Free 10 - The Goldsmith's Daughter by Kate Sedley Page B

house that evening did. It follows, therefore, that Mistress Perle may feel herself to be the object of your suspicion.’
    Master Babcary’s florid countenance turned pale. ‘She couldn’t possibly think such a thing! She couldn’t!’ But a moment’s consideration showed him the truth of my words. He grabbed my arm and shook it. ‘Master Chapman, you must find out what really happened! Come! Draw closer to the fire and I’ll tell you about the events of that evening.’

Six
    T he two women left us, Eleanor allowing herself to be led away by Isolda without once questioning the older woman’s decision. Yet again, I wondered if she were always this docile; and if so, did she resent the fact that uncle and cousin seemed to treat her as though she were still a child?
    ‘Now,’ said Miles Babcary as the door closed behind them, ‘you’ve met all the members of my household, Master Chapman – all those who remain, that is. But I don’t need to remind you that until the evening of the Feast of Saint Barbara, last December, there was another, my son-in-law, Gideon Bonifant. He––’
    ‘Did you like him?’ I asked, interrupting my companion’s flow of words and thus flustering him. I have often found this a useful tactic for getting at the truth.
    ‘What?’ Miles stared at me, mentally thrown off balance. ‘I . . . He was . . . Why should I not like Gideon?’ was the belligerent response. He fidgeted uncomfortably for a moment or two before adding, ‘To be honest, he was not someone you could like or dislike with any great fervour. He was not a man anyone could get to know very well. His emotions were always kept strictly in check, and what sort of a husband he made I have no idea. But he seemed to make Isolda happy, and that was all that mattered to me.’
    ‘Mistress Shore hinted that perhaps Gideon was not a good enough match for your daughter. An apothecary’s assistant, so she said, from Bucklersbury.’
    ‘Well, well, and what if he was?’ Miles let his irritation show at this second interruption. ‘You’ve seen Isolda. As you can guess, she didn’t attract men easily, even when young. You know that she’s . . . that she’s not a handsome woman. To be truthful, she’s plain. She’s very plain. Added to which, she has an independent turn of mind, which is not surprising when you consider that she has been sole mistress of this house since the age of sixteen. That was when my last housekeeper left me because, she said, she and Isolda could no longer share the same roof without falling out every day.’
    I asked curiously, ‘And yet – forgive me if I am being too bold – you are thinking of marrying again?’
    This time, Miles’s annoyance was palpable. ‘Master Chapman, it is only just over two weeks since I celebrated my fifty-eighth birthday. I am not yet in my dotage. I am still a virile and active man. A comfortable and well-run home is not the only consideration for someone of my age and appetites. I must admit that until Mistress Perle was widowed two and a half years ago, the thought of remarriage had not entered my head. But I have known and been fond of Barbara for a very long time; and once her period of mourning was over and she was able to take up the threads of her life again, I realised that my liking for her had turned into something stronger. And from one or two very broad hints that she dropped, I had every reason, until recently, to believe that she was entertaining similar thoughts about me. I talked the matter over with my daughter and Gideon, and told them that if Mistress Perle should do me the honour of agreeing to become my wife, I would buy her house in Paternoster Row and give it to them to live in. They seemed agreeable enough. I think Isolda, particularly, was beginning to feel it time that she had an establishment of her own.’
    ‘Mistress Perle and her husband had no children?’ I enquired, although I had already guessed the answer.
    ‘No, none.’