Page 32 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle

He frowned, contemplating. ‘Well, if that’s the truth of it . . . But it passes me. I always thought Beechcroft House was bang up to the mark, everything done in the best style, money no object.’ He looked around vaguely. ‘I suppose you could do something with this place, if you had the fancy for it. Board over all that panelling and wallpaper it, lower the ceilings maybe—’

‘Oh, please not!’ Nina pleaded. ‘I like it the way it is.’

‘You’re not gammoning me? Well, there’s no accounting for taste. And I saw such a pretty wallpaper the other day – white, with blue flower-de-looses all over it and little gold cross-things – thought it would be just the job for the drawing-room. No? Well, but it has to be said, it does look more like the nobs’ houses I’ve been to than Beechcroft, though I’ve always thought that was because they couldn’t afford to do them up. Impoverished gentry, you know. But maybe they like this sort of thing too?’

‘I couldn’t say,’ Nina said, ‘but I do. And Decius does too. He understands.’

Mr Cowling pouted. ‘Ganging up on me now, the two of you?’

‘Oh – no, really—’

‘I’m just funning you. Well, my dear, all I want is for you to be happy, so if it’s what you want . . . we’ll stay here, and you shall make it your own. Buy what you like – carpets curtains, furniture, knick-knacks – you’ll need a deal of stuff to fill the place, but I can stand the nonsense. You don’t need to stint yourself. You’ve been thinking about it, I gather?’

‘Ever since I got here,’ Nina admitted. ‘And I did wonder whether – if you would agree—’

‘Out with it! What scheme have you dreamed up now in your pretty head to bankrupt me?’

‘It won’t bankrupt you,’ she said, though aware that in a funny way he’d have rather liked her to want something extravagant, ‘but I would like to put in a proper bathroom, if you wouldn’t mind. I know it’s rather modern, and it would involve building work – and Decius says you’d need an architect to make sure it didn’t spoil the house.’

‘Oh, you’ve talked to Decius about it, have you?’

‘No, I wouldn’t do that. I only asked him whether in theory it could be done, and how one would go about it if one did decide.’

‘In theory, eh?’ He chuckled. ‘You won’t have fooled him, my love. You have to be up early in the morning to get ahead of young Decius Blake. Well, have your bathroom. It’ll put us out in front of the local nobs, that’s for sure. The King has bathrooms, you know. And since I lend him money, I don’t see why he should have anything I don’t, bar the crown. Have two bathrooms, one on each floor – might as well, while you’re chopping the place apart.’

‘Oh, thank you!’ Nina said.

‘And I tell you what – I’ll move Mrs Mitchell over here, permanent. Mrs Deering can stay as cook, but you’ll need more maids, and a footman too, and Mrs Mitchell’s the one to organise all that. She’ll have your house running like clockwork.’

‘Oh, but – you’ll need Mrs Mitchell at Beechcroft, for when you have to stay there. She wouldn’t like it here, and I wouldn’t like to disrupt her life. I’m quite happy with Mrs Deering, and I think she manages beautifully. She understands the house.’

‘And Mrs Mitchell wouldn’t? Well, you might be right there. She’d take one look at all these bare floors and gloomy panelling and have a fit. All right, then, if you prefer Mrs Deering, I’ll leave it like that. But if any time you find she can’t manage—’

‘She will. And I’ll be so happy. Oh, thank you!’

He basked in her gratitude, and invited her to tell him all her plans, and shook his head in wonder at the style and extent of them. He did like the idea of clearing the lake, however, and proposed enlarging it while they were at it. ‘Once it’s big enough, you’ll soon get ducks and moorhens and suchlike moving in. And you could have a nice little bridge going over it, so you can walk to the middle and look down at the water. Just like that French picture.’

‘Which one?’ she asked, but he couldn’t tell her. She picked up from the air an image of a woman in white muslin with a parasol standing on an arched wooden bridge with water lilies below, and wondered if it was Monet he was thinking of.

The evening passed pleasantly, and she felt more at ease with him, and they had more to say to each other than at any time since they were married.

That night he came to her bedroom – something he had not done in weeks, not since before the trip to London. She welcomed him into her bed, with a warm, affectionate feeling towards him. There followed the usual fumbling and mildly embarrassing activity below the bedcovers, which ended with him sighing and rolling over, and then drawing her onto his shoulder to hold her for a while, before he got up and went away to his own room.

She was a little damp and sticky down there, but she still had no idea whether the act had been properly concluded or not. She wished with all her heart that her aunt had not shown her the drawings and tried to prepare her. If she had been completely ignorant, she would not now be left wondering if all was as it should be.

Grandmère took Kitty out to walk in the garden early, before it got hot. ‘You have been sitting indoors too much,’ she said. ‘It is not good for you. Alone as well,’ she added sternly.

‘Alice sat with me sometimes. And Richard visited once or twice,’ Kitty said.

‘Does Giles not visit you?’

‘He’s very busy,’ Kitty said loyally.

‘Hmm,’ said Grandmère, having learned all she needed from that brief exchange. ‘You have been left in solitude to brood and frighten yourself, n’est-ce pas?’

‘I am afraid – a bit,’ Kitty said.

‘That is natural, but you are young and will make nothing of it. There is nothing to be afraid of.’