Free An Embarrassment of Riches by Margaret Pemberton Page B

want Maura moving out of Ballacharmish and into a farmhouse, that was for sure.
    â€˜Will you ask him to send me some clothes – and my books?’
    He nodded unhappily.
    On the realization that Lord Clanmar was to be informed of events Dr Pearse, who had been about to leave, swiftly changed his mind. ‘I’ll stay here while you send word,’ he said, hoping that his zealousness would not go unremarked and would come to his lordship’s ears.
    An hour later Lord Clanmar’s carriage rattled to a halt in the cobbled yard. Lord Clanmar eased himself stiffly out of the carriage, silently cursing the inflammation of his joints which now precluded him from riding.
    A flurried Dr Pearse hurried down to greet him. ‘Your lordship! ’Tis wonderful to see you looking so grand! A little stiffness in the joints, is there? Could I suggest…’
    â€˜I’m here on account of Mrs Sullivan, not myself,’ Lord Clanmar said with ill-concealed annoyance. ‘Tell me, what is the situation?’
    It was exactly what Dr Pearse had been wondering. Everyone in Wicklow knew that his lordship was a broth of a landlord, but this concern for a tenant was ludicrous to the point of insanity and could only give rise to the most prurient of speculations.
    â€˜She could live for many a long year,’ he said, wishing to heaven and all the saints that he knew what answer would best please. ‘On the other hand, Mrs Sullivan may be in the arms of her Maker by nightfall.’
    Lord Clanmar checked his rising vexation. Pearse was a well-meaning fool and he should have known better than to have asked. He looked across at Kieron who had accompanied the carriage on horseback. ‘Ask Maura to come down to me.’
    As Kieron did his bidding, Lord Clanmar stood in the centre of the plainly furnished, pin-neat living-room, his hands clasped behind his back. He knew very well what Maura would insist on doing, but it wasn’t practical. He hadn’t cared for her and educated her for nine years to have her return to near penury, acting the nurse to an incapacitated parent.
    When she hurried into the room he saw that she had been crying. ‘There, there, my pet,’ he said, putting his arthritic arm comfortingly around her and ignoring Dr Pearse’s incredulous, wide-eyed stare. ‘I already know what it is you want to do, but it isn’t what is best for your mother.’
    â€˜But it is! I must be with her night and day! She needs me …’
    â€˜She needs you to continue with the lifestyle that is yours at Ballacharmish,’ he said gently. ‘Such a lifestyle was always your mother’s crowning ambition for you, and it would break her heart to think that she herself had been the inadvertent cause of its cessation.’
    She stared at him, her eyes frantic with distress. What he was saying was true, but what other course of action was there?
    â€˜She must be cared for,’ she said again, ‘and I am the best person in the world to care for her.’
    Lord Clanmar walked her over to a chair and gently pressed her down into it. ‘Now listen to me,’ he said tenderly. ‘You are not the best person, if your being here causes your mother additional mental agitation. What will be best for your mother will be if Ellen or Kitty care for her, and you visit her mornings and evenings.’
    â€˜But can Ellen or Kitty be spared?’ she asked uncertainly. Both Ellen and Kitty had been in service as maids at Ballacharmish for over twenty years and she knew that Mrs Connor relied on them to set an example to the younger members of her staff.
    â€˜Quite easily,’ Lord Clanmar said, uncaring of his housekeeper’s disciplinary problems. ‘Both Kitty and Ellen were in service at Ballacharmish when your mother was also in service. She knows them well and will find their presence a comfort. Your permanent presence here would only distress