Page 16 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

And finally Giles’s mother appeared, stepping down between the prince and William, in a mauve-grey wool coat, a grey hat with iridescent cock feathers, a mink cape and a huge mink muff.

She straightened, shook away the prince’s hand, and walked up to Giles, extending her neck, tortoise-like, for his dutiful kiss, and ignoring Kitty.

‘Welcome to Ashmore, Mother,’ Giles said. ‘How was your journey? You’re looking well.’

Actually, he thought, she was. She seemed to have put on a little flesh, and had some colour in her cheeks.

She gave him a cold look. ‘I suppose that is your idea of a joke, Stainton.’

Well, he thought resignedly, I didn’t expect her first words to me to be, ‘It’s wonderful to see you again, my son.’

Kitty actually preferred to be ignored, but if she was going to be told off, better to get it over with. ‘We got your letter,’ she said. ‘We’ve prepared everything just as you asked.’

Maud gave her a look even colder. ‘When I was mistress here, things were done as I ordered them to be. It was not necessary to mention it.’

Giles grew a little impatient. ‘Have you come home simply to complain about everything, Mother dear?’

She drew herself up another inch. ‘No. I have come home to die,’ she said.

Down in Piccadilly, maids’ heads were together. ‘And then she said, “I came home to die,”’ said Tilda, impressively.

Milly’s eyes were round. ‘Ooh! I never! Did she really?’

‘You could have knocked me down with a feather!’

‘She didn’t say that,’ said Doris. ‘She said, “I came home today .”’

Daisy was impatient. ‘Don’t be stupid. We know she came home today. We were there.’

‘I thought she said, “I came home tidy ,”’ said Addy.

‘Well, why would she say that?’ Tilda said, annoyed at being cheated of her story.

‘On account of his lordship had just asked her if she had a good journey,’ said Addy, slowly, thinking it out. ‘And she was lettin’ him know she didn’t get all blown about on the ship.’

‘You’re all idiots,’ Daisy said. ‘Tilda’s right, she said she came home to die. I heard it clear.’

‘But what can it mean?’ Milly said.

Mrs Webster and Afton appeared at that moment and Afton said sternly, ‘It’s not for you to gossip about Upstairs. Get about your work.’

They scuttled away, and Afton said quietly to Mrs Webster, ‘In fact, it’s all they do have to gossip about, poor things. But discipline must be maintained.’

‘Quite,’ said Mrs Webster. ‘You heard her say it, though, didn’t you, Mr Afton?’

‘You know her better than me. Is it the sort of thing she says – for effect, perhaps, or to gain sympathy?’

‘Never. I couldn’t have been more surprised.’ She sighed. ‘If it’s true, it means she’ll be here for a long stay, and great unpleasantness at the end of it.’ She contemplated it glumly.

The house boy Wilfrid ran up and divided a message impartially between them. ‘Luggage comin’ in! Mountains of it. And two servants – foreign ones!’

Miss Taylor had positioned herself in the Van Dyck room, having left her stick outside. She could manage for short periods without it, and it was obviously impossible to fetch and carry and help someone undress while holding one.

A strange young woman entered bearing a valise, beamed nervously at Taylor and said, in a heavy accent, ‘I am Elke, please.’

‘I am Miss Taylor, her highness’s personal attendant. Is that her bag for immediate use?’

‘Please?’

‘Put it down over there. I shall attend to it.’

‘Please?’

Taylor conveyed her meaning by a violent jab of the finger, and the girl, still smiling, complied. It was at that moment that the princess entered the room. Elke curtsied.

Miss Taylor curtsied only to royalty. ‘Welcome home, your highness,’ she said.

Maud raised an eyebrow. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I anticipated that your highness would require my services,’ Taylor said, through rigid lips. ‘I am your highness’s personal attendant. And that young person does not appear to understand English.’

Maud looked at her for a long moment. ‘Very well,’ she said at last.

Miss Taylor’s relief was so great her knees trembled, but she showed nothing in her face.

She stepped forward, trying desperately not to limp, as Maud turned her back for her coat to be removed.

The princess slipped off her mink and tossed it carelessly to Elke, who caught it deftly.

‘Elke can assist you,’ she said. She addressed a rapid sentence in German to the young woman, who replied, and left the room. ‘Hot water?’ she said.

‘Coming at once,’ said Miss Taylor.

‘My dressing-gown is in that valise.’

Miss Taylor undressed the princess as far as her chemise, and helped her into her dressing-gown. Then Maud said, ‘I shall rest on the bed. I’ll ring for you when I want you.’

Miss Taylor bowed her head in acknowledgement. As she reached the door, the princess said, ‘Oh – Taylor?’

She turned. ‘Your highness?’

‘I’m allowing you to keep your position only because I omitted to dismiss you when you so inconsiderately broke your leg and interrupted my plans. Don’t let me down again.’

‘What does she mean? She doesn’t look ill,’ Kitty said, having beckoned Giles into her bedroom, sending Hatto out so they could talk privately.

‘I have no idea,’ Giles said. ‘Mother never talks about health, her own or anyone else’s, so it’s impossible to ask her.’

‘But, Giles, we have to know if she needs any special arrangements.’

‘She’ll let you know soon enough if she wants something.’

Kitty shook her head. ‘I’m just so shocked. I don’t know what to think.’ She looked at him sharply. ‘Aren’t you dreadfully upset? She is your mother.’

‘I’m still trying to come to terms with the announcement,’ Giles said. ‘She’s no age.’

‘Do you think the prince knows?’

‘It’s hard to say. I don’t think he heard what she said – he was a long way behind her. And his English isn’t good.’

‘Surely she would have told him first?’

‘My mother is a rule to herself. Does he look like an adoring husband whose wife is dying? It’s so hard to tell. He has that fixed, uncomprehending smile all the time, like a dog when you talk to it.’

‘Oh, Giles!’ Kitty said reproachfully.

‘I’ll try and talk to her this evening and find out more. But it won’t be easy.’

Miss Taylor’s face didn’t show emotion. The lines in it were set, like the folds in a damask tablecloth that has been carefully put away in a chest for years.

But anyone who knew her well would have seen that her eyes were gleaming with satisfaction when she came in to servants’ dinner and said to Hatto, ‘You must go lower. I believe my lady outranks yours.’

‘ Your lady?’ Hatto queried.

‘A princess outranks a countess.’

Mrs Webster said, ‘What about that young person?’ She nodded towards Elke, who was hovering uncertainly by the wall. ‘I thought she was the princess’s maid.’

Hatto had got up, and maids were shifting down the table in a ripple like a breeze passing over a wheatfield.

Taylor took the vacated seat and said, with a hint of triumph, ‘I’ve never seen her before.

I expect she’s a chambermaid taken on to attend her ladyship on the voyage. I am the princess’s personal maid.’

Elke saw eyes on her, ‘Please?’ she said.

Rose shoved her firmly towards the last seat in the middle of the table. ‘She doesn’t understand a word of English,’ she said, going to her own chair.

Webster lowered her voice. ‘The prince’s man doesn’t either, but Mr Afton showed him to his place.’ The valet, tall and thin like his master, but younger, dark-haired and balding at the front, sat impassively in the place next to Afton.

‘How is her ladyship, Miss Taylor?’ Rose asked.

‘Her ladyship does not discuss her health.’

‘I couldn’t believe she said what she said, right out in front of everyone.’

‘Well, I think it’s terrible sad,’ Milly said, with a sentimental sigh. ‘And her only married a few months.’

‘It’s nice for her that she’ll be able to spend her last days here,’ Ellen said, ‘instead of some nasty foreign place where she doesn’t know anyone.’

‘Days, Miss Taylor?’ Mrs Webster asked, in a low voice. ‘Or months? Was any indication given?’

Miss Taylor didn’t bother to repeat her previous statement. She just gave Mrs Webster a withering look.

‘Either way,’ Rose said, ‘it looks like you’re not going to keep your job long. You celebrated too soon.’

‘Do you see me celebrating?’ Miss Taylor said, giving the withering look another outing.

‘“My mistress outranks yours,”’ Rose imitated her.

‘That’s enough, Rose,’ Mrs Webster rebuked. ‘Grace, Mr Afton?’

When amen was said, Mrs Webster started ladling soup, and Crooks picked up the bread basket and offered it to the German valet. ‘Bread, Mr Usingen?’

He looked uncomprehending for a moment, and then said, ‘Usingen . Ja .’

‘I believe that means yes ,’ Crooks enlightened the table. ‘In their language.’

‘I think we got that, Mr Crooks,’ Cyril said, ‘on account of he nodded his head.’

The valet took a piece of bread, sniffed it uncertainly, and then said, ‘ Danke .’

Crooks turned to translate this for everyone, and Mrs Webster said under her breath, ‘Oh, this is going to be fun,’ and then loudly, ‘I wonder if the prince is going to stay here the whole time. Is your German good enough to ask that, Mr Crooks?’

‘I fear not, Mrs Webster,’ Crooks said. ‘But no doubt we will be told of the arrangements when it is appropriate.’

Rose, passing soup plates down, said, ‘Lady Linda speaks German. She’ll get it out of one of them all right.’

‘And you’ll get it out of her,’ Miss Hatto said, but so quietly no-one heard her.

At dinner, Kitty said to her mother-in-law, ‘If there’s anything we can do to make you more comfortable, you must tell us.’

Maud raised an eyebrow at her. ‘Was my letter of instruction not clear?’

Kitty flinched at the rebuke, and looked down at her plate.

The prince said something in German.

The princess snapped, ‘ Auf Englisch! ’

Effortfully, he said to Kitty, ‘You have here a very pretty house, Lady Stainton. Do you make much stay in the country?’