Free Beguiled by Arnette Lamb Page B

of Jacobean mahogany dominated the room. A matching pair of standing candelabrum flanked a table containing an onyx and pale pink alabaster chess set. A collection of silver and brass pomanders sat atop a low table in the center of the room.
    Deeper into the building, the earl ushered her into another wing of older origin. Replete with standing suits of polished armor, battle axes, and hanging tapestries larger than a wading pool, this room was a testament to the Age of Chivalry. The flagged stone floor was scattered with small woven carpets, probably products of the Napier looms. A door in an inwardly rounded wall must be the entrance to the old tower she’d seen from the street.
    â€œThe vandal entered here.” Across the room, he moved aside one of the tapestries and revealed a broken window.
    Nothing else was amiss.
    The rough-hewn bookshelves contained a number of valuable items. The price of the illuminated manuscripts alone would support a dozen common thieves for a year and more. The twisted pewter candlesticks would buy a wagon and a team of horses.
    Why hadn’t any of these treasures or the ones in the next room been taken? What and where was the havoc the intruder had wreaked? She’d find out. “Have you considered replacing the window with mullioned glass?”
    Suddenly attentive, he glanced from the gaping window to her, then back to the window. “Aye, all the way ’round.” He let the tapestry fall into place. “I’ll summon the glazier tomorrow and a locksmith to secure the ground level windows. Although it pains me to make a prison of my home.”
    She knew grudging respect when she saw it, and respect from Edward Napier felt especially fine. “ ’Twill not be forever, my lord. Only until we find out who and why.”
    â€œI like your confidence, my lady.”
    â€œAs did Burgundy and the others.”
    He busied himself with straightening the tapestry. “Christopher and Hannah behaved well on the journey?”
    Light conversation was not what Agnes had in mind. “They behaved very well until he called her an odd name . . . Capricorn something.”
    â€œHe’s only begun then. He’s made a science of employing big words. Wait until he accuses his sister of being a Hugotontheonbiquiffinarian.”
    Baffled, Agnes shook her head. “Where did he learn such great words, and what do they mean?”
    â€œFrom his tutor last year, a student at the university. I cannot recall the meanings exactly, but I think they were societies of some sort. Christopher only brings it up to bedevil Hannah because she cannot read as yet.”
    â€œIt works.”
    He shrugged and began rolling down his sleeves. He’d clubbed his hair at the nape of his neck, but some of the wavy strands had worked themselves free of the tie. “ ‘Tis his poor behavior of late.” He raked a stray lock back behind his ear. “He’ll grow bored with it eventually and take up something else. Last year he swore only to speak French during meals.”
    â€œDid he succeed?”
    â€œQuite admirably until he couldn’t think of the word for chocolate cake.”
    â€œHe got no dessert?”
    â€œNo, and petulance overcame him when Hannah was served. He was sent to his room.”
    â€œMy sisters and I carried on our poor habits at once, and not two of them alike.” At the thought of those happy and carefree days, her spirits brightened. “ ’Tis a wonderment that my father didn’t sell us for slaves.”
    â€œI doubt he would have done that. Is it true that he took you from your mothers and raised you himself?”
    Love for her father filled Agnes. “Yes, until we were six. Oh, we’d had dozens of governesses, most of them more interested in laying claim to our father than to teaching us. But then a Colonial named Juliet White came to Kinbairn.”
    â€œLord Lachlan married