Page 28 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle (Ashmore Castle #2)

‘All pillars and friezes and gilding – as grand as you like. You could start in here – we could have a painted ceiling, cherubs and clouds and suchlike, and ladies in bits of gauze, you know the sort of thing. It’d go much better with the fireplace than all this dowdy panelling.’

Leathwaite was hesitating, seeing the prospect of a much larger and more lucrative job opening out before him, while simultaneously remembering his previous admiration of the house’s purity.

While he was silent, Decius stepped in. ‘They’re very sweeping ideas, sir,’ he said, ‘but wouldn’t they put this room at odds with the rest of the house?’

Mr Cowling waved away the rest of the house with a dismissive hand.

‘We can do the whole lot up. Top to toe. And the outside as well, while we’re at it.

Face the whole thing with stone. Greek columns, and statues in nitches, and urns all along the roof.

We could have one of them dome things, as well – what d’you call it?

A kew-pola. We’d have the sort of house the whole county’d be talking about. ’

‘I doubt whether the house could stand the weight of a cupola, sir,’ Leathwaite said, ‘not having been built with one in mind. It would take considerable structural modifications, and even then—’

‘Well, I tell you what, then,’ Cowling said, on wings of expansiveness now, ‘we should mebbe think about building a new house from scratch.’ He turned to Nina.

‘We could pull this down and build on the same plot. Or, better still, there’s lots of land nearby – no need to leave the town, my dear, since you’ve taken a fancy to it.

This house hasn’t got what you’d call a park, now has it?

We can build us a grand house in the French baroque style, in the middle of its own grounds – our very own palace. What d’you say?’

Nina was pale, feeling that she had been picked up by a whirlwind and dropped far away in a strange place. She couldn’t find any words. She looked past Mr Cowling and found Decius’s eyes, and he understood.

‘I beg your pardon, sir,’ he said gently, ‘but I think Mrs Cowling likes this house just as it is.’

Mr Cowling whirled on him, scowling. ‘What makes you think you know what she likes? She can speak for herself, can’t she? No need to be sticking your beak in.’ It was the first harsh thing he had ever said to his secretary.

Decius subsided into hurt silence, his face reddening.

Nina was ashamed of her own cowardice in letting him take the blow.

She braced herself, summoned up her spirit, and said, ‘I have spoken to Decius several times about how much I like this house, sir. And I do. I love its quietness and spaciousness and grace.’

‘But it’s old !’ he cried, frustrated. ‘Old and plain with nothing grand about it.’

‘But I like old things,’ Nina said. ‘And it’s grand to me.

I really do love it – Joseph.’ She said his name a little awkwardly, since she hardly ever used it, and never thought of him by it, but she guessed it would soften him, and it did.

She saw the skin round his eyes relax at the sound of it.

‘I love it just as it is. Even this funny fireplace.’

‘Funny, is it?’ Mr Cowling said, puzzled. He thought it the only thing in the house that was up to scratch.

She nodded. ‘Just as it is,’ she repeated, and added, ‘except that there’s no bathroom. I only wanted a bathroom to be added for the house to be perfect.’

He was silent a long moment, breathing heavily through his nose. Then he said in a resigned voice, ‘Well, my dear, if that’s really true, if that’s what you want, so be it. It’s my comical way to want my wife treated like a queen – and with a house to match – but I suppose I’m just old-fashioned.’

She slipped a hand through his arm and squeezed it. ‘You do treat me like a queen,’ she said quietly. ‘And it isn’t comical. And I honestly couldn’t want a more beautiful house than this.’

He squeezed back and said, ‘Well, it’ll have to do for now, I suppose.

’ And then he brightened, as the thought came to him.

‘We’ve not been wed long, and you’re still getting used to it.

I dare say your ideas will change when you see what it means to be a rich man’s wife.

No, no,’ he added, as she opened her mouth to protest, ‘never mind me, I’m just a daft old man that loves you.

Putting in these bathrooms,’ he threw suddenly at Leathwaite, ‘it’s a complicated job, I expect? Cost a bob or two?’

‘If you want to protect the integrity of the house, sir, yes. It must be done carefully and with sensitivity, and that means extra time, trouble and materials to conceal the fundamentals within the fabric of the house. I would like people in the future who come to admire your house to say, “It’s amazing – they look as though they’ve always been there.

”’ Leathwaite was beginning to grasp the essence of Mr Cowling, Decius noted.

Mr Cowling inspected him for a moment. ‘People will admire, will they?’ he asked, in the manner of one baiting a trap.

‘People already do admire this house, sir – it’s known throughout the county as a very fine old manor house – but they’d be greatly impressed with the way you have managed to import modern comforts while respecting its ancient and noble beauty.’

‘You talk a lot, Leathwaite,’ Mr Cowling said at last, ‘but if you like the house, and Decius does, and my lady wife does, I suppose it must have something, for they’re not fools.

Carry on. Nina, my dear,’ he turned away from the two men, drawing Nina with him for a private word, ‘have it how you want. And spend what you want. Don’t skimp on anything, d’you hear? ’

‘I do. And thank you, Joseph,’ Nina said warmly.

He went up to London again a few days later, and came back with an emerald and diamond necklace for her. She perceived that he urgently needed to spend money on her, though she didn’t yet understand why he felt that way.