Page 74 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle (Ashmore Castle #2)

‘Mrs Cowling, delighted to meet you. Wriothesby House? Isn’t that the beautiful Queen Anne house just on the edge of the town? I so admired it when I went past. Please, sit down, and may I offer you some refreshments?’ She nodded to the butler, who needed no more instruction, but shuffled away.

This sort of first meeting was usually attended by rather desultory, awkward conversation; but Bobby didn’t seem to know what it was to be shy, and she talked so naturally about local affairs, the weather and other easy topics that Lady Clementine, who seemed at first rather reserved, quickly relaxed, and the visit went on to double the conventional fifteen minutes.

She returned the courtesy to Nina the following day, where the friendship was further cemented by Trump, who broke any remaining ice by trying to get onto Lady Clementine’s lap, and not being rebuffed.

‘He’s a fine fellow,’ she said. ‘I always had dogs when I was a child in India.’

‘You lived in India?’ Nina asked.

‘Until I was eleven. I was born out there. My father was on the governor general’s staff.’

In no time, they were telling each other their life histories.

Lady Clementine’s father was the Earl Leacock, with a lifetime in the diplomatic service.

Though they had not been in India at the same time, their lives and experiences had been so similar that soon they were chatting like old friends, exchanging fond memories and recounting anecdotes.

Fifteen minutes turned into an hour this time, and by the end of it, it was ‘Please won’t you call me Clemmie?

’ and ‘May I call you Nina? I feel as if I’ve always known you. ’

The difference in their ages did not seem obtrusive. Clemmie was in some ways young for her age, while Nina, because of her education, was older. Clemmie had been educated along old-fashioned lines, later improving it by reading, but Nina’s education had been deeper and wider.

There was also an innocence about Clemmie, perhaps because she had never been married.

‘I was so tall, you see – taller than most of the men – and it made me shy and awkward. My mother had been a great beauty, and I think I was a disappointment to her.’ Eventually, she fell in love with a young subaltern.

‘I liked him at first simply because he was taller than me. But then I came to appreciate his other qualities. Jeremy wasn’t high-born, but he was from a good family, and I think my parents were despairing of me by then, because we were allowed to become engaged. ’

He had been killed on the North West Frontier before they could be married.

‘After that, Mother kept pushing other potential matches at me, but I never wanted anyone except Jeremy.’

When her father had died five years ago, she had thought she would look after her mother for the rest of her life.

But her mother had had other ideas. ‘She was much younger than Papa, you see, and still beautiful. She quickly remarried, and they made it plain they didn’t want me with them.

Papa had left me financially independent, so I decided to live on my own. ’

‘Didn’t that cause a scandal?’ Nina asked.

‘Oh, yes. Various aunts and godparents said it was out of the question, but eventually they fished up a widowed cousin to live with me and make it all respectable, and insisted I lived near my mother, however little she liked the idea. But when Maria died, last year, and they tried to make me take on another chaperone, I put my foot down. I have our family’s butler, who is tremendously loyal and watches over me, and my maid, who used to be my nurse and is very fierce.

So I looked for another house, somewhere nobody knew me – and here I am. ’

On the day after that, Bobby invited both of them to tea at Welland Hall.

Bobby’s children were in attendance, and seemed as instantly attracted to Clemmie as Trump had been, and like him wanted to climb all over her.

‘I love children,’ Clemmie said and, unlike many people who claim to love them, did not only do so at a distance.

She ended up crawling on the floor with them playing bears, and since her clothes were sensible and her hair securely pinned, she rose only slightly dishevelled when Adam arrived to join them for tea, and the children were spirited away to the nursery.

Clemmie seemed a little reserved with Adam just at first, but he had Bobby’s lack of self-consciousness, and soon drew her out. The four of them made a good tea, and talked great volumes.

Nina finally managed to ask the question that had been on her mind for two days. ‘Why did you choose Market Harborough when you came to move away from home?’

‘As I mentioned, I wanted to go where nobody knew me. I looked at some guide books, and visited the towns it said were attractive.’

‘Such as?’

‘Oh, Stamford, for instance, and Norwich. I did think hard about Norwich, because of Caley’s chocolate factory, but in the end I decided it was too big. And then I came here, and found not only a delightful town, but one with a factory right in the centre.’

‘What,’ Adam asked for all of them, ‘was the significance of the factory?’

She turned her pale, earnest eyes on him. ‘I am interested in the conditions of workers in factories – particularly women workers.’

‘Are you, indeed? Did you know Nina’s husband owns that factory?’

‘I didn’t at first, but I did learn it yesterday.’ She smiled at Nina. ‘I’m sure your husband is an enlightened employer.’

‘I couldn’t say,’ Nina said. ‘He only recently bought the factory, so I don’t know whether he’s concerned himself with the workers.’

‘I’m interested in women’s prisons, too, which need a great deal of reform,’ Clemmie said. ‘And the thing that underpins it all – the women’s franchise.’

‘Votes for women?’ Adam said, and laughed. ‘You remind me of my sister – she always picks the hardest fight.’

‘Oh – what’s your fight?’ Clemmie asked with interest.

‘Cross-saddle riding for women,’ Bobby said. ‘So far there are only two and a half of us in the area, but I shan’t give up.’

‘Two and a half ?’

‘I’m the half,’ Nina admitted. ‘Bobby had me try it and I like it so much better, but my husband doesn’t approve.’

‘Poor Nina fell victim to one of the local tabbies,’ said Bobby, ‘who gathered a yowling of other tabbies and frightened poor Mr Cowling off. But we don’t despair, do we, Nina?

He loves her, you see, Clemmie, and once he thoroughly grasps how much safer riding across is for women, and how much better for their health, I expect he will have a change of heart. Do you ride?’

‘I have ridden, of course,’ said Clemmie, ‘and the country round here looks so fine, I did think once I was settled in that I should take it up again. But I’ve always ridden side-saddle – though I know quite a lot of suffragists regard it as part of the struggle for women’s rights.’

‘Then let me persuade you to join us,’ Bobby said. ‘The whole town is tremendously interested in you at the moment. If you were seen to be riding astride, it would be a great fillip to our movement.’

‘Dearest, you can’t call you and Mrs Anstruther a “movement”,’ Adam laughed.

‘Every journey begins with a single step,’ Bobby said solemnly, and then she laughed too. ‘Even if we’re not a movement, we can recruit to our cause, can’t we?’

‘I shall certainly try to recruit you to mine,’ said Clemmie.

‘I am having a visitor next week, a Mrs Albertine Crane, who was an active member of the Women’s Franchise League – sadly now disbanded.

If I can get an audience together, she has agreed to give a speech.

She wants there to be a new organisation, like the League, but bigger and more ambitious.

She and other League members were pinning their hopes on the Independent Labour Party, but they don’t really speak for women – and, in fact, some of them are quite hostile to the idea of the franchise.

Now,’ she looked around them hopefully, ‘do say you’ll come and listen to Albertine.

She is a most inspiring speaker – you won’t be bored. ’

‘Of course we’ll come,’ Bobby said, in her warm, impulsive way.

‘You too, Adam! And we’ll bring lots of friends and applaud mightily at the end.

And then, if you like, I’ll make an impassioned speech about the dangers of side-saddle riding, and you’ll endorse me, and tell everyone you’ll be riding across with me in the near future. ’

Clemmie smiled, and said, ‘You’re so full of energy, I wish we’d had you in the League. With a hundred like you, we could move mountains.’

‘I’ve just had a wonderful idea!’ Bobby exclaimed. ‘We should have a horseback rally – all women, all riding across, and carrying banners demanding votes for women! Two birds with one stone!’

‘Can I come, in disguise?’ Adam asked. ‘In a dress and a wig and a veil over my face.’

‘You shan’t even come to the talk unless you take it seriously,’ Bobby said sternly.

The larger Tabby grew, the more nervous she became. ‘You’ve got to hurry up,’ she told William, when they met in the barn behind the Dog and Gun. ‘If you can’t get a job, you’ll have to marry me anyway. I’m not having this baby unwed, and we’ve not got long.’

‘How long?’ William asked. ‘When’s it coming?’

‘Never mind. We’ve no time to waste, that’s all,’ said Tabby irritably.

‘So – but how long does it take to grow a baby, then?’ William asked.

‘Why you asking that?’ Tabby asked, her eyes narrowing.

He looked embarrassed. ‘My ma would never talk about stuff like that. If ever I asked anything about baby stuff, she’d fetch me such a clout, it made me ears ring. D’you know how long it takes, Tab?’

She hesitated a moment, looking at him thoughtfully. ‘Well, I’ve never had one before,’ she said at last, ‘but according to what my ma says, it’s about six months. Or it might be five.’

‘Same as sheep, then?’ William said seriously. ‘That’s five months.’

‘Yes, that’s right,’ Tabby said, getting into her stride. ‘But my ma says some women don’t take so long to make a baby as others. In my family, women gen’ly do it quicker than average. So this baby might be coming Feb’ry time, or it might even be Jan’ry.’

‘You’re right then,’ William said, securing her hand, which was warm and a little damp. ‘We got to get spliced soon as we can. You nervous, Tabby?’

‘Course I am. Wouldn’t you be?’

‘Don’t be ascairt. I’ll look after you. Didn’t I say I would? I love you, Tab.’

‘Gerroff, you soft ha’porth,’ she said gruffly. But she let him kiss her even so.