Scandal at the Dower House Read Online Free PDF Page B

but her parents were not pleased when he wanted to marry Mama. They had hoped for an alliance with one of the wealthy, well-connected Portuguese families.’
    ‘When did they die?’
    ‘Mama was ill for a long time after Joanna’s birth. There is six years between us and several babies were lost before Joanna was born. She was only four when Mama died. Papa died four years later, of a fever he contracted when visiting a vineyard in the Canaries.’
    ‘And his brother became your guardian?’
    Catarina merely nodded. He glanced at her and saw that her lips were pressed firmly together. Though she had talked freely about her parents, she was clearly unwilling to speak of her uncle. Was that because he had forced her into marriage with Walter? All he had heard about Sir Ivor Norton indicated the man was stern and unyielding. His own sons were reputed wild youngsters, though Nicholas barely knew them.
    They had reached the Dower House and he helped Catarina to alight. 
    ‘Will you take a glass of wine, my lord? I can offer you some of Papa’s best Madeira.’
    ‘I must decline; I have a long way to travel. But my thanks for your … guidance over the cottages. By the way, I have dismissed the agent and my own man, Mr Trubshaw, will be arriving to take over. Perhaps you will talk to him? I know he would appreciate it.’
    ‘Dismissed? But why?’
    ‘He had been defrauding your husband, falsifying the accounts over the cost of the building materials for the new cottages, and telling me lies. Of all things I most abominate being lied to.’
    She clearly wanted to know more, but Nicholas shook his head.
    ‘I’ll explain another time. I really must leave now.’
    He drove away. He did not know what to feel. He was so accustomed to managing his own estates, where no one queried his decisions, that he was a trifle piqued at having had to accept Catarina’s advice. At least he would now have a reliable agent here.
    He shrugged, and forced his attention back to the situation in France. Wellington and Napoleon had never met in battle. From all reports many of Napoleon’s former soldiers were flocking to join him, and the allied army was a heterogeneous collection of untrained and inexperienced men. If anyone could mould them into a proper fighting force it was the duke. The sooner he got to Brussels the better.
     
    Two weeks later, Catarina and Rosa, her maid, were in the Dower House putting away Catarina’s gowns.
    ‘Such a pity you can’t wear colours,’ the maid said. ‘Black doesn’t suit you.’
    ‘There’s no one to see me,’ Catarina said. ‘I can’t go out in company yet, and I have no wish to.’
    ‘Sir Humphrey calls almost every day.’
    ‘He’s been very kind. As one of his lordship’s oldest friends he’s made it his task to look after me.’
    Rosa suppressed a smile and Catarina frowned. She knew what her maid, who had been with her since her marriage, thought. Sir Humphrey was a widower, his wife having died six years ago, and his children were all married and living at a distance. He made no secret of the fact he did not enjoy living a bachelor existence. And he had never hidden his admiration for Catarina. Fervently she prayed he would not make her an offer. She had been fond of Walter, but she had no desire to wed another man of his age. She had no desire to remarry at all, whatever romantic notions Rosa had. Perhaps it was her own imminent wedding to the son of one of the tenant farmers that directed her thoughts in such pathways.
    They finished putting away the gowns, and Catarina picked up the older, less fashionable ones she had determined to give away. Walter had been a generous husband, and she had more gowns than she would need now. Besides, the Dower House had only four principal bedrooms, all far smaller than hers at the Grange, and there was insufficient room for them all. She would harness the gig and take them to the rectory. Mrs Eade would know who needed clothing, and her sewing