Page 6 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

‘I gather from Rose, who maids her when she’s here, that she’s always considered everyone else was taken care of. When the idea formed in her mind, Lord Giles was the heir to this estate, and Mr Richard was in the army so he didn’t need anything.’

‘And their young ladyships?’

‘She supposed the Ashmore estate would take care of them. It’s a pity the dowager wasn’t here – she’d have jumped on Lady Linda right away. His lordship is too soft.’

‘He is quite upset about Lady Rachel’s situation.’

‘Yes, it would be a very unwise match. Reckless, in fact.’

‘I don’t think that’s why he’s upset,’ Afton said. ‘He doesn’t like having to be harsh with her, and he rather likes Mr Tullamore.’

‘I’m afraid there’s an unfortunate streak of the romantic in his lordship. It must be all that digging up of history. They were always falling in love with the wrong people in history times, weren’t they?’

Afton gave her an impish grin. ‘I can assure you there’s nothing romantic about digging about in tombs – all heat and dust and flies, and bad food, and sand getting into everything. How fastidious gentlemen can bring themselves to do it . . . !’

‘It’s reverting to childhood, that’s what it is,’ Mrs Webster said, amused. ‘There never was a little boy who didn’t want to mess about with mud pies and get himself filthy.’

‘I think you may have put your finger on it,’ said Afton.

‘Of course I have. Another cup?’

‘Thank you.’ He watched her pour. ‘I really am enjoying this. Ours is a lonely calling – having to hold ourselves aloof. It’s nice to have a conversation with an equal for a change.’

‘I was just thinking the same,’ she said. ‘Your predecessor, Mr Moss – he was a very fine butler, but not a great one for conversation. He liked to tell you things. It’s not the same.’

‘Indeed it’s not.’

‘Will you have a piece of cake?’ She eased a slice onto a plate for him. ‘Lady Rachel’s all smiles now,’ she reverted, ‘but she’ll soon have them wiped off when her dowager ladyship finds out Mr Tullamore’s been here.’

‘How will she find out? Surely his lordship won’t tell her?’

She gave him a canny look. ‘Oh, she’ll know all right. If no-one else tells her, Lord Leake will. She’s his big sister and he writes to her regularly. She’s going to come down like a thunderbolt, I can tell you. Lady Rachel had better watch out.’

Fergus and Angus left the same morning, sharing the carriage to the station. Fergus was on the way to visit friends for the New Year, to spread the good news of his betrothal before returning to Italy. Angus was going to London.

He’d had a private talk with Richard in the afternoon of his last day.

‘I know I have to go home and face the music,’ he said, ‘but I don’t want to go until after the Huntleys have left.’

‘I don’t blame you,’ Richard said. It was just after luncheon.

It had turned unexpectedly mild, and the air was damp and milky, echoing with rooks supposing prematurely that spring was on the way.

He was going down to the stables to check on the horses and, seeing the furrowing of Angus’s brow throughout the meal, had invited him to go along, so as to give him the opportunity to unburden.

Their feet crunched on the damp gravel, and the air smelt of wet grass and leaf-mould.

‘You see, I know my father is going to make a tremendous fuss,’ Angus said, ‘and it would be awful if he did it while they were still there.’

‘Yes,’ said Richard. ‘Humiliating for Miss Huntley, for one thing.’

Angus reddened. ‘I feel an absolute cad, but I can’t help it. It would be worse if I married her feeling as I do, and made her miserable, wouldn’t it?’

It wasn’t a rhetorical question. Richard slowed his pace so they shouldn’t get to the stable yard too soon. ‘No-one likes to be rejected,’ he said. ‘But it depends on her feelings for you. Does she love you?’

‘I don’t think so,’ Angus said, frowning in thought. ‘It’s hard to say – she’s one of those terribly composed girls who doesn’t show much, but I honestly don’t see how she can. We’ve spent so little time together. I think she’s just very obedient. And . . .’ He hesitated.

‘And?’

‘Well, girls think differently about marriage, don’t they? I mean, they know they have to get married to someone or other.’

‘So when will it be safe to go home?’

‘I’m pretty sure he said the Huntleys were leaving after Twelfth Night because there was a house party at the Culrosses’ he and Mother were going to.

And I know he has to be in Edinburgh on the Monday for business, and Mother will probably stay on at Craigend because she doesn’t like Edinburgh in the winter.

So if I could tackle him in Edinburgh I wouldn’t have to upset her. ’

They paused in the gateway to the stables. A horse somewhere was banging a door with an impatient forefoot. ‘Giles is saying you have to leave tomorrow,’ Richard said, ‘so you’ll need a burrow to lurk in for a week or ten days.’

‘It’s awkward,’ Angus said. ‘I have a little rhino, but I don’t know how long it will have to last, and hotels are expensive.’

‘Well, if you want to wait out your time in London, I know of a cheap place that’s clean and decent – I’ve stayed there myself. It’s near Victoria station. I’ll write down the direction for you.’

‘I say, thanks awfully! You’re a tremendous brick.’

‘Best not to tell Giles, though – he thinks you should go straight back, and he’ll curse me for interfering.’

‘I won’t say anything.’

‘And since I have to go up to London in the new year, I’ll even take you out for supper one evening, and you can talk over your plans with me. If you have any.’

Angus’s answer was a sigh.

Though tearful at Angus’s departure, Rachel did not seem desolate.

In fact, her tears soon dried and she went about with a glow of secret happiness, which suggested to Giles there had been some powerful reassurances given during their farewells.

He deliberately hadn’t asked for any promises from the lovers not to communicate.

He hoped that what he didn’t know would not compromise his honour.

He came in one afternoon from the library, where he had been looking at accounts, and paused for a moment in the doorway of the drawing-room. Alice and Rachel had their heads together, exchanging secrets. When he sat down and took up a newspaper, Kitty came and joined him.

‘I saw you looking at them,’ she said. ‘I hope Rachel’s not plotting to run away.’

Giles looked up. ‘I don’t think she has the pluck for that. More likely they’re plotting how she and Tullamore can write to each other.’

‘You’re not going to try and stop them?’

‘Not as long as I don’t know about it. I’m damned if I can see why I should be my mother’s policeman.’

‘So you think they should be allowed to marry?’ Kitty smiled. ‘I was afraid you were against it.’

‘I am , as things stand. If he had his father’s approval and money, it would be a fair match. But it’s not up to me. I just wish I weren’t stuck in the middle of it.’

‘At least now Uncle Fergus has gone, Linda’s complaints have subsided,’ she said. ‘She hasn’t cornered you in the library for days.’

‘I told her in no uncertain terms it was nothing to do with me, and I wouldn’t hear another word about it. But she won’t have given up. I’m pretty sure she’s written to Mother, urging her to stop the match.’

‘Poor Giles,’ Kitty said.

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Don’t you mean poor Linda?’

‘She makes her own troubles. You have yours thrust upon you.’

He looked at her cautiously, but she was smiling – a little, teasing smile. He warmed towards her. ‘You are far too understanding of other people’s problems.’

‘Only yours,’ she said. ‘And yours are mine.’

Rachel’s glow lasted until the arrival of the telegram, all the way from St Petersburg, on New Year’s Day. It was addressed to Giles, and since the dowager’s new husband, Prince Paul of Usingen, was very wealthy, she had not bothered to restrict her words to the minimum.

ANY FURTHER COMMUNICATION BETWEEN RACHEL AND TULLAMORE ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN + AM SURPRISED AT YOU FOR ALLOWING IT + AS SHE CANNOT BE TRUSTED SHE IS TO COME BACK TO ME PENDING MARRIAGE TO BE ARRANGED + AM SENDING TAYLOR TO ACCOMPANY HER ARRIVING JAN 5TH + HAVE RACHEL PACKED AND READY FOR IMMEDIATE DEPARTURE + DO NOT FAIL ME IN THIS GILES ++ PSS USINGEN

Rachel paled as she read it. Giles thought irritably that there was nothing more likely to provoke her into running away than the threat of an immediate marriage to a stranger in St Petersburg. But Mother had never had the slightest acquaintance with tact.

‘I won’t go!’ she cried, her eyes filling with tears. ‘Giles, you won’t let her make me?’

He realised that he should have taken the telegram out of the room to read, and sent for Rachel, rather than reading it at the breakfast table, because now everyone wanted to know what was in it.

Rachel had already passed it to Kitty, and both Alice and Linda had risen from their seats to look over her shoulder.

Alice didn’t speak, only bit her lip in distress, but Linda said loudly, ‘A marriage? This must be the Russian prince. Oh, you lucky girl! You’ll have so many clothes. They do things in style in Russia. They change four and five times a day, I believe.’

‘It’s inhuman!’ Kitty exclaimed, pushing away Linda’s hand as she tried to take the telegram from her. ‘Giles, you must do something.’

‘Angus said I can’t be forced to marry,’ Rachel said with a sob in her voice. ‘He said it’s the law .’

It went on round the table. ‘Not even signed “Mother”,’ Richard mused. ‘Is there some sort of creature that eats its own young?’

‘Giles?’ Kitty urged.

‘She’s her guardian. That ’s the law,’ Giles said. ‘I don’t see what I can do.’

Sebastian looked up from reading the flimsy message of doom. ‘Delay,’ he said. All heads turned. Rachel wiped her eyes on her napkin and looked at him with faint hope.

‘Delay?’ Giles queried.

‘Miss Taylor will have been travelling for days. It would be cruel to make her turn around and go straight back.’