Page 67 of The Secrets of Ashmore Castle (Ashmore Castle #1)

Aunt Schofield was invited to a dinner party by Lady Manningtree.

It was not simply a card but a letter, citing their acquaintance at school, and speaking warmly of Nina; otherwise she might have made an excuse, ton parties not being to her taste.

But to be invited so specifically and cordially …

And when she mentioned it, she saw that Nina wanted to go, so she accepted for both.

Lady Manningtree engaged her at once in conversation, talking about school and their common acquaintances, and Richard made a bee-line for Nina.

‘I haven’t seen you in an age,’ he said. ‘Have you had a letter from the honeymooners?’

‘Just one, from Kitty,’ said Nina.

It had not said very much – had been little more than a list of sights she had seen – but it had ended with an emphatic sentence about longing to see her again. ‘So much more to tell you than I can write down. You must come and stay with us at the Castle when we return.’

Nina did, of course, have a curiosity to see the Castle, and she missed the friend she had been so close to for three years; but she really did not want that invitation to arrive.

To go in under the roof of a Kitty married to Giles Stainton, to see them together, to be forced to be in his company – no, that was not a good idea.

Better for her, certainly, that the friendship should die, and that she should never see them again.

She was not of their rank in life, anyway.

Perhaps when – if – the invitation came she would be working somewhere as a teacher and unable to take the time off.

To Richard, she said, ‘She sounded as though they were happy.’

‘Really?’ he said. ‘Well, I’m glad, if surprised. I had a letter from Giles that was nothing but holocausts and mosaics and pillars and pediments. You’d think he had married the ruins of Pompeii, not a flesh-and-blood woman.’

‘Was it very different from any other letter he’s ever written to you?’ Nina asked shrewdly.

‘I’m not sure that he has ever written to me before,’ Richard said, ‘but I see your point. And, no, he is not the sort of man to gush about his feelings. Bits of broken columns alone have the power to move him. A dull stick, my brother. Well,’ he dusted off his hands, ‘that deals with the subject of our mutual friends. Now we can talk about something much more gripping – ourselves.’

‘You really think that will be interesting?’

‘Of course,’ he said, feigning surprise.

‘I’ll go first. What have I been doing? I’ve been in Biarritz with my aunt and grandmother.

Dull work, when the rest of the family was in Scotland for the grouse shooting.

But I was still too knocked up to go.’ He gestured to his injured arm.

‘My uncle has a place on the Spey. Glorious scenery, if you like that sort of thing.’

‘Don’t you?’

‘Well, I’m not completely insensitive to grand sweeping panoramas of purple hills and brooding forests – rather Biblical, I’ve always thought. And of an early morning, the reflections in the still waters of a loch would have me reaching for the water-colours, if I had ever learned to paint.’

‘Goodness! How poetical.’

He narrowed his eyes. ‘You mock me, Miss Sanderton?’

‘I had put you down as a Town bird. I must humbly beg your pardon for misjudging you.’

‘You are mocking me! Jolly good. Makes our relationship much easier. Of course, I’m a Town bird when I’m in Town, which is often, but I was brought up in the country, and it does have the power to move me, when it takes me unawares.’

‘When you have small helpless animals to kill?’

‘I am a hunter, Miss Sanderton, like my forefathers back to the dawn of time. I eat what I kill – little birds and great big fish. And don’t give me that look! You eat birds and fish too, but leave the killing of them to someone else. How do you think that salmon gets onto the fishmonger’s slab?’

‘Salmon does not often come my way,’ Nina said demurely. ‘A little scrap of cod, perhaps, now and then.’

‘Now you’re being naughty. You look perfectly well fed to me. Now, your turn – what have you been up to?’

‘Apart from having my likeness taken?’

‘Good heavens, yes. I’ve seen your lovely features in the Harlequinade . Periodicals take a while to reach us in France, but I did see you impersonating Britannia with a very meek lion at your feet. Was it stuffed? Or did Mawes Morris import a real live animal to do you justice?’

She laughed. ‘Neither. The lion was copied at the Natural History Museum.’

‘I’m relieved to hear it. What else?’

‘Not much. Reading and studying, mostly. And I’ve been looking for a teaching post.’

‘With any success?’

‘I did see one advertisement, but it was for a small school in rural Berkshire. My aunt said I would be teaching farm children their primers, and that it would be a waste of my education. And another was for a school in Scotland, but again it was only for little ones. I was hoping to teach older girls.’

‘I do remember you said you were going to be a teacher,’ said Richard. ‘I hoped you weren’t serious.’

‘I was. I must earn my living. What about you?’

‘I have no desire to be a teacher.’

‘You know perfectly well what I mean. Don’t you have to earn yours?’

‘I suppose when my brother comes home the question will be raised. I’m enjoying the last of my freedom at this moment. It’s like a beautiful dream – please don’t wake me up.’

‘Reality must be faced,’ Nina said. ‘What can you do? What are your skills?’

‘All I’ve done so far is soldiering. Younger sons traditionally go into one of the professions, but the law requires years of training and I’m too old for that. And the Church requires something else that I’m not prepared to give.’

‘No, I can’t see you as a churchman. What’s left?’

‘I don’t know. Dear me, how serious this conversation has got. Let’s talk about something else.’

Nina didn’t oblige. ‘Perhaps you could marry an heiress, like your brother.’

‘That bordered on the sharp, Miss Sanderton! The trouble is, he has a title to exchange, and I haven’t. No, if anyone marries me, it will have to be for love. And I don’t think I’m very lovable.’

‘If you’re fishing for compliments …’

He grinned. ‘How refreshingly frank you are! I wish I could marry you . If only either of us had a fortune … I could marry you and save you from becoming a teacher.’

‘If I had a fortune, I shouldn’t need to marry you,’ she pointed out.

He pouted. ‘Now you’ve hurt my feelings. Don’t you want to marry me?’

‘You’d be very high on my list, I assure you …’

‘… if you had a list,’ he finished for her.

*

Giles had given James a present of money to thank him for his part in rescuing Kitty, and enjoined him not to talk about the incident. ‘Of course not, sir,’ said James, with his most loyal look.

Of course, everyone downstairs at the villa was talking about nothing else, in a mixture of English and Italian, and he enjoyed his moment in the spotlight as sole eye-witness and hero of the hour.

Since no-one else had been there, he was able to adjust his part in the rescue until his lordship was little more than an onlooker.

The Lombardi staff were impressed by James’s courage and endurance in undertaking a long and dangerous swim to rescue the little contessa, and even more by his modesty in insisting it was nothing, really.

That was so English! They couldn’t hear the story often enough.

Marie gave him a cynical look as they were cleaning shoes together one day. ‘You’ll get caught out one day, telling all those lies.’

‘What lies?’ he said defensively.

‘You told me you couldn’t swim.’

‘I can swim a bit. And when danger threatens like that – well, you find inner resources.’

‘Inner resources? Where did you learn that piece of flannel?’

‘Has her ladyship said anything to you?’ he asked uneasily.

‘Course not. Tight as an oyster that one, when it comes to anything to do with his lordship. I just know you, that’s all. You’re not the hero type.’

‘Well, his lordship thought so. You saw the money he gave me.’

‘For helping. Never mind, you can tell whatever story you like – I don’t care. I’ll just be glad to get away from this place. There was one of those lizards on the ceiling again this morning.’ She shuddered.

‘They don’t hurt you. That gardener, Jacopo, says they’re a good thing – they eat the scorpions.’

‘I don’t want scorpions in my room either, thank you very much.’

‘You’ve changed your mind about getting a place out here, then?’

‘I’m sick of being in service. From what I gather, my lord and lady mean to spend most of their time down in the country. That doesn’t suit me at all.’

‘Don’t you like the country?’ She shrugged. ‘You could get another place.’

‘That Miss Latham hinted she was looking for a French maid, but I’d still be a lady’s maid, and she’s not even a ladyship, so I’d be worse off. No, I want a real change.’

‘Look here,’ he said, ‘why don’t we make plans together? I’m sick of being in service, too. With that money his lordship give me, I’ve got enough now. I dare say you’ve got savings, too.’

‘What if I have?’ she said cagily.

‘We should throw in our lot together, like we said at the beginning. Start up a little business.’

She gave him a distinctly unflattering look. ‘Yes, and I know what other lot you’d expect me to throw in! No thank you.’

He was taken aback. ‘Don’t you fancy me, then?’

‘Not half as much as you fancy yourself.’

‘I bet you’ve never even done it,’ he said, to hurt her.

But she just laughed. ‘No, and I never will. I’m not that stupid! Men get all the fun, and all women get is toil and babies. I’ve got a plan, and it doesn’t include you.’

‘What plan? I bet you haven’t.’

‘I’m going to skip on the way back through Paris. Join one of those couture houses, learn a few tricks, then start up on my own. I know what ladies like – and they’ll like it even more that I speak English. I can make a fortune in a few years.’

‘I could help,’ he said feebly. ‘I could—’

‘Be the chucker-out?’