Deserted by Mary Lancaster EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available For Free Download
- Authors: Mary Lancaster
- Language: English
- Genre: Victorian Historical Romance
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- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
Charlotte jumped down from the coach and peered into the swirling mist.
Her brothers clambered down behind her.
“Don’t let the dog out yet,” she warned.
“He’s still lying across Nurse and growling from a safe distance,”
Richard reported.
“It’s as well poor Nurse is still asleep,” Charlotte commented.
“Is this really an inn?” Richard said doubtfully. “They’re not exactly
rushing to serve us, are they?”
“I ex… pect they can’t see us,” Charlotte replied, the slight hesitation in
her speech all that now remained from her painful childhood stammer. She
turned, calling to the coachman, “John, this is the Hart is it not?”
“Yes, it is,” the coachman said, lumbering down from his box. “Here,
Master George. You hold the horses while I go and scare up the innkeeper.”
John Coachman vanished into the mist, the tendrils closing over him
like some opaque sea.
“It’s like porridge,” Horatio said admiringly. He swiped at it with both
hands. “Who wants a game of hide-and-seek in the porridge?”
Charlotte reached out and seized his collar. “Not yet,” she said mildly.
“Look! The mist moved and I caught a glimpse of a… building! John must
know this place very well.”
“He probably drinks here on his day off,” Richard suggested, “where no
one knows him or can report him to Papa.”
“That is… probably slander,” Charlotte said in a distracted way. “He
told me he met his wife here.” She wanted to follow John, but was
unwilling to leave her over-lively brothers playing in the fog close to cliffs.
At least, she thought they were close to cliffs. The very silence of the place,
which seemed to be due to more than simply the muffling effect of the mist,
piqued her curiosity.
“Footsteps!” Horatio exclaimed as the echoing sound drifted toward
them. “Halt, who goes there?”
“I do,” John Coachman said dryly. “But I can’t find a trace of anyone
else. Looks like the whole house is empty.”
“Drat,” Charlotte responded with a scowl. It was not safe to travel
farther until the mist lifted. “Is it all locked up?”
“No, anyone can go in—though there’s no one about but us. Looks like
they’ve only popped out for a couple of hours. Just all at once, which is no
way to keep a thriving inn,” he finished with stern disapproval.
“Then I think we should go inside and wait for them to return,”
Charlotte said firmly. “Richard, wake Nurse and put Spring on the leash.
John, will you need help looking after the horses?”
“No, Miss, I know my way around. Just you follow the path and you’ll
soon be at the inn door. There’s a comfortable coffee room off to the left.
I’ll find you there when I’ve settled the horses.”
Richard, being sensible, put the leash on the terrier and hauled him off
Nurse’s lap before he woke her. Charlotte took the leash as Nurse woke
with a mighty snort. The older boys helped her out and they walked up the
barely visible path until a long, L-shaped building loomed out of the mist.
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