Joan Smith Read Online Free PDF

would write her, and that he would be back soon, and he would take care of the linens for her. If the greenhead is not off hiring up a cottage and furnishing it this minute, it is more than I dare to hope. It sounds dreadfully like a misalliance, does it not, Luten?”
    “It sounds more like a love nest to me,” he replied. “If it were marriage he had in mind, he’d install her at Hanch House, or here.”
    “One hardly knows which is worse. Dear Clappet was strongly averse to irregular liaisons. Oh, I know you bloods feel differently nowadays. You think me an antique, but for a grasping divorcee to have got her clutches on poor little Peter is more than I can endure.”
    “It’s not as bad as getting her clutches on his name and title. I didn’t think Peter would lie to me,” Luten said softly, with a frown pleating his brow. “He assured me it was over. Why would the woman not go with him, if the purpose of his trip is to find her a cottage? Mrs. Rolfe said she stayed behind?”
    “Yes, he is to write her and see her soon. She has sent him off to make the place ready for her, you see, as though he were a servant.”
    “You’re jumping to conclusions.”
    “Indeed I am not! He said he would see to the linens for her. Where does one put linens but on a bed? And where does one put a bed? In a bedroom, which is bound to be in a house. He is hiring a house. Oh, and there is more evidence than the linens.”
    His raised brow invited her to continue. “Money—he has drawn every penny of his quarter allowance out of the bank.”
    “How the devil did you learn that?”
    “Quite by accident. I needed some funds and sent to the bank for them. They sent back a note for Peter, which I took a little peek at only because I thought it might be urgent, and he was not at home. The note concerned a loan,” she announced with awful solemnity. “No amount was specified, but it said that as he had emptied his account, he would require the signature of either you or me before the loan he requested could be approved. What would he want with a thousand pounds, if not to hire her a house? And that is not to be the end of it either. She is making him take out a loan.”
    Luten’s brows drew together in a black scowl. “Let me see the note,” he ordered.
    “I’ve pasted the letter up again. Peter takes a fuss if I snoop. Not that I ever do!”
    “Get it,” he repeated.
    He had no hesitation in ripping her careful work apart and reading the missive. He tapped his toe on the floor when he had finished. Watching him, his elder sister recognized the signs of rising temper. Much as she wanted Peter home safe, she did not wish him to have to endure one of Luten’s towering rages. They threw even her into a fit of dismals, and she was ten years Luten’s senior.
    “I’ll take this,” he said, folding the letter up and putting it into his pocket. “I’ll speak to them at the bank. As I’m Peter’s guardian, they won’t hesitate to let me know what’s going on. Loan indeed! Lying about his doings is more infuriating than all the rest. I suppose there is no point in dashing off to Newmarket. He won’t be there. That was dust in our eyes.”
    “He wouldn’t have stripped his closet clean to go to Newmarket for a few days,” Lady Clappet said; she’d forgotten that detail. “His valet, Uxor, hauled away trunks of stuff, and the foolish servants didn’t tell me. I had to see for myself his dear little room, with the drawers empty of every stitch of linen, and the clothespress holding nothing but empty hangers.”
    “That settles it. The jackanapes has peeled off,” Luten said grimly. “He told me he’d see you before he leaves— another lie.”
    “What will you do about the woman?” Maggie inquired, eager to detour the blame to its proper target. “You must go to her, Luten. She will know where he is gone. Not that she’ll tell you, the brazen strumpet. She is so sly there’s no standing it.”
    Luten’s