Page 31 of The Mistress of Ashmore Castle (Ashmore Castle #3)

The next morning, the dowager was still dressing when Miss Taylor was called to the bedroom door to receive a message from Moss.

She returned to the dressing-table and continued imperturbably pushing pins into her mistress’s coiffure as she said, ‘Prince Usingen has called, my lady, requesting a private interview with you.’

‘So early?’ Maud said, and frowned. ‘It appears to suggest a lack of regard for the conventions.’

‘Perhaps it suggests an over-full heart, my lady.’

‘Don’t be impertinent,’ Maud said automatically.

She stared unseeing at her reflection as she put in her earrings.

He would not, perhaps, have been her first choice, but his rank and fortune deserved to be considered.

Certainly it was early days to be crossing anyone off the list. ‘I will see him,’ she pronounced.

‘Yes, my lady,’ said Miss Taylor, who had already told Moss to ask the prince to wait. Her ladyship would not hurry down to him. Half an hour, she thought, would be the correct amount of time.

Dismissed by her mistress, Miss Taylor went down to the servants’ hall, where she found the household canvassing the visit. Everyone assumed a proposal was in the offing.

‘Poor Lady Rachel!’ Ellen was saying, with a shudder. ‘I shouldn’t care to have to marry him. He’s so old!’

‘An older husband is not always bad thing,’ Dory said, ‘as long as he’s kind.’

‘Well, I wouldn’t want some dried-up old stick pawing me about,’ Doris said, tossing her head. ‘When I get married, I want a nice, well-set-up young man I can cuddle up to in bed.’

‘It’s different for the nobs,’ said Aggie, one of the hired maids. ‘They marry for the money, and do their cuddling elsewhere.’

‘That’s enough,’ Miss Taylor snapped, catching them all by surprise. ‘It’s not for the likes of you to comment on upstairs matters.’

Dory lifted her head from something she was stitching. ‘Does her ladyship favour the prince, Miss Taylor?’

‘He’s in the running,’ Miss Taylor allowed, in concession to Dory’s greater age and sense. ‘She’ll see him, at least.’

‘And Lady Rachel?’

‘She’s not up yet,’ said Miss Taylor.

‘And not likely to be,’ said Maureen, another hired maid. ‘After dancing the soles out of her shoes last night, the precious! She won’t be awake for hours yet.’

‘She wouldn’t be required to see the prince at this stage, in any case,’ said Miss Taylor, quellingly. ‘It’s for her ladyship to receive all the offers and consider them before putting the final choice before Lady Rachel.’

‘All the offers?’ said Doris. ‘Has there been more, then?’

‘There will be,’ said Miss Taylor, shortly.

‘This prince is getting his word in early,’ said Aggie. ‘He must really want her. Has she got a big dowry, Miss Taylor?’

‘None of your business,’ Miss Taylor snapped. ‘Have none of you got anything to do? I thought you were in charge of the maids,’ she added, with a glare at Dory.

Dory only gave her a sympathetic look in return. She knew, as the outside maids didn’t, that Rachel had next to no dowry, and that it was a sore point with Miss Taylor. ‘Everyone’s a bit tired after the exertions yesterday,’ she said.

‘What has that to do with it? There’s all the clearing up to do.’

Dory distracted her. ‘By the way, there was a velvet opera cloak left in the ladies’ retiring room last night. Pale blue chiffon velvet with a black silk lining. Very expensive. You wouldn’t happen to know which lady left it?’

‘No doubt someone will send round for it,’ Miss Taylor said. ‘I must speak to Mr Moss about the luncheon arrangements,’ she added, and stalked out.

In the yellow drawing-room, Maud found the prince standing by the window staring out at Portman Square gardens.

He turned as she came in, bowed, and gave her a nervous smile.

‘ Gn?dige Gr?fin! Thank you for seeing me,’ he said.

‘I fear I am rather early – the butler seemed surprised. Have I offended?’

‘It is perhaps a little before the conventional hour. But I took it to mean you had something urgent to say to me,’ said Maud, graciously, and extended a hand towards a settle. ‘Won’t you sit down?’

She took the settle opposite, but he put his hands behind his back and said, ‘Forgive me, I feel I must stand. What I have to say is—’ He cleared his throat, fidgeted, and slipped into German. ‘ Es ist aus dem Herzen —’

‘No, no, in English, please,’ Maud interrupted calmly. ‘I cannot hear you in anything but English.’

‘I am not so fluent in English,’ the prince said, ‘and I would wish to do justice to the feelings that bring me here, but it shall be as you wish, gn?dige Gr?fin . I – er – let me first assemble my words.’ He walked away a few steps, paused, and then came back to stand before her, like a supplicant, but still seemed unable to speak.

She liked his uncertainty – it spoke of a proper appreciation of Rachel’s rank and position in society. He should not be too confident that he deserved her. ‘Please,’ she said, with a gracious gesture, ‘open your mind to me. I am listening.’

‘You are so kind! I think it cannot have escaped your notice that since your visit to the Wachturm last year, I have been stricken – overmanned – I have experienced some deep feelings, of a kind that . . .’ He coughed and started again.

‘I am a bachelor, dear lady, though that is not in accordance with my nature, which is, I believe, a domestic one. Yet I have never had the fortune to meet the lady I could give my whole heart to. Until now. You know of my circumstances. It is perhaps not hoflich to speak of money—’

‘In the circumstances, it is permissible,’ Maud murmured.

‘You are most kind. Very well, I am a rich man, if I may say so. Of land and money and all that is desirable I have good store. Houses. Furnishings. Stables. I am in a position to support a wife in comfort. In the first of style. I am well connected and can offer the Eintritt to the courts of Europe. My wife would lack for nothing. And she would most assuredly not lack for the whole love of my heart, my complete devotion.’

‘That is pleasant to hear, Prince, and I think I may say that you are on the list. Naturally I cannot make a decision immediately, before hearing the other offers I confidently expect to receive in the near future, but—’

She stopped because he was looking surprised – no, shocked. He felt behind him for the settle, and sat down rather hard. ‘The list?’ he said, in a ghost of a voice. ‘You are expecting many other offers?’

She was offended. ‘Naturally. What can you be thinking? After last night’s ball, which was a triumph – the King himself was present – you surely cannot believe that you, however eligible you may be, are the only person who will be making an offer for my daughter.’

Now he was quite white. ‘Your daughter? Was bedeutet das? Dear madam! Please, how can you so misunderstand me? Sie is ganz Lieblichkeit – all loveliness – but I do not offer for her. It is not – das ist nicht —’ His half-and-half stammering disintegrated into rapid German and she held up a hand to stop him.

‘In English, sir, in English. What are you saying? I have been aware from the first of your interest. You have taken pains to ingratiate yourself, you have been pointedly attentive, you have come hurrying here at the earliest hour on the day after her debut ball, and now you say, just because I do not close immediately with your offer, that you are withdrawing it? That is not the behaviour of a gentleman, sir.’

‘No, no,’ he moaned. ‘ Bitte verstehe – I did not offer for Lady Rachel! She is perfection, but a child, a mere child. How did you not see it? It is you I have loved from the start, only you I have tried to please!’

Now Maud was as astonished as he had been. ‘But— You have been most attentive to Rachel. Every time we were in company—’

‘To get to know your daughter, I have taken pains, yes, to show you I am good person.’ In his agitation, his English deteriorated.

‘To love you I must love your family. That is correct thing, all understood. But it is you I make offer for! Last night, at the ball, you were so gracious to me, I think you favour me, not? Then this morning, to receive me so kindly as you do, I am all hope. Ich glaubte . . . Sie haben gesagt— ’

Maud stopped him again with a raised hand and said coolly, ‘Let me understand you plainly. Do you tell me you have come here to propose marriage to me ?’

He seemed restored to equilibrium by the clarity.

He slipped from the settle to his knees and captured her hand.

‘Oh, yes !’ he cried, in relieved tones.

‘I wish you to marry me, gn?dige Gr?fin ! I offer you hand, heart and fortune, all I have, all I am. Be my wife. Say you will be Princess of Usingen, and I will be the happiest man in the earth.’

Maud pulled back her hand. ‘Please rise, sir, from that ridiculous posture.’ She felt ruffled, unsettled.

She felt as if someone had made a fool of her, though she could not in fairness blame this awkward man, who seemed to be suffering even more than her.

But really – who would have thought she , a widow of mature years, could be the object of his attentions?

It was almost absurd. She felt uneasily that it would be thought absurd if it were known about, and she hated to be laughed at far more than to be disliked.

She would choose loathing over ridicule every time.

‘You have taken me aback,’ she said, since something had to be said.

He had resumed his seat on the edge of the settle, and was looking at her with a mixture of hope and apprehension. ‘But you will – you may – you do like me? You said I was suitable?’

‘For my daughter.’

‘If for her, then so much more for you, dearest countess!’

‘I am recently widowed.’

‘Not so recent,’ he said, with growing confidence. ‘I have waited, to give you time, to make all decent. At first, yes, it would have been too soon, but I am patient man, I can wait for what I want, and now I believe it is good time.’