Free Different Tides by Janet Woods Page A

felt angry – at herself and at him. She was a servant, nothing more, but he made her feel as though she was his equal. She would be glad when he went back to London.
    ‘Hmmm … perhaps not,’ he said with a chuckle, as if he really had read her mind, and had found her lacking in everything he desired in a woman.
    Twisting away from him she ignored his hand and scrambled into the carriage unaided.

Five
    The season slipped quietly into autumn and the landscape covered itself in a cosy patchwork quilt of warm colours.
    Seated astride his grey, Zachariah gazed at Martingale House. He’d already stayed longer than he’d intended to and it was time he left. There were business matters to take care of in London. He wanted to take stock and sell off some of his more risky investments.
    Cotton prices in America had plunged, and the wheat harvest had been poor. He also had investments in overseas railways. Luckily most of his wealth was in gold or property, rather than paper. He liked to get things settled in a timely manner lest an opportunity to profit from it was lost.
    Unlike Gabe, who had gambled for the pleasure of the risks involved. Zachariah knew when to apply caution, when to stop and wait until markets improved. He suspected there would be a recession in America before too long and that would have an effect on his own fortune. The upside of that was the property market would contain some bargains.
    There was a sense of reluctance inside him to leave. He’d not expected to discover such a strong sense of duty in being responsible for two orphaned children. He admitted it had been a painful trait to recognize in himself. Edward in particular had formed an attachment to him. Odd when the child hardly knew him. Zachariah had offered him very little encouragement. Iris was a sweet child, outgoing and dainty.
    He could see only a passing resemblance between the children and their parents – or had that been a defence? That bothered him somewhat. They hadn’t seemed to recognize Gabe and Alice in the painting. Then there was the name that had slipped out. Jonas. ‘
I’ll teach him to bite Jonas
,’ Edward had said, evading Zachariah’s question. Also their manners were slightly rough, though they were improving.
    He shook himself, willing himself not to look for faults. Clementine was smoothing the rough edges from them. Circumstances made children change to suit their environment, so they wouldn’t make themselves noticeable by being different.
    He’d expected the impossible, two fully trained children complete with impeccable manners – children that wouldn’t cause him a moment of trouble. They would be trotted out in their Sunday best every time he visited so he could smile his benevolent-uncle smile on them and bask in their adoration. What he’d got was a pair of underfed strays who were strangers to him, both of whom were bewildered and afraid to trust anyone.
    Iris was fairly confident, though tended to look to her older brother in times of stress. Even at her young age she displayed some of the outgoing feminine charm that he hoped would stay with her. That, she’d inherited from her mother, except the girl had an intelligence that needed nurturing, so she didn’t grow up empty-headed. Clementine’s influence would ensure that Iris would contribute an informed opinion to a conversation in the years to come.
    Edward was scared of his own shadow. Over the past year or so he’d been so badly treated by someone, probably the Sheridan couple, that he’d become frightened of his own voice. The boy had nightmares, and he looked nervously around him when he spoke, and avoided the dark corners. There was caution in him where Zachariah would have expected to see his father’s brashness.
    Of one thing Zachariah was certain: Gabe would not have allowed his children to travel with a couple who would treat them badly, since he’d doted on the boy.
    It was by luck rather than design that Zachariah had found the