Burning Bright (Brambridge Novel 2) (35 page)

James laughed, fiddling with his sword. “From what I saw over several nights in Brambridge, I thought that you were born for the part.”

“Perhaps you might be able to control her a bit more in the future. She kicked my shins again yesterday.”

James laughed. “You don’t need to worry, we won’t be here for long.”

“You’re leaving? Why? What about Brambridge Manor? What about me?”

The smile died from James’ face and he looked Bill in the eyes. “I’ll be back to visit my brother. And Harriet’s taken care of you.”

Bill took a step back. “Oh no,” he whispered.

“Quick,” Harriet whispered, pulling a plumed hat onto her head, “onto the stage.”

“Why, oh why, did you allow her to play Mercutio?” Bill moaned.

“She had had enough of playing Tybalt,” James said quietly. He followed Bill onto the stage. As the clapping died away, they took their places.

“Come sir, your passado.” James pulled out the two swords from under his coat and thrust them at Harriet. She smiled and parried, forcing James backwards and forwards. The candles lighting the room glinted off the escaping red hair that curled from under her hat. It was too much to resist. Throwing his swords to the ground, he leapt the distance, under Harriet’s weaving dagger, and pulled the hat from her head. A wave of apple blossom filled his senses.

“Is this a new form of swordplay, my lord?” Harriet said. “You are ruining my play.”

“My lady, I am merely enhancing it.” James pulled her towards him and, molding her body to his, plundered her sweet mouth with his lips.

Drawing back a little, he studied his bride. Her eyes glinted, and an enigmatic smile spread across her face as she glanced at his hand that held her sword hand upwards. He’d seen that vision before. It had watched him for years. “The painting,” he muttered. “It was there in front of me all the time. My lady of the stars, she must have been your grandmother.”

As Harriet’s smile changed to one of puzzlement, James could not resist kissing her again, and again.

A clang of metal resounded behind them as Bill dropped his own sword prop to the ground. “I don’t know why you are not staying in Brambridge,” he said disgustedly, “But please stop it. You are making me feel uncomfortable.”

James drew back from Harriet, and, putting an arm around her shoulder, turned her to face Bill.

“We’re not staying in Brambridge,” he said clearly, “because we no longer have a home here.”

Bill gasped. “But the will, you fulfilled the terms, you have the manor.”

James shook his head. “I signed over the estate to Harriet the day after our wedding. I don’t want it. It’s hers to do what she wants with. I gave Cecilia the mine.”

“So you still have the manor?”

“No.” Harriet stepped forward. “We don’t. But you do.”

“What?”

Harriet slipped a small hand into James’ large palm. “Time to go,” she whispered. “Always make a dramatic exit.” In a louder voice, she said, “The estate is yours. You are a Stanton after all, and older than James too. By rights it is yours.” Pulling at James’ unresisting hand, she led him off the stage and towards the carriage waiting outside the schoolroom to take them to his estates in Kent.

A loud crash resounded behind them. Harriet smiled. It was a fitting revenge.

“I say,” Freddie’s voice cut above the surprised babble of the crowd. “I thought Mercutio was meant to kill Tybalt. What’s Romeo doing on the ground?”

“I rather think,” James murmured to his wife, drawing her in for another kiss, “that he might have fainted.”

Their tale is over, but for others, the story has only just begun…

Before turning the page to read the Prologue to
Dangerous Diana
the third book in the Brambridge Novels series:

Firstly thank you for reading 
Burning Bright
. I hope you enjoyed it! Please do let me know what you thought by leaving a review at Amazon and/or Goodreads.

If you would also like to know when the latest book in the Brambridge Novels series is available, or when I have other books out, please sign up for my
New Release E-mail list
.
I’ll email only on the day the books are released and at no other time. 

Burning Bright
 is the second book in the Brambridge Novels series. The other books currently available in the series are 
Somewhat Scandalous
, (
Burning Bright
)
, 
Dangerous Diana
, 
Reckless Rules
 and 
Maddening Minx
. Click on the titles to discover more about them, or visit
www.pearldarling.com
for my blog, books, and more.

Finally and most importantly, if you'd like to dive straight in to read the prologue of the next book in the series,
Dangerous Diana
, please turn the page now!

DANGEROUS DIANA

BOOK THREE OF THE BRAMBRIDGE NOVELS

PROLOGUE

Bayswater, London, May 1817

Melissa waited silently in the lane behind the old garden gate. Pulling her hood further over her head, she pushed the brass rims of her cracked spectacles further onto her nose and dropped her bag to the ground.

She drew in a deep breath as a stout woman with white hair made her way unsteadily out of the stable gate of the house opposite and determinedly limped her way to stand in front of her.

“Where have you been for so long?” the woman grumbled.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Hobbs,” Melissa gulped. “I was…we were taking the air on the coast.”

She threw a desperate glance back into the garden behind her where the burnt grass and herbs grew around an old moldering flower press. Pulling her hood even closer round her head, she shivered and dipped her head to look at Mrs. Hobbs through an unbroken part of her spectacles.
Oh dear.
She couldn’t leave now—behind the woman a queue had suddenly formed, some she knew by sight, Mrs. Wenthrop, and a Mr. Adder. The others, two young men in high quality clothes, were new.

“For six months? Well it’s alright for some. Whilst you were away my husband lost his job because of you.” Mrs. Hobbs stepped closer to Melissa and peered in at the garden. “Cooee. You’ve left this go to wrack and ruin. My Albert could have this up and going in no time. Where’s your mother Eliza?”

Melissa gulped. “Gone.” Bound and chained on a slow boat for deportation for the attempted murder of Lord Stanton. What did Melissa care? Eliza was not and apparently
never had
been her mother.

“Well, when are you going to set up the apothecary business again? My Albert needs work. If he doesn’t work the landlady says we have to move. And only your herbs make the difference to his stomach pains see?”

“I…err…”
I have no intention to
…she wanted to say, but the words failed her. The house was going on the market and then she was going to disappear. She’d only stepped outside on a whim, to empty her bag and then be gone. “My… mother gave everything away, my father’s books on plants and animals… and his desk and chair.”

“
Melissa!
Melissa!”

Melissa started, and looked uncertainly back at the house.
Eliza?

“Well I had better be going,” Mrs. Hobbs huffed and turned around. “I’ll send my Albert round.”

“But I…”

“I’d like my usual please.” Mr. Adder stepped smartly up to her, almost treading on Mrs. Hobbs’ swaying skirts. Melissa pulled her bag up in front of her and shuffled backwards. Where had Mrs. Wenthrop gone?

“She’s left.” Mr. Adder turned his head and pointed down the lane before inserting his finger into his very hairy ears and
twisting
it.

Melissa swallowed as his finger emerged coated in wax. He stared at her unblinking as he stroked his dirty hands along the length of his small moustache. Darting a glance over his shoulder, she searched for a friendly face, but the two gentlemen behind him carried on chatting loudly with little regard for Mr. Adder’s actions.

“And then she just dropped out of sight. Refused all the hands of all those gentlemen, and then trapped Lord Stanton into an engagement through false pretenses.” The taller of the men nodded stiffly as if the woman in question had ensnared Lord Stanton like a spider in a web.

Melissa gasped and knelt over her black bag.
A spider?
She was no spider! “I… I’ll just get your remedy, Mr. Adder,” she mumbled.

“Did you see her at that last London ball before she appeared in Devon at Stanton’s place?” The shorter gentleman stretched his neck over his cravat and eyed his companion sideways. “Earl Harding said that she played the role of a mute debutante to entrap him. Even called herself Diana. Can you imagine? I say, do you like my carnation? Harding wears them all the time.”

Melissa ducked lower over her bag, rummaging frantically for the last few slips of dried flowers that she knew were in there.

“—Johnnie was very enamored with Regina. Let’s hope this woman can help us. Apparently we’re lucky to find her.”

Melissa froze as her hand closed finally over an old twist of lavender.
Oh no.
What had she missed? She kept her head low as she stood and handed the lavender to Mr. Adder, hurriedly waving away his offer of money. As he hesitated she held her breath, but with a quick glance over her shoulder at the garden gate, he stalked away with measured steps.

Melissa braced herself as the two gentlemen strode towards her and stared fixedly over her shoulder. “I really wouldn’t visit the Lamb and Flag Inn if I were you,” she said quickly in a low voice. The men started and clutched nervously at their breeches. Ah, so Regina
was
still in business. “Any more visits and who knows what you might catch.” Swiftly she pulled a bottle of powder out of her bag, the last one that she owned. “Powder ‘down there’ with this. It will stop the lice itching. Then comb out with the smallest comb you have.”

“Hey—we never…”

Melissa dared to lift her head a bit higher, but the men showed no signs of recognition. “And I might suggest investing in some tweezers.”

The tall gentleman fished reluctantly around in his pocket and held out a three penny bit. His hand brushed briefly over her palm as he pushed the coin into her hand and she shuddered, whipping away the money in her fist.

“
Melissa!”

Melissa shook her head.
Go away Eliza
. Waiting until the men had turned away, she hurriedly backed through the creaking garden gate and ran up the scattered stones of the garden path, stumbling as again the
voice echoed out of the partially open kitchen door.

“Melissssssssaaaa! I have a proposition for you…” 

The calling tones were insistent. Shakily, she yanked the kitchen door open fully.

“Melissa! Where have you put it?”

Melissa froze, her gaze riveted on the dusty tiles of the kitchen floor. Muddy half-moon shapes tracked from side to side across the small room, and then out into the hall. All of the cupboards were open, their meagre contents spilled to the ground, as if someone had pawed their way to the very back. She bit her lip and laid a hand on the kitchen table to steady herself as a memory flooded her.
Edgar and I have some news for you, we’re married! Isn’t that lovely? Now all you have to do is pay the coal man. In the kitchen will do.

Her breath hitched. Pressing the brass rims of her glasses to her nose, she put the black bag down on the cold kitchen tiles and shuffled slowly through into the dark hall. Although the front door was closed, leaves had blown onto the ceramic tiles of the entranceway, and its lock hung askew surrounded by enormous splinters.

Melissa licked her lips and looked back down towards the kitchen. She could leave now, send in the agent to deal with the intruder or…

No
. Slowly she felt for doorknob of the front room. Pulling her cloak more tightly around her, she closed her eyes and stepped through the door.

A hoarse voice echoed in the darkness of the damp empty room.
“Hello Melissa. You are a pretty little one, aren’t you? Did you hear me?” 

Oh dear.
How had she ever thought the voice had belonged to Eliza?

“If you don’t give it to me along with the money, I’ll set the Viper on to you.”

“I don’t understand.” Melissa shivered and felt her way by the tips of her fingers to where the sideboard had been. Her fingers trembled as she felt at the wall. “What money? And what is…”

“The money that your mother owed us.”

“But everything has been paid for!” Melissa stopped looking for the sideboard, her heartbeat sounding loudly in her ears as she stared into the darkness. “Why don’t you show yourself?” She coughed as her voice quavered. “Only cowards hide in the dark.”

A deep laugh rolled through the blackness. “Only clever people hide in the dark,”

Gasping, Melissa waved a hand wildly in front of her, but still she could not find the edge of the sideboard. It wasn’t
there
, gone with all the rest of the furniture ready for the house to be sold.

She stopped and froze against the wall. The last time she had been in the small front room there had been a box of matches and a taper on the fireplace. But to get to them would mean moving in further towards the disembodied voice.