Heiress in Red Silk by Hunter, Madeline (best mystery novels of all time TXT) 📗

she could look down her nose. Rosamund knew that expression very well. A lady was about to put an inferior in her place.

“He is most dislikable, but I do not suspect without cause. It happened at the duke’s estate, Melton Park. None of the others were there. Kevin claimed he was in France, but he was really in England. I saw him myself in Town the next day. If he learned about the will, and the disposition of the duke’s half of his company, he had a reason to be angry enough to act rashly. Is that plain enough for you?” She began walking with sulking determination. “It was my hope to spare you. I can see that was a mistake.”

Rosamund matched Felicity’s strides until they drew up behind Kevin and Lady Agnes again. They got there just in time to hear Lady Agnes say, “I’m only advising that the sensible solution is for both of you to sell whatever exists for whatever someone will pay. It is unlikely to be worth more in the future, and this would spare you this unseemly partnership.”

Her arrival caught Lady Agnes up short. Unaware she had been overheard, she retreated into pleasantries. “Look at how nicely the ivy has revived here in the park, Felicity. I was just telling Kevin that my new gardener has started some vines on my back wall.”

Chapter Five

Rosamund never thought she would find herself asking Kevin Radnor to call on her, but the next morning she sat at the writing table in the library to pen a letter doing just that. A long night of grappling with her thoughts had led her to conclude that she would turn to Kevin this time for advice rather than Minerva, since Minerva had already helped her so much.

This meeting might also give her a chance to find out if there could be any truth to Felicity’s suspicions. The woman was the sort who took pleasure in making trouble.

She labored over the letter, leaving too many cross outs and splotches of ink on the paper. The whole thing was a disaster before she finished. Minerva entered the library just as Rosamund was pulling out a new sheet of paper.

Seeing her writing a letter, Minerva sat with a book and did not interfere. Rosamund tried again, muttering with annoyance when things began to go badly again. She set down the pen and covered her eyes with her hands.

“Are you weeping?”

She uncovered her eyes to see Minerva standing right next to her.

“No. I be trying not to scream.” She gestured to the paper. “My hand be bad, my spelling be bad, and I can’t seem to use a pen without dribbling ink all over everything.”

Minerva examined the letter. “If you want, I will write what you tell me to write. Or we can just send one of the servants with a message.”

Rosamund picked up the pen again. “You wrote the one to the school. I can’t have you doing them all. I need to learn.”

Minerva’s hand covered the one that held the pen. “I will help you to practice. You cannot learn it in one hour, however. Let us send that messenger for now.”

So it was that at eleven o’clock, Kevin Radnor arrived in a fine coach, complete with a footman standing in back, to escort her to the solicitor’s office. “It is my father’s,” he explained. “He never uses it.”

She settled on her cushion, while he sat facing her. Dark clouds darkened the sky. She hoped it didn’t rain.

“I am flattered you sent for me,” he said. “It has been my hope that we may be friends, and that you will ask for my help in any way that I can be of service.”

“I thought it be best to have someone with me, what with it being legal doings.” She also wanted to broach something with her business partner. She would wait for the right moment, and hope that she had the courage.

She took the opportunity while they rode through Mayfair to examine the women strolling in the streets. Through one open window she spied an attractive hat with a broader brim than was customary. She removed a little piece of paper and a pencil from her reticule and quickly jotted down a rough drawing of it.

Kevin leaned forward and peered at her paper. “Were you taught how to draw?”

“Taught? No, I just try and get it close enough to remind meself of what I seen.”

“It appears you have a natural talent for it, then.”

She looked at her little drawing. It did capture the hat’s shape and angled brim fairly well.

They arrived at Mr. Sanders’s chambers in the City before the rain fell. She liked the solicitor. He reminded her of a kind uncle in his manner and appearance. When she first met him and he explained her inheritance, he had taken pains to do so slowly, perhaps knowing that in her shock it would be difficult for her to take it all in.

Now he greeted Mr. Radnor, then turned all his attention to her. “I have the lease for the house right here. The owner was amenable to most of the changes I requested.” He gave her a wink. “What he first gave me was less than favorable, on the assumption presumably that a woman would not have the experience to recognize its deficiencies.”

“That was why I asked you to advise me.” She had been an inexperienced woman when she signed the lease in Richmond and regretted not being more forceful in her discussions with the landlord.

“I congratulate you on your good sense. It is so much easier to establish these things at the outset, rather than try to fix it later.” He handed the large vellum document to her. “You will see that the rent has been lowered to match that of others on the street. Also that the terms are changed somewhat. A few draconian provisions have been removed. For example, there is nothing extra for the furnishings. They