Laura Matthews Read Online Free

time,” he said stiffly, “and it will be necessary for me to spend the next few months visiting the estates in Gloucestershire and Somerset.”
    “Very well. We will terminate the engagement now, then, and I thank you for your kindness in offering for me, Lord Pontley.” She rose and offered him her hand, her frank eyes never leaving his face.
    “You misunderstand, Miss Forbes,” he protested, wincing as he rose rapidly to his feet. “I did not mean to put obstacles in the way of your suggestion, but my aunt will be looking for a companion preparatory to moving to the dower house and will be much occupied. She has convinced me of the necessity of seeing to the other estates, as they are in desperate need of some management. There is no need to make a hasty decision. I will call on you on my return for your answer.”
    Glenna sighed and nodded her head. “As you wish. A few months can make no difference to either of us at this point.”
     

Chapter 3
     
    With the recovery of Mr. Forbes’s health in mind, Glenna informed him only that her betrothed had sustained a great change in his circumstances. He was delighted with the news that his daughter would be marrying into the peerage and have a country estate on which to live, but he was not wholly oblivious to her dispassionate rehearsal of this information. The thought did occur to him that she was not entirely pleased with the new arrangement.
    “You must not mind that you will be living away from Hastings,” he comforted her. “I shall go on here very well.”
    She forced a laugh. “I place great reliance on Mrs. Booth, Papa.” The housekeeper was indeed loyal to her employer, and Glenna trusted that she would be called in any emergency. “Besides, we must wait a year to marry, so I shall not have to face such a parting for some time. Perhaps Lord Pontley will allow me to have you at Lockwood for a period each year. There was so much to discuss that I had no time to ask him."
    "A short visit now and then to see how you go on would indeed be welcome,” he admitted with a tender smile, “but I would not have you press him to keep me there for a protracted stay. I am fond of my house, and Hastings, and I have my work here. You will wish to have time alone with your husband.”
    Glenna murmured an affirmative reply and, feeling guilty for her deception, offered to play for him. As the days passed she grew more upset by Pontley’s lack of sympathy for his aunt’s plight, and she evolved a plan by which she might help soften the old woman’s sufferings. Lockwood was located not far from Haywards Heath, and Glenna had a cherished friend who lived with her parents at the vicarage in Burgess Hill. It would require a certain amount of deception in itself, but Glenna could excuse that on the basis of the good she would be doing, since her erstwhile fiancé obviously intended no assistance whatever to his bereaved aunt.
    * * * *
    Phoebe Thomas was delighted to receive her friend’s letter, but it puzzled her that Glenna should be asking the vicar for a letter of recommendation for her cousin, and especially that such a letter should be sent to the Dowager Lady Pontley. True, the vicar knew Glenna’s cousin Mary Stokes, but it was inconceivable to Phoebe that Mary, who was placid to the point of indolence, could desire a post as companion to the dowager. It was even more suspicious that any reply to this offer was to be sent to Glenna herself, since Phoebe had but the day before received a letter, perhaps rather one would call it a note, from Mary herself saying that she was bound to London for the season. Since Phoebe was not unfamiliar with Glenna’s youthful pranks, she had some misgivings, but she nevertheless caused the vicar to dispatch such a letter to the dowager and within a matter of days received a reply which she dutifully forwarded to Glenna.
    It seemed to Glenna that it could make no difference whatever to the dowager who she took for a companion,