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Unmoved, she regarded him in silence, her green eyes inscrutable. ‘Only for a few more days, I hope, my lord,’ she said, again without expression. ‘My grandfather cannot be far from Beldale now and I hope that I can prevail upon him to remove me to some—other accommodation—until he is ready to return us to his own home.’
Sandford stared in hopeless frustration at her rigid countenance. ‘Oh, that will create a fine impression of our hospitality, won’t it?’ he said sarcastically. ‘I’m sure it will please my parents wonderfully!’
Harriet’s face flamed resentfully and she glared at him from under her dark lashes.
‘Oh, a veritable hit, my lord!’ she said scornfully. ‘Although it will probably come as a great surprise to you to know that neither Lord William nor Lady Caroline seem to share your low opinion of me …’
‘Stow it, Harriet,’ he cried hoarsely, his own cheeks flushing, ‘you know damned well that I don’t have a low opinion of you!’
‘It has improved, then, since yesterday, my lord?’ she asked witheringly. ‘For I seem to remember that you thought me totally beyond the pale only twenty-four hours since!’
‘I’m not proud of what I said yesterday,’ he exclaimed heatedly. ‘I was angry—you know I was angry!’
‘It appears to be a particular failing of your lordship’s,’ she rejoined. ‘However, perhaps you could manage to hold yourself in check for the next few hours, as I see we have arrived at our destination. If I could have your hand, my lord?’
Sandford was obliged to stifle the retort that was forming on his lips and, inwardly seething, he sprang out of the carriage to give her his hand.
Judith swept into the hall to welcome them. Harriet was delighted to observe that her friend seemed to have put off her blacks for good, for she was wearing a most becoming gown of lavender silk. The two girls devoted the next few minutes to comparing styles and laughingly exchanging extravagant compliments with one another.
Sandford, handing their cloaks to the waiting Finchley, quickly registered the return of Harriet’s normal lively disposition and, in spite of the earlier setback, was once more determined to take full advantage of any opportunity that might arise.
‘Come along into the drawing-room,’ smiled Judith. ‘Mother and Charles are waiting for us …’
‘Charles is dining with us?’ asked Sandford, in some surprise.
Judith nodded, a slight blush staining her cheeks. ‘The more the merrier, wouldn’t you say?’ she said, as they entered the room. ‘And, since you have lived in each other’s pockets all week, I was afraid that you might begin to feel deprived if you were separated for too long!’
‘Very amusing!’ Sandford said with a grin, striding forward to present his compliments to Lady Butler. ‘Evening, ma’am, I trust I find you in good health?’
Her ladyship gave him a pale smile.
‘Glad to see that you, in any event, are in such good spirits,’ she said, fanning herself ostentatiously. ‘I myself find this warm weather quite overpowering—I believe your Miss Cordell suffers from a similar weakness—if we are to believe what we hear?’
She looked towards Harriet, who appeared to be involved in some sort of amusing wordplay with Ridgeway. An expression of contempt came into Lady Butler’s eyes as she continued, ‘I cannot think what possessed Judith to invite her bailiff to eat his dinner with us. Although, I am obliged to point out that it is all of a piece with her conduct since you brought your—young lady back with you to Beldale. A certain laxity of standards, you might say—I must suppose that she has been filling my daughter’s head with some sort of foreign egalitarian nonsense!’
‘Surely Judith has been far too well brought up by your own good self to be influenced by the word of a mere soldier’s girl?’ returned Sandford, who was, as usual, intensely irritated at Lady Butler’s appalling rudeness but, at the same time, fiendishly interested to see how far on to her own cleft stick he could pinion her. He was gradually beginning to understand how Philip had handled the old harridan and why his father found her so amusing.
She glowered at him in silence for a moment or two, fidgeting with her fan. ‘How very like your brother you are,’ she said diffidently. ‘That he should perish on his own doorstep in a carriage accident, while you escaped unscathed after ten years of war in some foreign land, strikes me as being grossly unfair—but life is so, as I am constantly reminded!’
Sandford, staggered at her outrageous insensitivity, was momentarily lost for words. ‘I’m afraid that I cannot find it in me to apologise for my survival, ma’am, he managed eventually. ‘As to unscathed, I can assure you that I have a fine scar on my leg …’ He gently patted his right thigh.
‘Really, sir!’ she protested. ‘I have told you before that I will not have such unsavoury topics in my house!’
‘My brother’s house, I believe, madam,’ he corrected her with stiff politeness, ‘Or, in any event, Judith’s, to hold in trust for his son!’
As this rejoinder seemed to have the effect of reducing her ladyship to an affronted silence, he decided that he had done more than his share of duty insofar as she was concerned, especially as the uneasy pause allowed him to become increasingly conscious of the sounds of merriment that were emanating from the group at the pianoforte.
‘May I bring you a drink?’ he forced himself to ask Lady Butler, his natural good manners once more to the fore. ‘I see Pinter hovering with a tray and our Cousin Charles is always so reluctant to push himself forward—unlike myself. Lemonade, perhaps?’
She shook her head ungraciously, unfurling her fan and fluttering it affectedly to and fro across her fleshy cheeks—looking for all the world like some giant puce porpoise floundering on a rock, he thought ungallantly as he made his way across the room.
Harriet and Ridgeway were seated together at the pianoforte, attempting to construct a duet, the former never having had a lesson in her life and the latter unable to recall many of his. That they were managing to produce anything resembling a tune was due partly to Harriet’s excellent ear and, mainly, to Judith’s hastily mouthed instructions to Ridgeway. Much laughter ensued and Sandford pessimistically predicted that his appearance would be certain to create a damper.
To his astonishment, however, Harriet leapt at once to her feet as he approached and, taking him by the hand, pulled him over to the instrument, begging Ridgeway to relinquish his seat.
‘—for I now have a much more proficient partner in Robert!’ she cried gaily, apparently oblivious to the look in his eyes as he sat down beside her. ‘Come now, dearest. Show how it is perfectly possible for two to devise a tune between them. I shall choose the chords and you must add all the terribly clever trills and runs that you are so good at! We have done this on many occasions so I know that it is not beyond your capabilities!’
Not quite out of his depth, for he was a competent pianist,
Sandford waited until she struck her first chord, a C major and, thinking swiftly, he tentatively executed a few notes of a popular tune, hoping that the expected G would follow. It came on the beat without hesitation and so, between the two of them, the little ditty was rendered almost perfectly, to the delight of the two spectators, who clapped most heartily at its conclusion.
‘Now that you see how it is done,’ Harriet said to Judith, ‘you and Charles should do far better than we did, for you both have the benefit of a musical education and you, I know, play beautifully.’
So Judith and Ridgeway took their places and their little piece was performed with more zest than skill, due to the laughter that accompanied its execution, but they jubilantly managed to finish at one and the same time, just as Finchley entered to announce that dinner was served.
Judith insisted that, as their number was odd, formalities would be dispensed with and that they must all go directly to the dining-room without further ado; she herself would accompany Lady Butler. Several of the leaves had been removed from the large mahogany table, which enabled the small group to disport themselves within comfortable speaking distance of one another, and still allowed for the prodigious number of side dishes to be positioned within reach.
Judith took the head of the table with the two men seated, one on each side of their hostess, at the top, Lady Butler to Ridgeway’s left and Harriet to the viscount’s right.
Harriet, true to her word, gave a dedicated impersonation of a loving bride-to-be in addition to keeping up her cheerful bonhomie. She was momentarily disconcerted, at various intervals throughout the splendid meal, to find Lady Butler’s disapproving eyes upon her. However, all through the soup, fish, meat and game courses she continued with her amusing repartee, occasioning Judith to upset her wine glass because
she was laughing so much, and her friend’s mother to tuttut even more vigorously at everyone’s unseemly behaviour! Ridgeway, alternately grinning at Harriet’s witticisms and smiling into Judith’s shining eyes, was happy simply to be at his goddess’s table.
Sandford, on the other hand, was in a perpetual state of nervous tension. One minute he was laughing along with the others and the next finding himself contemplating Lady Butler’s rigid disapproval of the merriment at the dinner table. Most of all, however, he was acutely conscious of Harriet’s vivacious and captivating nearness, her deliberate and pointed use of his given name and the constant flashing of her smile in his direction. For which dedicated attentions, he reflected gloomily, he would surely be paying dearly before the day ended so he decided he might as well make the most of them and set about entering into her pantomime with gusto.
At last the desserts were brought in. The lively exchanges had continued through a widely ranging number of light-hearted topics, everyone carefully avoiding the more contentious issues of corn prices, royal scandals and the like, any of which could be guaranteed to depress the spirits. The latest novels were touched upon briefly and, when local matters arose, Sandford, catching the flicker of concern in Harriet’s eyes, was quick to steer the conversation away from her woodland escapade, in spite of Lady Butler’s prurient curiosity in that event. Instead, he regaled them with the story of his own confrontation with Josh Potter when the old man heard that Bottom Meadow cottages were about to be pulled down.
‘Such ripe language as he used is not for repetition in mixed company, of course,’ he concluded teasingly. ‘But I feel sure that, could he but walk the distance, he would do his utmost to disrupt the entire proceedings.’
Ridgeway and Judith joined in his laughter, but Harriet’s face became suddenly serious and she stared at them reproachfully.
‘Oh, but I can readily sympathise with his feelings!’ she exclaimed.
‘That much is clear, for the whole village is agog with your kindness to him.’ Judith smiled fondly at her friend. ‘It was such a—well—a Harriet sort of thing to do!’
Harriet blushed and lowered her eyes as the two men grinned at Judith’s choice of words. Lady Butler, however, pricked up her ears.
‘What kindness was this?’ she asked, in saccharine tones. ‘Do tell me more.’
‘There is really nothing to tell, ma’am, disclaimed Harriet hurriedly. ‘I merely returned one of his damaged possessions to him. He—he was a little effusive in his gratitude, that is all. Please do not laugh. It is a dreadful thing to lose one’s home. I, myself, know this only too well!’
In the ensuing silence Sandford, his eyes full of compassion, reached out to clasp her hand and she made no attempt pull away from him.
Her ladyship studied her thoughtfully for a moment then, turning to the viscount, she reverted to the topic of the cottages.
‘You intend to replace them or merely to clear the site?’ she asked. ‘I was under the impression that the new ones in the upper meadow were already a replacement.’
Ridgeway answered for his clearly distracted cousin. ‘That was the idea originally, ma’am,’ he said. ‘But as more of our lads return from the continent, we are finding that accommodation is scarce, especially for youngsters wanting to get wed and set up their own homes. And you know that Beldale likes to take care of his people.’
‘I should have thought it would be difficult to justify such an expense at the moment—I hear that Beldale is threatening to cut back as it is!’
She sat back in her chair, satisfied that her words had hit their mark.
Sandford looked ill at ease and, raising accusing eyes to his sister-in-law’s, he encountered her shocked and guilty expression.
‘I didn’t say ‘'cut back'', Mama,’ she said, in some confusion. ‘I merely mentioned that Robert and Charles were devising some sort of consolidation for the estates—at least—’ she turned to Sandford ‘—that is what I inferred from our conversation?’
‘That’s all it is, Judith,’ he returned, with feigned good humour. ‘Just one of several ideas we’re considering. I told you to forget about it. You must know that we would consult you about anything that might affect Westpark.’
‘But, of course!’ Lady Butler was at pains to point out. ‘Although it is hardly for our bailiff to be making major decisions regarding our property!’
There was an uncomfortable pause as Judith coloured violently and Ridgeway, eyes fixed on the table in front of him, clenched his fists between his knees.
The meal was completed in subdued undertones, Sandford ruefully conscious of all the effort that Harriet had spent in contributing to the evening’s earlier success. Looking sideways at her pensive expression, he had a desperate longing to take her in his arms and soothe away her hurts and fears, in spite of her angry declaration that he was ‘not that man'.
Finally, when all the covers had been removed and the decanters placed at the gentlemen’s elbows, Judith rose to escort the ladies from the room. Lady Butler, with her usual officious manner, deemed it necessary to linger behind to point out some deficiency or other to Finchley and instructed the two men not to linger over their drinks, before following her daughter from the room.
Left to themselves, Sandford and Ridgeway relaxed and the viscount, pouring his cousin a large glass of brandy, grinned sympathetically and said, ‘You look as though you need that, old chum! Get it down you and let’s talk!’
‘I’d drink the whole bottle if I thought it would answer,’ said Ridgeway, with a grimace. ‘But it didn’t serve my father, so its efficacy is clearly in doubt!’
Sandford contemplated him gravely for a moment or two before taking a sip of his own drink. ‘What do you hear about this Potter business—with Harriet?’ he asked casually. ‘I know she picked up a memento when I showed her the cottages—but I’m damned if I can see why it should have set the whole village on its ears!’
Ridgeway looked up in surprise and, seeing that his cousin was clearly ignorant of the whole matter, furnished him with the details with which Lady Eugenie herself had supplied him, she having got them first-hand from Meggy Watts.
‘And you say you didn’t know any of this, man?’ exclaimed Ridgeway, in amazement. ‘What do you do? Walk around with your eyes and ears closed?’
‘No need to be offensive, old chap,’ said Sandford calmly. ‘I don’t have a houseful of chattering females to bring me the latest on-dits like you do and I’ve been stuck in the outfields most of the week, don’t forget.’
‘But you were at Mrs Watts’ cottage the other day—you spoke to old Josh himself! Didn’t he mention it?’
‘Well, apart from damning me to perdition, he did suggest that I wasn’t worthy of a certain lady’s regard—something about not being ‘'fit to lick her dear little boots” springs to mind—but since I’m well aware of that fact, I didn’t pay a great deal of—why are you looking at me like that?’
What’s going on, Robert?’ asked the older man sharply. ‘You and Miss Cordell have been at daggers’ drawn all week—any fool could see that. Last week it was much the same, if I’m not mistaken and—I have to say this, old chap—you don’t act like a man newly in love!’
‘Do I not, indeed?’ drawled Sandford coldly and for the merest moment his eyes looked bleak as they studied his cousin’s concerned face. Then, with a sudden urgency he leaned across the table and said decisively, ‘Fill your glass, Charles. I have a tale to tell you—but it must go no further than this room.’
Chapter Eleven
Judith could not imagine what could be keeping Sandford and Ridgeway so long at the table, particularly since Charles had earlier given her the impression that he would be happy to spend every minute of the evening by her side and she had supposed that Robert must wish to do likewise with his new betrothed, yet the tea tray had come and gone and still the gentlemen had not appeared.
She was perfectly content to sit and chatter to her young friend, of course, but, of their own volition, it seemed, her eyes constantly wandered to the clock on the mantelshelf. Her mother, she observed, must also have registered their non-appearance, for Judith was aware of that lady’s continual glances towards the door whenever the slightest sound penetrated from without.
Harriet, too, had marked the long absence but, since she knew that inquiries about her assailants were still in progress, she assumed that this must be the topic that engrossed them. She had no objection to Sandford’s absenting himself for as long as he chose, she told herself, for she had found that, having expended all of her energy and resources in keeping up the performance of constant good humour which she had promised him, she now felt quite drained and was perfectly happy to relax into exchanging idle pleasantries with Judith, for this required no false effort on her part.
‘The gentlemen appear to prefer their own company, I see,’ Lady Butler intoned peevishly.
‘I’m sure they will not be long, Mama,’ answered Judith, attempting to soothe her. ‘I dare say they have become involved in estate matters and forget the time.’
‘They must be very deeply involved—for even Miss Cordell’s skills at the keyboard seem have to have lost their former attraction!’
Harriet laughed, one of her soft infectious chuckles. ‘I know you jest, your ladyship,’ she said. ‘I do not pretend any skill at the keyboard. That was but a game we played whenever we found ourselves in possession of a piano—which was very seldom, as you can imagine.’
‘Do tell us,’ begged Judith, as much to pass the time as anything. ‘This would have been while you were wintering in Lisbon, I collect?’
‘Yes, and I cannot claim to have been the inventor of the game,’ said Harriet, nodding in reminiscence. ‘Some of the young officers could play, of course—those who had been given lessons in the schoolroom—so they would teach us certain chords, the very simplest of all and, therefore, quite easy to memorise, and our musical game developed from this. One of us would strike a chord and any available pianist would be challenged to extemporise. It was all done to keep the younger ones amused, although we all thought it rather fun—I was quite young myself at the time, of course. The more often one plays the game, the better one gets and, although it was never possible for me to be given proper lessons at the pianoforte, Mama did try to teach me some of the basic principles—and we sang a great deal, of course.’
She was silent for a moment, then turned to Lady Butler with a sweet smile, saying, ‘Such a silly game bears no comparison with real music, of course. Perhaps we could persuade Judith to play for us. I love to listen to her—as I am sure you do.’
Lady Butler grunted, temporarily mollified at this request. ‘Well, to be sure, she had the best of teachers, and a great deal of money was spent on her education—but it is true that she performs excellently, although she gets little enough practice these days. Yes, dear Judith, do play for us—something soothing, perhaps—I believe we have had more than enough jollity for one evening!’
And so, when Sandford and Ridgeway made their appearance shortly afterwards, they perceived Lady Butler slumped fast asleep with her chin on her chest whilst an envious Harriet, standing beside the piano admiring her friend’s virtuosity, was the sole audience to Judith’s expensive musical education.
At their entrance Judith immediately stopped playing and rose from her seat. She came towards Sandford anxiously, with a finger to her lips as she motioned towards her sleeping mother.
‘What has kept you so long, Robert?’ she almost whispered, and he found himself replying in kind.
‘Sorry, Judith, we—got chatting and, well—you know how it is.’
Judith’s eyes flew to Ridgeway, whose face held a very shamefaced expression.
‘Is there something wrong? I do believe there is something that you are keeping from me …’
Sandford took hold of her hands and shook his head at her.
‘Judith, I promise you there is nothing for you to worry about. I told you that if there was a problem with Westpark—
‘Problem with Westpark!’ Lady Butler’s ringing tones interrupted him. ‘What problem with Westpark? Explain yourself, young man!’
Sandford controlled himself with difficulty. ‘As far as I am aware, your ladyship,’ he said carefully, ‘there are no problems at Westpark—as I was just trying to impress upon Judith. Why everyone insists upon inventing problems where none exist, I cannot imagine! Charles and I were discussing something quite other, I promise you—and I—we apologise unreservedly for our outrageously bad manners in having deserted you for so long.’
Ridgeway nodded his agreement. ‘It’s true, Judith—Lady Butler—there was absolutely no mention of Westpark in our conversation and I, too, apologise for our lengthy absence.’
Lady Butler gazed at them both with narrowed eyes, as if by doing so she could read their minds, then, collecting together her various belongings, she got heavily to her feet.
‘Hmm, well—I suppose you also wanted a little peace and quiet after that earlier boisterous display—frankly, I’m not surprised you stayed away for so long. However, it is now time for us to wish you goodnight—it is, as you see, very late.’
She stared pointedly towards the clock and Judith, looking at Ridgeway, gave an embarrassed little shrug, as he smiled in sympathy.
‘Lady Butler is quite right, Judith,’ he said, as he bent over her hand. ‘The time has flown so quickly and, indeed, I am very sorry that I didn’t spend more of it in your company—it would have been infinitely more enjoyable, I assure you.’
‘Couldn’t have put it better myself, sir,’ laughed Sandford, bowing to Lady Butler and kissing his sister-in-law’s cheek. ‘Many thanks, Judith. In spite of our prolonged absence, may I pronounce the evening a great success?’
Harriet, having also bidden her adieux, was escorted out to the waiting carriage by both men, but was surprised to find that it was Charles Ridgeway who stepped forward to hand her into her seat.
‘If ever you need my assistance,’ he said in a low voice, as he moved away from the door, ‘remember that I am always at your disposal,’ and, bowing, he walked off to collect his gig.
Harriet was still pondering over his words as Sandford climbed into the carriage and took his seat opposite her. It was too dark to see his face.
