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good feed.
Rex grinned. My mother s just the same. Fusses and frets over me as if I were only nine years old.
Does she ask you if you re still wearing your undershirt, even when it s eighty degrees outside?
She does indeed. She even sent me to my bed last winter for being out without my hat on. I love her
dearly, Mr. Prefontaine, but she would try the patience of a saint. And tell him off for his halo not being on
straight.
They pulled in through the gateway, where Richard Stewart greeted them. He sometimes watched
from one of the upper bedrooms then sneaked down to be first to meet guests, determined to steal a march
on his wife. Helena Stewart soon followed, dressed in as much finery as if she d been summoned to see
Queen Alexandra. Her son and his lover might have warranted her grey silk, but the other young men
deserved the sapphire blue which matched her eyes.
She beamed brightly at all and sundry then grabbed Orlando for a fierce embrace while Mr. Stewart
shook his son s hand heartily. If Matthew was worried that his hostess had it in mind to give him a cuddle
as well, he d underestimated her sense of propriety.
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Lessons in Power
Mr. Ainslie, I m so pleased that you were able to join us. And Mr. Prefontaine, it is my honour to
have you at my table. She let them kiss her hand, then turned to Jonty. Not looking as thin as usual, dear.
That Mrs. Ward must be doing a good job. She squeezed Stewart junior as if he were a cloth to be wrung
out, then gathered her guests together for tea and cakes to recompense them for the mighty tribulations of
the train journey from the capital.
You ve taken a bit of a shine to Mr. Prefontaine, Jonty whispered to his mother as they made their
way to the drawing room. Should Papa be worried?
Mrs. Stewart slapped her son s backside. Behave yourself, child. Your father and I both admire the
type of person who s determined to make his own way in the world, especially when it s against a
background of Old Money . Too easy for youngsters to take it all for granted. She didn t make reference
to the man s marked limp nor did she speculate as to how it had come about, which showed great strength
of character on her part. How are you? It wasn t just a pleasantry, mother to son. When she d heard of
Rhodes s confession Mrs. Stewart had cried, sobbing down the phone and getting herself into an awful
tizzy, cursing the housemaster and praising her two boys almost in the same breath.
Much better. How s Papa? Mr. Stewart had been noble and gallant, glad to have played a small part
in bringing a double murderer to justice.
He s starched his upper lip again. Mrs. Stewart winked she d already confessed to her beloved
sprog that his father had burst into tears the minute he d put the earpiece on the telephone stand after
hearing the news.
Daft old thing. I do love you both. And I m so immensely relieved.
Not relieved enough to have broken the bedroom moratorium, though. Jonty and Orlando were given
their usual set of rooms, in the guest wing the far side of the gatehouse, with the oddly accented footman,
Macgregor, to dance attendance on them, but very little in the way of hanky-panky was going to be gracing
the huge four-poster beds. Orlando had hoped Rhodes s confession was going to prove the turning point,
the solution of the case the catalyst for a triumphal recommencement of intimacy. It wasn t. Jonty showed
even less interest in doing his duty and wouldn t even discuss why, more than saying, There s pieces of
the jigsaw still missing and I m not even sure what picture I m trying to make any more.
Orlando hoped that the Old Manor would work its magic, as it had on his broken memory. He wasn t
even bothered that Matthew was located at the bottom of their staircase the man could camp outside their
doors, for all Orlando cared, so long as Jonty got over whatever was inhibiting him.
Matthew s suite was rather darker than some of the other rooms, although very atmospheric. He d
been offered a choice of this or something in the main wing, but he said he d plumped for the sensation of
being in a real castle, not the modern comfort of the apartments above the library.
Rex was given a ground floor suite directly off the gatehouse, just the other side of where the
portcullis might have been had the original owner of the castle not run out of money, honour, and his head
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Charlie Cochrane
before his plans could come to fruition. He had his own bathroom and sitting room, which wasn t afforded
to the others, who had their sleeping and living apartments combined. Mrs. Stewart insisted that it was
because of his status as a foreign national the stranger in our land and all that although everyone knew
he d been given this suite to avoid his having to limp up and down the unforgiving stone staircases.
The other Stewart children had commitments with their own families or in-laws over Easter week, so
Mrs. Stewart had just a small, exclusive male party to fuss over. She didn t miss the presence of her kind,
always having averred she was a man s woman, totally happy to retire alone after the coffee and await her
guests in splendid isolation. Her reaction to Orlando s appearance in his new suit proved a mixture of pride
and admiration, squeezing his cheeks then making him turn around a dozen times for everyone, an
everyone consisting at the time of her and Jonty, to admire it.
Over the next three days, the men spent hours playing croquet in the early spring sunshine, attending
the necessary services in church or concentrating at bridge after dinner, usually letting their host take one of
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