The Stolen Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

taken to her own bedchamber to freshen herself after the journey. She almost felt she should protest at being given what was obviously a choice guest room—after all she had only been Jane’s governess—but it was clear neither Jane nor her husband would hear of any objection.
    It was the loveliest bedchamber she had ever had for her own. A deep rich carpet was spread on the oak floor and red damask curtains hung at the long windows and from the canopy over the large bed. As Sir Marius had said, the Castle might be hundreds of years old but the Kyles didn’t stint themselves of comfort.
    One of the casement windows was open to the evening breeze. Beth went to the seat which filled the embrasure and gazed with delight over the lake to rolling hills set with stands of trees. Swans and ducks placidly cruised the water while peacocks stalked the lawns nearby, occasionally giving their plaintive screech.
    Beth turned at a scratch and called, “Enter.”
    Jane came in and hugged her friend. “I am so pleased to have you here at last, Beth. Isn’t Stenby beautiful?”
    “It is indeed, Jane. You must be happy in your home.”
    Jane sat on the chest at the foot of the bed. “So very much. David likes to stay here most of the time, you know, and I have no argument with that. In fact, to be honest, I’ll be delighted when the wedding is over and we can go back to the quiet times of the early summer.”
    “It must be a great deal of work. I remember your wedding, and that was quite an affair.”
    “I really don’t mind,” said Jane. “The organization is merely a challenge, and one I enjoy. The tangle here is Sophie and Randal. He has become a glutton for propriety, unlikely as that may seem, and when they are here I have to spend more time than I can afford playing chaperone. It’s not a role I’m comfortable with at the best of times. I am hoping,” she said with a winning smile, “that you will take the task off my hands.”
    “If Sophie wants someone to play propriety,” said Beth, “I will be happy to oblige.”
    “Since propriety seems to be the price for Randal’s presence,” said Jane drily, “Sophie wants propriety. Those two are enough to drive me distracted. Anyway, the real reason I came is to tell you about our mysterious visitor.”
    “Do you know who she is, then?”
    “No,” said Jane. “Perhaps I should have said ‘to tell you how little we know about our mysterious visitor.’ The maid found a secret pocket when she undressed her. It contained quite a lot of money and the key to her valise but there’s no indication as to who she might be. She has a card case in her reticule but it’s empty. There’s a letter addressed to Edith, but there’s no address on it so it must have been part of a packet.”
    “How peculiar. And yet she seems a lady.”
    “I think so. There’s the money—she’s carrying nearly a hundred pounds—and her clothes are good quality even if not new. There are a few pieces of jewelry, all very good. Her wedding ring is solid and she wears a new mourning ring of silver set with jet. No one can imagine why she was coming to Stenby, even though she had the announcement of Sophie’s wedding torn from the Gazette.”
    “Good heavens,” exclaimed Beth. “Surely she is a relative, then. There must be people on the fringes of the Kyles who are forgotten.”
    “That is possible,” said Jane dubiously. “But Mortimer acts as family archivist and he’s sure there are no Ediths that he has ever heard of. Another strange thing is that she was carrying a pistol, powder, and shot.”
    “Well,” remarked Beth. “A woman traveling alone might think that wise.”
    “That’s what David said. He took it, though, in case she is out of her senses when she recovers.”
    “A mystery and an adventure,” remarked Beth, with twinkling eyes. “And I’ve always lived a quiet life.”
    “Indeed,” said Jane, “but I could have done without excitement just now. The doctor