Page 55 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle

‘But your inheritance isn’t a fixed sum,’ he said, in surprise. He saw her blank look. ‘It isn’t a big bag of coins that we’re gradually emptying.’

‘Isn’t it?’

‘No, dear, it’s an income as well. There was a large sum of money on deposit, and thank God for it, but the Harvey’s company continues to trade and make money.’ He sought for an easy way to explain it to her. ‘Every time someone buys a jar of Harvey’s jam and hands over fivepence to the shop-keeper, part of that fivepence comes to you.’

She frowned. ‘Only part?’

‘Well, the shop-keeper has to make a little profit, or he couldn’t stay open. Then there’s the cost of making the jam – the fruit, the sugar, the wages of the workers, the upkeep of the factory and so on. When all that’s paid for, the rest is yours. It isn’t much on one jar of jam, maybe only a penny, but of course the company sells thousands of jars every day, and when you add up all those pennies, it comes to a good amount of money refilling that bag of coins you brought me when . . .’ he reached over and took her hand ‘. . . you did me the honour of marrying me.’

She flushed with the pleasure of his touch, and his words. ‘So you really don’t mind, then?’

‘Mind if you spend your own money on making your own house more comfortable? Of course I don’t, foolish!’

But the tender moment didn’t last long. He gave her hand a valedictory squeeze and pushed it back to her, saying, ‘Now I must be off. Adeane will be waiting downstairs.’ And he walked smartly out before she could say anything more.

Kitty sighed and, having seen Louis put in his crib, made her way back towards the Peacock Room, her mind drifting off to the rosy land of soft furnishings. Her mother-in-law surely couldn’t object if she changed things in the Peacock Room, as it was her own sitting-room. A new carpet, the chairs and sofas reupholstered, different curtains – those ochre ones really were disagreeable . . . It would be nice, she thought, to see it all in peacock colours to reflect the name. Deep blue, green and gold. Surely someone somewhere made curtains with a pattern of peacocks? It might be a William Morris design – Liberty’s would be the place to look. It would mean going up to Town, and wouldn’t that be nice, after all the months and months of being in the country, the last few of them confined to a sofa feeling like a stuffed goose?

Giles only got as far as the back hall before he was waylaid by Alice, jumping in front of him as he stepped out of the door. She plainly wanted to catch him before he got to the stableyard. She was dressed in riding habit, and he noticed she was growing, though upwards rather than outwards. She was tall for her age, but barely had a figure at all.

The dogs, who had been running ahead of him down the stairs, discovered her like a long-lost lover, and mobbed her with thrashing tails and yards of adoring tongue. He checked his initial exasperation at being held up again, and said, ‘Well?’

She looked up, hands busy around thrusting heads and offered ears. ‘Josh is being so disagreeable, Giles! Can’t you speak to him? He won’t let me ride out on my own.’

‘I thought he still wasn’t riding.’

‘No, he isn’t, because just when his broken foot was better, that horse trod on it, so it’s sore again.’

‘That would make anyone bad-tempered.’

‘I know. But he makes me take a groom out with me and, honestly, Giles, you can’t imagine how tedious it is, always to be trailing someone behind you who doesn’t want to be there.’

He smiled at her. ‘I can imagine. I shouldn’t like it a bit.’ She brightened, and he hurried on, ‘But I’m a man and you’re a girl, and there’s nothing to be done about that.’

Alice skipped over her mother’s embargo. ‘But it’s only because Josh thinks I wouldn’t be able to get back up if I came off, and of course I would – there are always gates and tree stumps and walls and things. I’ve done it before, loads of times.’

‘But what if you came off and were hurt, and there was no one with you?’

‘Well, what if you did?’ she pointed out.

‘I shan’t come off.’

‘Neither shall I!’

He sympathised, but was unmoved. ‘Pharaoh is a lively ride, and you can’t rule out accidents. If he was a steady old plug, it might be different, but even then—’

Alice regrouped. ‘So then you can’t object if I go out alone in the trap, with Biscuit. I can’t fall out of that, and there never was such a safe, wise pony.’

Both dogs were now on their backs on the gravel, switching their bodies from side to side, legs waving ridiculously in the air. The June sunshine was hot on his head, and just for a moment, he relaxed. ‘Where do you want to go?’

‘Nowhere in particular. Just round and about. I want to do some sketching – and actually it’s better to take the trap because it’s awkward carrying a sketch-pad and pencils and everything on horseback. And,’ she went on before he could speak, ‘I might do some painting if I find a landscape I like, and obviously I’ll need the trap if I take paints and easel and everything. And you can’t, you simply can’t, make me take a groom with me, because they’d hate being made to sit for hours while I worked and they’d complain and disturb me and a great masterpiece of art might be lost to posterity all because of Josh’s silly worry about respectability.’

He was laughing now. ‘Quite right, Miss Gentileschi! We can’t have the world of art made poorer by the loss of your genius. And, actually, I don’t think there’s anything un-respectable about your going out alone around the estate in the pony-trap. This isn’t the dark ages.’

‘Oh, thank you, darling Giles! And will you tell Josh? Because he won’t listen to me.’

‘I will tell Josh,’ he agreed solemnly.

‘You are the best brother in the whole world!’