Page 15 of A Marriage is Arranged

“I hope it will not tire you too much coming with me to Shrewsbury House, my lady,” said Louise the following morning. “Yesterday was very fatiguing for you.”

“Nonsense!” replied the Dowager. “I’m looking forward to seeing the old place. Besides, I need to make sure they’ve been keeping it up to snuff. Remember, my dear, lazy employers make lazy servants. And Gareth just assumes everything will be done as it should be. Luckily, the housekeeper Mrs. Smith is a good woman and the butler Lisle has been with him forever.”

Thus, after a leisurely breakfast the Dowager Countess ordered the carriage and the two women sallied forth to Louise’s future home.

“I found Shrewsbury House altogether too large for me alone after my husband died,” said the Countess as they mounted the broad white stone steps to the front door. They were flanked by a pair of fine plane trees that shaded the front of the house. “And Gareth had no objection to moving in, so I was pleased to leave. But it has always been perfect for entertaining. I daresay it has the largest private ballroom in London. In fact, I am sending out invitations for the Ball here to present you to the ton a couple of weeks after you are married. Normally, your mama-in-law would do it, but of course….” Her voice broke off.

Louise’s heart lurched when she heard about the Ball, but seeing the Dowager’s distress, she pressed her hand and said, “I’m so sorry.”

Her ladyship lifted her chin and gave her a tremulous smile. “It’s a dreadful thing to lose a child. I pray you never have such a misfortune, my dear. But,” she said, lifting her chin, “it’s no good crying over it now. We must look to the future. I’m glad Gareth is marrying you, Louise. I think you will deal very well together and I want to see a great-grandson before I die.”

Then, as the butler opened the wide front door, she said in a quite different tone, “Good morning, Lisle. I am bringing Miss Grey to see over the house. Is the Earl in?”

“Good morning, my lady,” he answered with a bow, “No, his lordship is at the House this morning. He begs you to excuse him and says he will return for luncheon and to escort Miss Grey to the Museum this afternoon. Mrs. Smith is expecting you.”

Louise didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry her betrothed wasn’t there. She digested the information that he was at the House of Lords. She hadn’t realized he took his responsibilities there seriously.

Meanwhile, the housekeeper was making a deep curtsey to her former mistress and her future one, taking in the latter with a quick, shrewd glance.

“I’ve taken the holland covers off and opened the curtains in the drawing and dining rooms, my lady,” she said, not finding it necessary to reveal that the staff had all been hard at work for days to clean and polish every inch of the house. “They’ve been unused this age because his lordship never goes in there. He generally sits in the library and uses the breakfast room when he dines alone at home. Of course, we will be using the dining room for the wedding breakfast.”

This was the first Louise had heard of this event, too, but the Dowager merely nodded as if it were a foregone conclusion. They trooped into the large, elegant rooms, clearly designed for entertaining on a grand scale.

“I’m glad to see those curtains haven’t faded too much,” said the Dowager, indicating the long drapes in the tall window embrasures.

“Yes, my lady,” replied the housekeeper. “We keep them closed to protect the carpet and paintings, but we’re lucky the trees in front protect them from the afternoon sun.”

“My predecessor grew up on a huge estate in the country,” remarked the Dowager, “and wanted to have trees and gardens around her to remind her of her family home. Her instincts in that respect were excellent, though her taste in furnishings was, unfortunately, not as good. When I think of all that dark William and Mary stuff — it was so gloomy! I had to change everything.”

Louise looked at the graceful, slim-legged Hepplewhite furniture with its light-colored silk upholstery, and thought how little the beautiful room reflected the man who lived there. “This is lovely,” she said. “I should hate to change anything.”

“Thank you, my dear,” replied the Dowager, patting her hand, “but the new Countess must have full freedom to make her home how she wants it. My dear son’s wife would probably have done so had they ever lived here.”

When they were about to go upstairs, Louise said, “I should like to see the library, if I may.”

The housekeeper inclined her head and led them across the hall. As soon as the door was opened, a masculine scent of cigars, leather and old books met Louise’s nose. She looked around. The walls were lined with crowded bookshelves enclosed in glass cabinets. It was obvious they were not there merely for show, and the general effect was one of comfort, not display. Yes, she could see the Earl in here, his broad shoulders in the wide leather chairs next to the big fireplace, the newspaper in his lap and a glass of something on one of the sturdy dark wood tables next to him. Evidently, this room had not been subjected to his grandmother’s refurbishment; everything looked as if it had been there forever.

As if reading her mind, the Dowager Countess said, “As you can see, my husband refused to have anything changed in here, and Gareth prefers it to any other room.”

Louise smiled and nodded, then they all turned back to the staircase which rose gracefully from the center of the hall.

Once upstairs, Louise’s heart beat faster as the housekeeper opened a door to a room saying, “These will be your apartments, Miss Grey,” then turning to the Countess, added, “They remain how they were when you were in residence, your ladyship.”

They stepped into a lovely sitting room. Light flooded in from the high windows hung with flimsy curtains beneath silk drapes in her ladyship’s characteristic rose. A delicate settee and bergère chairs were grouped for conversation on top of a pretty Aubusson rug. Small tables were dotted around the room, bearing vases of flowers and a few decorative objects . Nothing could have been a more striking contrast to the dark furniture and the deep reds and blues of the Turkish rug in the library.

“It looks a bit bare in here,” said her ladyship. “I took my personal collection of Sèvres with me. But you will be able to fill it with items of your own taste.”

Louise thought of her caricatures and smiled inwardly. That was definitely not what her future grandmother-in-law intended.

“It’s lovely as it is,” she said. “I don’t think I could do anything to improve it.”

This remark pleased both her ladyship and the housekeeper, the first because it seemed to confirm the new Countess would be led by her in matter of taste, and the second because she considered a becoming docility appropriate in a new bride.

They passed into the bedchamber which was furnished in the same style as the sitting room. The big high bed had pale pink hangings, tied back with corded tassels. The pretty matching coverlet was edged with ivory lace and embroidered all over in openwork flowers. It was enchantingly feminine and as unlike Louise’s bedroom at home as could be imagined. There, she still slept in the narrow bed of her youth and the covers and hangings were of simple linen.

“His lordship’s rooms are next door,” said Mrs. Smith as they traversed the sitting room once more. She indicated a door that communicated between the two apartments. Louise would have loved to open the door, but it wasn’t proposed and she dared not ask.

The tour was evidently at an end, for the housekeeper announced, “The ballroom is on this floor, but it hasn’t been used since his lordship has been in residence. We haven’t taken off the covers yet, so unless you object, I won’t take you in there, Miss Grey. Besides, the Earl will be here soon for luncheon and you know he dislikes tardiness. He instructed it to be laid out in the breakfast room, so if you would come this way….”

They were led back downstairs and into a pleasant room with French windows. These stood half open and gave onto a pretty garden at the back of the house. A pathway led to a fountain that sparkled in the sun. Beyond it was an arbor now covered in early roses. Inside the room, one of the walls was decorated with a trompe l’oeil painting of the same view. It showed the French windows wide open, the path to the fountain and the floral arbor, and younger versions of the trees that now stood at full height. The effect was charming.

“I think it one of the prettiest private gardens in London,” said the Dowager. “As I said, my predecessor was responsible for it. She was so fond of it she had this wall painted after seeing a similar trompe l’oeil on the Continent.”

Louise was entranced. “It’s wonderful!” she said. “It’s like having two gardens!”

The other walls of the room were painted a pale green that blended nicely with the trompe l’oeil . On one of them there were portraits of a man and a woman. Louise saw immediately that the man must have been the Earl’s father. He had the same lowering brow and large hooked nose. The woman in the other portrait was petite and pretty, though otherwise unremarkable. Her face showed no particular character . So that was his mother, she thought. He seems to have nothing of her in him.

“My late son and his wife,” confirmed the Dowager Countess. “The portraits were done just before they left for China. Gareth asked me to leave them here when I moved. They are all he had left of his parents, poor boy.”

For the first time, Louise thought of her future husband as the boy he must have been, learning that his Mama and Papa had perished so far away. When he left them to go to school in England he couldn’t have known that he would never see them again. And he wanted to keep these images of them in the room he apparently used every day. Her heart was touched.