Shades of the Past Read Online Free PDF Page A

paneling, trimmed with gold.  Overhead, ornate plasterwork festooned the ceiling with gilded circles, trefoils, and medallions. 
    Midway down, the gallery opened onto one of Sherringham's two grand staircases leading to the ground level.  Vanessa began her descent, pleasuring in the journey as ever she did.  The elegant staircase turned back on itself several times, while tapestries and paintings graced the walls.  A huge glass lantern hung suspended in the stairwell on a heavy bronzed chain, all of uncertain age and undoubtedly precious.
    However far back Sherringham's history truly reached, Vanessa knew that, early in the last century, its owners had enthusiastically embraced the Gothic Revival movement.  For more than a hundred and fifty years, the viscounts had restored, refurbished, transformed, and added to Sherringham with a zealous passion.  She imagined it cost them a staggering fortune.  Perhaps, several.
    The stairs brought her to a large chamber at the front of the manor house, adjacent to the entrance hall.  A second grand staircase flanked the opposite side, in a similar chamber.  In truth, the rooms and doors along the front of the manse aligned in such a way as to provide an extended perspective in either direction. 
    Vanessa glanced into the entrance hall and observed the activity there where a number of the guests mingled and conversed.  Recognizing none of them, she began to withdraw her gaze.  Just then, the heavy front door opened wide and Adrian and Lawrence Marrable appeared. 
    Vanessa's limbs momentarily froze as they entered, and she found she could do no more than stare.  The others stared too, pausing in their conversations.  One-by-one, they offered reserved, though polite, acknowledgment of the viscount's presence.
    He acknowledged them as well, with equal restraint, his bearing aristocratically remote, unapproachable.  A near tangible tension crackled about him, and she thought of a panther caged.
    Vanessa continued to watch, fascinated, as he removed his overcoat and hat and gave them over to the footman.  She saw now that Adrian Marrable possessed a wondrously thick mane of hair.  Saw, too, how his profile was perfectly straight and his eyes deep-set, bordered with long black lashes.
    She transferred her gaze to Lawrence as he, too, divested himself of his outer garments.  Curiously, he neither looked nor spoke to his lordly brother, nor anyone else in the hall.  Instead, he strode unsmiling from view. 
    Before Vanessa could dwell on it further, a movement caught her eye.  A stout man with balding pate left his place by the portal and approached the viscount, causing him to turn in her direction. 
    Recovering herself, Vanessa quickly moved off before he could catch sight of her or entrap her once more with his dark, possessive gaze.
    She headed toward the Grand Saloon, expecting the preponderance of the funeral guests to be gathered there.  Entering, she found herself more than correct.  A crush of people filled the room, overflowing the furniture and standing about in small clutches.
    She searched for a familiar face, realizing it likely to be a futile gesture.  She knew scarcely a soul.  Most of the guests had arrived only yesterday and were primarily distant relatives and acquaintances of Lady Gwendolyn from years past.  Most of her more recent friends, those whom they'd visited during their extensive travels, were wide flung and naturally unable to attend.
    Vanessa glimpsed Cissy and Majel moving through the room, speaking individually with the guests and receiving their condolences.  Recognizing no one else, Vanessa threaded her way slowly through the body of people, making her way toward the immense bay window on the opposite side. 
    Of all the rooms she'd been privileged to see at Sherringham, the Grand Saloon was her favorite.  More than any other, she wished she might have photographed it, for words simply could not capture its breathtaking beauty as