impeachment, that friendship had yielded a single boon. Lord Barstow had argued that the traitor’s kin should not be punished too sorely for his sins. May we not teach these wretched souls the value of mercy? May we not show them a true example of Christian kindness, so at odds with the wicked model of their father? In a self-congratulatory mood, the Whigs had agreed, allowing Hodderby and its environs to remain in David’s possession.
    Her husband had been pleased by this evidence of the Gardiners’ favor. But he had not lived long enough to test their continued affection. As for Nora, she had only seen Lord John once after that day. Evidently she hadnot greeted him warmly enough. What will it take for the Colvilles to learn their place? he had drawled. You look me in the eye when you would do better to thank me on your knees.
    Her knuckles throbbed with the force of her grip on the windowsill. Such company Rivenham brought to her house!
    She took a deep breath to calm herself, and then another. The late-summer day had dawned cloudless, and a cool breeze came off the nearby field of rapeseed, carrying a pungent scent that prickled in her nose like pepper. At least there would be no rain today.
    More raucous laughter rose from below.
    Come to search the premises, had they? These men were gamboling like boys on holiday!
    But of course they were. Searching the house was only the pretext for their visit. In truth, they had come to ambush her brother. Rivenham had said as much.
    Her grip loosened. Last night, in her anger and panic, his admission had sounded like a threat. Now, in the bright light of the morning, she saw it differently. He’d had no need to tell her his true intent.
    Could he have meant to warn her?
    She spun toward the open door. “Grizel!”
    Her maidservant appeared, a cup of tea in hand. “My lady? Will you drink?”
    She waved away the cup. “The tenant whose son broke his leg two days ago. John Plummer, was it not?”
    “Aye, the Plummers,” Grizel said. “John and Mary, son by the name of William. Last winter the arm, and now the leg: that’s the clumsiest boy God ever designed.”
    Nora smiled. “Do they still live near the apple grove on the eastern border?” The river Hodder had flooded two years ago, displacing many of the tenants.
    Grizel nodded. “Now same as then.”
    “Then fetch me a new quill.” Nora crossed to her writing desk. That apple grove was where she found the correspondence that did not come through the post—and where she left her own secrets, when she had cause to share them.
    Lord Rivenham had told her that she could not stir beyond the grounds of Hodderby. But the grove lay within them.
    The telescope took Adrian by surprise.
    He laid a hand on the finely grained beech wood, stroking it once before lifting the machine from its pedestal. The inlaid brass was brightly polished, the dial well oiled.
    He wondered how it had won pride of place in Lord Hexton’s library. She would have had a difficult time explaining to her father how it had come into her possession. The glass had been crafted in Bohemia, to Adrian’s specifications in conference with Mr. Newton. The beechwood body and