THE COUNTESS of SCOLTON - Final Book in the Pelgrave Trilogy - C. A. Marriott

THE COUNTESS OF SCOLTON
Final Book in the Pelgrave Trilogy
(Miss Charlotte Elizabeth Greene/Lady Pelgrave/The Countess of Scolton)


Summer 1817

Thomas, having purchased the nearby Scolton Estate, has moved the family into the Hall, a much larger establishment at 15 bedrooms, with increased servants, all overseen by the redoubtable butler, Brookes.
The move was a wrench for Charlotte, now a loved and respected leading light of the County, championing good causes including being Patron of St. Peter’s Church School for boys and girls.
Now fresh challenges await her as the children are nearing adulthood with Charles at seventeen about to start his last year at Winchester, Elizabeth at just sixteen declaring herself in love with a boy Charlotte considers totally unsuitable and Margaret at fourteen wistfully wishing she was a boy so that she could go to sea.
For Thomas, having been posted from the West Africa Squadron to the United States where he distinguished himself during the Chesapeake Campaign has, as war with France is finally over and peace between America and Britain secured, returned to British waters, guarding the North Atlantic. However he now has to break the news to Charlotte that he is being promoted to Vice Admiral of the White and sent to the East Indies Station based at Bombay, the posting she has dreaded the most for it could mean a parting of seven years or more.
With a future that holds an outbreak of typhoid, a daughter-in-law who is socially ambitious and holds contempt for Charlotte because of her lowly origins, piracy and abduction on the high seas, Charlotte has her strength, resolve and ingenuity tested to the full.

........ Lizzie was sitting on the bed, arms at her side, fists clenched and a look of horror on her face. A few feet away from her, a middle aged man, with a paunch and the smell of alcohol on his breath stood undressing. The momentary shock of seeing Charlotte had him drop his trousers which fell around his ankles.
“’Ere, wot you think you be doing barging in ‘ere?” He growled.
Then the man, having recovered a little, gave an evil smirk. The young one was fair and the older dark, but the likeness was unmistakable.
“Looks like I got two for the price of one!”
Charlotte said nothing just drew the thin bladed sword from her walking cane, a gift from Thomas for her protection in London.
“Leave now or I will cut your balls off!” She spoke crudely and forcibly. “Personally I am not minded which option you chose.”
The man stunned, looked at the woman before him. The sword was steady in her hand. That and the cold, unflinching eyes convinced him that he should leave so without another word between them, he hurriedly pulled up his trousers and holding them up with one hand, picked up his leather belt from the floor and fled the room.
“Mama!” Elizabeth cried out in utter relief.
“Get your things Elizabeth, we are leaving.”
The coldness of her Mother had Elizabeth flinching as if she had been physically struck. She had never seen her Mother like this before.
“Now Elizabeth!”

Approx. A5 - paperback