Gunpowder Plot Read Online Free PDF

“Come in!”
    Gwen stuck her head around the door. “Oh, sorry, you’re working. I don’t want to interrupt.”
    “No, I’ve finished what I was doing.” Daisy moved over to the two easy chairs by the fireplace. “Come and sit down.”
    In the hearth, surrounded by blue-and-white Dutch tiles, a wood fire had burned down to glowing embers. Gwen took a log from the basket to one side and placed it on top, sending a shower of sparks up the chimney. “One thing about owning orchards, we always have wood to burn.” Still looking into the fire, red-faced, she added, “I have to apologize. I’d never have suggested your coming down here now if I’d known my father was going to kick up such a dust.”
    “That’s all right. He’s not kicking it at me.”
    “Of course not. He’s really pleased that you’re writing about Guy Fawkes. The thing is, he’s always so cock-a-hoop over Bonfire Night that I assumed he’d let all this other business lie while you’re here. If I’d known Jack was going to invite Martin— Mr. Miller— I’d have told him to wait till next week. But he had the same idea, that Father would be easier to deal with now.”
    “It doesn’t seem to have worked.”
    “On the contrary. It’s reminded him that the annual celebration is another thing that’s been passed down from father to son for centuries. I walked out in the middle of yet another row about it. Father’s obsessed with not breaking the chain. He doesn’t realize how much the world has changed, that these days young men won’t allow themselves to be chained to family tradition.”
    “And young women won’t allow their parents to dictate whom they may marry?” Daisy said on a questioning note.
    Blushing, Gwen leant down to poke the fire. “It’s not a question of marriage. He hasn’t said anything.”
    “But you like him.”
    “I like him a lot. Babs thinks I’m being unfaithful to Larry’s memory. She was madly in love with Frank and I don’t think she’ll ever get over his death. I was very fond of Larry, but I want a home of my own, children. . . .” She sighed.
    “You were telling me how you met Mr. Miller.”
    “Oh, yes. I told you he gave a lecture at Cambridge to the engineering students. He invited any who were interested in going into the aeronautical industry to visit the factory during the Easter vac, and go up in an aeroplane.”
    “An irresistible invitation!”
    “Actually, very few accepted, but Jack went, on his way home. He stayed so late, Martin put him up for the night. Then next morning, his car wouldn’t start. It turned out to need a part that couldn’t be got till Monday— this was Saturday— and Jack had invited a friend here for the weekend. Martin would have flown him home if there were anywhere suitable to land. As it was, he drove him home, so of course Mother invited him to stay, and as Jack had to entertain his friend, I ended up entertaining Martin.”
    “I see.”
    “Of course Mother never dreamt I might fall for him. He’s quite a bit older, and . . . and of a different social class. But he’s every inch a gentleman,” Gwen said fiercely, “in the true sense of the word. And he’s frightfully clever, doing very well in his job. He can easily support a family.”
    So it wasn’t “a question of marriage,” Daisy thought, amused. “What does your mother think now of the . . . um . . . attraction between you?” she asked. “Obviously your father is very much against it.”
    “Poor Mother’s torn between disapproving of Martin’s background, worrying about Father’s disapproval, and wanting desperately to get a spinster daughter married at last. That generation’s shibboleths— well, you know. What did Lady Dalrymple think of your marrying a policeman?”
    “She was absolutely appalled. I sort of led her to believe Alec was a bobby, a uniformed constable.”
    “Oh, Daisy, you didn’t!” Gwen laughed.
    “So when she discovered he was no less than a