The Mystery of the Missing Heiress by Patricia Rice

Author:Patricia Rice [Rice, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Book View Cafe

Clare laughed at Hunt’s suggestion that they lock Frederick in chains, but Elsa lit up like a lantern. Clare hadn’t thought him serious, but she had given little consideration to protecting an earl’s daughter. She must now.

They adjourned the matter until dinner, where they could all sit down and discuss the prisoner rationally, she hoped. Apparently, no one cared that a newly married man was left rotting all afternoon in a muddy crypt beneath a medieval hall.

After choosing a bedchamber near the service stairs, Elsa abandoned Clare and hurried down to the kitchen to oversee the dinner preparation. With time to spare, Hunt and Jack rode into the village to work on the smithy and meet with the new smith.

Clare retired to her small sitting room and writing. At times like this, she wondered what her brave sister might have done, but even Bea was unlikely to keep a prisoner.

She had no experience at running a manor this enormous, much less dealing with all the family accumulating. What would happen when she returned to London in the autumn? Would Elsa stay? It seemed unlikely when she had an estate of her own.

It might be a moot point if the bank won the suit over the mortgage. She was learning so much about the world, forged bank notes, fraudulent deeds. . . Perhaps she should be writing contemporary novels instead of medieval. If she found out, her aunt would dissolve into rampant hysterics. Fun to watch, if it did not jeopardize Oliver’s future, which it would.

At dinner time, she had to extract Elsa from the kitchen. “You are a rather necessary part of tonight’s dinner discussion, my lady. You will have to let your assistant take over from here.”

“I’m not dressed for dinner.” Elsa finished gutting a fish. “Anne doesn’t have the experience to plate everything appropriately and have it delivered in order.”

“The men would dump their food into a bowl and eat with their fingers if given a choice. Hot water being at a premium, none of us are dressing for dinner. Come along, the family board meeting awaits.” She took off Elsa’s cap and helped her remove the apron.

“You are more despotic than I am,” Elsa complained, hastily washing her hands. She rearranged the pins in her hair as she followed Clare upstairs. “Have you always been this way?”

Clare thought about it. “I’ve not had an estate to manage, but someone had to tell the servants what to do after my sister died and my mother fell ill. That’s the extent of my experience. How about you?”

As they climbed the stairs, Elsa explained, “After the death of my father and stepfather, my mother ran the household by simply telling the housekeeper what was needed. I stepped in after she left for London, but we have an enormous staff. Consulting a steward or housekeeper was merely a formality. I suppose I took over the kitchen on my own because it was a good hiding place. I’ve never tried to manage family or my equals.

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