Page 51 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

There were a few other people on the terrace, walking up and down, or standing at the parapet looking out on the dark garden, talking quietly. He led her to the far end where they could be alone. Was he going to kiss her? she wondered. Or tell her off ?

He stopped and turned to face her, leaning one elbow on the stone balustrade.

He looked very handsome in evening dress, she thought.

The light from the ballroom silhouetted him against the darkness beyond.

She hoped it was going to be kissing. ‘What did you want to talk about?’ she asked, in what she hoped were seductive tones.

‘You’ve danced with an awful lot of people tonight.’

‘That’s what balls are for,’ she said reasonably. ‘Besides, if people ask one, it looks so particular to refuse.’

Angus sighed. ‘I’m worried that you’re enjoying all this too much – all the parties and balls and everything.’

She laid a hand on his arm. ‘I wish you would come to everything with us. I don’t think Mama would mind, as long as we’re chaperoned.’

‘I couldn’t – I have work to do. But I worry you have the wrong expectations of how life will be. I don’t want you to be disappointed.’

She tilted her head. ‘What do you mean?’

‘By the time you’re of age and we can marry, I shall be able to afford a house for us, but it won’t be a large one. And we won’t be able to afford to go to entertainments like this.’

She thought for a moment. ‘Well, all the more reason to enjoy them while we can,’ she said uncertainly.

‘But I think you should be spending your time preparing for marriage,’ he said. ‘Learning how to run a household. You should learn how things are cleaned, how to cook, how to lay a fire, how to keep a budget.’

‘But we’ll have servants,’ she objected.

‘One or two. But how will you know if they’re doing their job properly if you don’t know how it ought to be done? How will you manage them?’

‘Aunt Caroline just gives her orders. I don’t expect she knows how things are done. That’s what Mrs Wells is for.’

‘Is that her housekeeper? But we won’t be able to afford a housekeeper.

Just talk to Mrs Wells, get her to explain how a house is run.

’ He took her unwilling hand. ‘I thought you understood that things would be different for us. You said you’d be happy to live in a hovel, as long as we could be married. ’

‘But I didn’t mean it!’ she cried, then opened her eyes in horror at what she had said.

Angus let her hand go. ‘I was afraid of that,’ he said quietly. ‘Perhaps you should release me from our engagement.’

She reached for his hand again. ‘No, no, I don’t want to! Don’t look like that! Of course I want to marry you. It’s just that . . . We won’t be so very poor, will we?’

‘We won’t be poor at all. But we won’t be rich, like these people. It worries me that the contrast will be too great for you. Your clothes, for instance: you won’t be able to have new things all the time.’

‘Well, I’ve loads of things from my come-out last year. They’ll last for ages. Especially if – if we don’t go out very much.’ Her tone, which had started reassuring, faltered at the end of the sentence. ‘We will go out sometimes, won’t we?’ she asked, in a small voice.

‘Yes, of course,’ he said sadly. ‘We’ll go out sometimes. But we’ll have a different set of friends, you know. People like me, not people like you.’

‘But you are people like me,’ she said. ‘I love you. I do!’

‘I know. But perhaps love isn’t enough on its own.’

‘Of course it is!’ She felt he was slipping away from her.

‘I love you, too,’ he said. ‘I just want you to be happy.’

‘I am happy! Terribly happy! Shall we go inside and dance? I’m starting to feel cold.’

‘Of course,’ he said, and led her back down the terrace towards the bright lights.

The telegram came in the morning, when everyone was still abed after the exertions of the ball. Afton took it in to Giles with his morning tea.

Giles sipped while he opened it. ‘Damn,’ he said.

‘Not bad news I hope, my lord?’

It was from Mrs Webster. LORD CORDWELL WORSE + DOCTOR SAYS IT IS PNEUMONIA + OUTLOOK CONCERNING++

Giles gave it to Afton to read. ‘She wouldn’t have sent it unless Dr Welkes was really worried,’ Afton said.

‘It isn’t right to leave her alone with the responsibility. I had better go back. Fetch me some hot water right away, will you. And bring me some toast and marmalade on a tray, and I’ll eat it while I’m dressing. Can you pack in time to come with me?’

‘There isn’t much to pack, my lord. I’ll be ready.’

Giles went to Kitty’s room to find her sitting up in bed with her tea and bread-and-butter tray, while Hatto pottered about tidying.

‘Oh dear, I’m so sorry,’ she said, when she had read the telegram. ‘Poor little soul. Are you going back? There won’t be anything you can do that isn’t being done already.’

‘But I think I should be there. For morale, and to make decisions.’

‘Will you come back here?’ she asked.

‘It depends what happens. But I was only intending to be here for a few days anyway. There’s a lot to do at home.’

‘I see,’ she said, with a very small sigh.

He hadn’t asked her to come with him. She could simply assume he wanted her and go, of course, but it would be a huge upheaval to get everything packed and ready, for her and the children, and they had engagements for the whole week ahead.

And she didn’t want to risk another rejection.

She wasn’t sure her heart could stand it.

Sebastian and Dory arrived at the church together, to find Richard standing outside. He grinned at Sebastian’s surprised expression.

‘Couldn’t let you put your head in the noose all alone!’ he said. ‘I am here to be your supporter, if you’ll allow?’

‘I’d be delighted!’ Sebastian shook his hand with vigorous gratitude. ‘May I present—’ he began.

‘We have met,’ Richard interrupted. He bowed over her hand with a smile and said, ‘I give you joy, madam. And may I say you are looking very beautiful on this happiest of days?’

Dory smiled uncertainly, unsure how to take him.

She had mended his nightshirt and sewed on his buttons without being his wife, and the situation ought to have been awkward.

But he seemed quite relaxed. And she did think, in all modesty, that she looked well, though she would never have said beautiful.

Sebastian had approved her wedding outfit.

It was a ready-made, but her neat figure was not hard to fit.

It was a two-piece in dusky pink crêpe de Chine, and the high-necked, finely tucked blouse underneath had real Alencon lace on it, while her new hat of forward-tilted ivory glazed straw was filled with an extravagance of pink and white artificial roses.

‘You may,’ Sebastian said, ‘and she does. Shall we go in?’

Above them, the church clock began to strike as they walked together down the aisle, and the priest came out of the vestry, with the clerk beside him for a witness.

Crooks was already there, sitting modestly in the rearmost pew.

The priest looked at the assembly doubtfully, as if wondering whether a marriage like this, with no family or friends attending, was really quite the thing.

‘Shall we begin? Are you quite ready?’ he said, and then his eyes went past them to the door of the church, which had been left open on such a lovely day. All of them looked round.

Grandmère was walking slowly towards them, with the absolute air of a monarch approaching the throne, wearing a black-beaded magenta dress and jacket and a terrifyingly fashionable black hat filled with birds’ wings, and carrying an umbrella, which she tapped at each step so that the metal ferrule made a sound like the knocking of Fate on the door.

Reaching them, she gave them a raised-eyebrowed look that dared them to question her on any point.

Sebastian took her hand, and said simply, ‘Thank you, Victoire.’

Richard bent to kiss her cheek, in order to say, for her ears only, ‘You steal the show, as always, ma chère . What changed your mind?’

‘I have been the lover for twenty years of another woman’s husband,’ she murmured into his ear. ‘I know a little about mésalliance .’

Then as he straightened, she lifted the umbrella imperiously and said to the priest, ‘You may proceed.’

The priest knew quality when he saw it – and in fact he recognised her from the illustrated papers his wife enjoyed. He suddenly felt much better about the whole business.

‘Dearly beloved,’ he began, in his most sonorous tones.

Mr Moss had always insisted on the proper ceremony when a senior member of the family or an honoured guest arrived, and Mr Afton had inherited the arrangement.

So the servants were lined up outside when the carriage arrived back from the station; and Giles stood at the centre of the chevron of welcome.

Behind him, Arabella tightly held the hand of Miss Kettel.

William went to open the near carriage door and hand Kitty down, while on the far side Alice jumped out in her usual way without waiting for Sam.

They reached Giles at the same time, and he kissed them in turn. ‘I’m so glad you came,’ he said.

‘Poor little boy,’ Kitty said. ‘It’s so very sad.’

‘No Rachel?’ he asked.

‘She didn’t want to come,’ Alice said. ‘She had engagements.’ And she left them to go to Arabella, who received her embrace woodenly.

Alice had always had more to do with Linda’s children: Rachel had been away for most of her come-out year, while Alice, sorry for them, had taken them out riding and played with them.

She took Arabella’s free hand and she and Miss Kettel walked her back into the house.

Kitty and Giles went in together. ‘She looks different, poor child,’ Kitty said. ‘Thinner. Is she eating?’

‘Not well, according to Miss Kettel. I’ve tried talking to her, but she’s hard to reach. Understandably, I suppose. They must have been very close, having so little attention from anyone else.’

‘Is Linda really not coming?’