Page 137 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

‘I wasn’t sure you really enjoyed that,’ Nina said. ‘Bobby’s family can be rather boisterous.’

‘Oh, I don’t mind a bit of good, honest family fun,’ he said. ‘I’m not such a dour old fossil, am I?’

‘None of those things,’ she said, with a gallant smile.

‘And then the trip to Paris. We must do it again, and see the sights. Notre Dame and the Louvre and so on. The Eiffel Tower – you’d have liked to go up that, eh?’

‘I expect the view from the top is wonderful,’ Nina said.

‘Tallest structure in the world when it was first built. People said it’d never stand up. And, d’you know, the French nobs and artists and such hated it! Said it was ugly and ridiculous and an insult to French good taste.’

‘How do you know that?’ she marvelled.

‘Oh, I read it somewhere. There was some famous French writer or other who had lunch in the Eiffel Tower restaurant every day, because he said it was the only place in Paris where you couldn’t see it.’ She laughed. ‘There’s always people who will stand in the way of progress.’

‘I suppose you need a brake on a motor-car. The faster the car, the more it needs the brakes.’

‘That’s cleverly put,’ he said. ‘Yes, we must go back to Paris some time. And how would you like a trip to Italy?’

‘I would love it. Is there some reason you’re mentioning it now?’ she asked.

‘I’ve been thinking it was time I rearranged my life a bit. I’ve got Decius, and Truman, and young Tullamore in London, and good people in all the factories. I ought to spend more time enjoying my money instead of making it.’

‘Not instead of making, it, surely.’

‘Oh, you’re too sharp for me! You know what I mean. Next month, for instance, the hunting will start. There’ll be lots of dinners and parties to go to, but why shouldn’t we give one?’

‘No reason that I can think of,’ she said.

‘And make it a prime ’un, too – one that everyone’ll talk about.’

‘You should buy a horse, and come out with me,’ Nina said generously, on the basis that he would like to be asked but would never do it.

But he said, ‘Aye, well, I might, at that. I’m no great horseman, but I dare say I could stick on all right. See what it is all you folk get so excited about.’

‘Well, do,’ she said, and looked away, out of the window, while she got her expression under control. She’d had an image of Giles on horseback, and for an instant saw herself riding at his side. In that other world, a world where history had happened differently.

‘Are you all right, Nina dear?’ Mr Cowling asked. ‘You’re quite well, aren’t you?’

‘Quite well, thank you,’ she said, and turned back to him to smile.

‘Only you looked uncomfortable for a moment there.’

He had seen her face reflected in the window. She had to say something. ‘I just thought about Trump for an instant.’

He took her hand and pressed it. ‘I’m sorry, my love. I should have thought. Dragging you to Portsmouth – it’s bound to bring it all back.’

‘No, really, I’m quite all right. Don’t worry about it, please.’ She changed the subject with determination. ‘It will be a very grand celebration, I suppose?’

‘I should just about think it will! A hundred years since Trafalgar? The navy have Trafalgar dinners in their messes every year, but for the centenary it’s got to be a bit special.’

‘What goes on at these dinners?’

‘Oh, there’s a grand spread, of course, and they generally have a band playing while they eat. And there’s the parading of the beef.’

‘Goodness, what’s that?’

‘The main dish is always the roast beef of old England, and the chef brings it in on a trolley and parades it round the table for everyone to see before it’s carved. All very jolly. At the end of dinner there are speeches and toasts. The chair says, “Mr Vice, the King,” and the vice chair stands up and proposes the Loyal Toast. And then the guest of honour proposes a toast to the Immortal Memory.’