Page 70 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

‘Have you tried to get back in?’ Moss asked vaguely, running a finger down the cellar book. ‘Have we a spare key, Mrs Webster?’

She took Crooks’s arm and drew him out into the passage.

‘Lady Ravenscar’s maid did say he could be trouble, but we had no idea he’d go this far.

’ She tapped her lips with a forefinger in thought.

‘You’d better have your old room. The bed’s not made up, but I’ll send one of the girls up while you’re dressing Lord Denham. ’

‘Thank you,’ Crooks said, comforted. Mrs Webster had taken his part. And he’d end up with a better room, which was snooks to the rude Frenchman!

‘There, that wasn’t too bad, was it?’ Sebastian said to Dory when they got back to their room that night.

Before his marriage he had always had the Gainsborough Room at the Castle, but the Waterloo Room had a small dressing-room attached, making it more suited to a married couple.

It was a rather masculine chamber, with red flock wallpaper and heavy mahogany furniture, and over the mantelpiece a large reproduction of The Forming of the Squares at Quatre Bras .

‘The dinner was very good,’ Dory said.

‘You know that’s not what I meant.’

Hatching was waiting to undress her, and she didn’t want to say too much in front of the maid.

She was getting more used to being on the wrong side of the service when they had company or went out, but she managed mostly by saying very little, which made people think her dull.

The company for this weekend was composed of people who did not know her past, which helped; but she always went in fear of the wrong question being asked.

There had been a moment, for instance, when Lady Bayfield had asked her where she had got her gown.

It was one she had made herself, and she hesitated and then said Paris.

Lady Bayfield, who by her appearance knew a great deal about fashion, had given her a long, cool look, then turned away to speak to someone else.

Dory decided to wear the Paquin at dinner tomorrow, so her ladyship might think she was merely confused, rather than a pitiful liar.

‘The Ravenscars seemed pleasant people,’ Dory said. ‘And I like the sister – Miss Rowsham.’

‘Seems a nice girl. Invited for Richard, obviously,’ Sebastian said. ‘Perhaps rather too obviously,’ he added, with a rumble of a laugh. ‘Richard tends to be perverse. Expect him to do something and he’ll do the opposite.’

‘But he was very attentive to her,’ Dory noted. ‘Perhaps he was smitten.’

‘He has engaging manners,’ Sebastian said. ‘But I hope he does take to her. It’s time he got married.’

‘You think everyone should be married,’ Dory said fondly.

‘I would like everyone to be as happy as I am. And now I suppose I must leave you with Hatching,’ he said. He met her eyes, and a message passed between them. For decency’s sake he had to let Crooks put him to bed in the dressing-room, but he would not stay there once the servants had gone.

The trouble started at breakfast. Dory was down early to spend as much time with Sebastian as possible before the men went out.

Miss Rowsham was the only other lady down, and Dory, accustomed to observing the gentry and analysing them, guessed she was hoping to further her cause with Richard.

He, however, having helped her at the sideboard, went and sat down on the other side of the table and talked to Lord Ravenscar.

Dory helped herself to eggs and sausages and, looking round to see where Sebastian was sitting, encountered a very frosty glance from Sir John Bayfield, instantly withdrawn.

She supposed he merely objected to females coming down early to breakfast on a shooting morning and paid no attention, sitting down beside her husband.

But then Lady Bayfield came in, scanned the room, and said, in a penetrating voice, ‘Oh, Mrs Tallant, how early you must have risen. But I suppose it is old habit with you.’

Dory, startled, didn’t know what to say.

Miss Rowsham, across the table from her, gave her a puzzled look, but said nothing.

But then Lady Bayfield sat down next to Sir John, stared straight at Dory with a brittle and glittering smile, and said, ‘By the way, I happened to tear the hem of my gown just a little last night. I wonder if I might ask you to mend it for me.’

Beside her, Dory felt Sebastian draw a sharp breath, and Richard’s head flicked round to look at her.

Lady Bayfield went on without pausing: ‘I would ask my own maid, but she is not skilled with the needle. I’m persuaded it would be nothing to one of your experience.’

Kitty had come in, and from the door she said, in a high, tense voice, ‘Mama, Mrs Tallant is my guest .’

‘To be sure, dear,’ Lady Bayfield answered, still staring at Dory. ‘You always were a little too liberal in your ideas.’

Dory felt Sebastian about to explode, but she knew that would only make things worse – a horrible scene at breakfast, news of which would spread through the house and thence to how many other houses?

She caught his hand under the table and squeezed it hard in warning, and said lightly, ‘I would oblige you, Lady Bayfield, but I don’t ply the needle any more. ’

‘Indeed?’ said Lady Bayfield archly. ‘But I am reliably informed you made the gown you had on last night.’

Kitty had moved to Dory’s shoulder and was about to speak, but Richard intervened in a light, quick voice.

‘It always amazes me you ladies have the time to learn so many accomplishments. My sisters used to paint screens, and Kitty embroiders prettily – you made all the baby’s shirts, didn’t you, Pusscat?

Smocking, now – how ever you do that I can’t think, it looks so complicated.

And my mother used to do tapestry-work. You are in the Tapestry Room, aren’t you, Lady Bayfield?

The chair seats there are some of her work – Princess Usingen as she now is. ’

It was, in fact, a lie – his mother had despised needlework of all sorts, but it silenced Lady Bayfield and deflected the company, and Sebastian started up a conversation with Lord Ravenscar about the day’s prospects, so the moment passed.

Soon afterwards he rose to leave the room, and invited Dory by a crooked arm to go with him.

Out in the hall, he felt her trembling slightly and wanted to go back into the breakfast room and wring Lady Bayfield’s scrawny neck. ‘She’s just one horrible old woman,’ he forestalled her.

‘Her maid must have got it from someone in the servants’ hall and told her,’ Dory said, in a flat voice. ‘It won’t stop there. She’ll tell Lady Denham and Lady Ravenscar.’

‘To hell with them,’ Sebastian said robustly.

‘That’s all very well, but it will keep happening,’ she said. ‘This is what I was afraid of.’

‘Who cares what a few superannuated hags think?’

‘Do you mean to avoid all company for the rest of our lives? And what if they dig up worse things?’

‘Darling, we are what we are,’ he said, looking down at her. ‘Have courage. They’ll soon forget about it. It’s a five-minute wonder.’

‘Yes, but it’s my five minutes,’ she said, trying to hold on to her sense of humour. ‘You’ll be out with the men – I’ll have to sit in the drawing-room all morning being insulted or ignored.’

‘Don’t sit there, then. Come out with me.’

‘Is it allowed? I thought shooting was for men only.’

‘Ladies shooting is rather frowned on, though one or two do it. But quite a few ladies go out and stand behind the guns. Particularly if they’re conducting an affair with one of them.

Or hoping to. I remember in earlier days Sibella Bissell used to go out and stand behind her husband – she even used to load for him.

And I’ll bet Miss Rowsham would love to go out and further her cause with Richard.

She won’t like to be the only one, though, so if you tell her you’re going she’ll be your friend for life. ’

‘But won’t it just prove to – certain people that I’m not a lady?’

‘Not a bit. You’re a newly married lady, so your wanting to be with me won’t surprise anyone.’

‘Will it please anyone, though?’ she asked.

He gave her a tender smile. ‘It will please one of the guns immensely,’ he said.

‘It was that fool Daisy told Lady Bayfield’s woman,’ Mrs Webster reported to Afton. ‘I don’t think she meant any harm by it. She just mentioned it as a cause for wonder. But Higgins has a swollen idea of her own importance, considering Sir John is only a baronet, and decided to take offence.’

‘His lordship said her ladyship had a sharp word with her mother,’ Afton said, ‘so let’s hope that’s the end of it.’

‘It won’t change feelings,’ Mrs Webster said. It still felt more natural to exchange thoughts with Afton than with Mr Moss – and in any case, Moss had always been an advocate for people remembering their place. Afton, with a past of his own, was more flexible of mind.

‘As long as nobody talks about it,’ Afton said, ‘they can think what they like. And they will. Life is a stew-pot, Mrs Webster. Bits of carrot come up to the top, jostle with the peas, and sink again.’

She looked at him with raised eyebrows. ‘And who, in this case, is the carrot and who the pea?’

He merely smiled. ‘It’s very pretty to see them together, Mr Sebastian and his bride. It’s nice when a gentleman well up in years finds true love, don’t you think?’

‘Surprising, I’d call it, in this case. Well, it’s just for the weekend, and I don’t suppose they’ll be going into society a great deal. Ellen said they’re happy in their own company.’

Afton smiled. ‘I’ll bet she said that as a complaint. She’s ambitious. Not much chance to shine if her master and mistress dine alone at home every night. I give it six months.’

‘If she’s sensible she’ll stay a year and make sure of a good reference before she moves on. Nobody wants a flighty lady’s maid.’

Moss appeared in the doorway. ‘I’m just going to ring the dressing bell,’ he said, looking curiously from her to Afton.