Island of Bones Read Online Free PDF Page B

heaven’s sake?’ asked Harriet. ‘The household is out of mourning. Marry him as soon as you may. I have always thought late September a fine time for a wedding. Then you may spend your first winter locked up together before you have had time to tire of each other’s company.’
    Rachel put down her pen. ‘I hope I may never tire of his company.’ She crossed to the armchair where her sister was seated and took her place at her feet, reaching up for her hands and taking them between her own. Harriet looked down at her, more golden in her colouring where she was red, and wondered unkindly if her looks would fade as she aged. ‘But Harry, I cannot leave you alone yet. Little Anne is so young and I know you miss James still. And Stephen will be going away to school soon. You are used to having people about you. I shall ask Daniel to wait a year or two longer. He will understand.’
    Harriet removed her hands and frowned into the carpet. ‘Rachel, I shall miss my husband every day until my death. If you put off your marriage for that reason, you and Daniel will die of old age before I am done grieving.’ She waited a moment till she could be sure her voice was steady again. ‘You are not even leaving Hartswood, for goodness sake. I know Clode has made enquiries about the Mansel House in the village – Michaels told me. Once you have returned from your wedding trip we shall meet every day. Crowther is often here, and the family from Thornleigh. Do not play the martyr out of pity for me.’
    ‘But Harry . . .’
    ‘Set the date, Rachel. But I fear I shall have no time to assist in the arrangements for some time. Crowther and I leave for Cumberland in the morning. His sister has discovered a desiccated corpse there and we mean to go and see it.’
    Rachel flushed. ‘This is some joke!’
    Harriet smiled tightly. ‘No joke at all. We are invited by Mrs Briggs, the most respectable owner of Silverside Hall. I have never seen theLake Country and yet I am constantly being told how charming it is. Do you remember when the Rollinsons went there last summer? All the women in the family were driven into verse by its charms. I only wish they had confined themselves to nature poetry rather than composing odes on the anniversary of James’s murder. As for the other matter, I have never seen a desiccated corpse before either. It has all the novelty of the landscape, and there is no danger of it inspiring poetry – a great advantage. Someone took the trouble to place it in a tomb, you know. Someone else’s tomb, I mean. On an island. It’s most intriguing.’
    Although Rachel had turned away, Harriet could see the colour on her cheek. She might have a reputation for her sweet nature, but she had courage to match Harriet’s when it was called on, and a stubbornness that was no less powerful for being better concealed. ‘And what is to become of us, while you are gone?’ she demanded now. ‘Stephen, baby Anne and myself? I am grieved we do not provide sufficient novelty, Harry, but you cannot simply throw a dust-sheet over our heads when you wish to be somewhere else.’
    Harriet hesitated for a moment, and then said: ‘I shall not leave you and my daughter here alone. You may all decamp to Thornleigh Hall and Mrs Service can chaperone you in my stead. As to Stephen, I intend to take him and his tutor with me. I am sure the visit will be most instructive.’
    ‘You wish to show him the corpse?’ Rachel said, shocked.
    ‘No, of course not. I mean the mountains and lakes, and so forth.’ Harriet waved her hand in the air to describe the extent of the educational possibilities available. ‘Though there is no point in being too precious with Stephen. If he continues in his wish to enter the Navy, he will see corpses enough before long.’
    ‘He has already seen his father’s,’ Rachel murmured, and the air left Harriet’s lungs rather suddenly. ‘I suppose you may dispose of us as you wish, Sister.’
    The bitterness