The Grimswell Curse (40 page)

Digby was truly amazed. “You did?
Why?”

“Because I did not feel I could take her money.”

Digby stroked the end of his reddish-brown mustache. “Imagine that? But I still don’t understand...”

“I do not take money from friends, and she did reward me. She rewarded me...” His eyes came back into focus, and he smiled at Digby. “She rewarded me with a pipe.”

Digby gave Michelle and me a quick glance. “Uh, quite so.”

Digby was quiet after that, and while Michelle leaned against me, the compartment filled with the odor of a very expensive tobacco, one which would be forever linked in my mind with the bleak landscape of Dartmoor, a lurking sense of dread, and a beautiful young woman in a white gown standing in the shadowy darkness of Grimswell Hall.

T
he websites on the Regency period or the peerage set up by Laura Wallace, Allison Lane and C. Allyn Pierson were very helpful to me in resolving issues with peers, titles, proper forms of address, marriage, inheritance—and especially the entail! Buried in Jane Austen’s
Pride and Prejudice
are also many useful facts about the entail. Ms. Pierson was also kind enough to engage in a lengthy e-mail exchange on the entail. As usual, these women must get credit for what is right in the novel, while any errors must go to the author.