Lace for Milady Read Online Free PDF Page B

repaired.” Slack scowled at me, for she is a demon for honesty. “I like Juliette very much. I have had my first ride, and we go on famously.”
    She looked unconvinced, and so, of course, knew very well she had sold me a mount much too frisky for my nonexistent skills, but it was the leased land I had come to argue about and was not to be diverted by a trifle. “I have sustained a call from the Duke of Clavering,” I said, squaring my shoulders for battle.
    “So unpleasant for you,” was her commiserating reply.
    “Unpleasant in the extreme, to discover my land is not my own.”
    “Oh, you refer to the leased land. But of course that is all in the papers. You knew that. I made no effort to conceal it. No one would sign such an important document without reading it all.”
    “You never mentioned a word of it!”
    “You never asked.”
    “I never asked if the house were yours to sell either. I assumed that when my own aunt... "
    “We discussed, I believe, the matter of the Dower House not being entailed with the estate but my own personal property.”
    This was her line, and she stuck to it buckle and thong. She let fall a few casual mentions of having consulted her solicitor on the matter, which I make no doubt she had done. “So it is all legal, and you must speak to Clavering on the matter. He will renew the lease, for a price.”
    “I have spoken to him. He won’t renew it.”
    “Pshaw! Of course he will. What did you offer him?”
    “I didn’t offer him anything.”
    “Well, my dear, you can’t expect something for nothing. Make him an offer. Say five hundred pounds for another ninety-nine years. See if he don’t jump at it.”
    "No, he wants to buy the place from me."
    “Does he indeed?” she asked, with a light of interest in her eyes. “Did he mention a price?"
    “Yes, he offered me the price I paid for it, though of course, he found it very high, considering the leased land,” I added with a glare.
    “Well, there you are, then. If you dislike the bargain we made, you can be out of it easily enough and no harm done."
    This was so patently true that I found myself at point non plus. I could hardly complain about the deal when it could be undone with a word.
    We—for, of course, Slack accompanied me on this important visit—were left without a thing to say, and settled in for a chat. We had a cup of bohea and some of my aunt’s really lovely scones. She relented and gave Slack the recipe for them on that day—a treat formerly denied us. We were returned to superficial terms of amity. It was usually thus between us. We were at undeclared war but claiming friendship because of kinship. I imagine it is the manner in which many families go on. But enough philosophizing. The door knocker sounds, and I must hide these pages in a drawer or find someone perusing them whom I would prefer not to do so till I have glanced over them and seen if I have been too harsh on anyone.
     
    Chapter Three
     
    The fact of George’s being absent when we called upon my aunt that afternoon necessitated his coming that evening to woo me. George, I presumed, took after his papa. He bore no resemblance to his mother. He was a tall, gangly, unprepossessing gentleman, with lank brown hair, a weak chin, and a mouth that had two positions, sulking and grinning. It is difficult to determine which was the less appealing. He wore mouth number two when he entered, grinning. I suppose the grin is actually the less repulsive of the two. Grown men ought not to sulk.
    “I hear Clavering was to call,” he said, before ever he took a seat.
    “Yes, he called early this afternoon.”
    “Odd he is at home. With autumn coming on he is usually in London. He is active in Parliament, you know.”
    “I didn’t know,” I replied, with no effort to feign interest.
    “Oh, yes, very active, though I don’t know exactly what it is he does. He is a Whig. But there has been a spot of trouble lately with the Gentlemen, and he might be