Page 79 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle

‘Why risk upsetting him over something he didn’t need to know?’ Bobby said. ‘You didn’t know, to begin with, that you’d even like it. But he’ll have to know sooner or later. We’ll have to think of a way of getting round him, because I’m determined to find you a horse that will carry you cross as well as side-saddle. That’s why I haven’t come up with one yet.’

‘I wondered why it was taking so long,’ Nina said.

‘I did tell you it had to be absolutely right for you. I’ve heard of several suitable docile animals trained to side-saddle, but that’s not what I want for you.’

Lepida put her cup down quietly in her saucer and said, ‘Don’t you think Nina needs to worry more about what her husband wants for her?’

There was an awkward silence. Nina said, ‘I know I ought to tell him . . . ask him—’

‘You married him, of your own free will,’ Lepida said. ‘You took on certain duties and responsibilities as a wife.’

‘But to force women to ride side-saddle is so unreasonable,’ Nina began. ‘It’s—’

‘It’s never right to deceive your husband,’ Lepida said unemphatically.

Nina met her eyes. ‘I know. But I’m so afraid he’ll make me stop, and if he does—’

‘Are you so afraid of losing a little bit of pleasure? He lets you ride.’

Lets! thought Nina. ‘You don’t know how lucky you are,’ she cried. ‘Your parents allow you to do anything you want.’

‘Yes, I am lucky,’ Lepida said. ‘I don’t want to marry, and I never will, and best of all I will never have to, because Mother and Father give me an allowance, and I’ll inherit Father’s fortune, which will give me freedom. But you chose your own fate, Nina—’

‘Chose it? I had no money to inherit. What else could I do?’

‘You could have been a teacher,’ said Lepida.

Another silence. Yes, I could have been a teacher, Nina thought, but I didn’t want to be. And as a teacher I would have been poor, and a drudge. Mr Cowling offered me an establishment. His money was supposed to make me free. He said when he courted me that I could do anything I liked.

She thought of how he had allowed her to move the establishment from Northampton to Market Harborough. How he was allowing her to furbish the house in the way she wanted. How he had readily agreed to buy her a horse. He was very kind to her. He wanted her to be happy. She should be grateful, she was grateful, but—

But he had the ultimate control over her, and it galled.

‘I’m afraid,’ she said in a low voice, ‘that if he forbids me this, I shall hate him for it.’

The subject had to be changed. Bobby took a breath, and in a bright tone asked Lepida, ‘What are the London fashions like this year? We are sadly out of touch down here. Has anything interesting come out?’

Lepida took the cue, and they chatted their way out of danger.

Heat in London was not like heat in the country. It stifled. And the smell of horses, which in general was a smell Richard quite liked, became overpowering. That was why wealthy Londoners always quit the capital in August. Parliament was in recess, the Season was over, and Scotland, the seaside, or the round of country-house visiting beckoned.

Those who couldn’t get away made the best of it. There were, at least, wonderful parks in London. And the river. A steamer ride down to Southend, to walk along the prom in your best straw hat and eat whelks and jellied eels and ride back in the twilight was enough of a treat for those who didn’t enjoy many.

There were even some well-to-do Londoners – usually those who had large gardens – who actually liked to stay in the capital, and claimed that London was only tolerable when it was half empty. Neither Richard’s aunt Caroline nor his grandmother was among them. They were both going to the Côte d’Opale, and begged him to go with them.

‘Even Giles is not such a slave-driver as to refuse you a holiday in August,’ said Caroline. And when he declined, ‘At least go down to Ashmore.’

‘You want to close up the house,’ Richard surmised. ‘I suppose there are hotels. At least they’ll be empty.’

‘I don’t take the whole household with me to France,’ Caroline said, a little crossly. ‘There will always be someone here, and of course you can use the house if you wish. But why do you wish? What can you do in London?’

‘There is a woman in it,’ said Grandmère, when he didn’t answer. ‘Depend upon it. Cherchez la femme.’

‘But what sort of a woman stays in London in August?’ Caroline asked blankly.

‘One who can do no better,’ Grandmère said. Richard whistled innocently. ‘Dîtes moi, méchant – it is not the girl, is it? La musicienne? Please tell me you are not so abandoned to la folie as that.’

Oh, it’s much worse, Richard thought. You can’t imagine – or I hope you can’t. ‘There is no woman in the case,’ he said. ‘I may stay up, or I may go down to Ashmore, I don’t know. Or a friend might invite me on a jolly – who knows? Thank you for the invitation, but I don’t want to go to France, even with two such femmes adorables as my aunt and my grandmother.’