Curse of the Gypsy Read Online Free Page B

exclaimed, staring at her.
    “I will,” she said. “I won’t be crossed again, Tony. Never again . I can be perfectly comfortable at our hunting lodge near Canterbury while we look for Julius.”
    Hawk Park, the Darkefell hunting lodge, was just a few miles from Canterbury. “All right. We leave tomorrow, as soon as you can be ready.”
    “Very good.” She swept gracefully toward the door, completely recovered from her swoon.
    “Osei is coming with me. I have no better confidant than he, and he will act as my factotum again, as he did in Cornwall.”
    She paused in the wide doorway and glared back at him, but then capitulated gracefully, despite her unfortunate dislike of Osei. “I will be bringing Therese with me.”
    He nodded. Therese could be bribed to be closemouthed, for she understood money more than any other language. “I will be seeing Lady Anne.”
    “I know,” his mother said, her chin going up in haughty disdain.
     
    ***
     
    Mary was horrified when Anne met her at the edge of the arboretum woods and she heard what had happened and saw Anne’s ripped gown and bloody shoulder. Mary had waited there with Robbie, wondering why Anne had not immediately followed. They rushed back to the Hall together, where Mary banished her son to their room; he would do sums for the rest of the day. Anne then asked Epping, the Harecross Hall butler, to send for Mr. Destry, her father’s land steward, and have him attend them in her father’s library.
    Anne sat impatiently while Mary bandaged her shoulder.
    “It’s a fearful long slice, milady.”
    “But it’s not deep, Mary; don’t fuss. I’ve hurt myself worse playing battledore and shuttlecocks with Jamey. I need to see my father before Mr. Destry arrives.”
    “Aye, well, that man is slower than a miser on tithing day, so you’ve plenty of time. Stop squirming and let me do this proper.” She made a sound between her teeth. “Milady, who would shoot a gun near ye? It’s the Lord’s own miracle you weren’t hurt worse!”
    “It has to be a poacher,” Anne rejoined, but then shut her mouth. Why would a poacher be loitering near a gypsy camp using a gun? Poachers limited themselves to snares and would not even set those near a gypsy camp for fear of alerting others to their depredations.
    Once her maid had patched her shoulder and helped her dress, Anne strolled down the carpeted hall past the gallery to her father’s library door. She pushed it open. “Papa?” she said as she entered.
    He was at his desk, of course, bent over some old book, magnifying lens in hand, poring over the faded print. Irusan, her gigantic fluffy tabby, sat atop a large pile of books on the edge of the desk like a statue, unblinking, eyeing the earl from above.
    “Papa,” she repeated. Irusan slowly turned his gaze to her.
    Her father looked up, too. “Annie! Come join me. I’ve made the most fascinating discovery. The Earl of Harecross—your great-great-grandfather, you know, my dear, not I—was invited to accompany an expedition to Cathay—China, as we now call it—and declined, stating—”
    “Papa, I do hate to interrupt,” she said, crossing swiftly and silently to her father’s desk and perching on the chair beside it, “but there is a problem on the estate that requires our attention immediately.” Her shoulder throbbed, but Mary’s nursing would no doubt help it heal quickly.
    Irusan jumped down from the pile of books and crossed in front of the earl, stepping delicately over the manuscript and whipping his tail in the earl’s face. Anne’s father brushed the fluffy tail away good-naturedly and blinked. The huge cat approached Anne, greeted her with a friendly head butt, then sniffed her neck, moving down to her injured shoulder. He settled on his haunches, sniffing intently, nose wrinkling.
    “What did you say?” the earl asked. “A problem?”
    “Yes, a problem, Papa,” she repeated.
    Voices Anne had detected in the corridor got louder, as the