Page 39 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

‘But as an unmarried female she can’t travel about with him freely.’

‘Oh, she sees that, does she?’ Richard said, with grim irony. ‘The decencies must be observed, of course! Miss Sands can’t be in close company with Sir Thomas Burton because there would be talk!’

Molly looked at him helplessly. ‘I’ve used every argument I can think of. Richard, do you think you could do anything? Could you perhaps talk to him ?’

He recoiled. ‘I’ve no right. He would be outraged if I were to raise the subject.’

‘Then speak to Chloe!’

‘If you can’t persuade her, how can I?’

‘You know about society.’ Her mouth trembled. ‘You bought her a piano.’

‘Oh, darling!’ He took her hands. He couldn’t bear the look on her face, the hope as much as the despair. ‘I’ll do my best. I’ll talk to her like a Dutch uncle.’

Chloe was at home, in the flat behind the Royal Albert Hall owned by Sir Thomas, where she lived with the Scottish housekeeper, Mrs Mackie. She was at her practice when Richard arrived, but Mrs Mackie said she would announce him.

‘Sir Thomas is not here?’ he asked.

‘No, sir, he is not. He was here last evening,’ she added, with a significant nod that suggested she knew what the situation was. ‘Customarily my young lady does not like to be disturbed when she is playing at the piano, but I think she will make an exception for you.’

She went away; Richard heard the piano stop, and a moment later she reappeared in the doorway of the drawing-room to say, ‘Will you come away ben, sir? Miss Sands will see you.’

Chloe was just rising from the instrument. He had not been sure what her mood would be – defiant, perhaps, or elated? – but she gave him a calm, enquiring look. ‘Richard,’ she said. ‘What brings you here? Would you like some coffee? Mrs Mackie, bring coffee, will you?’

When the door had closed behind the housekeeper, she said, ‘Were you just passing or has something happened?’

‘You ask me that?’ he said. ‘I come from your mother, and before that my grandmother, both of whom are devastated.’

She gestured him into a seat and took the one opposite.

Her beauty, he thought, had only grown in the time he had known her – she had been a lovely girl, but had matured into a striking woman.

It was wasted, he felt, on a musical performer, who could have looked like a mangold wurzel for all it mattered.

If only David of Wales had been older, she was lovely enough to have been the future queen of England.

His words had not troubled her. ‘Is this about Sir Thomas asking me to marry him?’ she asked.

‘What else?’ he said. ‘I can’t believe you agreed.’

‘Why not?’ she said simply.

‘Do you really not see? My grandmother is convinced it was all your idea.’

‘Oh, no,’ she said. ‘I hadn’t thought of it.

But he has been growing more in love with me, and I could see the difference when he came back from the country after Christmas.

Before, I think it was just a craze, the way men can be mad for a woman they have only seen and hardly know.

Men have made themselves foolish over me before, because of my looks.

But I told you, didn’t I, that I knew how to handle it?

You were afraid he would push me into being his mistress. ’

‘I wish now that he had,’ he said. ‘It would be better than this.’

She looked hurt. ‘How can you say so? Marriage is honourable.’

‘Marriage after a divorce is not,’ Richard said. ‘There would be a dreadful scandal. To many people it would not even be a marriage.’

‘Oh, Mother said all those things,’ she said. ‘She doesn’t understand.’

She broke off as Mrs Mackie came in with the tray.

The housekeeper looked at Richard keenly and at Chloe frowningly as she placed the things, and went quietly out.

‘She doesn’t approve,’ Chloe said calmly.

‘She’s been with him for years. Old servants don’t like change.

’ She poured the coffee and handed Richard a cup.

‘And now Mother’s persuaded you to come and talk to me, hasn’t she?

But I promise you I know what I’m doing. ’

‘I honestly don’t think you do. You don’t understand that divorce can only be obtained after proof of adultery is presented—’

‘There is no adultery,’ Chloe said sharply. ‘How can you think it?’

‘I don’t think it. But this is how it would work: Sir Thomas would have to persuade Lady Burton to submit a petition against him for adultery and cruelty – and how he can do that I have no idea.

If she hasn’t wanted to divorce him so far, I don’t know why she would now.

But if she did, he would have to go to an hotel with a woman and be found in bed with her by one of the hotel staff, who would give evidence in court about it.

The woman and the member of staff, and probably the hotel manager as well, would be paid a fee for this – this chicanery.

What evidence would be presented for cruelty I don’t know and would rather not imagine. ’

‘Yes, I know. He explained it all to me.’

‘Then how can you bear it? It’s all so tawdry! How can you want to be part of it?’

‘I won’t be. He will arrange everything. And my name will never be mentioned.’

‘It will be all over the newspapers when he marries you afterwards and everyone knows you were the reason for the divorce. And I promise you, you will be blamed far more than he is. The woman in the case always is. Your name will always be tainted.’

She made an impatient gesture. ‘I will be Lady Burton. That will be my name.’

‘It that why you’re doing it? For the title? Or is it his fortune?’

She drew herself up and said coldly, ‘You do not have the right to say that to me. I listened to you because I know you came from my mother, but I think you had better go now.’

He leaned forward. ‘Chloe, I’m sorry, but I really don’t know why you want to do this. You don’t love him, you don’t want his title – what on earth is the point in courting scandal in this way?’

‘The music!’ she said, suddenly blazing.

‘No, you don’t understand! Music is everything!

As an unmarried female I would always be restricted, and he would not be able to give me what I need.

As his wife, those barriers disappear. You need not worry about the scandal – Sir Thomas Burton will always be received.

A very few strict hostesses might blank him for a time. But it will soon be forgotten.’

‘I don’t think you have any idea how bad it will be,’ he said, in one last despairing attempt to get through.

But she smiled at him. ‘Don’t you understand yet, Richard? I don’t care . If you want to do some good, go back and reassure my mother that everything will be all right. Look after her. I don’t need you to look after me.’

‘You told me not to come back and say I failed,’ Richard began.

Grandmère waved a dismissive hand. ‘You had to tell me. And I knew. The young are so sure of themselves. I hoped, but I knew. Tell me, what is she, this girl? Is it avarice? She does not love him.’

‘Not Sir Thomas the man. But Sir Thomas the musician, the impresario, she does,’ Richard said.

Grandmère stared angrily at the empty air. ‘He came to tell me about it. As if I would be delighted for him. He was happy and excited, like a boy going to the circus. He is in love with her.’ She spoke the last words in tones of disgust.

Richard sought for words to comfort her. ‘I think they are both so determined to advance her career at any cost that they will hardly notice they are the object of scandal.’

She looked at him. ‘Perhaps not. But I shall.’

Molly read his expression. ‘She wouldn’t listen?’

‘I warned you I had no sway with her.’

She bit her lip. ‘It’s not just the scandal, Richard. I can’t bear to think of her tied for life to an old man she does not love. She ought to have a proper marriage, love and companionship, children. I want that for her.’

‘Grandmère says kisses don’t last, music does,’ he said, to comfort her.

She spread out her hands before him. ‘In time they grow stiff and you can no longer play, and then you’re all alone with nothing but the sadness of what you have lost, and what you never had.’

‘You will not be alone as long as I live,’ Richard said, stepping close, and she allowed him to take her in his arms. He held her close and kissed her hair.

After a pause she spoke into his chest. ‘What will your brother think? His name may be connected with the scandal, since Sir Thomas met her through your family.’

‘My brother does not care about anything he has not had to dig up from an old tomb.’

She laughed unwillingly. ‘You say such foolish things. What would I do without you?’

‘I don’t mean you ever to find out,’ he said.

‘You’re looking well, Mr Moss,’ Rose said, as he conducted her into the kitchen at Weldon House.

It was empty and clean, the freshly rinsed dishcloths hanging up to dry and the back door open to let in the fresh air, proving the cook, Mrs Grape, was having some time off.

Cooks never allowed the kitchen door to stand open, because of flies.

‘I’m feeling well,’ said Moss. ‘It’s almost as if I never had that bit of trouble last year.

’ He had been the butler up at the Castle, until a heart attack laid him low.

The doctor had said that the job was too onerous for him, and he had been grateful to be taken on by Miss Eddowes as general manservant, though it was a step down. The alternative was the workhouse.

‘And you like it here?’

He hesitated a telling moment. ‘My mistress is a lady, and very kind. But . . .’ He didn’t seem to want to finish.

‘It’s not the Castle?’ she suggested.

He sighed. ‘I never thought I would ever leave there. I’d reached, if you like, the pentacle of my career. How are things?’

‘Oh, much the same. Mrs Webster runs a tight ship. Mr Afton’s p’r’aps a bit less formal than you were.’

‘Informality in a butler is not what I’d ever approve,’ Moss said. ‘A certain standard has to be maintained.’

‘Well, we get along all right,’ she said.