The Irish Witch

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Pat and Marise Derwent A small appreciation of their many kindnesses to Joan, myself and the children

I

Only a Few Days from Home

On the last morning of the year 1812, in the chapel of the Royal Castle, Stockholm, Roger Brook married a girl he had first met nearly two years earlier. She had then been Lady Mary Ware.

When Roger had first become acquainted with his new wife she had been staying at the British Legation in Lis­bon as the guest of the Minister's niece, who had been one of her friends at school. Lady Mary was an orphan with no close relatives, and very little money; for her father had been far from rich, and the greater part of his income was entailed so had gone with the Earldom to a distant cousin. Although no great beauty, little Mary had a piquant charm, and Roger had found her both intelli­gent and amusing. But he had not had the faintest inten­tion of marrying her.

That was not because she lacked fortune and influence, as he had ample of both himself; and, when, having fallen desperately in love with him, she had plucked up the courage to ask him to make her his wife, he had told her gently that it would be disastrous for them to marry, because, for one thing, he was of an incurably roving dis­position and, for another, as she was then only eighteen and he was just over forty, he was much too old for her..

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