Page 10 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

‘I say, thanks awfully! You’re a tremendous brick.’

‘Best not to tell Giles, though – he thinks you should go straight back, and he’ll curse me for interfering.’

‘I won’t say anything.’

‘And since I have to go up to London in the new year, I’ll even take you out for supper one evening, and you can talk over your plans with me. If you have any.’

Angus’s answer was a sigh.

Though tearful at Angus’s departure, Rachel did not seem desolate. In fact, her tears soon dried and she went about with a glow of secret happiness, which suggested to Giles there had been some powerful reassurances given during their farewells. He deliberately hadn’t asked for any promises from the lovers not to communicate. He hoped that what he didn’t know would not compromise his honour.

He came in one afternoon from the library, where he had been looking at accounts, and paused for a moment in the doorway of the drawing-room. Alice and Rachel had their heads together, exchanging secrets. When he sat down and took up a newspaper, Kitty came and joined him.

‘I saw you looking at them,’ she said. ‘I hope Rachel’s not plotting to run away.’

Giles looked up. ‘I don’t think she has the pluck for that. More likely they’re plotting how she and Tullamore can write to each other.’

‘You’re not going to try and stop them?’

‘Not as long as I don’t know about it. I’m damned if I can see why I should be my mother’s policeman.’

‘So you think they should be allowed to marry?’ Kitty smiled. ‘I was afraid you were against it.’

‘I am, as things stand. If he had his father’s approval and money, it would be a fair match. But it’s not up to me. I just wish I weren’t stuck in the middle of it.’

‘At least now Uncle Fergus has gone, Linda’s complaints have subsided,’ she said. ‘She hasn’t cornered you in the library for days.’

‘I told her in no uncertain terms it was nothing to do with me, and I wouldn’t hear another word about it. But she won’t have given up. I’m pretty sure she’s written to Mother, urging her to stop the match.’

‘Poor Giles,’ Kitty said.

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Don’t you mean poor Linda?’

‘She makes her own troubles. You have yours thrust upon you.’

He looked at her cautiously, but she was smiling – a little, teasing smile. He warmed towards her. ‘You are far too understanding of other people’s problems.’

‘Only yours,’ she said. ‘And yours are mine.’

Rachel’s glow lasted until the arrival of the telegram, all the way from St Petersburg, on New Year’s Day. It was addressed to Giles, and since the dowager’s new husband, Prince Paul of Usingen, was very wealthy, she had not bothered to restrict her words to the minimum.

ANY FURTHER COMMUNICATION BETWEEN RACHEL AND TULLAMORE ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN + AM SURPRISED AT YOU FOR ALLOWING IT + AS SHE CANNOT BE TRUSTED SHE IS TO COME BACK TO ME PENDING MARRIAGE TO BE ARRANGED + AM SENDING TAYLOR TO ACCOMPANY HER ARRIVING JAN 5TH + HAVE RACHEL PACKED AND READY FOR IMMEDIATE DEPARTURE + DO NOT FAIL ME IN THIS GILES ++ PSS USINGEN

Rachel paled as she read it. Giles thought irritably that there was nothing more likely to provoke her into running away than the threat of an immediate marriage to a stranger in St Petersburg. But Mother had never had the slightest acquaintance with tact.

‘I won’t go!’ she cried, her eyes filling with tears. ‘Giles, you won’t let her make me?’

He realised that he should have taken the telegram out of the room to read, and sent for Rachel, rather than reading it at the breakfast table, because now everyone wanted to know what was in it. Rachel had already passed it to Kitty, and both Alice and Linda had risen from their seats to look over her shoulder.

Alice didn’t speak, only bit her lip in distress, but Linda said loudly, ‘A marriage? This must be the Russian prince. Oh, you lucky girl! You’ll have so many clothes. They do things in style in Russia. They change four and five times a day, I believe.’

‘It’s inhuman!’ Kitty exclaimed, pushing away Linda’s hand as she tried to take the telegram from her. ‘Giles, you must do something.’

‘Angus said I can’t be forced to marry,’ Rachel said with a sob in her voice. ‘He said it’s the law.’

It went on round the table. ‘Not even signed “Mother”,’ Richard mused. ‘Is there some sort of creature that eats its own young?’

‘Giles?’ Kitty urged.