Free The Phantom Lover by Elizabeth Mansfield Page A

expanded household. After he’d gone, the ladies asked Mrs. Penloe to prepare some sort of luncheon for them. Anything she had on hand would do, Nell told her, for they both were famished.
    Mrs. Penloe, who had already opened and cleaned the dining room, set before them a modest luncheon of Cornish broth and something she called “Squab Pie.” To the ladies, who had not eaten a proper meal since they’d left Exeter three days before, the luncheon was delicious. The ingredients of the broth were easily identified—carrots, cabbage, pork scraps and leeks. But the squab pie was something of a mystery, for although Amelia tasted apple, bacon and bits of mutton in it, and Nell was convinced that onions and cream were also included, neither could find a sign of squab, or indeed any poultry, in the concoction. Nevertheless, they ate every bit that was put before them and sighed with contentment when they had finished.
    During the afternoon, while Amelia retired to her room to nap, Nell, noting that the sky had brightened considerably, requested that young Jemmy take her on a tour of the grounds. The lad seemed reluctant but was persuaded to agree. He led her through the Great Hall and out the front door. She found herself in a courtyard protected from the wind on three sides by the main house and its two wings, and on the fourth by a fortress-like building with a large archway in the center. It was through this archway that they had entered the night before. “This is quite like a medieval fortress,” she exclaimed to Jemmy.
    â€œYes’m,” the boy answered, “that just what it is. In old Cornish, it was called the Dinas of Thorne. That means the Thornes’ Hill-fort.”
    â€œWhy Hill-fort ?” she asked.
    â€œWhen we come round to the back, you’ll see for yoursel’,” the boy said with a smile.
    They walked around the east wing of the house, through some well-planned but overgrown gardens, to the back. There the land sloped sharply down to the cliffs which edged the estuary. The grounds close to the house were beautifully terraced and dotted with fascinating, wind-blown trees like those she’d seen from the carriage the evening before. But what took her breath away was the sight of the wide Camel Estuary beyond the cliffs and of the Atlantic beyond, stretching in gray majesty to the far horizon. The height of the grounds on which she stood permitted her a panoramic view of land, sea and sky. “Now I understand about the Hill-fort,” she told the boy with a smile of insight. “The Dinas of Thorne. Thorndene! The Thorne’s fort on the hill.”
    She looked back at the manorhouse looming up behind her, its gray granite stone and mullioned windows shining in the light of the quickly setting sun. It was an imposing sight. “What are those buildings over there?” Nell asked, gesturing to her right.
    Jemmy gave her a quick, nervous glance. “The … stables …” he said hesitantly.
    â€œLet’s walk over to them, shall we?” she suggested.
    â€œWell … I … ’Tis a longish bit o’ walk …”
    â€œNonsense,” Nell said briskly, keeping her eyes fixed on his face.
    He flicked her a worried look and then lowered his eyes to the ground. “’Tis close to dinner time. My mum may have need o’ me in the kitchen.”
    â€œIt is getting late,” Nell agreed readily, “and I’ve kept you from your work too long. Go along to your duties, Jemmy. I’ll walk over to the stables by myself.”
    Jemmy’s face flushed with alarm. “Yoursel’?” he asked uncomfortably. “You don’t want to do that! Why, ’tis … ’tis …”
    â€œWhat, Jemmy? What troubles you, boy?”
    The boy kicked at a pebble underfoot. “’Tain’t seemly, you walkin’ about by yoursel’,” he muttered.
    She raised her eyebrows in cool