Page 62 of Scandal at Greystone Manor

‘Perhaps, but whether it is or not will not help the present situation,’ the lawyer said.

‘What will help?’

‘We have to sell the Manor and move to a smaller house where we can live more economically,’ Sir Edward put in, speaking in a choked voice. ‘We have no alternative.’

‘Then Bolsover has won,’ Jane said.

‘Not quite,’ Mr Halliday put in. ‘If it is the Manor he wants, then selling it and paying him off with the proceeds will deprive him of it and leave enough for you to live in more modest surroundings.’

‘Where?’ demanded Isabel. ‘We will never be able to hold up our heads in Hadlea ever again.’

‘Why not?’ their father demanded. ‘You are to be married to Mark Wyndham and will be leaving home. Teddy has already left and no doubt Sophie will soon follow you to the altar, so it is easily put about that your mother and I and Jane do not need so large a house.’

‘The Manor is Teddy’s birthright,’ Sophie said.

‘Teddy has forfeited that,’ her father snapped. ‘If he had not got into Bolsover’s clutches, the man would not have thought of buying up our debts, too.’

‘I think perhaps Teddy was simply a means to an end,’ Jane said quietly. ‘I believe his lordship is conducting some sort of vendetta. I have a mind to discover what it is.’

‘It will not help,’ he said, his dejection evident in every word. He was a defeated man and Jane’s heart went out to him.

‘Then we must make plans for the future,’ she said brightly. ‘Where do you think you would like to go? Bath is a good place for retirement.’

‘Too expensive,’ the lawyer put in.

‘We must go home to Scotland,’ their mother said suddenly. ‘There is plenty of room at Cartrose Hall.’

Cartrose Hall was the home of her parents, Viscount and Viscountess Cartrose. It was in a remote spot in the Highlands, which had glorious countryside, thousands of sheep, but few people. The family had made frequent visits there when the children were small, but they had not been so often as they grew up and developed other interests. Besides, the journey took several days and Lady Cavenhurst, who was a bad traveller, had come to dread it.

‘But that’s the other end of the earth,’ Isabel wailed

‘But you will not be coming with us, will you?’ her mother said. ‘You will stay here as Lady Wyndham.’

‘Then I will never see you again.’ It sounded as if she were coming round to that idea after all and Jane wondered what Mark would make of it.

‘Nonsense, Mark will bring you to visit us, I am sure.’

‘I shan’t be going either,’ Jane said quietly. In the last few minutes she had been considering how a move would impact on her. She was committed to the Hadlea Children’s Home project, she could not abandon it. ‘I shall move into Witherington House.’

‘On your own, Jane?’ Sir Edward queried. ‘Out of the question.’

‘I shan’t be on my own. I shall have a full complement of staff. I have to stay to help run it and keep raising funds.’

‘Other people can do that.’

‘But it is my project. It is important to me.’

Lady Cavenhurst began to weep and her husband abandoned his altercation with Jane to comfort her. ‘Do not cry, my dear. It will not be so bad. Our daughters were bound to marry and leave home at some time and you would have become used to being without them.’

‘But not Jane,’ she sobbed. ‘Not Jane.’

Made uncomfortable by her weeping, Theodore Halliday rose to leave. ‘I will put the sale in hand for you, Sir Edward. I do not think we need advertise it widely. I will tell a few select people and the whole thing can be managed discreetly.’

‘Yes, do that.’ Sir Edward hardly turned from his wife to bid him good day. No one thought about the man’s need for accommodation, until Jane mentioned it.

‘Oh, yes, you are welcome to stay,’ Sir Edward said. ‘But we shall be poor company.’

‘I thank you, but I have booked a room at the Fox and Hounds in order to make an early start in the morning.’

Jane rose and went with him to the front door. ‘I am sorry to have been the bearer of such ill tidings,’ he told her, as she handed him his hat from the table in the hall. ‘I am afraid your family is going to need your stalwart good sense in the next few weeks.’

‘I know.’ A footman who was soon to lose his job opened the door and the lawyer hurried down the steps and climbed into his carriage. She sighed and turned to go back to the rest of the family.

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