CHAPTER TENThe day had started badly.
When Elvina came down to breakfast in the oak-beamed sitting room of the inn, it was to find the landlord regaling Lord Wye with a long description of the groom’s sickness during the night.
“Maybe it were summat ’e ’ad eaten, my Lord,” the landlord said. “But it were not what ’e ’ad in this ’ouse. Comin’ as late as you did, ’e ate almost the same as your Lordship and you’ve ’ad a good night, I can tell it by the look of you.”
“I slept well,” Lord Wye replied. “But I am sorry to learn that my groom is indisposed. Is he too ill to travel?”
“That ’e be,” the innkeeper replied. “Lyin’ in the straw above the ’orses, claspin’ ’is stomach and groanin’ so you can ’ear ’im right across the yard.”
“I will speak to him when I have had my breakfast,” Lord Wye
