Page 43 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle (Ashmore Castle #2)

Giles sought out Kitty in the Peacock Room, where she was embroidering a bib while Alice drew her.

‘Not outdoors?’ he queried, looking at Alice.

‘Too hot now,’ she said. ‘I rode earlier. I’m going to persuade Kitty to come out later, when it’s cooled down a bit.’

‘Did you want me for something?’ Kitty asked hopefully.

He waved the sheet of paper in his hand. ‘Letter from Mama,’ he said. ‘It seems she’s had an invitation from the Levens to spend Cowes Week with them. They have a yacht, the Tutamen , and they’re inviting a whole party. She’s going straight there from the South of France.’

‘How did she hear from the Levens?’ Kitty asked. ‘Did they know she was there?’

‘ They were there,’ Giles said. ‘They were in Cannes on their yacht, and met Mama and Rachel at a party. I think Lady Leven took rather a fancy to Rachel. Anyway, the invitation was issued, and Mama says that since France is intolerable in August – her own words – they have accepted, though she doubts living on a boat for five days will be comfortable – her words again. Anyway, the point is, do we go to Cowes too? Not to stay on a yacht, I hasten to add. But there are hotels, or one could take a house.’

Before Kitty could speak, Alice jumped in.

‘Oh, Giles, do we have to? We had to go once with Papa and it was dreadful ! Nothing to do, just walking up and down, and everyone talking about boats all through dinner. And you couldn’t see anything of the races – the boats were just little white triangles far out at sea.

Honestly, it was the most boring week of my life. ’

Giles laughed. ‘I can see you’re a yachting enthusiast!’

‘Well, I might be if I was on one and actually racing, but watching it is like – like . . .’

‘Like watching corn ripen,’ he supplied kindly.

‘Why on earth does Mama want to go? She doesn’t like boats.’

‘The King and Queen and the Kaiser will be there,’ Giles said.

‘It will be a glittering affair. And the Levens are close friends of the King, and know everyone. It’ll be a gem if you care about that sort of thing.

I must say, I don’t particularly want to go either, but Mama says I should think about your future, and start introducing you to the right people. ’

‘I don’t like the right people,’ Alice wailed.

‘I don’t suppose you know any of them,’ Giles said. ‘Kitty, what about you? Would you like to go?’

Actually, she would have. She had never been to the Isle of Wight, or seen a regatta, or been on a yacht, and she thought it would have been fun to see the grand people, but in the face of two determined Tallants, she couldn’t give her real opinion.

‘Oh – no – not really – not if you don’t want to. ’

Giles wasn’t listening closely enough to hear the qualification, or the wistful tone. ‘That’s settled then. I’m glad – I have so much to do. August is a busy month.’

‘That’s what you say every month,’ said Alice, voicing Kitty’s thought.

He smiled at her. ‘It’s true every month. But at least there’s the Canons Ashmore Fair to look forward to. The fifteenth of August. It can be rather fun – and there will be the horse and cattle sale on the Friday.’

‘Goodie! I love those,’ Alice said.

‘And I have my refurbishments to get on with,’ Kitty said. The bright side was that it meant another delay before her mother-in-law came back and saw what she’d been doing.

Nina was delighted that Lepida was at last paying her a visit.

Her parents had gone to the Isle of Wight, for Cowes week, because Mawes hoped to sketch the King and the Kaiser together, and then for a holiday in a cottage in Sandown.

‘I don’t care for regattas and Sandown is rather elderly, so I would sooner come to you,’ Lepida had written.

Nina and Mrs Deering went into a frenzy of preparing a guest room fit for ‘a young lady from London’, as Mrs Deering described the potential guest with some awe.

After seven weeks, the building work was still going on, but one bathroom was ready, except for finishing touches, though hot water still had to be carried up.

A whole new boiler would have to be installed, plus a very modern sort of pump, before hot water would be coming from a tap.

She was eager to show her friend the countryside, and since Lepida didn’t ride, Bobby Wharfedale offered the loan of a pony-trap, complete with pony, whenever Nina wanted it.

‘That’s so kind of you!’ Nina exclaimed.

‘Ah, but there’s a price,’ said Bobby. ‘I must meet this friend of yours. For one thing, you’ve spoken so much about her. And for another, I’ve loved Mawes Morris’s cartoons for years. Aubrey laughs like a drain over them. You must all come to dinner while she’s here.’

So, instead of in a cab, Nina was waiting at the station with a pony-trap when Lepida’s train came in. Lepida looked taller, and Nina quickly realised it was because she was thinner.

‘You really have been ill,’ she said, holding both her hands and looking into her face. ‘I didn’t realise it was so serious.’

‘Oh, that’s all over now,’ Lepida said. None of the Morrises cared for health talk. Then she smiled. ‘You don’t think anything trivial would have kept me from visiting you all this time?’

‘To be fair, the house wasn’t in a fit state to receive visitors,’ Nina said.

‘I’d have slept on the floor,’ Lepida said. ‘Or a tent in the garden.’ She looked around. ‘Where is the divine young man?’

‘Decius? He’s with Mr Cowling – they’re visiting the factories in Leicester. But they’ll be back tomorrow. Mr Cowling was worried it was rude not to be here to meet you, but Decius said you and I would want to be alone at first.’

‘Nina! Do you still call him Mr Cowling?’ Lepida laughed.

Nina looked away, embarrassed. ‘I can’t help it. It’s what comes naturally.’

‘Well, I’m glad I shall be seeing Adonis tomorrow, at any rate,’ Lepida said. ‘I hope you will ask him to stay to dinner. He isn’t betrothed, or married, or anything, yet?’

‘He’s married to his work,’ Nina said. ‘But if anyone has a chance with him, it’s you. He loves intellectual conversation.’

Trump was waiting impatiently in the trap, and gave Lepida a warm welcome, which reminded Nina of Bobby. She had told Lepida in her letters about how she had met Bobby, and now said, ‘By the way, I hope you aren’t too tired by the journey?’

‘Goodness, it’s no distance at all,’ Lepida said briskly. ‘How could I be tired?’

‘Oh good, because I’d arranged for us to meet Bobby for tea at the Copper Kettle. We can walk down this afternoon and you can see a bit of the town, which is very pretty.’

The meeting at the café went well: Bobby and Lepida took to each other, though a little cautiously at first. Nina sat between them, plying them with tea and slices of sand cake – a local speciality.

She praised each to the other, wanting them to be friends, unaware that the hint of reserve she sensed came from jealousy over her.

Lepida had known her longer, Bobby had spent more time with her recently; but Nina’s own warmth, and the good sense of the other two, soon overcame any pettiness.

When the second pot arrived, the subject of horses came up, and it was natural for Nina to tell Lepida her great secret – that she had been riding cross-saddle with Bobby. They had been going out several times a week, and Bobby’s brother Adam had joined them on three occasions.

‘It’s a complete revelation,’ she said excitedly. ‘The freedom! The sense of security! You feel as if your horse’s four legs are your own. And as if you couldn’t possibly fall off, even over the highest jump.’

Lepida frowned. ‘But what do you wear?’

‘Oh, the usual sort of habit,’ Nina said. ‘Though the skirt doesn’t really lie properly – it’s a little awkward.’

‘But there’s a lady here who hunts astride, a Mrs Anstruther,’ Bobby added, ‘and she has a riding skirt that’s divided down the middle, fore and aft, so the two sides fall naturally and cover your legs. I mean to get one made, if I’m to hunt across this winter.’

‘And are you?’ Lepida asked.

‘I think I might have the courage to do it, now,’ she said, with a glance at Nina. Then she laughed. ‘I don’t know why I need courage, but there it is. Society works against us poor women. Why should men determine how we ride?’

‘For the same reason that they deny us the vote,’ Lepida said. ‘Because they can.’

Bobby’s face lit. ‘Oh, are you a suffragist?’

‘How could one not be?’ Lepida said. ‘Though there’s so little one can do about it, except go to meetings. But I’m fortunate that my father and mother are for the franchise. And my father knows a lot of people.’

‘Your father knows absolutely everyone,’ Nina corrected.

Lepida gave her an indulgent smile. ‘But it will be a long business, I’m afraid, to change minds so very set in their groove. What does your husband think about it?’

‘Oh, Aubrey’s a dear! And I’ve been working away on him for years now – like water, you know, on a stone.

I don’t think he quite likes the idea of women having the vote, but he does at least concede that it’s just. He doesn’t pontificate about women’s brains being too small to grasp politics, and all the rest of the nonsense.

But, then, darling Aubrey never does pontificate.

Except for shooting and fishing, there isn’t much that rouses him from his usual lento .

And actually, when I come to think of it, fishing is such a somnolent business it actually makes him lentissimo , so it’s really only shooting that agitates him. And poachers who spoil his shooting.’

‘He doesn’t mind you riding cross-saddle?’ Lepida asked.

‘He didn’t like it at first, but when I pointed out to him how much safer it is, he came around.

And how much better for the horses – if you don’t watch them, the grooms will pull the girths so tight, to stop the side-saddle slipping over, that the horses end up with broken wind, as well as sore backs. ’

‘And what does Mr Cowling think about it?’ Lepida asked, turning to Nina.