Breaking the Rules Read Online Free PDF Page B

was so ridiculously pompous, or frown because he was so insufferably overbearing.
    Vera’s eyes widened, and as she hastened out, her starched apron rustling, “Oh, dear, what can the matter be?” was heard again.
    The innkeeper turned back to his guests with a facile smile. “I trust you will both excuse me, for I will have guests directly, and this particular coach company allows only twenty minutes for the halt.”
    “Of course, of course.” Mr. Elcester offered Ursula his arm, and they left the inn to emerge into the sunshine again. Ursula felt in more ways than one that she had come out into fresh air!
     

Chapter 5
     
    The key-bugle sounded imperative as the approaching stagecoach rattled into the village, past the churchyard and around the green, so that Ursula and her father had to step aside as it swept beneath the archway into the inn yard. There was dust, noise, and clatter as Taynton’s men hurried out to attend to the passengers and horses, and Ursula was relieved to mount Miss Muffet and ride out to the road with her father; relieved too to get away from Bellamy Taynton, who made her positively shudder.
    Hawthorn hedgerows filled the air with scent as they rode along. The village slipped away behind, and a light breeze trembled through the cowslips that flourished at the wayside. The road to Stroud led along the ridge between the hidden valley to the right and the great vista of the Severn’s wide vale to the left. The valley was called hidden because only paths wound through it, and from spring to autumn it was concealed beneath a thick cloak of trees. Many a stranger traveling along the ridge had gazed down into it and wondered what secrets it held. At the moment the canopy of leaves was still not entirely unfurled, so that there was an occasional glimpse of a dell of bluebells, and of Hazel Pool, the fishy denizens of which had caused so much trouble in the past between Elcester and Carmartin.
    Elcester Manor glowed in the sun on the south-facing slope of the valley. It was a Tudor mansion of great beauty, with lichen on the roof, mullioned windows, and curls of smoke rising from the tall, twisting chimneys. Behind it climbed an open park, splendid with specimen trees, a herd of deer, and a drive that led toward the lodge over the horizon. To the front were three terraced gardens, then another area of park that gave way to the cloak of the woods filling of the valley floor.
    The horses’ hooves clopped slowly on the road, and Ursula and her father rode in companionable silence for a while, but then she couldn’t hold her tongue a moment longer. “Why did you tell Taynton about the match?” she asked reproachfully. “I mean, there’s nothing firm about anything, and it may yet not happen, so—
    “I know, I know,” Mr. Elcester broke in guiltily. “I was so surprised that I just didn’t think.”
    “How do you think he found out?”
    “Well, I did talk to Pedlar about it,” her father confessed.
    “Daniel told me, but he’d rather flatten Mine Host of the Green Man on an anvil than exchange tidbits of gossip with him.”
    “True.”
    They rode on for a moment more, and then Ursula looked at her father again. “Did you notice how Vera and Taynton addressed each other? She called him sir, and he reminded her he was her master. Very affectionate.”
    “Each to their own, m’dear.”
    “Maybe, but I think it very peculiar, and he is so condescending and arrogant. What can Vera be thinking of?”
    Mr. Elcester chuckled. “My dear daughter, I don’t think the man exists who would meet with your approval. Be sensible now. Taynton is young, handsome, well-to-do, and clearly possesses charm when he chooses. If he is imperious when it comes to the running of the inn, well, that cannot be entirely bad. For someone like Vera Pedlar, he is what is vulgarly termed a catch.”
    “Catch or not, good innkeeper or not, I didn’t detect much charm,” Ursula replied caustically.
    “You weren’t