Page 156 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle

He had been away again, and had asked Nina to arrange a dinner party for his return, and was glad Nina had invited Lady Clemmie. He was slightly less glad that she had invited Adam Denbigh, though he acknowledged the need for a single man to balance the numbers. And Adam was lively company. The other guests were Sir Bradley and Lady Graham, Colonel and Mrs Cazenove, and Lord and Lady Kelgrove, so with the Wharfedales they were twelve at table – a nice, comfortable number, he thought, and not too much for Mrs Deering to manage. The party went well. While Lady Wharfedale was animated and amusing, she did not stray onto any contentious subjects, and Lady Clemmie added a metropolitan dimension, having moved in wide circles through her diplomat father. She behaved very prettily to Mr Cowling, and coaxed anecdotes about the King and his circle from him, so by the time the evening ended, he was in a mellow mood.

‘A happy evening,’ he said to Nina, as they went up to bed. ‘What was young Denbigh talking to you about so earnestly in the drawing-room over coffee?’

Adam had placed himself beside Nina as soon as she sat down, and had told her about a dreadful dinner party he had once attended, caricaturing the guests in such terms she had struggled to conceal her laughter, knowing her husband was watching her. She had been forced, breathlessly, to make him change the subject. ‘It’s so unfair to make me laugh.’

‘Then I shall be very sedate and bore you with horticulture,’ he had said. ‘That’s safe enough, surely?’

‘Gardening, mostly,’ Nina said now. ‘When he inherits the title, he means to make a fine garden at Kibworth. He told me some of his plans.’

Cowling was unconvinced. ‘I don’t see that young rake having a turn for gardening. He’s altogether too light, to my mind. I hope Lord Kibworth makes old bones, and keeps him out of the title till he’s grown up a bit. But Lady Clementine, now, she’s a real lady, just the sort I should like you to have for a friend. Nothing against Lady Wharfedale, mind, but she lacks . . .’

‘Gravitas?’ Nina offered.

‘That’s right. She never has a thought that’s not frivolous. Whereas Lady Clementine thinks seriously about things, you can see that.’

Nina agreed. ‘She wants to interest me in her causes.’

‘Well, she can’t but have a good influence on any young lady,’ said Mr Cowling approvingly. They had reached her bedroom door. He looked down at her with love, and briefly stroked her cheek with his big, hard hand. ‘I won’t say goodnight yet,’ he murmured, and she knew from that that he meant to visit her in bed.

He did, and she did her best to make him welcome, but it was another failure. She wished with all her heart that he could succeed, because he was a good man and she was fond of him, but there didn’t seem to be anything she could do about it.

The search of the estate uncovered no trace of Speen, and no one claimed to have seen him either.

‘I can’t waste any more manpower on it,’ Giles said to Richard. ‘The man’s obviously absconded, and the why and the how of it are of no concern. If he comes back while I’m away, you can deal with it as you see fit. What will you do for a valet?’

‘Oh, I don’t really need one. Old Crooks can look after me as well as Uncle Sebastian while I’m here. And one of Aunt Caroline’s fellows when I’m in London. I’m not a dandy, like you, Giles – I don’t need a dedicated wardrobe-master.’

‘Ha ha,’ said Giles stonily. ‘Where did you learn such wit?’

‘You’re really going, then?’ Richard asked seriously.

Giles resisted the tacit demand to explain himself. ‘I really am. And you, little brother, will take care of everything while I’m gone. I have absolute faith in you.’

‘Then I suspect your judgement in more ways than one,’ said Richard. ‘But do I have full powers? Or am I simply stopping the house from burning down?’

‘Why? Are there things you want to do?’

‘There may be. Who knows what might come up? A business opportunity that needs to be acted on? Our friend Cowling says a man must be nimble to seize the advantage, but if I had to wait for a message to get all the way to darkest Africa and back . . .’

‘You have full powers,’ Giles said. ‘I trust Markham to keep you on the straight and narrow.’

‘What you mean is that you don’t care,’ Richard said, with a hint of criticism. ‘If I did destroy everything, I suspect you would merely shrug, and feel a guilty relief. I know where your heart is, brother mine, and it’s not here.’

Giles looked bleak. ‘I wish I didn’t have a heart,’ he said. ‘Life would be so much easier if one weren’t torn two ways. I wish I had no feelings at all, like you.’

‘Is that what you think of me?’ Richard said. ‘I am lucky, am I not, to care for nobody? No wife and child to tie me down – not that yours are tying you.’

Giles turned away abruptly. ‘You’d better have Speen’s chattels packed away, in case some relative turns up and asks for them.’ And he left the room.

William was smoking in the backyard, when Hook sidled out to lounge beside him. William gave him a nervous sidelong look, like a sheep that’s spotted something moving in the bracken.

‘So, William, I see your black eye’s nearly gone. And that scratch on your face. How did you get ’em, by the way?’ Hook asked insinuatingly.

‘I told Mr Moss—’ William began.

‘Oh, I know what you told him. But it doesn’t cut the ice with me. I been in enough fights to know the signs. You went after Speen, didn’t you? Question is, did you find him? Or, more to the point, how did you leave him?’

‘I don’t have to answer your questions,’ William said. ‘Mind your own business.’