The Changeling Read Online Free PDF

it. She was bemused. She was bewitched by him.
    I wished people would talk to me. I knew it was no use asking the Emerys or either of the maids. They would not tell me.
    There was only one thing I could do and that was call on Pedrek’s help. Together we might discover what it was all about.
    He was eager to help and asked their butler with whom he was on very friendly terms; he was told that some time ago Benedict Lansdon had stood for election in Manorleigh and just before it took place his wife had died; she had been a quiet, rather nervous woman and he had been very friendly with Mrs. Grace Hume. It had been hinted that Benedict murdered his wife to get her out of the way. It was all rumor and nothing was proved at the time of the election, and if this had not all come out, Benedict Lansdon would almost certainly have won the seat. But he was defeated at the polls because of the scandal and lost his chance of becoming a Member of Parliament. A note was discovered later … which had been written by the wife before she died. In it she said she was taking her life because she was suffering from some uncurable disease and was beginning to be in great pain.
    So he was exonerated, but it was too late for him to win the election and in any case he had gone out of politics.
    So there was some secret in his past. And this was the man who was to marry my mother and take her away from me!
    From then on it grew worse. I saw less of my mother. They were making plans for the wedding. Uncle Peter wanted a grand one.
    “There is nothing people like better than romance,” he said. “And if you are going to stand for Parliament, it is a good idea to get into the public eye … in the right way, of course.”
    “That is just like Uncle Peter,” my mother said, laughing. She was always laughing at that time. “Personally I don’t care what sort of wedding it is.”
    Aunt Amaryllis sided with Uncle Peter. She always did.
    Benedict Lansdon was in the process of buying the house at Manorleigh. My mother had taken me down to see it. “It will be our home for much of the time, I imagine,” she said. “We shall have to nurse the constituency.”
    “What of our house?” I asked.
    “Well, I think I shall sell it. We shall have your … stepfather’s house in London.”
    I felt my face grow red. My stepfather! I thought. What am I going to call him? I can’t call him Mr. Lansdon. Uncle Benedict? He is not my uncle. But there were a lot of people in our family called uncle although they had no right to the title. Uncle was just a nebulous form of address. It made a mockery of the title, I told Pedrek, who agreed with me. It seemed to be a major problem and I marvelled that so small a thing should matter so much. But what was I going to call him? Father? Never! It would have to be Uncle, I supposed. It was both confusing and embarrassing.
    My mother went on trying to pretend she had not noticed my embarrassment and understanding it perfectly.
    “We shall have that house in London and goodness knows, that is spacious enough—and the place at Manorleigh. Oh, it will be fun, Becca.” She reverted to my old childhood name when she wished to be especially tender. “You will love it. The Manorleigh house is just outside the little town and it will be in the country. You’ll love that. There will be plenty of scope for riding. You’ll have a lovely schoolroom. Miss Brown … and all of us … will be expecting great things from you.”
    “What about Mr. and Mrs. Emery …?”
    “Oh, I have spoken … we have spoken … about that. I am going to ask them if they would like to come with us to Manorleigh.”
    That made me feel a good deal better. There would be those familiar faces near me. Moreover I knew they had been worried about their jobs.
    I cried: “Oh, they will be so pleased. I heard them talking …”
    “Oh? What did they say?”
    “They didn’t know what would happen to them, but they reckoned you would see they were all