Jane Austen Mysteries 08 Jane and His Lordship's Legacy by Stephanie Barron Page A
Book: Jane Austen Mysteries 08 Jane and His Lordship's Legacy by Stephanie Barron
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Authors: Stephanie Barron
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five-and-seventy if he is a day--but he would re-member such a figure as the Rogue. Should you like me to lock this in the Alton bank?"
"Certainly not! The chest shall ascend to my bedroom, if you please. You may carry it there immediately, like the good brother you are."
"Be so good as to hold my coat." He drew off the elegant ar-ticle and bent to lift the chest.
"Heavy enough to be filled with gold," he gasped. "Is that what he left you?"
Jane and His Lordship's Legacy ~ 49
"No questions, Henry."
"Very well. But you might reward me for my labour."
"Only when you explain your presence in Hampshire!"
"I left Eliza with young Fanny," he managed as I led him, staggering with the chest's weight, into the cottage, "and set out with Neddie and Cass from Kent two days ago. Neddie's chaise broke an axle not far from Brompton, and he has put up at the Bell until the equipage is repaired. I rode on with the intention of making your minds easy. I reached the George late last night--and learned you were already established in Chawton."
"My sister was not hurt, I hope, by the accident to the chaise?"
Cassandra had suffered greatly during an unfortunate over-turning we experienced near Lyme, some years before, and I did not like to think of her cast down with the head-ache in a strange inn.
"Not a whit--so do not be exciting Mamma with your talk of injury," Henry admonished me. "This seems a comfortable lit-tle place," he added doubtfully, as he set down the chest on the kitchen floor and peered through the doorway to the sparsely-furnished rooms. "Could do with a bit of paint. Something bright and cheerful, in the yellow line."
"Thank you," I returned with heavy sarcasm. "Perhaps you could find us a painter among your Alton acquaintance? And a manservant? Or possibly a cook?"
"I cannot spare above a few days in the neighbourhood, Jane," he assured me hastily. "I suggest you consult Mr. Prowting.
He dearly loves to dispose of other people's lives. Have you any coffee?"
"You shall have to be content with tea." I glanced at the ket-tle; my supply of water had entirely boiled away while I sat in the henhouse. "The well is in the yard. After you have seen Lord 50 ~ Stephanie Barron
Harold's legacy safely beneath my bed, you may employ your talents with bucket and pump while I repair upstairs to dress."
"It is the oddest thing," Henry observed an hour later as we walked out into the Street--as the London to Gosport road is termed where it winds through Chawton village. We were gone on the errand of discovering the local bread baker--my mother had sorely missed her customary toast. " You enter the cottage for the first time, only to discover a dead man; while I am greeted at my Alton branch with news of a mysterious burglary. I must con-sider my decision to descend into Hampshire this week as a mat-ter of Providence."
"Burglary," I repeated in a lowered tone, and glanced about me at the sparse population of local folk: two children and their mother, a market basket over her arm, who drove a flock of geese before them in the direction of Alton; and a labourer en-gaged in shifting a quantity of grain from his dray into his cot-tage yard. None of these persons so much as offered us a good morning, or pulled a forelock; the children, at least, stared openly at the strange lady who had found a corpse in her cellar.
"I was met with the tale upon my arrival at the George,"
Henry continued. "The publican--Burbridge? Berlin?"
"Barlow," I supplied.
"--thought that I had been summoned to the place. 'Ah, Mr. Austen,' he said, with obvious relief. 'You've come, then, about the bank.' "
"What about the bank?" I demanded, frowning.
"Naturally I enquired. It seems that poor Gray"--by this he meant Mr. Edward-William Gray, his partner in Alton--"had been suffering every kind of anxiety that morning. The win-dows of Number Ten High Street were forced, if you will credit Jane and His Lordship's Legacy ~ 51
it--glass lying about the
"Certainly not! The chest shall ascend to my bedroom, if you please. You may carry it there immediately, like the good brother you are."
"Be so good as to hold my coat." He drew off the elegant ar-ticle and bent to lift the chest.
"Heavy enough to be filled with gold," he gasped. "Is that what he left you?"
Jane and His Lordship's Legacy ~ 49
"No questions, Henry."
"Very well. But you might reward me for my labour."
"Only when you explain your presence in Hampshire!"
"I left Eliza with young Fanny," he managed as I led him, staggering with the chest's weight, into the cottage, "and set out with Neddie and Cass from Kent two days ago. Neddie's chaise broke an axle not far from Brompton, and he has put up at the Bell until the equipage is repaired. I rode on with the intention of making your minds easy. I reached the George late last night--and learned you were already established in Chawton."
"My sister was not hurt, I hope, by the accident to the chaise?"
Cassandra had suffered greatly during an unfortunate over-turning we experienced near Lyme, some years before, and I did not like to think of her cast down with the head-ache in a strange inn.
"Not a whit--so do not be exciting Mamma with your talk of injury," Henry admonished me. "This seems a comfortable lit-tle place," he added doubtfully, as he set down the chest on the kitchen floor and peered through the doorway to the sparsely-furnished rooms. "Could do with a bit of paint. Something bright and cheerful, in the yellow line."
"Thank you," I returned with heavy sarcasm. "Perhaps you could find us a painter among your Alton acquaintance? And a manservant? Or possibly a cook?"
"I cannot spare above a few days in the neighbourhood, Jane," he assured me hastily. "I suggest you consult Mr. Prowting.
He dearly loves to dispose of other people's lives. Have you any coffee?"
"You shall have to be content with tea." I glanced at the ket-tle; my supply of water had entirely boiled away while I sat in the henhouse. "The well is in the yard. After you have seen Lord 50 ~ Stephanie Barron
Harold's legacy safely beneath my bed, you may employ your talents with bucket and pump while I repair upstairs to dress."
"It is the oddest thing," Henry observed an hour later as we walked out into the Street--as the London to Gosport road is termed where it winds through Chawton village. We were gone on the errand of discovering the local bread baker--my mother had sorely missed her customary toast. " You enter the cottage for the first time, only to discover a dead man; while I am greeted at my Alton branch with news of a mysterious burglary. I must con-sider my decision to descend into Hampshire this week as a mat-ter of Providence."
"Burglary," I repeated in a lowered tone, and glanced about me at the sparse population of local folk: two children and their mother, a market basket over her arm, who drove a flock of geese before them in the direction of Alton; and a labourer en-gaged in shifting a quantity of grain from his dray into his cot-tage yard. None of these persons so much as offered us a good morning, or pulled a forelock; the children, at least, stared openly at the strange lady who had found a corpse in her cellar.
"I was met with the tale upon my arrival at the George,"
Henry continued. "The publican--Burbridge? Berlin?"
"Barlow," I supplied.
"--thought that I had been summoned to the place. 'Ah, Mr. Austen,' he said, with obvious relief. 'You've come, then, about the bank.' "
"What about the bank?" I demanded, frowning.
"Naturally I enquired. It seems that poor Gray"--by this he meant Mr. Edward-William Gray, his partner in Alton--"had been suffering every kind of anxiety that morning. The win-dows of Number Ten High Street were forced, if you will credit Jane and His Lordship's Legacy ~ 51
it--glass lying about the
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