Page 10 of The Mistress of Ashmore Castle (Ashmore Castle #3)
‘I’m warning you for her sake, but also for your own good. You’re a married man, and you surely don’t want to stir up a hornet’s nest, besides breaking that little girl’s heart.’
‘I have no wish to do that,’ he agreed helplessly. ‘But what must I do?’
‘Step back a little. Don’t be so friendly.
Act a little more formal around her. Stop the night-time tête-à-têtes.
Talk to other people more, and her less.
’ Giles was silent, thinking how much sooner he would always talk to Giulia than anyone else.
As if she read his thought, Mrs Antrobus said, ‘Yes, I know, it’ll be a sacrifice on your part.
But you need to untangle yourself from her.
I wish to God I could take her with me when I leave, but she is determined otherwise, and she’s over age, so I can hardly insist without telling her why.
Now, I can’t make you behave a different way, but I think you’re a good man, and I hope you will , for her sake.
And I hope you’re not offended that I spoke up, but it was with the best intentions. ’
Giles got to the end of a train of thought, and said, ‘I’m not offended.
I honour your motives. But I think you’re wrong about Giulia.
I’m sure she sees me as a brother, just as I see her as a sister, and you probably mistake our fraternal manner towards each other for something else.
But I promise you I will be on my guard, and if I detect any .
. . undue fondness, I shall take steps.’
She looked at him for a long moment, then said, ‘I suppose that’s the best I can hope for. Thank you, at any rate, for taking it well.’ And she went away.
They broke through into the burial chamber the next day.
The ceiling had collapsed in one place and there was considerable debris to clear, but thanks to three large supporting columns along the length of the room, it was in fairly good shape.
And there was great excitement on discovering two sarcophagi, and a canopic chest. Both sarcophagi were open – the lids were lying separately at a distance – and both were empty, which was a disappointment.
But one sarcophagus was inscribed for Thutmose I, and the other for Hatshepsut, as was the canopic chest. So wherever the remains might now lie, this was where they had been interred.
There was intense discussion, as to whether one of the female mummies discovered the previous year in KV60 might be Hatshepsut’s, perhaps moved to a different burial site by a descendant – it was known that Thutmose III had tried to write her out of history.
Or, of course, the mummies might have been victims of ordinary grave-robbers.
There were dozens of vases, bowls, jars, boxes and figurines among the debris, as well as fifteen limestone slabs, designed to line the chamber walls, with inscriptions that needed to be deciphered.
At this point the Antrobuses had to take their leave, having at least had the satisfaction of seeing Hatshepsut’s sarcophagus.
Howard Carter, the leader of the dig, presented them with a faience bowl from the chamber for their local museum as thanks for their contribution.
There was one more surprising conversation for Giles before they left. Mr Antrobus’s valet, Afton, came to Giles and begged, with a mixture of embarrassment and determination, to be allowed to stay and enter his service.
‘Mr Antrobus is a good master, my lord, but he’s going back to America, and I’ve got such a longing in my bones to go home. You did tell me you were without a man at present. I promise you wouldn’t be disappointed, my lord, if you was to give me a chance.’
‘And I suppose as soon as you land in England you’ll be off like a hare and I’ll be without a man again,’ Giles said.
Afton looked hurt. ‘Is that what you think, my lord? That I’m just using you for a ticket home?
I’m a valet, my lord, that’s my job and my calling, and if I can’t work for you I’ll work for someone else.
But I’d sooner it was you, my lord. I think I know how to make you comfortable, and I’m a sticker, my lord, I’d never leave until you made me.
But I can’t make you believe me, my lord – only ask you to. ’
Giles was rather touched by his passion.
He thought how much his comfort would be enhanced by having this lively little man as his attendant instead of weepy old Crooks or sour, slit-eyed Hook.
‘But what about Mr Antrobus? It would be dastardly to steal his servant, especially when he’s been so kind to me.
And if you’re a sticker, why aren’t you sticking with him? ’
‘I discussed it with him, my lord, of course I did, before I came to you, as was only fair and right. And I told him some time ago that I wanted to go home and he said he understood and would let me go as soon as I made arrangements. So there’ll be no hard feelings, my lord, I promise you, or I would never have presumed to mention it. ’
‘Very well. I’ll talk to him myself, and if he really doesn’t mind, I’d be happy to give you a position.’
Afton grinned. ‘Thank you, my lord. You won’t regret it, I swear.’
‘Just one thing,’ Giles said. Afton turned back enquiringly. ‘Your name isn’t really Afton, is it? I keep thinking about “Sweet Afton”, which my nanny used to sing to me.’
‘It’s all the name I’ve got, my lord. I was left in a box, as a baby, outside Whitechapel Workhouse, and since nobody ever claimed me the workhouse superintendent give me my names.
Stanley, after the explorer, because he was her hero, and Afton, because it was her favourite song.
She was a Scottish lady by birth, my lord.
Thought the world of Rabbie Burns. I’m surprised she didn’t call me Robert Burns, really, but Stanley Afton it was. ’
‘Very good names they are, too,’ Giles said, and thought that one day, he must hear the rest of the story. From Whitechapel Workhouse to New York gentleman’s gentleman was quite a step.
In England, some said it was the hardest winter they remembered.
Snow and freezing temperatures kept the family trapped in the house.
All Kitty’s plans for entertainment were scuppered, and there was no hunting.
By dint of hard labour, a circuit was dug out and kept clear in the nearest paddock and straw was laid down, to give the horses walking exercise.
It was laborious and time-consuming, and Alice gave many daytime hours to helping the grooms by leading a bored and restless horse round and round in the icy air.
For her, it was better than frowsting indoors all day.
She missed riding, and probably felt the curtailment of her freedom more than anyone else in the house.
When the grooms were not exercising the horses, they were ‘volunteered’ to help the tenants with their stock. Having the cattle inside meant extra work with feeding and mucking out. The sheep stayed out, but had to have fodder taken to them, and sometimes after a snowfall they needed to be dug out.
At the end of February and into March, all hands were required to help with the lambing, building shelters with hurdles and straw bales and assisting with difficult births.
Richard threw himself into these tasks and found a satisfaction he had not expected, which kept his mind occupied and won him respect with the tenants and labourers.
In mid-February, when the snowfalls ceased for a time and it froze hard, the sun came out, glittering on the cruel white world from a sky of acid blue.
The dowager, Maud, seized the opportunity to escape to London, taking Rachel with her.
The Season had not yet started, but there were plans to devise and clothes to have made.
It required a great deal of labour on the part of a large number of men to clear the route down the hill to the village, but she never gave a thought to work when she was paying for it – or, in this case, Kitty was paying for it.
Linda joined the escaping party – uninvited, but if she had waited to be invited she would never have gone anywhere – and Cordwell, with the air of a scolded dog, started the long journey back to Dorset.
Their children they left behind. Sebastian departed the next day, saying he would call on a friend in London before going back to his own house.
With numbers so depleted, and no entertaining in prospect – hunting was still impossible and travel between villages difficult – the house slumped into a semi-doze.
Kitty discussed future refurbishments with Mrs Webster, drew up ambitious plans for the gardens she wanted to create, and dreamed about Giles coming home.
Alice, feeling sorry for them, spent some of her time with Arabella and Arthur.
She had never had much instruction herself, and regretted it, so she tried to lighten their ignorance a little bit every day, with old schoolbooks of her own, and whatever she could find in the library that was at all suitable.
They were grateful for the attention, if not the requirement to concentrate, and Aunt Alice became their favourite person.
She didn’t exactly enjoy their company, but she felt she was being useful; though it did occur to her that if she didn’t eventually marry anyone, she might really end up as a governess.
It was not a prospect to entice; it almost made her feel that marriage would be preferable.
The unhappiest person at the Castle was the former valet Hook, now footman James again.
With no entertaining, he hadn’t enough to do to take his mind off his wrongs.
He had been demoted, and not even to first footman, which was his right by seniority and training, but fourth, below even Cyril, whom he himself had trained.
It was humiliating. He would have believed Mr Moss was punishing him, if it weren’t that Moss was an old fool incapable of doing anything but doddering from one routine task to another.