Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave - Stephanie Barron [145]
“There,” he said, his arm flung out towards Southampton Water. “A storm gathers, and a small ship beats hard up the Solent.”
I narrowed my weak eyes, followed the line of his hand, and discovered the trim brig as it came about into the wind.
“Captain Strong commands His Majesty's brig Windlass. My master is below decks. He asks that you wait upon him in his cabin. He has not much time; but if we summon your bosun and the two young gentlemen, and make haste with the skiff, we may meet his lordship even as the Windlass sets anchor.”
“You know a great deal more of my movements, Orlando, than I should like.”
“That is my office, ma'am. He who would serve as valet to Lord Harold Trowbridge, must also undertake the duties of dogsbody, defender—and spy.” He threw me a twisted smile; bitter truth underlay the flippant words.
“His lordship does not disembark in Southampton?”
“He is bound for Gravesend, and London, with the tide. You will have read of the family's loss?” I reflected an instant “The Dowager Duchess?” Lord Harold's mother, Eugenie de la Falaise, formerly of the Paris stage and wife to the late Duke of Wilborough, had passed from this life but a few days ago. I had admired Her Grace; I mourned her passing; but I could not have read the Morning Gazette's black-bordered death notice without thinking of her second son. It had been more than two years since I had last enjoyed the pleasure of Lord Harold's notice; and though I detected his presence from time to time in the publicity of the newspapers, I have known little of his course since parting from him in Derbyshire.
“Had the dowager's death not intervened, his lordship should have come in search of you himself. But Fate—”
“Fate has determined that instead of Lord Harold, I am treated to an interview with his man,” I concluded. “Pray tell me, Orlando, what it is that I must do.”
1. A third-rate ship carrying 74 guns, this was the most common line-of-battle vessel and a considerable number were built during the Napoleonic Wars; by 1816, the royal navy possessed 137 of them. They weighed about 1,700 tons and required 57 acres of oak forest to build.—Editor's note.
2. The opinion given here is a rough paraphrase of sentiments Jane first expressed at the age of sixteen in her History of England, by a Partial, Prejudiced, and Ignorant Historian.—Editor's note.
3. Austen wrote the manuscript entitled Susan in 1798 and sold it to Crosby & Co. for ten pounds in the spring of 1803. The firm never published it, and Austen was forced to buy back the manuscript in 1816. It was eventually published posthumously in 1818 as Northanger Abbey.—Editor's note.
Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor
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Copyright © 1996 by Stephanie Barron.
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eISBN: 978-0-307-48651-6
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Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books By This Author
Title Page
Dedication
Editor's Foreword
Jane's Introduction
Chapter 1 - The Passing Bell
Chapter 2 - Enter Lord Harold
Chapter 3 - The Poisoned Pen
Chapter 4 - The Widow's Lament
Chapter 5 - Lest Old Acquaintance Be Forgot
Chapter 6 - The Dark Angel
Chapter 7 - Methinks He Doth Protest Overmush
Chapter 8 - She Stoops to Conquer
Chapter 9 - The Animal Smell of Blood
Chapter 10 - Nuts in the Gun Case
Chapter 11 - Eliahu Bott at the Cock and Bull
Chapter 12 - Convincing the Coroner
Chapter 13 - The Calculation of Miss Fanny
Chapter 14 - A Queistion of a Locket
Chapter 15 - The Enchanting Eliza
Chapter 16 - The Barrister