Page 31 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle (Ashmore Castle #2)

‘Thanks.’ She cut herself a piece of cheese, and looked around. ‘Where’s Captain?’

‘Gone,’ he said.

‘He died?’ she faltered.

‘No – leastways, he might be dead by now, but I wouldn’t know. He left, that’s all. When we got here, he seemed different. Restless. Warn’t interested in me. Kept listening as if he could hear someone calling. Then one day he flew off into the wood and didn’t come back.’

‘Oh dear, I’m sorry.’

He shook his head, brushing off the sympathy.

‘’Twas always his choice, to stay or go.

I reckon he heard his own kind out there in the wood and went to find ’em.

’ He met her eyes and smiled at her creased brow.

‘No need to look so downcast. ’Tis no sorrow to me.

You can’t keep wild things – only make ’em want to stay. ’

‘But why didn’t he want to?’ she protested, childlike. ‘I’d want to. I’d stay here for ever.’

‘You wouldn’t like it so much in the middle of winter, in the cold and wet. Then you’d be pining for your nice cosy castle.’

She laughed. ‘You’ve never been inside it, or you wouldn’t call it cosy! This is much cosier.’ She took a mouthful of bread and cheese and honey, and adored the simple, true flavours. No luncheon at home had ever tasted so good. ‘You weren’t at church on Sunday,’ she said.

‘I was too. I was up in the gallery. Saw you come in. Blue coat, brown hat with daisies.’

‘But not singing in the choir?’

‘Well, see, I’ve had to give that up. Can’t be sure of getting to choir practice Wednesdays.

That’s a long day for me – I have to take the wood to the lumber yard out past Priestwood, and by the time I’ve got back, had a wash and a bit o’ supper, it’s too late.

And Della’s tired too. Don’t want to take her out again and make her wait down there and come back up the hill after sunset, when she wants to be in her own stall.

Mr Arden was very nice about it. Said I’d be missed but he understood.

Said if things changed I could come back. ’

‘Will they?’

‘Change? Not f’ the foreseeable.’

‘You’ll miss the singing.’

‘I will. But I got all those big empty woods – I can sing out there. God’ll still hear me.’ He took a polite bite at his bread, chewed and swallowed, and said, ‘You got a new generation up at the Castle.’

‘Baby Louis? I suppose he is a new generation. I hadn’t thought of it that way.’

‘Lot of expectations sitting on that young lad’s shoulders.’ He shook his head. ‘Wouldn’t be him for worlds. Not for all his silk suits and golden spoons.’

Alice laughed. ‘He’s a baby! No golden spoons. And he’s dressed in wool and cotton.’

‘He won’t always be a baby.’

‘Perhaps he’ll like being earl,’ Alice said, and then frowned.

He read her mind. ‘Does your brother like it?’

She pondered. ‘I think – he accepts it. He always seems worried, and too busy, so I don’t suppose one can say he’s enjoying it.’

Axe nodded. ‘There it is. We all got our work to do in this life. I’m glad mine’s all to hand, and nothing to get worried over. I wake in the morning with a glad heart. Must be hard not to do that.’

She looked at him, pondering. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You’re lucky.’

‘I am,’ he said. Then, ‘Want to come with me this afternoon? Going up the wood with Della to bring out a tree trunk. Trimmed it yesterday, now the stock’s ready to haul. You can see how she works. Knows her job, that lass – it’s canny to see her pick her way, never puts a foot wrong.’

‘Oh, I’d love to!’ Alice said. ‘May I really? Does Dolly come too?’

‘Rides on Della’s back.’

‘I’d love to see that! And maybe we’ll spot Captain, too.’

‘Miracles do happen,’ he said, enjoying her innocent delight.

Nina had discovered a pleasant walk nearby along the riverbank to take with Trump.

In a cupboard in Wriothesby House she had found a duck-headed walking-stick some past visitor had left behind, and took it with her for the pleasure of swiping at stinging-nettles as she walked – and, more practically, in case she met an irate swan or a doubtful bull on the way.

On this lovely June day she had gone a good distance, and was thinking of turning back, when another dog came into view, running fast towards them.

When it saw Trump, it put on a burst of speed, and while Trump was still bristling, trying to assess the situation, it bowled him over, and the two disappeared in a whirling mass into the long grass beside the path.

Nina wasn’t sure if they were fighting or playing – it looked like playing, but the other dog was bigger than Trump, and she was dithering on the edge of the situation, trying to insert her stick in a useful manner, when someone else came running up and with strong hands and a few practiced movements hauled the two apart and stood, panting slightly, with a collar in each hand and the dogs, forelegs held clear of the ground, effectively neutralised.

‘How did you do that?’ Nina marvelled. ‘And without getting bitten? I wish you would teach me.’

The newcomer was a woman she guessed to be about thirty, sensibly dressed for walking in a navy serge skirt just above the ankle bone, a grey flannel blouse and a round felt hat with a brim and a jaunty red feather.

She had a wide-awake sort of face, grey eyes, fair curly hair, and a few freckles that suggested she liked to be out of doors a lot. Nina liked her immediately.

‘You just have to be quick,’ she said. ‘But they weren’t fighting – though of course it can turn nasty.

Luckily your dog is a Jack Russell, and the hunt keeps terriers too.

’ She noted Nina’s slightly questioning look and said, ‘Viking’s a hound puppy – I’m a puppy-walker for the Fernie. Do you hunt?’

‘I never have in England, but I’d like to. What’s a puppy-walker?’

‘Oh, people who take the hound puppies into their own houses and keep them until they’re ready to join the pack.

I do it most years. I’m afraid Viking’s rather more boisterous than most. He got away from me for a moment.

I hope you weren’t frightened. Cur-dog hunting’s a dreadful fault in a hound, that’s why they run the terriers with the pack, but I don’t think he’s that way inclined.

I don’t think he would have hurt your dog.

’ She let go of both collars and the dogs sat for a moment, one either side of her, in a docile way, before cautiously sniffing each other, then trotting off together peaceably.

‘Look, they’re friends already. I’m Bobby Wharfedale, by the way, from Welland Hall, and I’ve already introduced Viking. ’

‘I’m Nina – Cowling.’ She stumbled only slightly over the name. ‘From Wriothesby House. And my dog is Trump.’

‘Oh, after Parson Russell’s bitch? But it’s a good name for a dog as well. And of course you’ve just moved in, haven’t you? I was so pleased when I heard you were coming to live there. I go past Wriothesby often and always feel sorry that it’s been left empty for so long. It’s such a lovely house.’

‘Do you think so? I love it too.’

‘I’m so glad. I knew the Ampleforths, who used to live there, so I’ve often been inside it.’ She paused, surveying Nina with a satisfied look that was balm to her soul. ‘Are you going much further?’

‘I was just going to turn back,’ Nina said.

‘Shall we walk together, then? Our dogs seem to have come to a modus vivendi .’ They were coursing about together, noses down, in the rough grass. The path was only a beaten track along a mostly untamed riverbank.

‘I’d love to,’ Nina said, and added shyly, ‘The trouble with being new to a place is one doesn’t know anybody.’

‘That will soon change. In a small town you soon know everybody – and rather wish you didn’t! What did you mean when you said you hadn’t hunted in England?’

So Nina told her about India, and the horses there.

She was a wonderful listener. At the end, she said, ‘I must persuade you to join the Fernie. We’re always looking for new subscribers, and we don’t have nearly enough women hunting.

Hunting properly, I mean, not just turning up at meets, ambling to the first gate and then going home. ’

‘I’d love to. But I don’t have a horse.’

‘You have very nice stables at Wriothesby House – I’ve often been in them. It’s a shame to see them empty.’

‘I’m sure my husband would buy me a horse if I asked him,’ Nina said.

‘Oh, what fun! Oh, please, please let me help you find one! There’s nothing I like more than buying horses!

And until you get one, you must come up to the Hall and ride one of ours.

I’d love to have someone to ride with. I can show you the country, so that when you start hunting you won’t get lost.’

‘You’re very kind,’ Nina began.

‘Not at all. Selfish as the day is long,’ said her companion cheerfully. ‘I’m desperately short of a really good bosom friend. I’ve been married ten years, and I still miss my brothers and sisters. Isn’t it silly?’

‘Not at all. I never had any, but I still miss my mother and father – they were good friends as well as parents.’

‘No brother or sisters? Oh dear, poor you! You must have been so lonely. Don’t you think marriage is a very lonely thing, anyway?

Aubrey, my husband, is the dearest creature, but he’s always busy about his own concerns, and hasn’t time for my nonsense and chatter.

And he’s quite a lot older than me, so he was brought up in a different sort of world and half the time doesn’t understand what I’m talking about. ’

‘Mr Cowling – Joseph – is a lot older than me,’ Nina said, and as her new friend nodded understandingly, she had the odd idea that she had known that already, and had been giving Nina an opportunity to talk about it. ‘What did you hear about us?’ she asked, a little stiffly.

‘That he’s a powerful businessman and a friend of the King’s, and that his wife is a delicious young creature, very clever but rather shy.’

‘Is that what people are saying?’

‘That’s just the first ounce of gossip.’ She was laughing.

‘There’s pounds more of it! But don’t give it a thought.

No one has said a disobliging thing about either of you, I promise.

And I’ve been longing to meet you, and wondering how to go about it, since you haven’t left cards yet.

What tremendous luck our dogs brought us together like this. We can be friends, can’t we?’

‘I would like that very much,’ Nina said.

‘Then,’ She held out her hand, ‘please call me Bobby. Absolutely everybody does.’ They shook hands.

Bobby grinned. ‘My dear Nina – may I call you Nina? – you remind me of me when I was first married and didn’t know anything.

I was lucky and had a family to steer me right.

Will you let me – in the nicest possible way – guide you a little?

You don’t think me presumptuous, I hope? ’

‘I should be very glad of help,’ Nina said. ‘I have an aunt who has washed her hands of me, and my only female friend lives in London and isn’t married so I can’t ask her anything.’

‘Well, you can ask me anything you like,’ Bobby said, slipping a companionable arm through Nina’s.

‘And you and your Joseph must come and dine at the Hall so you can meet my lovely Aubrey, and we’ll have a proper dinner party and invite all the people you ought to meet.

Then you’ll feel more comfortable. And you must come up to the Hall and go riding with me. ’

‘I’d love to,’ Nina said, ‘but I haven’t a riding habit. I shall have to get one made.’

‘Garner’s, in the Square, have some very good ready-made things that can be altered to fit. Mention my name – I’ve had an account there for years, they know me. I don’t see any point in being terribly smart, just for day-to-day riding, when no one is watching one, do you?’

‘I hadn’t thought about it, but you’re right.’

‘Good. So that’s all settled. Now, tell me some more about India. Did your father play polo? I’ve always wanted to try it.’

‘I did too,’ Nina said. ‘The polo ponies were so lovely – gentle and clever and so beautiful.’

They walked on, talking. Nina felt already as if she had known Bobby for years.