Page 49 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

So that the visit to Town should not be entirely wasted, Giles went out early on Saturday morning and was able to have an interview with Vogel, his man of business, about the state of his finances.

They were in better health even than he had hoped, and Vogel expressed himself cautiously pleased.

Giles raised the matter of Kitty’s garden plan, and when he mentioned the cost, Vogel shook his head.

‘Those sorts of schemes were all very well a hundred years ago, or a hundred and fifty. The landed peers of those times were blessed with vast amounts of capital, and labour was cheap. But the world is a different place now. I venture to suggest that the great gardens like Stowe and Blenheim and Highclere could not be replicated today without the sort of fortune that only American railway barons amass.’

‘That’s what I thought,’ Giles said.

Vogel cocked his head, and the light glinted off his gold-rimmed spectacles, which he wore at the end of his nose.

‘Lady Stainton’s ambitions for Ashmore Castle are laudable, and were they carried out, they would create something magnificent that would stand for ever, like Chatsworth, perhaps, on a smaller scale. But . . .’

‘I am not a duke,’ Giles finished for him.

‘The great gardens at Chatsworth have been developed over hundreds of years. And the present duke, I believe, employs forty or fifty gardeners. I am sorry to say the Ashmore estate is not, if I may put it so, in that class.’

Giles smiled. ‘I wish her ladyship had heard all that from you. It might have softened the blow.’

Back at Aunt Caroline’s house he became aware that he was following another visitor up the stairs, and arrived in the drawing-room to see Kitty, Aunt Caroline and Grandmère staring at Uncle Sebastian.

‘You’ve been away a long time,’ Giles said, when they were all settled. ‘I can’t remember exactly when it was that you left. Have you been in Henley all that time?’

‘Most of it,’ Sebastian said.

‘You’re looking very well,’ Aunt Caroline interrupted. ‘And your suit . . .’ She circled a hand to indicate the tout ensemble . ‘Is it new? Not your usual style, but very becoming.’

‘Oh, I thought a change was overdue,’ Sebastian said.

Grandmère gave him a suspicious look. ‘A gentleman settles his mode on reaching maturity. There is no purpose in “a change” . . .’ her tone mocked the expression. ‘. . . unless he has a change of audience.’

‘Audience?’ Aunt Caroline said. ‘What can you mean? He is not an actor.’

‘All men are actors,’ Grandmère said. ‘Some are charlatans and mountebanks.’

‘I say, steady on,’ Sebastian objected.

‘But I think what we have here is an illusionist.’

Sebastian remained composed. ‘No illusion, I promise you. The change goes all the way through.’

‘What is her name?’ Grandmère demanded.

‘Which “her” are we referring to?’ Aunt Caroline asked, not keeping up at all. ‘Oh dear, I wish everyone would speak plainly.’

‘There is a woman in the case,’ Grandmère said, her eyes not shifting a fraction from Sebastian’s face. ‘Note the new necktie. The hair, cut recently and to a new style.’

‘I thought there was something different, apart from the suit,’ Aunt Caroline exclaimed, as though the riddle was now untangled.

‘And an odour of Muelhens entered the room with him,’ Grandmère concluded. ‘ Il ne lui manque qu’un gardénia à la boutonnière! ’

‘But how exciting,’ Aunt Caroline exclaimed, catching Grandmère’s meaning at last. ‘Is there really someone, Sebastian? Is that what you’ve come to tell us? Oh, who is she? When may we meet her?’

‘Yes, there is someone,’ Sebastian said, massively patient before the inquisition. ‘And you may meet her as soon as you wish.’

‘But how sly you have been!’ Aunt Caroline said.

‘We never knew a thing about it until now. She must be very special to have won your heart, a bachelor all these years – and an eligible bachelor into the bargain. I’ve known several very nice females who would have been glad to have you. What is her name, the dear creature?’

‘Dory,’ said Sebastian.

Giles frowned. ‘That’s an odd name. Is she a foreigner?’

‘It’s short for Dorcas.’

‘That is not a lady’s name,’ Grandmère decreed.

Kitty looked up. ‘We had a maid called Dory. The sewing maid. She left us quite suddenly.’ She stopped abruptly, with a startled look, and could not go on.

‘Obviously it’s not the same person,’ Giles told her impatiently, then saw Sebastian’s expression. ‘You can’t have come to tell us that you are romancing a housemaid?’

‘No, I’ve come to tell you I am to be married to a woman whom I love very much.’

‘Married?’ cried Aunt Caroline. ‘But surely not to— She’s surely not a—’

‘ Mon dieu, quelle farce ,’ Grandmère muttered.

‘Oh, Uncle, how lovely!’ Kitty said bravely, remembering how kind he had always been, and how she had not been deemed worthy of Giles by her mother-in-law.

Giles said slowly, ‘Let me be clear. You want to marry one of my servants? Why on earth would you do that?’ His eyebrows went up. ‘Were you interfering with her? In my house?’

Sebastian rose to his feet. ‘I am very fond of you, Giles, and I believe you have had a hard row to hoe in many ways, but if you ever speak in that way again, I shall strike you.’

Aunt Caroline said anxiously, ‘No, no, we don’t mean to be unkind, Sebastian dear, but are you really going to marry her? When? How?’

‘On Monday at eleven o’clock, at St Luke’s Church in Chelsea. She’s been staying in a hotel in Sydney Street for the three weeks while the banns were read. I’ve been at my club,’ he added, with a hard look at Giles.

‘But – but why all the secrecy?’ Aunt Caroline asked.

He spread his hands. ‘Because I anticipated exactly the sort of reception you’ve just given me.’

‘Well, what do you expect?’ Giles said roughly.

‘I hoped that you might be happy for me. She is the daughter of a respectable tradesperson, and only undeserved ill fortune forced her to go into service. She makes me very happy, and I hope to use my own position to make her happy in return. And I will bring her to visit you if you can be trusted to treat her as a lady should be treated.’

Kitty said, ‘I am very happy for you, Uncle, and I would really like to meet her. Well, I mean, I’ve met her, of course.

At Ashmore. Obviously. She seemed . . . seems .

. . She does wonderful work! Invisible stitches.

And she was very kind to me when I tripped on that hole in the carpet—’ She stopped, confused, afraid she had not helped matters.

‘Which she subsequently mended, if I’m not mistaken,’ Giles concluded. ‘Really, Uncle, can you honestly propose bringing her as your wife to Ashmore, where she was a servant?’

‘That’s up to you,’ Sebastian said. ‘I have no need of you, or Ashmore. I have my own house, my own fortune. You need never see either of us again. I only wanted to give you the opportunity to behave graciously. Any one of you who wishes may come to the wedding. We will go away on honeymoon directly afterwards. When we come back, you may acknowledge us, or not, as you please.’ He turned to leave, then turned back.

‘Has none of you ever been in love? When you love someone, it doesn’t matter who they are.

You ought to know that. Shame on you, all of you. I’ll see myself out.’

He left a silence behind. Kitty was tearful, Aunt Caroline uncomfortable, Giles grimly thoughtful.

Grandmère said, ‘I suppose it cannot signify a great deal who Sebastian marries. He is not in society.’

Kitty looked hopeful. ‘So you will receive her? Be nice to her?’

She wrinkled her nose. ‘Nice? Oh, that word! Perhaps one day it might be possible. Giles is right, you cannot walk out of the back door as a servant and come straight in at the front. There must be time for edges to be worn smooth. Timing is everything.’

Richard came in, followed by Forbes.

‘Luncheon is served, my lady,’ Forbes announced to Aunt Caroline.

‘Was that Uncle Sebastian I saw leaving?’ Richard asked.

‘I’ll tell you everything over luncheon,’ Kitty promised.

‘I suppose we must be grateful he did not propose to bring her to the ball this evening,’ Grandmère said.

‘Bring who?’ Richard asked.

‘Oh, that ball!’ Giles exclaimed, rolling his eyes in despair. ‘For one comfortable moment I’d forgotten about it.’

‘I’m looking forward to it,’ Kitty said, in a small voice. ‘And I know the girls are.’

Dory was waiting on a bench in Berkeley Square’s central garden. She stood up, seeing his expression as he approached. She put her hands into his. ‘No good?’

‘I’m afraid it will be just you and me at our wedding.’

‘I’m sorry to be the cause of a rift with your family,’ she said.

‘You’re not the cause. It’s their bone-headed stupidity that’s to blame. I should apologise to you.’

She shrugged a little. ‘I have no family, I have nothing to lose. I don’t want you to lose anything by marrying me. There’s still time to call it off if you want. I’d understand.’

‘I don’t think you do understand,’ he said gruffly.

‘I’ve been lonely all my life, even though I had a family.

Now I’m not lonely any more. So don’t talk nonsense about calling it off.

I have you, and if they want to behave decently I’ll have them too, but otherwise I’ll do without them. You I cannot do without.’

He drew her hand under his arm and they started walking.

‘I don’t understand what you see in me,’ she said, with a contented smile, ‘but I’m very glad you do.’

‘I could say the same. I think I have the best of the bargain.’

‘How can you say that? I’m a servant girl marrying a rich gentleman.’

‘Ah, it was my money you were after, was it? Well, that’s a relief – at least I won’t disappoint you in that department!’

‘You won’t disappoint me in any department,’ she said softly, looking up at him with warm and longing eyes.

He felt his insides melt. ‘I love you so much,’ he said. ‘I wish I could kiss you right this minute.’

‘I’m so glad there’s only another two days to wait,’ she said.

A child rushed past them with a clatter of boots, and a nursemaid’s shrill cry followed him. ‘Master Percy! Come back at once! You’ll dirty your nankins!’

‘Bathos in knickers and an Eton jacket,’ Sebastian said ruefully. ‘Shall we go and find some tea?’