Page 58 of By the Sword
Kate smiled and inclined her head towards a straight-backed chair. ‘May I sit?’
He waved his hand at the chair. ‘Of course. Err.. umm…you have the advantage of me, Mistress…?’
‘Ashley… of Seven Ways.’
Price’s eyebrows rose at the name.
‘Ah, of course…Seven Ways.’ He sat down with a thump on another seat. ‘Your, er, husband is not with you?’
‘My husband is dead,’ Kate replied.
Price frowned. ‘Then who is this Thomas Ashley, who is said to have come into the Seven Ways estate?’
‘My son.’
Price blinked.
‘Your son? But surely you are not old enough…’
‘My son is nine years old. I am the guardian of his estate.’
‘You’re a woman.’
‘So I am.’ Kate gave him the benefit of a charming smile. ‘And as your new neighbour, Colonel, I thought it incumbent upon me to make your acquaintance. You know my bailiff, of course?’
She indicated Jacob, who lurked in the shadows of the room. Price cursorily acknowledged his presence.
She could almost see the coils of the man’s mind working as he tried to decipher Kate’s relationship with the Thorntons.
‘It’s my understanding that Sir Francis had only one surviving grandson,’ he said.
She affected a moue of disapproval. ‘You refer to the notorious delinquent, Jonathan Thornton? From what I hear tell of his exploits, he should be damned for all eternity.’ Kate said a silent apology to her lover. ‘My late husband, Captain David Ashley of Sir Thomas Fairfax’s Regiment, was also a grandson of Sir Francis and by his will, Sir Francis has left Seven Ways to my son, his last surviving male heir.’
Price blinked. ‘Your husband fought for Parliament?’ She hoped he could see all his careful plans for the acquisition ofSeven Ways unravelling in the light of this new, unwelcome, information.
Kate nodded. ‘Indeed, his father was a member of both Parliaments and,’ she added for good measure, ‘a personal friend of the Fairfaxes.’
Price rose to his feet. ‘Madam, you must be aware that I hold an order to sequester Seven Ways and the Thornton land.’
Kate pulled out Nathaniel Freeman’s letter. ‘And I have a letter under the seal of the Council of State, verifying Thomas Ashley’s claim to Seven Ways and countermanding the sequestration order.’
Price took the letter and turned it over in his hands as if it burned him. He opened it and scanned the contents. His lips tightened as he sank back on the chair.
‘That appears to be in order,’ he said.
‘I should hope it is,’ Kate replied.
Price grappled to regain some lost ground. ‘You’re aware, madam that you are harbouring a nest of papists?’
Kate pursed her lips. ‘A nest? You refer, I presume, to Lady Longley and her daughter? In the name of Christian charity, I can scarcely turn them out.’ She looked around the pleasant parlour that should, by rights, have been Nell’s. ‘As you are well aware, they have nowhere else to go as their own home is in your possession.’
She was rewarded by the darkening colour in the man’s already ruddy cheeks and Price leaned forward in his chair. His smile revealed a row of uneven yellow teeth.
Bluster having failed, he tried charm. ‘Mistress Ashley. You are obviously a woman of undoubted good sense; perhaps we could discuss the possibility of my taking Seven Ways off your hands. The estate requires a man’s hand to bring it to rights again.’
She smiled. ‘That is a very kind offer but you see I am merely trustee for my son, and Thomas, young as he is, has formed a great attachment to Seven Ways. I feel honour-bound to respect Sir Francis’s wishes in this matter.’
She stood up, forcing Price to scrabble to his feet.
