Island of Bones Read Online Free PDF

very difficult to remove from the drapery.’
    This confession was enough to send Harriet into a further fit of laughter, so it was some time before she could ask what was the matter of the letter Crowther held in his hand. His reply soon quieted her. His expression was rather wondering, his eyebrows lifted, and he reread the message with his head tilted to one side, as if unsure of what he was seeing on the paper in front of him.
    ‘I am requested, and the invitation is extended to yourself, to go into the Lake Country near Keswick. My sister, the Vizegräfin Margaret von Bolsenheim, is staying in our former home with her son as guests of the current owner. And they have found a body.’
    Harriet left Crowther shortly afterwards to dress for dinner, and to inform her sister that she intended to journey immediately into Cumberland. The invitation had delighted her. She had never seen that part of the country, and in the heat her household duties had become ever more irksome and confining. Yet every pleasure had a price on it. In this case the price was, she was certain, about to be extracted by her sister.
    Rachel Trench was the darling of the neighbourhood. A paragon of everything a young woman should be, she was pretty and charming with a lively manner that never went beyond what was proper to her situation in life. She read novels, but did not talk about them too much. She appreciated music and sang rather well, but never gave long displays of her talent. Only her somewhat unusual sister was regarded as a slight blot and some had worried that even Miss Trench’s excellent charactermight be tainted by sharing a home with her so long. However, in 1780, the year that Harriet had first forced her acquaintance on Crowther, Rachel had met a young and very handsome lawyer from Pulborough by the name of Daniel Clode. He had had some share in the adventures of the family since that time and had been present in Captain Westerman’s last moments. The mutual affection between Rachel and Daniel had been plain throughout, and when Harriet put off her mourning clothes, their engagement was announced. The neighbourhood breathed a sigh of relief. Some thought that perhaps Miss Trench might have found a better match, but all agreed it was best that she be removed from Caveley. Mr Clode came from nowhere, his parents were barely respectable, but now he handled so much business for the estate of the Earl of Sussex, he was more and more noticed in society, and it was hoped marriage to Rachel might put the final polish on him.
    Rachel, while modest about her own qualities and proud of her sister’s bravery, was painfully aware of local opinion. Harriet knew she did not worry on her own account, or not greatly, but rather was concerned about her nephew and niece, and wondered what effect their mother’s reputation might have on their prospects. Harriet found the burden of this rather wide-eyed concern intensely irritating. Particularly because, as Crowther had occasionally pointed out to her, her temper was always more likely to fly when she felt herself in the wrong. Harriet knew it hurt Rachel to see her the subject of any number of lurid pamphlets, and it made her tremble to be introduced as ‘the sister of
the
Mrs Westerman’. It was unlikely, therefore, she would welcome the news that Harriet intended to abandon her household on a moment’s notice and travel hundreds of miles to view a corpse.
    Harriet found Rachel in her chamber writing a letter. Harriet suspected it was to her fiancé. She was happy to see that their affection – for it was an acknowledged love match – was so warm that although they met every other day, their letters still flowed back and forth. Fixing on the correspondence as a chance to delay mentioning her trip, Harriet asked what was the subject of her letter.
    Rachel smiled at her sister and said briskly, ‘Daniel is eager to set a date for our marriage. I write to ask him to be patient.’
    ‘Why, for