The Heiress Read Online Free PDF Page A

stream and bush, and every living creature belonged to the Seigneur of Charantaise.
    For the last twelve years the great estates had been owned by a woman. There were two hundred rooms in the. Château and one hundred and fifty indoor servants, excluding gardeners, grooms, messengers, woodsmen and gamekeepers. There was a banqueting hall with a ceiling painted by Vernit, a library containing over a thousand books and a magnificent private chapel. The woods were full of game, for the de Bernards were great hunters; unlike most of the nobility of the period, they preferred to live on their splendid estates and make only token appearances at Court. Apart from her formal presentation at Versailles, Anne de Bernard had stayed at Charantaise.
    A group of horses raced across the green parkland, and the sound of a huntsman’s horn sang through the autumn air. Ahead of them a deer fled for its life, bounding over the ground pursued by a dozen hunting dogs in full cry. One horse galloped faster and jumped more recklessly than the rest and it was ridden by a woman in a green riding dress. As she had said to her uncle, Anne de Bernard saw no reason why she should miss an afternoon’s hunting even if her future husband was coming to Charantaise that day.
    When the riders came back to the Château the light was beginning to fail; the deer had reached the shelter of the woods where the horses could not follow it and the hounds were called off, yelping and barking with disappointment. Their mistress stopped at the foot of the entrance stairs and patted them, laughing. She adored the excitement and the danger of the chase, but she was always glad when the quarry escaped after a good run. A footman came to take her gloves and whip; the enormous doors of the Château were opened wide and inside the marble entrance hall, with its palisades and statues, servants were carrying boxes up the staircase, and her own steward of the household came running down the steps to meet her.
    â€˜Madame, your guests have arrived!’
    â€˜So I see—have they been here long?’
    â€˜About an hour, Madame; Monsieur your uncle asked you to come to him as soon as you returned.’
    â€˜Where is my uncle?’ Anne asked him. She paused in the entrance and looked round. There were faces that she did not know, wearing strange livery, and a very thin, grey-haired little woman in a brown cloak shouting directions about the luggage in such a bad accent that even Anne could hardly understand her. But she recognized her; it was her cousin Lady Katharine’s maid, Annie, and Annie was very much a part of their extraordinary story. She had been found a year after their escape from Scotland, the only survivor of the massacre which killed all her mistress’s family, and brought over to France to join her.
    â€˜Your uncle is in the Long Salon,’ her steward said. ‘With your guests, Madame.’
    â€˜Very good, I’ll join them there.’ She walked over to the little Scotswoman and touched her on the shoulder.
    â€˜Good day, Annie. Do you recognize me after all this time?’
    â€˜Madame Marquise!’ Annie’s reply was made in purest Scots. ‘Och, how ye’ve grown; I’d hardly know ye now from the tiny lassie I used to play with down here!’ She curtsied, and her sharp, lined face turned pink. She would never have recognized the shy, ordinary child of years ago in this tall, beautiful girl with her dazzling smile. The change was unbelievable.
    â€˜Have you brought my future husband with you?’ Anne asked her.
    The old woman’s smile disappeared. ‘Aye,’ she said shortly. ‘But don’t hurry now—it’ll do him no harm to be kept waiting! I can’t believe my eyes, Madame, ye’re so much altered.’
    Anne laughed. ‘I always knew I was an ugly child. I’d best go and change my dress.’ She looked down at her skirt; it was streaked with