Free The Tyrant by Patricia Veryan

another on the estate, some five miles north, called Dewbury Minor.”
    â€œIt reminds me of Southwind,” murmured Phoebe.
    He glanced at her. The warm lamps of sunset illumined her face and brightened the red-gold ringlets that she had not powdered today. She looked nostalgic, and, curious, he asked, “A similar estate, ma’am?”
    She gave a rather embarrassed laugh. “You will think me silly, but I once wrote a short story about a girl living on a country estate. This is almost exactly what I described. Does your home turn out to be a half-timbered Queen Anne with roses round the door, I shall be more than a little disconcerted, sir.”
    He did not reply, but the twinkle in his eyes was marked as he offered an arm to each lady.
    Lady Eloise asked, “ Is it a Queen Anne, Mr. Carruthers?”
    â€œI mean to make you wait and see, ma’am,” he said teasingly. The second coach came up, and he called, “Why do you not ride with your family now, Ramsay? You surely must have completed whatever you were trying to accomplish today.”
    Sinclair replied brightly, “I believe I have, and I think it will not hurt to let it rest for a few hours, at least.”
    Sublimely unaware of these double entendres, Lady Eloise reached out to him fondly. “Such a passion for books has my clever son, Mr. Carruthers. Oh, dear! Only look, there are some more of those wretched dragoons! I suppose we are to be stopped and searched and asked all manner of stupid questions!”
    Leading them back to the waiting coach, Carruthers asked, “Do the dragoons alarm you, ma’am?”
    â€œI do not like to think of what they’re about, merely. What a nuisance this Rebellion has been, to be sure.”
    Above her head, Carruthers met Phoebe’s eyes. He said drily, “Nuisance is a mild word, ma’am.”
    A few minutes later they were surrounded by redcoats. The young Ensign in command had a round face and a sneering insolence. Carruthers waited through his first bullying, then interrupted coldly, “Under whose command are you, sir?”
    The Ensign was affronted and replied with curt resentment that his superior officer was Major Broadbent.
    â€œA fine soldier,” said Carruthers. “Hilary Broadbent and I served at Culloden together. You will please to tell him that Lieutenant Meredith Carruthers sends his compliments and he must come to the Hall and meet my betrothed.” He frowned as a trooper engaged in a blasphemous dispute with the already irritated coachman. “You should keep your men more in hand, Ensign.”
    The Ensign stammered and flushed, roared commands at his men to be done, and waved the carriages on.
    Sinclair chuckled, and said sotto voce, “Jolly well done, sir.”
    â€œAn unpleasant young man,” said Lady Eloise. “Only suppose we had been obliged to fear him!”
    Phoebe asked uneasily, “In what way, Mama?”
    My lady answered, “I could not help but think, you know, watching him, only suppose we were a Jacobite family, trying to smuggle one of our loved ones to safety—a son, perhaps, and brother, who had fought for the Scottish Prince. How terrifying it would have been, instead of merely a nuisance. For instance, what if we’d hidden a fugitive—say, in your hamper, Sin my love.” She gave a shudder. “Just to think of it gives me chills! I cannot guess how people venture such deeds. It would not do for me. I declare I would die of fright!”
    There was an instant of rather heavy silence as three culprits avoided each other’s eyes. Then Carruthers was handing the ladies into the coach once more. “Just a little way, mesdames, ” he assured them. “When we top the next rise, you will have your first clear view of Meredith Hall.”
    They began to follow a well-maintained drivepath that wound between lush slopes and meadows begemmed with daisies and Queen