Page 81 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

‘Oh, but that would be my pleasure.’

‘I’m so glad you will be here for Christmas Eve,’ Kitty said to Nina.

‘I do think bringing in the tree and dressing it is the best part of Christmas. And the boys are just old enough now to enjoy it.’ Louis was two and a half, and Alec sixteen months.

‘Come up straight away and see them,’ she said, tucking her hand through Nina’s arm.

On the way up the stairs, Nina said, ‘Have you heard any more from Germany? How does – Giles’ she made herself say the name, ‘feel about having a new baby brother?’

‘I think he got over the shock when she first announced she was pregnant. He has a great capacity for burying himself in his work to the exclusion of everything else.’

Nina thought she heard a hint of wistfulness, but though she loved Kitty, she didn’t think she could stand a conversation about her relationship with Giles. Instead, she said, ‘Any news of Linda?’

‘Nothing directly, but Aunt Caroline said Aunt Vicky wrote that Paul’s Cousin Pippi was spending Christmas with them. I don’t know whether Aunt Vicky invited him for Linda’s sake, or whether he invited himself. We hope the latter, because that would mean he was interested in her.’

‘We?’

‘Giles would dearly like to have her married and settled. Otherwise there’s always the risk that she’ll come back and impose herself on him. She was difficult,’ she confessed. ‘But I feel sorry for poor Arabella. She liked it here. She didn’t want to leave.’

‘Children have to go where their parents take them,’ Nina said. ‘I didn’t want to leave India.’

They reached the nursery. Kitty paused with her hand on the doorknob and said, ‘I’m so lucky to have my boys. I often think of poor little Arthur. And my little brother Peter. Children are so easily lost.’

She opened the door. The two little boys were up at once, Louis running, Alexander tottering with new baby gait just behind.

Louis had a very strong look of Giles about him; Alec was more ambiguous, though there was something of Kitty about his eyes.

Nina felt a pang deep in her stomach – or was it her womb?

Next Christmas she would have a baby in her arms.

Kitty, thoroughly engaged with her children, spared several glances for Nina.

She had always known her friend was not beguiled by babies, but had hoped for a change.

Now she thought she saw it. ‘Oh, Nina, wouldn’t it be wonderful if you had one too?

’ she couldn’t help exclaiming. ‘Imagine if our children could grow up together, and be friends the way we are friends.’

‘Yes, it would be wonderful,’ Nina said. There were too many complicated ideas behind that sentence for her to say more.

The ball at Ashridge Park was magnificently staged, with lamps and candles enough to light a village, and pots of shrubs brought in from the famous Ashridge greenhouses, including some of gardenias in flower, which helped to disguise the slightly musty smell inevitable in rooms not often used.

In any case, the guests were all too ready to enjoy themselves to notice any deficiencies.

Lord and Lady Shacklock, with two sons, Elliot and Brandon, and the two daughters who were out, Cecilia and Agatha, were in the receiving line – Lord Shacklock, tall, dark and saturnine, was scowling, his much younger wife vibrating with excitement.

The ball, it might be concluded, was her idea, agreed to reluctantly by him, perhaps in the hope of advancing the marriage prospects of the daughters, who unfortunately favoured their father in looks rather than their mother.

Every important family in the neighbourhood had been invited, along with others from further afield to add elegance to the mix.

Lord and Lady Ballantine from Aylesbury were there with a son and daughter and a house guest, who was the son of a marquess.

Lord and Lady Ravenscar had come from Wendover, and Miss Rowsham was with them looking hopeful in a new gown.

There were even some families down from London: the Lathams with a son and daughter; and, as Alice very quickly noticed, the Faroceans – father, mother, the two sons she had already met, Jervis and Bentham, and a tall young woman she supposed was the sister who was being brought out, Hermione.

That Rachel had spotted them too was evident. She seized Alice’s arm in a fierce grip. Alice saw Bentham’s roving gaze snag on her. He said something to his brother, who was chatting to Louisa Latham, and a moment later they were coming over.

Bentham bowed deeply to Alice, slightly to Rachel, and said, ‘I hoped we were going to meet in London, but you don’t seem to go to the same parties as us.’

‘I don’t go to parties at all, really. Too busy,’ Alice said.

‘But here you are,’ he said, waving a hand around the glittering scene, ‘and I’m suspecting now that you only go to the very grandest of affairs, and I was looking too low down.’

‘The Shacklocks are neighbours. We have to come.’

‘ Noblesse oblige ,’ Bentham said, with a theatrical sigh. ‘The things one has to do for mere politesse, to oil the wheels of society! You are too good, Lady Alice.’

‘But what are you doing here? That is the more interesting question,’ she said.

‘My father knows Lord Shacklock. And I was up at Oxford with Brandon Shacklock. In fact, I was at school with him, so I’ve known him for ever.’

‘You said you were at Balliol with Oliver Leven,’ she reminded him.

‘So I was. There were three hundred undergraduates at Balliol when I was there. Did you think it was just me and Oliver?’

She laughed. ‘You are absurd! But it’s nice to see a friendly face here.’

‘Aren’t all your neighbours friendly?’

‘Oh, it isn’t that. It’s just that I’m not very good at balls, so I always feel out of my place.’

‘Well, ma’am, you look very much the part,’ he said, with a bow, ‘so if you don’t tell anyone, they won’t know. May I solicit the honour of a dance? If you have any left.’

‘You’re the first person who’s asked me, so you can have your pick.’

‘Then I’ll take the first, and keep dancing with you until I’m dragged away,’ he said, with a grin.

Rachel had been talking all this time with Jervis, in low, intimate tones. Bentham now glanced at them, and said to Alice quietly, ‘I’m afraid my brother is trespassing on someone else’s estate again. Is the fiancé not here?’

‘He is supposed to be coming, but he was at the office this morning so perhaps he’s been delayed.’

‘Then I hope for his sake he’s hurrying, and gets here soon,’ Bentham said.

After her dances with Bentham, Alice was surprised and a little gratified to be asked by several other men, and since she enjoyed the activity of dancing, being an energetic sort of girl, she was pleased to be occupied on the dance-floor.

She tried to keep an eye on Rachel, but caught only glimpses of her in the crush.

She had a variety of partners, but Alice saw her several times with Jervis Farocean.

A dance had just finished when she saw Angus standing in the doorway, looking about. She thanked her latest partner, excused herself and hurried over to him. ‘Angus! I’m so glad you came. You’re very late.’

‘I had to go up to the Castle first to drop my luggage and change,’ he said. ‘And there was a lot to do, closing the office for three days, so I was late starting out. Is Rachel here?’

‘Of course. She’s longing to see you.’

He looked at her oddly. ‘Is she? Strange that you spotted me straight away and she didn’t.’

‘I just happened to be looking this way,’ she said. ‘Come on, let’s go and find her, before another dance starts.’

It was unfortunate that when they came upon Rachel, she was with Jervis, having just finished a dance with him, and they had their heads together, the drooping marabou feathers on her headpiece touching his cheek as they whispered.

She straightened quickly as she saw Angus, and her cheeks reddened, but she smiled and came straight to him, her hand out. ‘Oh, Angus, you managed to get here!’

‘Yes. Are you disappointed?’ he said.

Rachel bit her lip. ‘What on earth do you mean? Of course not. I’ve been hoping and hoping you’d come.’

Angus took the hand she had extended and used it to turn her away from her former partner. ‘I have to talk to you privately,’ he said, and drew her away.

Jervis watched them go, caught Alice’s eye and shrugged. ‘So that’s the fiancé.’

She gave him a stern look. ‘You knew she was engaged.’

‘So did she,’ he retorted.

‘Well, I should keep out of the way if I were you. Angus is very strong.’ She eyed Jervis, who was more the willowy sort. A Town beau, where Angus had been brought up to strenuous activities on wild moorlands.

He laughed, showing admirable teeth, and shaking his beautifully cut, glossy locks. ‘You don’t suppose I’m going to engage in fisticuffs with him? Or pistols at dawn? This is 1905, not 1805!’

‘You shouldn’t have flirted with her,’ Alice said reproachfully.

He shrugged. ‘I have a dance free now, Lady Alice. Might I persuade you to take a turn with me? If you’re not promised to my clod-hopping brother.’

‘I wouldn’t dance with you even if I wasn’t,’ Alice said, and marched away as determinedly as dancing shoes and a gown with a train allowed.

Angus had meant to be angry with Rachel, but when he found a quiet corner and turned to face her, he saw that there were tears in her eyes and his rage slipped away like water. ‘What is it, darling? Don’t cry. Did that oaf say something to you?’

‘No, it’s not that,’ Rachel said, fumbling out her handkerchief. ‘It’s just that you looked so angry, I was afraid.’

‘Afraid of me?’ He was appalled.

‘I thought you were going to shout at me.’

‘I’m sorry. Forgive me. I’m a brute. But, Rachel, you must admit—’

‘Oh, now you’re going to lecture me!’

‘I’ve hardly seen you this whole year.’

‘Whose fault is that? You’re always working!’

‘For us! I’m working for us. Then you went to Germany—’

‘My mother sent for me. I had to go.’

‘Did you have to go to the South of France? And then Scotland? And since you got back, you’ve been spending so much time at Ashmore—’

‘Only the weekends. I’m in London all week.’

‘When I’m at work. You know I only have Saturday afternoon and Sunday free.’

‘But that’s when Kitty and Giles have parties.’ She looked at him anxiously, and saw not just pain but resignation in his face, and that frightened her more. She didn’t want him to give up on her. ‘I’m just trying to have a little fun,’ she said pathetically. ‘That’s not wrong, is it?’

‘No, it’s not wrong,’ he said sadly.

‘I want to enjoy myself while I can,’ she protested. ‘Before—’ She broke off.

‘Before you marry me? You don’t think there’ll be any more fun after that?’

She wriggled. ‘Oh, don’t look like that, Angus! Everyone likes parties and dancing and—’

‘Flirting?’

‘I don’t flirt!’ she said indignantly. ‘I can’t help it if men are attracted to me, and pay me silly compliments.’

‘Rachel, I don’t want to hold you against your wishes.

If you’ve changed your mind about marrying me, I’ll release you.

But you must be honest with me.’ She said nothing, chewing her lip, frowning.

He spoke very gently. ‘I think you wanted to marry me because you were forbidden to. As soon as your mother withdrew her opposition, you lost interest. Isn’t that the case? ’

‘No!’ she cried. ‘I didn’t know there’d be opposition when I said yes to you.’

‘In the heat of the moment, at a ball,’ he said. ‘It was my fault. I should never have proposed to you in those circumstances. And without finding out how our parents felt about it.’

‘Well, if everyone had to ask their parents first, no-one would ever propose to anyone,’ Rachel said crossly.

He took her hand. ‘Tell me – and I promise I won’t be angry whatever you say – do you love me?’

‘Yes, of course,’ she said.

‘Not “of course”. You love me?’

‘I just said so.’

‘And do you want to marry me?’

She hesitated the merest fraction of a second, but it was enough. She saw he had noticed. ‘Yes, I do,’ she said hastily. ‘Of course I do. I mean – I do. But you know I can’t marry you until I’m of age. And you can’t expect me to sit with my hands in my lap until then. It’s another eight months!’

He lifted her hand to his lips, and gave it back to her. ‘I understand. I’ve been a brute.’

‘No!’ she said, afraid now.

‘So here’s what we’ll do. We’ll release each other from our engagement. And next August, when you’re of age, I’ll come and ask you again. If you haven’t accepted someone else by then.’

‘Angus, I would never—’

‘Oh, I think you might,’ he said. ‘But we’ll see, shall we?’

‘You’re – jilting me?’ she said, in horror.

‘Not at all. I’m setting you free. When you try to tame a wild animal, there has to come a point when you let it go, and see if it comes back to you of its own accord. Otherwise you’ll never know, will you?’

‘I’m not a wild animal,’ she said indignantly.

But he only smiled and walked away. And his back view was so strong and upright and manly, she felt a sob rising up her throat. He had never looked more attractive to her than at that moment.