Free Brothers at Arms Page A

insistently. “It didn’t happen like that. I whacked the gunman’s horse, just as he was dismounting, and it bolted, dragging him with it. I would not normally have done it, but he was going to hurt Sophie. Who was he?”
    “Nathan Stretton,” said Joshua, yawning. “Matthew’s cousin. They do not acknowledge me as family. I don’t know who the other man was.”
    Charlie continued in a voice full of scorn. “Your bleater of a brother accused us of trying to drown him. If he can’t sit a horse better than that, he needs to be on a leading rein.” He stopped, realising that Joshua’s eyes had closed.
    “Well, look at that, Sophie; he’s gone to sleep while I was talking. I must have a word with William Rufus. He looks just the man we need to toughen Joshua up.”
    Charlie hoped Joshua was not going to be timid about everything. He too was terrified when the man with the face of a rat levelled a pistol, but refused to show fear before the enemy. A gun he could understand, but Josh could not have known that when he started running. He sighed, and resigned himself to the task ahead. Guarding Sophie was one thing, but Joshua quite another.
    They found William Rufus sitting outside Joshua’s bedroom door, but it was a bit too public for Charlie to say what he wanted, so he bided his time, knowing there would be a better opportunity when Joshua recovered. That did not take long.
    The physician visited once, stayed long enough for a quick examination, and then said, “He’ll do, Miss Jane. Just keep him warm and ensure he has plenty of rest. Let him get up in a couple of days, and give him what he wants to eat. He will come to no harm. Now, I must see his brother…again.”
    Beyond the solid oak door at the far end of the corridor, servants were running around with mustard baths for Matthew Norbery, while the physician had called three times to attend him and gone away shaking his head in disbelief.
    By the time Joshua recovered, and the Cobarne children similarly emerged from his bedroom, the house was a hive of activity. Everywhere they ventured above stairs, maidservants dusted and polished, while others bustled around carrying piles of bedlinen. On the lower levels, kitchen staff dashed back and forth to the storeroom, so busy that no one had time to tell them what was going on.
    Moreover, on entering the stillroom in search of sustenance, they found an empty biscuit jar, and learned that Mrs Delbury, the housekeeper, was too busy to make biscuits. That was an unmitigated disaster, which could only mean one thing – visitors were expected. The question was… who was coming to stay?
    For several days, they retreated to the nursery corridor, and found the answer when Hayton carried in a tray of supper.
    When they finished eating, Joshua and Charlie dashed off to Aunt Jane’s sitting room, with Sophie trailing two steps behind.
    “Hayton says Lord and Lady Cardington are coming, Aunt Jane.”
    “Yes,” she said. “They are bringing the family, en route from London.”
    “Who are they, Aunt Jane?” asked Charlie. “Are they mine and Sophie’s relations as well?”
    “Yes, Charlie, they belong to you both. Lady Cardington is my older sister, but you may call her Aunt Clarissa. Her husband is Lord Cardington, and I think it best if you address him as ‘Sir’
.
He will expect that.”
    Charlie nodded his understanding, as Joshua took up the story.
    “When Parliament is in session, Uncle Humphrey goes to London to sit in the Upper House. Papa is in the Lower House, because he does not have a title.”
    At least that was the way he understood it.
    “When they are not making speeches and laws in the daytime,” he said, “they dress up and go to balls and parties in the evening.”
    “Did you hear that, Sophie? They sound very important,” said Charlie.
    Sophie sniffed.
    “You will have a chance to meet your new cousins,” said Aunt Jane. “There will be quite a houseful when they arrive. I’ll leave