Page 22 of The Mistress of Ashmore Castle (Ashmore Castle #3)

As she stepped off the companionway, a rogue wave passed under the ship and it rocked suddenly, throwing her against him.

She was in his arms. Their eyes met for an instant, and then he was kissing her, crushing her against him.

Her lips were warm and eager; he was a man in the prime of life, who had been suppressing all natural urges for a long time.

There was no excuse, of course. It was a moment of madness, but it was sweet and wild and glorious, and for that moment he had no thought in his head, just sensation.

Then the ship rocked them apart and he knew himself again. He drew her hands from around him and imprisoned them between them. ‘Giulia,’ he whispered, ‘I’m sorry.’

Her eyes seemed enormous, dark and glistening. ‘ Non dispiacerti ,’ she whispered, ‘ mio più caro .’

There were footsteps. Someone was coming along the passageway. When the steward caught them up, they were walking quite normally side by side, her hand resting on his arm, as he saw her to the door of her cabin.

The stable boy Timmy was brushing the earl’s groom Mr Archer’s horse, Abelard, and taking his time over it, because he didn’t want to wash yards, which was the next job.

His brush-strokes were slow and the rhythm was soporific.

Both boy and horse were half asleep when the door slammed open, making them both jump, and Giddins, the head man, grabbed Timmy by the collar and yanked him backwards.

‘Come with me! No, get Wally and Jim, quick. Everybody into the yard!’ he shouted as Timmy scurried off. In moments, everyone except those out exercising had assembled, some still clutching the tools of their trade, one surreptitiously chewing.

Archer appeared from round the corner with the littlest boy, Oscar, who had been sent to fetch him. ‘What’s up, Mr Giddins?’

‘Her ladyship’s coming home!’ Giddins cried. ‘Sent a telegram. She’ll have to be met at the station, and the train’ll be there in less than an hour. We’ve got to get the greys ready.’

‘Right, then,’ Archer began. ‘P’raps we should—’

His pace was too leisurely for Giddins. ‘They’ll all have stable stains.

They’ve got to be washed before they can be groomed.

Get them out and tie them up – we’ll do it out here in the yard.

Two to a horse. I’ll do the tails. You, Oscar, go and find John Manley and Joe Green.

Tell ’em to drag the carriage out right away, make sure it’s clean.

They can get the harness ready as well. Then come back here – I’ll need you. ’

Steven, Wally and George had already started towards the stable where the carriage horses were kept, but Will, who was new, said, ‘Can’t we just do two, Mr Giddins? If it’s just for the station?’

Giddins whirled on him in a movement more like a ballet dancer than one would have expected from a man of his age and condition. ‘ Four horses for her ladyship! Always four! Now get moving!’ He glanced up at the stable clock and moaned. ‘We’ll never have time to plait.’

‘Her ladyship won’t expect plaiting,’ Archer said, ‘not at short notice.’

‘There’s no knowing what she expects,’ Giddins said. ‘It’s what we can deliver. And what she’ll say afterwards. That’s the point.’

The dowager Lady Stainton swept into the drawing-room like a flotilla, displacing so much air it made the last petals on a tulip in a vase on a table fall. Her sweeping eye took it in, on the way to inspect Kitty, who came forward to greet her, the dogs at her heels.

‘Keep those animals away from me,’ was the dowager’s greeting. ‘Where is Richard?’

‘He’s out with Adeane, visiting the farms,’ Kitty said, trying not to feel flattened. No matter what her resolves when alone, her mother-in-law’s sheer presence tended to cast her back to a previous timid self.

‘And Alice?’

‘She’s out riding, exercising Apollo for me. Are you staying long?’

‘I shall return to London this evening. I came to make arrangements, that’s all.

I have rented a house for the Season, in Portman Square.

Not my first choice of location, but the house has a ballroom, and they are hard to come by.

I’ve taken it from Lady Pelham, and she keeps a staff there, but I shall need more people.

Ring for Moss and Mrs Webster and I’ll decide who to take.

I shall want Moss, at any rate, and two footmen and perhaps six maids. ’

‘You’ll leave the Castle short-staffed,’ Kitty dared to object.

Maud stared. ‘What can it signify? You will not be entertaining. Richard will be up – I shall need him. And Giles – have you heard from him yet?’

‘I had a cable from him yesterday, sent from Alexandria. He’s on his way home. He expects to be here towards the end of April.’

‘He is cutting it too finely,’ she grumbled. ‘I hope he has the common sense to call in at Caroline’s before leaving London. It would be foolish of him to come all the way down here only to go straight back.’

‘Must he go back?’

The dowager looked astonished. ‘He must act as host for the ball. As the head of the family he will be in the receiving line with me. However little he likes it,’ she added grimly, ‘he will do the right thing by his own sister.’

‘But he’ll want to spend some time here first,’ Kitty said, in desperate hope. She wanted to see him again, to have him to herself. ‘Catching up with business. And he’ll want fresh clothes – Town clothes.’

‘Richard can tell him all he needs to know – that’s why he was left in charge. And Crooks knows how to pack a trunk. He can accompany it to London and valet Giles while he’s there. Sebastian will have to manage without him. Where is Sebastian?’

‘He’s away. He went to London for a few days. He said he’d stay at the club.’

‘So you’re here all alone,’ Maud said, with a snort. ‘You seem to have an uncanny knack for driving people away.’

Kitty was hurt, but with an effort did not show it. ‘Have you a date for Rachel’s ball?’

‘The second of May. It will be the ball of the Season. His Majesty has promised to look in – he and my husband were great friends. It’s a great pity Giles has not troubled himself to get to know the right people. Money is all very well, but connections matter quite as much.’

This was a dig at Kitty, as she knew. She struck back. ‘If the estate had been in good order, Giles would have been free to marry for connections,’ she said. ‘However, as his father’s mismanagement left him bankrupt, he was forced to marry a nobody with money.’

‘You are impertinent,’ Maud said frostily.

Kitty refused to be frosted. ‘And isn’t it lucky he did? Because your plans for Rachel’s come-out sound very lavish, and someone will have to pay for them.’

Maud returned the ball hard. ‘It would hardly serve the family if Rachel did not have the debut appropriate to her position. But I don’t expect you to understand the nuances of society.

Rachel will make a great marriage, and it will reflect well on all of us.

Your son will reap the benefit – little Lord Ayton.

I must see him before I leave. Have him brought down after luncheon. ’

‘You could go up and see him now,’ Kitty suggested pointedly.

Maud raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh, I think not. And now, if you’ll ring, please, I’ll talk to Moss and Mrs Webster. Oh, and send someone after Alice and have her brought back. I’m having some gowns made for her, but they’ll need to be fitted, so she’ll have to come up.’

‘But she’s not out yet,’ Kitty said, surprised.

‘There are plenty of places a girl not yet out can be shown, and I wish to shape her before her debut next year. She is much too rough about the edges. She won’t have a come-out like Rachel’s – there’d be no point – but I will not have her make a show of us.

Ring the bell, Kitty,’ she concluded impatiently.

Kitty turned away to obey, and for a moment was in profile to the dowager. She heard a hiss of indrawn breath, and when she turned back, having pulled the bell, she found herself being closely scrutinised.

‘So,’ Maud said, in a deadly voice. ‘Have you something to tell me?’

Kitty was startled that she had latched on so quickly – none of the others had noticed anything yet; though of course when you saw someone every day you were less likely to see a difference that had come on gradually.

But she knew there was no sense in prevaricating.

‘Yes, I am expecting another baby,’ she admitted.

‘Indeed? And how far along are you?’

‘Four months, I think.’

Maud’s nostrils flared. ‘You were proposing to tell me when, exactly? Or was I to be kept in the dark? Upon my word, Kitty, you have some strange ways of going about things. I wonder, indeed, what it was your parents taught you. Perhaps people who live in Hampstead have different customs from the rest of us.’ She said Hampstead as if it were Borrioboola-Gha .

‘I wanted Giles to be the first to know,’ Kitty said stiffly. ‘My own parents don’t know yet. We Hampstead people believe the baby’s father is the most important person.’

Maud was gathering her forces to retort, but the door opened and Moss came in. When the dowager rang, the butler himself answered the drawing-room bell.

‘Ah, Moss,’ Maud began. ‘I sent for you to—’

But Kitty couldn’t allow that. She spoke over Maud, with determined authority. ‘I should like to speak to you and Mrs Webster together, Moss. Please bring her here to the drawing-room, right away.’

It was only a small triumph. But with the dowager, that was all Kitty could hope for.

Rose, going past the door, saw Dory in the ironing-room and paused to watch her. ‘What’s that, then?’ she asked, after a moment.

Dory lifted the garment by the shoulders and shook it out for Rose to see. ‘A dress for Miss Arabella. I made it out of an old thing of Lady Alice’s.’

‘You’ve done a nice job,’ Rose remarked.

‘I can’t help feeling sorry for those poor children – nobody seems to want them. I’m going to make something for Master Arthur next. Knickers and a Russian blouse, I thought, for him to play in.’