Gilmore cleared his throat before answering. “Uh, no, I didn’t,” he said. “I—uh—represented Marcus Kincaid in that petition.”
“And now you represent Katherine?”
“Yes.”
“That’s interesting.”
“It may be even more interesting, once Kincaid learns that I am working for Mrs. Wellington.”
Matt laughed.
“What is it?”
“Even if I didn’t know Katherine from before, I would be tempted to take this job, just for the sheer fascination of it.”
The ornate and baronial home looked more like a castle than a house, and that was by design. Though smaller than the Coventry Palace, Coventry Manor had the same design as the Palace on the Wey River, back in England. It was complete in every detail, including the towers, lacking only the moat that surrounded the original building.
As spectacular as the house was though, it was the grounds that attracted the most attention. The lawn spread out over at least five acres, with an artfully designed maze of shrubbery, neatly trimmed, weed-free grass, and flowers, which grew in colorful profusion in several well-tended islands. At the moment almost a dozen groundskeepers were working on the lawn, a few pushing lawn mowers, others sculpturing shrubbery, while still others were digging out a new flower garden.
Kitty Wellington was in one of the flower gardens, cutting flowers in order to make a bouquet. She was being assisted by the head of her household staff, Frederica Bustamante.
“Senor Yensen must be a very important man,” Frederica said.
“Why do you say that?”
“You have Maria cook a big meal, you have Manuel find the best wine in the cellar, and now you take the most beautiful flowers for a bouquet. I think you would not do this if he would not be a very important man.”
“He is an important man,” Kitty said.
“Have you met him before?”
“Yes,” Kitty said.
“Has he been here before? I do not remember him.”
“No, he has never been here before. I met him, many years ago. I met him when I was a young girl.”
Frederica chuckled. “You were in love with him then, I think.”
“Don’t be silly, Frederica. I was only nine years old.”
“But you were in love with him, I think,” Frederica insisted.
Kitty laughed, easily. “Well, maybe I was,” she said. “I thought he was the most handsome boy I had ever known. He was brave too.”
“Brave?”
“Yes. I told you once that I lived in an orphanage, remember?”
“Si, Senora, I remember.”
“We were always hungry then. Pease porridge, that’s all they ever fed us. Pease porridge, except for one time. One day, Matt told us to follow his lead and eat none of our supper.
“No one asked why we should do such a thing, everyone knew and trusted Matt. So when we went through the line for supper, we accepted our bowls of pease porridge, then went back to our tables. Looking toward Matt, he let it be known by sign and signal that we were not to eat our porridge.
“There were two other orphans who were different from all the others. Their names were Connor and Simon and, because they worked for Captain Mumford, who was the head of the orphanage, they never had to go through the line. Instead, they were served at their seats.
“On that night, one of the kitchen workers brought two bowls of pease porridge out to them and set them on the table in front of Simon and Connor.”
As Kitty told the story, she relived the moment so that it was as real to her, as it had been on the day it actually happened.
“
