Page 94 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

She shrugged a little. ‘I have no family, I have nothing to lose. I don’t want you to lose anything by marrying me. There’s still time to call it off if you want. I’d understand.’

‘I don’t think you do understand,’ he said gruffly. ‘I’ve been lonely all my life, even though I had a family. Now I’m not lonely any more. So don’t talk nonsense about calling it off. I have you, and if they want to behave decently I’ll have them too, but otherwise I’ll do without them. You I cannot do without.’

He drew her hand under his arm and they started walking.

‘I don’t understand what you see in me,’ she said, with a contented smile, ‘but I’m very glad you do.’

‘I could say the same. I think I have the best of the bargain.’

‘How can you say that? I’m a servant girl marrying a rich gentleman.’

‘Ah, it was my money you were after, was it? Well, that’s a relief – at least I won’t disappoint you in that department!’

‘You won’t disappoint me in any department,’ she said softly, looking up at him with warm and longing eyes.

He felt his insides melt. ‘I love you so much,’ he said. ‘I wish I could kiss you right this minute.’

‘I’m so glad there’s only another two days to wait,’ she said.

A child rushed past them with a clatter of boots, and a nursemaid’s shrill cry followed him. ‘Master Percy! Come back at once! You’ll dirty your nankins!’

‘Bathos in knickers and an Eton jacket,’ Sebastian said ruefully. ‘Shall we go and find some tea?’

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The house was as rented houses are, the deficiencies covered by ranks and banks of fresh flowers – fortunately, June provided them in masses. The ballroom had evidently been added at a later date because there was a separate grand staircase up which to process, and a wide landing at the top for the receiving line – in this case, just Lord and Lady Leake.

Marriage had changed Uncle Fergus, Giles thought. He looked leaner in the face, tauter in the figure; his evening clothes were cut slightly more youthfully; like Sebastian he sported a new haircut. He held himself more alertly: gone was the slothful, indolent, soft-bodied Stuffy of old. Giles was put in mind of a gun dog quivering with contained excitement as it waited for the shot to be fired.

But if there was less of Fergus, there was more of Giulia. Her figure had filled out, the planes of her face were softened. Her gown of peacock blue silk had an overdress of chiffon encrusted with silver lace; she wore a heavy-looking sapphire and diamond necklace with matching earrings, and a diamond tiara sparkled in her high-piled hair. She looked – it came to him with a slight shock – matronly. The passionate, unconventional girl who had sat under a desert moon with him and talked of Plotinus and Philo, Akhenaten and Hatshepsut, had been subsumed into a married woman. She looked exactly as someone called Lady Leake ought to look.

The smile she gave him and Kitty was a conventional, social smile, and she murmured, ‘So good of you to come,’ as she had to everyone, her eyes already sliding on to the next person in line. He felt oddly disconcerted, as though he had gone up a step that wasn’t there.

Uncle Fergus gripped his hand in a firm shake, and said, ‘Giles, my dear boy! Haven’t seen you for ages. Hope everything’s all right?’

‘Yes, thank you,’ Giles said. He felt the same sense of unreality about the contact as his hand was given back to him without ceremony. The invisible pressure moved him and Kitty along and they passed into the anteroom. In the ballroom beyond, the orchestra was playing quietly, waiting for the company to come through.

Kitty said, ‘She’s changed.’

‘He has, too,’ Giles said. He was trying to analyse it. It came to him that his uncle was a very rich man, and an earl, but had never really acted the part before. Now he was like Giles’s father, a public figure, playing the part that was expected of him. And Giulia had caught the trick from him. She was officially, remotely, publicly charming. The passionate girl was gone. He felt a sadness at her passing.

‘But they look happy,’ he said tentatively, in valediction.

‘Yes,’ Kitty said. ‘They seem like a married couple. I never thought they would – it was such an odd match – but now they seem to fit together.’ Giles grunted assent, and she looked up at him with suppressed amusement. ‘Will you really call her Aunt Giulia?’

‘If the occasion calls for it,’ he said. They moved forward, impelled by the newcomers entering behind. Against the magpie black and white of the gentlemen, the ladies glittered with jewels and sequins and spars. Quick gestures and turning heads as they chattered made a constant sparkle, like the sun glinting on a gently moving sea. It was, he thought, what might truly be called ‘a glittering occasion’. ‘What a pity my mother and Linda couldn’t be here,’ he said. ‘They would love all this.’

Rachel and Alice stood out of the way against the anteroom wall, getting their bearings. ‘There are a lot of old people,’ Rachel observed. ‘I hope there’ll be enough young men to dance with. Oh, I think your flower’s come loose,’ she noticed. ‘Let me fix it for you.’ She attended to the artificial rose in Alice’s hair. ‘You’re awfully quiet. Are you all right?’

‘Of course I am,’ Alice said.

‘You’ve been brooding. Is it the art school? Have you realised you don’t like it after all? You could give it up. I don’t think anyone would mind – they all think it’s mad anyway.’

‘It isn’t mad. I love it there. I don’t want to give it up.’

‘Well, what is it, then?’ Enlightenment flashed over her face. ‘Don’t tell me!’ she breathed. ‘You’ve fallen in love!’

‘Don’t be silly,’ Alice said, trying not to show she was put out. She had been thinking about Axe, and wondering what he would look like in evening dress.