Page 69 of The Mistress of Ashmore Castle (Ashmore Castle #3)

While laying on the flattery, Afton pushed the log gently at him, and Moss took it automatically, while still murmuring that he didn’t know, really.

As he began to leaf through it, his attention was caught, and he picked out pieces to comment on.

‘Oh, the Indian epergne! We had that out for Lady Linda’s wedding, filled with roses, pink and white.

Looked a treat, it did! Made to commemorate the old Queen when she was named Empress of India.

All the big houses had Empire parties that year .

. . Ah, the silver name holders. Her ladyship – her dowager ladyship – never liked them.

Thought it a vulgar idea. Like a boarding-school, she said once.

And they’re only plated, not the real thing .

. . The silver chargers, now: they were for when they used to have service à la Russe in the old days.

You took them off with the soup bowl. There was a service of fifty originally, for banquets, but there’s only a dozen now.

The rest got sold. Might as well have sold the lot, I say, because when would you use them, with only twelve at table? ’

‘It’s the less often used pieces, Mr Moss, where the problem is. The real antiques.’

‘Oh, we used to have a beautiful nef when I first came, old as the hills. Enormous great thing in the shape of a galleon, took two to lift it, and the detail! All the rigging and flags and little people on the deck, and even a tiny anchor hanging over the side to stop it rolling! Last used for the Golden Jubilee banquet, just as a decoration. Got sold since then, though, sadly. I’ve an idea it ended up at Waddesdon. ’

‘Just so. Could you have a look through, see if you can spot anything that’s not been logged?’

‘Hmm. Hmm. Wait a minute!’ He was running his finger down the pages towards the back of the register now, and stopped, went back, went forward, and frowned.

‘There should be two Charles the second silver sugar casters – they’re not down here.

’ He went back and forward again, painstakingly.

‘No, they should be on the list. I remember seeing them when we did the inventory, because I commented that I was surprised they hadn’t been sold, given they’re never used.

Too big, you see. Got forgotten at the back of the cupboard, I suppose.

I don’t know why they’re not on the list, because they’re definitely there. ’

‘Thanks. I’ll see the register gets corrected. Anything else?’

‘Hmm. Hmm. Wait, now – yes, there should be a set of six silver-gilt berry spoons. George the second they were, James and Josiah Williams, 1854. We had them out for Lady Alice’s christening, but not since.

The silver of ’em was getting so thin, the edge was like a razor – you could cut your tongue on it.

They were in a green morocco case with a black velvet lining. ’

‘Anything else?’

‘I can’t see any more, but that’s enough, isn’t it? Reflects very bad on me when the plate book’s not kept up proper.’

‘Well, mistakes will happen. This isn’t your handwriting, is it?’

‘No, it was William took the things out of the cupboards, I called out the descriptions, and James wrote them down. Hook, as he now is. How could he miss things out?’

‘It’s easy to lose concentration when you’re doing a long job like that.’

‘A good servant never loses concentration,’ Moss said indignantly. ‘But these youngsters – careless, sloppy work! In my day—’

The maid, Betty, poked her head round the door. ‘Beg pardon, Mr Moss, front door. Cook says d’you want me to go?’

‘Certainly not. I shall attend to it,’ said Moss, heaving himself up.

‘I’ll slip away, Mr Moss, don’t want to get in your way. Thank you for your help. And I’ll give them all your regards up at the Castle.’

‘Yes – yes, do. Very well,’ Moss said vaguely, as he bustled out, his mind clearly flown to his present duties and the necessity of squashing lowly general maids.

Richard arrived at Golden Square and showed himself up – Mrs Gateshill, the landlady, was always glad of an excuse not to climb the stairs. He entered the room into what was plainly an Atmosphere. He looked from Molly Sands to her daughter Chloe, and said bluntly, ‘What’s happened?’

‘Good afternoon, Mr Tallant, yes-thank-you-we-are-quite-well,’ Molly prompted.

He shook his head. ‘I’m not an idiot. I can see you’re upset. Have you been quarrelling?’

‘Of course not,’ Chloe answered, before Molly could speak. ‘Mother and I never quarrel.’

‘We’ve had some news,’ Molly said. She intercepted a look from her daughter, and said, ‘He’ll have to know sooner or later. And I’d like his opinion.’

‘Well, then, I’ll tell it,’ Chloe said firmly. ‘You’ll try to make it sound bad.’ She turned to face Richard squarely. ‘Sir Thomas has offered me a flat.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Now the new term has started at the college, he would like me to move into a flat he owns.’

‘Just you?’ Richard asked pointedly, with a glance at Molly.

‘You’ve gone straight to the heart of it,’ Molly said. ‘When a rich gentleman wants to put a young girl into a flat—’

‘“ Put ”? You see, I knew that’s what you would do!

’ Chloe interrupted, with a spark of anger.

Her usually porcelain face took on a touch of colour.

‘Listen to me , Richard. He has a service flat in a block behind the Albert Hall. An elderly aunt used to live there, and when she died, he didn’t dispose of it, in case he ever needed it—’

‘To house his paramours?’ Richard asked lightly.

‘ No! To stay in if he needed it – for instance, if a concert at the hall ended late and he missed his train. But, as it happens, he’s never used it.

It’s spacious, and quiet, a bit old-fashioned, but comfortable.

And before you ask, there’s a live-in housekeeper, a very steady middle-aged woman, who would take care of me, so it’s entirely respectable.

And it has a seven-foot concert grand in the drawing-room. ’

‘Ah,’ said Richard. ‘Now I see the attraction.’

‘Please don’t be hurt. The piano here is splendid, and we’re very grateful to you for buying it for us, but I need constant access to a superior instrument.’

‘Don’t you have that at the college?’

‘I have to share with the other students. Sir Thomas wants me to work seriously on Schumann this term. He wants me to work towards a concert at the Queen’s Hall, which he will sponsor, a concerto with full orchestra.

’ She looked at him with raised eyebrows, to see if he understood the full glory of it.

‘It will be my public debut. And afterwards – perhaps there might be a trip overseas, concerts in Paris and Berlin.’

‘You see?’ Molly appealed to Richard. ‘Would he do all this for her – at enormous expense – and put her in a flat, if he didn’t expect something in return?’

‘Mother!’ Chloe coloured in anger.

‘Your mother’s right,’ Richard said, trying to keep the atmosphere calm. ‘Gentlemen don’t lavish time and money on a beautiful young woman—’

‘Beautiful!’ Chloe said witheringly. ‘What has that to do with it?’

‘Everything, I’m afraid. You have no idea how shallow, vacuous and venal men are, even the best of them. Lavishing time and money, as I was saying, on a beautiful young woman for nothing but smiles seems unlikely. A man does not purchase an orchard without wanting to taste the fruit.’

‘Don’t be disgusting,’ Chloe said, but without heat now. She was dismissing his opinion. ‘You don’t understand.’

‘I understand that, even with a housekeeper, tongues will wag.’

‘What do I care if they do?’

‘You’ll care if people won’t come to your concerts because they think you’re a fallen woman.’ He saw that point, at least, strike home. ‘If the flat is large and spacious, as you say, why can’t your mother live there with you?’

‘My point exactly,’ Molly said.

‘Because I need to be alone to work,’ Chloe said. ‘ We need to be alone to work. Having Mother fluttering around worrying about what people might think and watching every movement in case a hand accidentally brushes an arm—’

‘As if I would!’

‘You would. And then there’d be your pupils, coming and going, banging away at their scales and “Frère Jacques”. How could I concentrate?’

Richard intervened before Molly could explode. ‘Chloe,’ he said seriously, ‘this man means you harm.’

She looked at him for a long moment, a clear, rather pitying look. ‘Oh, Richard, do you think I don’t know about men’s lust? Music is full of it. I’m not a child – and I know you’ll say, “That’s the point.”’

‘You anticipate me.’

‘But I know him . He hides nothing from me. And I can control him. He will never do anything I don’t want him to.

He treasures my ability beyond anything else that might be in his mind.

It’s the music, don’t you see? The music is everything.

He would never risk that for a moment’s base pleasure.

And I would never jeopardise my career by a moment’s inattention.

I think,’ she added thoughtfully, stopping Richard as he was about to speak, ‘that he’s rather afraid of me. ’

Molly groaned and put her face into her hands, but Richard studied the beautifully sculpted face and calm, clear eyes before him, and after a moment he said, ‘I think he might well be. I think I would be, if I’d had the misfortune to fall in love with you.’

She wrinkled her nose and laughed, suddenly human. ‘Misfortune?’

‘A man wishes to be first in the heart of the woman he loves,’ he said seriously, ‘and the best a man could ever be with you is second – to music.’

Molly emerged and looked questioningly from one to the other.