The Irish Bride Read Online Free PDF

he’d
offered her a kitchen maid’s position here in the manor house—a
significant step up from the rabbit warren she lived in—she had
looked as if she would spit on him, right then and there. She had
brushed past him with her chin up and head held high. Her
disdainful rejection had only made him more determined to have
her.
    Noel had hoped that her brother
Michael would be able to change her mind. Indeed, Michael had
finally convinced Farrell to work at the manor house, and Noel had
envisioned that she was at last under his thumb. Still she had
resisted his attentions, and yesterday had committed the
unforgivable offense of actually striking him when he’d tried to
kiss her in the library, the ungrateful wench. Oh, yes, bringing
the Kirwans on board had seemed like a sterling idea.
    Until now.
    Now, Farrell Kirwan had insulted him
and rent money had gone missing. Noel found himself in a highly
disagreeable position. Damn that Michael Kirwan for what he was, a
thief and a liar, and ultimately no better than the peasants he’d
come from. Damn his sister for being an irresistible jade who’d
gotten into his head and his blood. He wished he were in London,
far from this place of rock wall mazes and perpetual green gloom,
where his breeding, and skills with gaming and horses would be put
to much better use.
    Despite the clock that marked its
passing, time seemed to have stopped. God’s eyes, would his father
speak or was Noel to be kept here, waiting and wondering how much
his lordship knew? He rose to help himself to another
brandy.
    “ Sit down.”
    Noel almost obeyed the command but
decided that to do so would be a small battle lost. Instead, he
continued casually to the liquor cabinet and refilled his glass
from the crystal decanter. He felt his father’s stone-gray eyes
boring into his back at this defiance but did not hurry his
actions. At last he took his seat again.
    At some length, Lord Cardwell slammed
shut his ledger with enough force to make Noel jump. A splash of
brandy sloshed over the rim of his glass and landed on his
well-tailored trousers.
    “ Do you know why I gave you
the task of collecting the tenants’ rents?” his father asked,
glaring at the drink in Noel’s hand.
    Noel shrugged and glanced at Lord
Cardwell’s ink-stained fingers. “I assumed you were tired of seeing
to it yourself.”
    The older man pressed his lips into a
tight, white line that looked more like a scar than a mouth, and a
faint blue vein throbbed in his temple. “I did it so you would have
a sense of what it means to oversee an estate, because someday all
of this” —he gestured at the room and the grounds beyond the
windows— “will be your responsibility. I wanted you to realize that
the money you spend so freely doesn’t fall from the sky like rain.”
He gestured at the ledger. “Your records are not only
incomprehensible, I would say they suggest fraud. You have cheated
your own family.”
    Noel jumped to his feet, quivering
with indignation and insult. “I have done no such thing,
sir!”
    Unruffled, Lord Cardwell continued.
“No? Then where is the rent money that should have been noted here?
More than one hundred pounds seem to have vanished. What has become
of it?”
    Gathering his injured dignity, Noel
began, “The rent agent must have—”
    “ Ah, yes, the rent agent.
One Michael Kirwan, I believe. Just yesterday I had a warrant
issued for his arrest. What a pity I could not have issued a
warrant for you as well.”
    Stung and bearing haughty offense like
a shield, Noel said, “I supervised his every move, Father! He
reported to me on a regular basis.”
    “ Yes, at the pub in town, as
I understand it, where you both drank and gambled and bedded the
serving wenches.” Lord Cardwell sat back and folded his hands. “I
can imagine what kind of report that generated.” He went on to
recite the extent of Kirwan’s activities with regard to keeping the
rents and evicting tenants. “I also understand