As Aleda stared up at him, she thought that he was looking superciliously at her down his aristocratic nose.
He obviously despised this ‘upstart’ who was presuming to take over the family house of the Blakes in order to glorify his own importance.
‘You are right, Grandpapa,’ she said in her heart. ‘He is an outsider.’
She felt that he understood and it gave her new courage and fortified her pride.
She then went out of the room saying to Mr. Winton as she did so,
“On the second floor are the secondary guest rooms. They are mostly empty – at least there is nothing left that we could sell – and the third floor is completely uninhabitable.”
Mr. Winton made no reply, but then he did not ask to see any more and they then went down the stairs to where the Earl was waiting for them in the ha
