The Rake of Hollowhurst Castle

Read The Rake of Hollowhurst Castle for Free Online Page B

Book: Read The Rake of Hollowhurst Castle for Free Online
Authors: Elizabeth Beacon
intolerable.
    â€˜I’ve no need to “scrabble”, sir,’ she assured him stiffly. ‘My uncle left me a fine house in Hollowhurstvillage and his personal property. Didn’t my brother inform you of the terms of his will when he sold you Hollowhurst?’
    â€˜He said there was a fine line to tread between his great-uncle’s personal property and the goods and chattels that came with the castle. One you must have expected to walk if he brought a bride home.’
    â€˜I might feel more generous towards my brother,’ she snapped, because she saw pity in his blue eyes and she’d prefer anything to that, even a cold fury she sensed would freeze her to the marrow if he ever unleashed it.
    â€˜Yet I’ve no intention of arguing about a few court cupboards and worm-eaten refectory tables, Miss Courland, so pray take what you like,’ he countered coolly. ‘And I won’t ransack the place in search of my inheritance, Sir Charles. My house is already furnished and all I require will fit on the farm dray when it returns. You’ll find your bookshelves a little empty and one or two walls bare, but I’m no magpie to be going about the place gathering everything I can.’
    â€˜I suspect you’d rather leave much of what’s yours behind out of sheer pride, lest you be thought grasping. I give you fair warning I’ll send it after you if you’re foolish enough to do that.’
    â€˜Then I’ll send it back. I already told you I’ve no room.’
    â€˜Perhaps we should place the excess in a field halfway between our houses and fight a duel for it one morning?’ he said as if their argument was mildly amusing, but in danger of becoming tedious.
    Well, it didn’t amuse her; she set her teeth and wondered why she’d got into this unproductive dispute in thefirst place. Of course she’d intended to be gone before he arrived, but he’d outmanoeuvred her and she suddenly knew how all those French captains felt when the famous, or infamous, Condottiere’s sails appeared on the horizon.
    â€˜Do you intend to fill the castle with daybeds in the Egyptian style and chairs and tables with alligator feet, then?’ she asked sweetly.
    â€˜No,’ he replied shortly. ‘I prefer comfort to fashion.’
    â€˜Then you’ll just have to accept that most of the furniture was built to fit a castle and would look ridiculous in a house less than fifty years old.’
    â€˜And you’ll have to accept I’m here to stay and have no intention of being cut by half the neighbourhood for throwing you out of your home at half a day’s notice with little more than your clothes and a few trifles.’
    â€˜Even if you have,’ she replied with glee, feeling almost happy she was leaving for the first time since he announced his purchase last night.
    â€˜Not a bit of it; I’ve just told your local vicar that I’m away to stay with my family for at least a sennight in order to give you time to find a suitable chaperone and remove from the Castle. He and his wife thought it a noble act of consideration on my part.’
    â€˜But they occupy a living bestowed at your discretion, do they not? And know you not at all, Sir Charles.’
    â€˜Only by repute,’ he said with a significant look she interpreted as a reproach to her for judging him on that basis herself. He’d no idea how bitterly he’d disappointed her young girl’s dreams in making that rakehell reputation, and it was up to her to make sure he never found out.
    â€˜Then I’m sure you have nothing to worry about,’ she said stiffly. ‘A returning hero takes precedence over a wronged woman any day of the week. Witness Odysseus’s triumphant return from ten years of chasing about the Aegean after assorted goddesses and nymphs, in contrast to poor Penelope’s slaughtered maids and all that interminable weaving she

Similar Books

Forbidden Planet

W.J. Stuart

Short Soup

Coleen Kwan

The Virgin's Choice

Jennie Lucas

A Fatal Slip

Melissa Glazer

Destination Unknown

Katherine Applegate

Skin

Dale Mayer