Chapter 14A cheery fire crackled on the hearth, warming a room she had never entered before in a home she had never seen.
She shivered against the bite of autumn that slipped under the door into the garden. Summer has ended. The lambs and geese have gone to market. The estate is flush with funds and supplies to weather the winter. The tenant houses are repaired, expanded and warmly decorated. Now, we must turn our attention to a more pressing problem, Daisy thought, eyeing the three men who sat in leather armchairs perched at the four corners of a glorious red rug that beautifully complemented the warm wood of the floor. Her spot in the fourth chair felt strangely isolated, though her husband was only a short reach away.
“This is most irregular,” the Right Reverend Cary said, examining e
