Mask of Duplicity (The Jacobite Chronicles Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

household, and feels it better to appear very firm at first, but I’m confident he will relax once he has established his authority and feels a little more secure. After all, he doesn’t know you all as I do, but he’ll soon come to appreciate how loyal and trustworthy you all are.”
    She was not flattering them. They were not a large household, and had diminished along with her father’s money, but every one of the servants had been there for years. Some of them, like John Betts the stable boy, had lived in the house since they were small children. They were like a family to her and she loved and valued them all. She was certain that when Richard got to know them he would feel the same way. Beth had seen an inkling of his desperate need to be loved earlier, and had already resolved to do her utmost to make him a full member of this group of people who had kept her sane throughout her father’s terrible deterioration into depression and terminal illness.
    “Well, I hope you’re right, Beth, but he made a very bad start, and he didn’t look insecure to me,” Thomas Fletcher said. He, along with his wife Jane, the cook, ran the house. As with all of the servants in this eccentric household, he had more than one job. He oversaw the work of the others, but also acted as handyman, and had kept the house in good repair until the master had died and Beth’s small supply of cash had run out. Beth herself acted as housekeeper, ordering food and other essentials and dealing with the very rare disputes that arose.
    “No, but then he’s used to wielding authority,” Beth reasoned. “He needs to adjust the way he wields it to suit civilians. I’m sure he will.”
    “I’m not so sure,” put in Graeme, the gardener. “I remember him when he was a boy, and he was a nasty piece of work then. It doesn’t seem to me as he’s changed overmuch, except that the master isn’t here any more to give him a good whipping when he oversteps the mark. Begging your pardon, Beth, I know he’s your brother, but none of us missed him when he left. And none of us are particularly happy to see him come back.” There was a general murmur of agreement at his comment.
    “I’m not asking you to love him, Graeme, I’m asking you all to give him a chance. Yes, I admit he wasn’t always a nice child, but that was a long time ago. He’s a man now; he’s bound to have changed.”
    “’Give me the child until he is seven, and I shall give you the man,’” quoted Graeme. “His mother ruined him with her mindless devotion. And in all fairness, Beth, your father let her, rather than suffer her hysterical tantrums. Richard was allowed to do whatever he wanted. And all he wanted to do was be vicious and mean. He almost lost me my job through his spite.”
    “Oh Graeme, don’t you think you’re being a bit unfair? After all, he was only small when his mother died. He can’t have been that bad,” Beth replied.
    “With all due respect, you weren’t born then. He was only six when he got his mother to dismiss me because I caught him trying to hang the cat from the barn door and stopped him. If your father hadn’t finally put his foot down and refused to let me go, I’d not be here now. And there was hell to pay for weeks afterward. You were only young, Tom, but you must remember that, surely?”
    “I do. We all had to keep our heads down, the mistress was in such a foul temper,” Thomas said.
    “After the mistress died, your father did his best to bring the boy into line,” Graeme continued. “But it was too late by then. He seemed to delight in causing trouble. Sometimes I used to think he enjoyed being beaten.”
    Maybe that was it, Beth thought. Maybe he’d been so desperate for attention from his father that even a beating was better than nothing at all.
    “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” she asked.
    “It was a long time ago, and we thought he was gone for good. The subject never came up,” Graeme said simply.