Free The Return of Lord Conistone by Lucy Ashford Page A

no money for Deb and Izzy to spend on frivolities, I know!’
    ‘We’ve no money to spend on
anything
, I fear’.
    Pippa hurried to hug her sister. ‘Oh, Verena. Anyone would think it’s all your fault! You—you don’t feel anything for Lucas still, do you?’
    ‘Goodness me, not a thing,’ lied Verena, forcing a smile. ‘Unlike Deb, I can’t deceive myself that the heir to an earldom could be interested in a Sheldon sister!’
    ‘Oh, Deb’s a fool’. Pippa was silent a moment. Then she said thoughtfully, ‘You know, Verena, I always wondered about Lucas and you. So did David. We both used to notice the way he looked at you…’.
    ‘Marvelling at my absurdly rustic clothes, no doubt,’ said Verena lightly.
    ‘My dear, you are beautiful!’ said Pippa abruptly. ‘Justdon’t let him give you any more trouble, do you hear?’ She kissed Verena and went to tackle their mother.
    * * *
    Anyone would think it was all your fault
, Pippa had chided. But that was the trouble—perhaps it was, for she, and she alone, had stirred up the old Earl’s vindictiveness. Her head aching with conjecture, Verena was crossing the main hall when she suddenly saw that the door to her father’s study was ajar. Frowning, she drew quietly nearer. Someone was going through the drawers of the writing cabinet.
    Bentinck
. Lucas’s sinister-looking servant.
    She rushed into the room. ‘What is this? What on
earth
do you think you are doing in here?’
    He didn’t look in the least ashamed of being caught. He merely blinked and said, ‘His lordship wants pencil and paper. I was just looking for some’.
    ‘You should have asked me. Or one of the servants,’ she said crisply. She found paper and pencil and thrust them at him. ‘Although I appreciate you are needed by Lord Conistone, I would be grateful if you would not make yourself free with our house, Bentinck!’
    ‘My thanks, ma’am,’ was all he said. And he didn’t even sound as though he meant it.
    More than ever, Verena was determined to get Lucas—and his manservant—out of here at the first opportunity.
    * * *
    Dr Pilkington made his morning visit, and assured her that the patient was making good progress. Pippa kept her promise, and by two that afternoon Izzy and Deb were squeezed into the old family carriage for the five-mile journey to Chichester. Izzy was highly excited. What Deb thought was made clear to Verena.
    ‘Thank you,’ Deb said to her with an expressive shudderas she leaned out of the carriage window. ‘I really could not have borne staying in the same house as—that man. You will not listen to anything he might say about me, will you?’
    The carriage rolled away; Verena and Lady Frances waved them goodbye. ‘Oh,’ said Lady Frances, ‘this is a wonderful opportunity for my girls! The latest fashions will be in stock in Chichester, and they will need so many things if we are to visit London again in the autumn!’
    Oh, no
. ‘Mama, we have no money! A stay in London is completely out of the question, and in Chichester they will have to window-shop only!’
    ‘Who says we have no money?’ said her mother, looking slightly pink. ‘Didn’t dear Lord Conistone tell you? I spoke to him just half an hour ago’.
    Verena froze. ‘You have no business—’
    ‘But he is our guest after all, and so obliging; he has money with him, you know! He told his servant to give me ten guineas and said that our families are linked by neighbourly ties, so I am to think nothing of paying it back!’
    Verena went white.
No
. This was
impossible
.… ‘Where is the money? Give it to me!’
    ‘Oh, Deb has it. I told her to share it with Izzy, and to buy from only the best
modistes
—and to get themselves a ready-made gown each. For with Lord Conistone in the house, who knows?
One
of my daughters might find she does not have to go to London to look for a bridegroom!’
    The carriage was disappearing into the distance. Verena watched it go, speechless with