Page 80 of The Secrets of Ashmore Castle (Ashmore Castle #1)

Grandmère smelt of face powder and verbena scent, which was nice.

‘How are you settling in at the Castle?’ she asked.

Kitty hesitated just long enough for Grandmère to give her a shrewd look and say, ‘It was always bound to be difficult. Such adjustments take time. And your mother-in-law is a difficult woman.’

Kitty demurred. ‘Oh, no, I’m sure …’

Grandmère laid a wrinkled but elegant hand over hers. ‘You wish to be nice to everyone. Bien , that is a virtue that cannot be taught. But there comes a time when it ceases to serve. There cannot be two mistresses in one house.’

‘But I never thought—’

‘That you would be mistress? But you should, and you must. Attend: the great houses always build a dower house, for the exile of the dowager when the new countess comes. Otherwise life would become un cafouillage . Intolerable. But Maud, your mother-in-law, does not like the dower house. I did not like it either, and preferred to live in Town. Maud does not like Town. So she lingers.’

Kitty shrank. ‘I couldn’t ask her to go.’

‘Of course not.’

‘And I don’t know how to run the house, anyway.’

‘ Entendu. ’

‘Then what must I do?’ Kitty asked helplessly.

‘Invite me to stay,’ said Grandmère. ‘I make the offer at great cost to myself because I do not like to live in the country. But I will come for a few weeks, teach you what to do. How to dress,’ she added, with a comprehensive glance at Kitty’s appearance.

‘And make sure that Maud does not trample you, like a great rampaging elephant.’

‘But she’s not fat ,’ Kitty protested, slightly shocked.

‘Elephants are not fat. Merely one cannot ignore them. Maud will not acknowledge the fact that she is now the dowager until someone makes her, and that cannot be you, ca se voit. ’

‘May I ask a question? If she is the dowager, what are you?’

‘I am dowager too. You may think of me as the double-dowager.’ Kitty laughed.

‘Usually there are not two, because countesses have many children and are so worn out with child-bearing they die young. I had only the one, so I shall live to a ripe old age. You must do better than me, but do not have as many as Maud.’ She sighed.

‘Poor thing, one must pity her. She has not had an easy life.’ She gave Kitty a frank look.

‘I shall tell you her story one day, and you shall pity her, too, but not yet. For now, you must have no pity, or she will crush you. So?’ She raised her eyebrows at Kitty.

‘Yes, ma’am – your ladyship?’ Kitty was confused.

‘Invite me to stay,’ she said impatiently. ‘And you may call me Grandmère.’

‘Would you please come and stay at the Castle – Grandmère?’ Kitty said dutifully.

‘I shall think about it,’ said Grandmère. ‘I do not like the country very much, and I have a great many engagements.’

At that moment Richard joined them. ‘I can see you are looking thoroughly bewildered, Kitty. Is my wicked grandmother winding you in her toils?’

‘I asked her if she would come and stay at the Castle,’ Kitty said doubtfully. ‘I’m not sure if she said yes.’

Richard saw his grandmother’s teasing smile, and leaned down to kiss her cheek. ‘Cruel creature! Tormenting little kittens. Remember our Pusscat doesn’t understand your ways yet.’

Grandmère was intrigued by ‘Pusscat’. ‘ Tu sens quelque chose ,’ she said, looking from Richard to Kitty.

‘ Bien s?r ,’ Richard shrugged. ‘ Pourquoi non? Elle est vertueuse et agréable .’

‘Hmm,’ said Grandmère.

‘Her ladyship enjoyed herself so much this morning,’ Giles said. ‘She ought to have the opportunity of riding whenever she likes. What is there that will carry sidesaddle?’

Archer and Giddins looked at each other. ‘Did Bee not go well for her, my lord?’ Archer asked.

‘Yes, her ladyship managed her nicely, but my mother likes to ride most days. What else is there?’

‘Well, my lord, nothing really,’ said Giddins. ‘Kestrel has carried sidesaddle in the past, but his paces are poor. And he’s got a hard mouth. I wouldn’t like to trust her ladyship to him – she might not be able to hold him.’

‘Then we must buy something for her,’ Giles said. ‘You must look around for me. I’m too busy to do it myself right now. Try to find something as soon as possible.’ He was turning away, and turned back to say, ‘Why are we keeping Kestrel, if he’s hard-mouthed and poor-paced?’

‘His late lordship liked him for hacking, my lord,’ said Archer. ‘They got on together, as you might say.’

‘You’d better sell him, then. I shan’t ride him.’

‘Very good, my lord. Er – will you be hunting this winter, my lord?’ Archer asked. ‘Because we did ought to look into getting a couple of hunters for you, if you are, you having sold his late lordship’s youngsters.’

‘I suppose time is getting on,’ Giles sighed. ‘Put the word out for me, will you?’

Both men brightened. ‘Nothing easier, my lord,’ said Giddins. ‘In fact, I heard that Lord Shacklock had some nice hunters he was selling. I could drive over first and try them out, and if they seem suitable, you could have a look at them after, when it was convenient.’

‘If they’re nice, why is he selling them?’ Giles asked suspiciously.

The men exchanged a glance, and Giddins answered reluctantly. ‘His younger son’s mounts, my lord. Mr Crispian had a bad fall, racing across country in the summer. Killed hisself.’

‘Ah,’ said Giles. They obviously thought it was a sore point.

*

Nina went in to breakfast, to find her aunt absent. ‘She went out early, miss,’ said Haydock. ‘She said she wouldn’t be long, but for you not to wait.’

Nina took her lone breakfast in silence.

She had had a restless night, but her thoughts were tranquil now.

She had gone over and over the arguments in her head, and was satisfied that she had come to the right decision.

She was lingering over her second cup when Aunt Schofield came back.

She heard her in the hall, talking to Haydock as he took her coat and hat; and then she came in, with a parcel under her arm.

Unusually, she closed the morning-room door behind her.

‘I have something to show you, Nina,’ she said, and there was tension in her face, as though she had had to come to a difficult decision. ‘Clear a space at the end of the table.’

Nina obeyed, and Aunt Schofield put down the parcel, unwrapped it, and removed a large book.

‘I have gone to some trouble to borrow this,’ she said, ‘because women are forbidden to look at it. I had to ask Mr Carnoustie, who obliged his friend Professor McLaren at the Royal Free to do him a favour. He lectures in anatomy.’

‘Anatomy?’ Nina said, surprised.

‘Yes, child. There are things that I’m afraid most girls go into marriage in ignorance of, but I will not have that happen to you. Whether you marry Mr Cowling or someone else, you shall understand what is involved. Come and stand beside me.’

Nina went, feeling very awkward. She saw there were bookmarks at various points in the large, cloth-bound tome. Anatomy. That means bodies. Am I going to be embarrassed?

‘To begin,’ said Aunt Schofield, and opened the book at a drawing of a naked woman, but with the inside parts drawn in. ‘You have a tube in your body, which allows excess liquid to pass out – here.’

‘Yes,’ said Nina. It was embarrassing – but interesting.

‘You may or may not know, that in the male of the species, this tube is extended beyond the body, in a sort of pipe.’

Ah, thought Nina. ‘In India, when I was a child, I sometimes saw the gardeners – um – relieving themselves in the bushes. They had—’

‘Very well. This male pipe is properly called the penis. And it contains not only the tube for excess water, but another tube that connects with the part of their body that makes the seeds of life. Just as you have, inside your body, another tube, or passage here —’ She showed Nina on the drawing ‘—connecting with the womb, which is the place that new life grows.’

‘I’ve heard of the womb,’ Nina said. ‘And I know babies grow in there. But I didn’t know – I wasn’t sure …’

‘Of course not. Girls are not meant to know. The very idea of discussing it out loud as we are now doing is shocking, and the main reason men have always resisted the idea of women becoming doctors. Fortunately, I married a most enlightened man, who borrowed a book very similar to this one in order that I should understand that most important process for the continuation of life. So I, in my turn, am enlightening you.’

‘Thank you,’ Nina said hesitantly. She didn’t feel very grateful.

‘Very well,’ said Aunt Schofield. ‘To continue. When a man and woman are married, at time of passion, the male pipe, or penis, becomes rigid, enabling it to be introduced into the female passage, to pass the seed into her. The seed thus travels up into the womb and implants itself.’

‘Oh,’ said Nina. Her cheeks felt very hot but her stomach felt cold.

Aunt Schofield went on relentlessly. ‘In good time, when the baby is ready to be born, it passes out of the female body through the same passage, which is extremely flexible and can expand sufficiently to allow the infant to pass. Do you understand?’

‘Yes,’ said Nina. ‘I think so.’ She supposed it was better to know than not to know, but it was a lot suddenly to digest.

‘I mean, do you understand why I am telling you this?’ Aunt Schofield insisted.

Nina looked at her, then quickly away. ‘Oh,’ she said. Now she understood.

‘If you marry Mr Cowling, you will go through this process with him. He will expect it, and it will be your duty to co-operate. Men differ from each other, but in general they get great pleasure from the process, which makes them eager to do it often, sometimes every night.’

‘I see,’ said Nina.

Aunt Schofield closed the book. ‘It is something for you to think about, before you make your decision.’ She began to turn away, then turned back. ‘Is there anything you want to ask me?’ she said, in a kinder voice.

‘Yes,’ said Nina, but she didn’t know how to phrase it.

She rehearsed it in her head, but it was still hard to say.

‘Did you—?’ No, that was not the way. She cleared her throat.

‘What I mean is – you say it is pleasant for the man. But is it not for the woman? When you were married, was it hard for you to – to bear it?’

Aunt Schofield paused for so long, Nina thought she wasn’t going to answer.

‘It was not un pleasant. Not hard to bear. I’d say it was a tiresome necessity, on the whole.

But sometimes …’ Another pause. ‘Sometimes there was a feeling of – of warmth and comfort. And one likes to please one’s husband, if one cares about him.

’ She turned firmly away. ‘That is all I have to say. Think about what I’ve told you.

’ And she left the room, taking the book with her.

Nina realised now why she had shut the morning-room door – so that Minny should not come in and see it by accident.