Kasey Michaels - [Redgraves 02] by What a Lady Needs Page A

hello to Torr Gribbon.”
    Simon had belatedly taken out his handkerchief, and was wiping at his palms. “I beg your pardon?”
    “You should probably ask that of Mr. Gribbon. Considering you’re sitting on the man.”
    All right, so she’d managed to get him leaping to his feet, popping up like some inane jack-in-the-box. He looked down at the ground and saw the small tombstone he’d stubbed with the toe of his boot. Sure enough, the name Torr Gribbon was chiseled into it, along with two dates he couldn’t quite make out thanks to the long grass.
    Then he noticed the other graves. Six of them.
    “You did say we were going from one graveyard to another, didn’t you?”
    “Mr. Gribbon owned what we now call the West Run,” she explained as she walked over to a nearby boulder and boosted herself up onto it. She pointed to her left. “His house and stables supposedly were somewhere close to this spot, but the house burned one night, and the family all perished. My grandfather bought up the land immediately from some distant cousin who didn’t want it. Grandfather termed it a present to his wife for having presented him with a healthy son only a few days prior to the tragedy.”
    “He deeded it to her?”
    “Hardly. There’s nothing that isn’t entailed with the estate. It was a symbolic gesture only. But as the destroyed buildings were being razed, Trixie begged my grandfather not to disturb the graves. She’d been bosom chums with Alice Gribbon. In fact, it was Mrs. Gribbon who delivered Trixie of my father when the local doctor didn’t arrive in time. Those few days later, the woman was dead, and my grandmother couldn’t even attend the burial because she was very ill. In fact, she would never bear another child, the doctor warned her, and if she did conceive she’d never survive another childbed. Just a terribly sad story, all the way around.”
    “Indeed. A compounded tragedy.” Especially for an ambitious man who undoubtedly felt the need for more than one son. Simon was beginning to form another theory.
    Kate nodded her agreement to his agreement. “Trixie told me all about what happened one day when I announced I was going to ride in the West Run. She asked me to check on the stones to make certain they were still in good repair, as she no longer rode herself. I need to send Liam out here with the scythe again, don’t I? There are other, older graves, as well, hidden in the grass and leaves.”
    “The dowager countess concerns herself about the state of these graves, yet never visits the family mausoleum? Does that seem in the least strange to you, Kate?”
    “No. Why should it?” But yet again she averted her eyes. “I’d like to go back now. Dearborn will be fretting over the platters, worrying about the food all growing cold on the sideboard. He always expects me back by nine when I take an early ride. Not that he’ll say anything, but he does have this way of speaking with his eyes.” She hopped down from the boulder. “Shall we? I mean, unless you want to continue your ride. It’s not as if it’s a rule even guests be in the morning room by ten.”
    She rolled her eyes and rather huffed out an exasperated sigh. “I’m babbling, aren’t I? I didn’t think I was the sort who babbled.”
    Simon approached her, taking her hands in his before she could turn away. She was too intelligent not to wonder, not to see the facts as they may have been. She was also vulnerable at the moment, and might not be again. He had to say what he was thinking. “The doctor, Kate. Did he suffer a fatal tragedy soon after, as well?”
    “I—I never inquired.” She attempted to pull her hands free of his. “I never should have told you anything.”
    “Yet you’ve thought about it, haven’t you? Thought about it, supposed about it. Your grandfather must have been incredibly angry at the unexpected turn of events, don’t you think? But you didn’t want to upset your brothers with what you now