The West Wing Chamber

By MIREILLE PAVANE

Something is not quite right about Merleton Court. Beneath the veneer of warm welcome from the society ladies and the flattering attentions of the charming young gentlemen, beneath the uneasy whispers of the servants and the gossiping tongues of the villagers, something dark lurks about the forbidding ancestral home of the Deverneys and prowls its lonely grounds and passageways.

What shameful secrets lie hidden in the Deverneys' past and the beautiful, mysterious chamber in the West Wing which still exerts such an irresistible allure?

Poor lovely, feted Lady Seraphine, the lost heiress of the Deverneys, found at last and returned home to Merleton Court. But perhaps it had always been too late to escape her fate...

• Language: English
• Publisher: MIREILLE PAVANE
• Release date: Nov 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386332213

MIREILLE PAVANE

Mireille Pavane cannot recall exactly when she began messing about with books and literature but since then (brainwashed at a young age by the French and Russian writers and E.M. Forster) it has remained an abiding love. Mireille continues to scribble away in secret when not otherwise distracted by a professional career or gardening duties in her alternate life. She also has an unhealthy curiosity and fondness for footnotes which she attempts to curtail from time to time. Mireille is a member of the international and local chapters of the Village Idiots’ Guild.

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THE WEST WING CHAMBER

MIREILLE PAVANE

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2018 Mireille Pavane

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author or publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Apart from the well-known actual people, events, and locales that figure in the narrative, all names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to current events or locales, or to living persons, is entirely coincidental.

ISBN (e-book): 9781386332213

Cover design © Mireille Pavane

Cover image: Pixabay

THE WEST WING CHAMBER

Something is not quite right about Merleton Court. Beneath the veneer of warm welcome from the society ladies and the flattering attentions of the charming young gentlemen, beneath the uneasy whispers of the servants and the gossiping tongues of the villagers, something dark lurks about the forbidding ancestral home of the Deverneys and prowls its lonely grounds and passageways.

What shameful secrets lie hidden in the Deverneys’ past and the beautiful, mysterious chamber in the West Wing which still exerts such an irresistible allure?

Poor lovely, feted Lady Seraphine, the lost heiress of the Deverneys, found at last and returned home to Merleton Court. But perhaps it had always been too late to escape her fate...

DEDICATION

To the teachers who introduced me to literature, history and Greek mythology—thank you.

EPIGRAPH

By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes.

—Macbeth (Act 4, Scene 1), William Shakespeare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

––––––––

Copyright Page

Synopsis

Dedication

Epigraph

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Author’s Note

Thank You for Reading

Also by Mireille Pavane

About the Author

CHAPTER ONE

I SAW THE AVENUE OF alders through the carriage window. Merleton Court, the driver told me. The park and grounds, I saw as the landscape rolled past the carriage window, were extensive and had about them a wintry verdure, spangled with the frail outlines of shivering, emaciated trees, and beyond this spectral boundary spread an endless expanse of ashen