Page 87 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle

‘There’s no need to be satirical,’ Caroline rebuked him.

He had been rebuked again in Golden Square, where Mrs Sands was looking fatigued. ‘It is the heat, that’s all,’ she said. ‘And it is galling that you, who could escape it, choose to remain here and suffer.’

‘But I don’t suffer,’ he said. ‘I never mind the heat. All those years in South Africa tempered me. Now that was heat. London simply doesn’t have an idea of it.’

‘You are wicked to remind me that you are a war hero, when I’m trying to be angry with you.’

‘Don’t waste your strength, cara mia. It’s too much fag to be angry in this weather. Let me take you away from all this.’

‘Don’t talk nonsense. How can I go away with you?’

‘Your pupils are all gone – no lessons until September – you told me so. And Chloë is away.’ Chloë had been invited by the parents of a fellow student at the Royal Academy to spend August at their house in Surrey, an invitation Molly Sands had been eager to embrace for her daughter. ‘So what’s to keep you from it?’

‘You know, Richard,’ Molly said in a low voice. ‘Don’t torment me.’

‘It’s you who torment me,’ he said, serious for an instant. ‘I don’t care that you were my father’s mistress. What difference does it make?’ He reverted to his usual tone. ‘The old man is dead, and I don’t know anyone who regrets him – not even you, if you’re honest. He’s gone, and I’m here – free, healthy, and over twenty-one. Seize me while you can, before some less worthy female pulls the wool over my eyes and tricks me into matrimony.’

She found it hard not to laugh. ‘You are a very cruel boy. I was very fond of your father.’

‘Fond of him you may have been, but you’re not weeping into your pillow every night, if you ever did. Dearest Molly, you know I amuse you. Let me lighten the cloistral gloom of your day-to-day existence and take you somewhere frivolous.’

She was not laughing now. ‘Brighton, perhaps? Or Maidenhead? To sign into a shabby hotel as Mr and Mrs Smith? You think little of me if you believe I would agree to that.’

He reddened. ‘You think little of me if you believe that’s what I meant.’

They stared at each other for a moment, two proud people. Then she sighed. ‘I’m sorry, but you don’t understand the difficulties faced by a woman in my position. As it is, Mrs Gateshill gives me suspicious looks when you visit too often.’

‘Damn her impertinent eyes!’

‘Damn all you like, but it is a fact of life. All women have to be careful, but women like me have to be more careful than most.’

‘There are no women like you,’ he said passionately.

‘Fallen women are ten-a-penny, my dear,’ she said sadly.

He dropped to his knees in front of her and took her hands. ‘I won’t let you talk like that about the most wonderful woman in the world!’ He kissed her hands one after the other. ‘You are not fallen! You are an angel!’

She looked uneasy. ‘There’s nothing special about me. I don’t understand why you say that.’

He grinned engagingly – kneeling, his face was on a level with hers as she sat – and said lightly, ‘There’s no rule about it, you know. The little blind god fires his arrows completely at random. And, if you will forgive my impertinence in lecturing you, there is no point whatever in questioning why someone loves you, when you could just get on and enjoy it. Well, if you won’t come away with me – and I was intending separate rooms, by the by – will you let me take you out for the day?’ He got to his feet. ‘A train to Henley, a picnic basket and a boat on the river. Now, don’t say that doesn’t tempt you.’

‘It does.’ She looked regretfully into his handsome face. If only things were different . . . ‘Very well, you may take me to Henley. And thank you.’

‘Go and put on something pretty, then, while I run out and secure a cab. Unless Mrs Gateshill will do it for me?’

‘She’s away,’ Molly Sands said unthinkingly. ‘Gone to stay with her sister for a week.’

With a great effort, Richard made no comment. ‘Hurry up, then,’ he said. ‘Be ready by the time I get back.’

She determined to enjoy herself, and it was wonderful to be out of the house after so many weeks. Richard was the most attentive of companions, and had the earl’s son’s assurance that made everything fall effortlessly into place. The train journey was a novelty, through the baked August landscape, yellow fields and dark green hedges under a cornflower sky; plump hills, little villages, charming thatched cottages, rambling roses. It was all very pretty; and she felt pretty too – well, not pretty, she was too old for that, but attractive, in a beige shantung summer suit that she had hardly ever had the chance to wear, and a straw hat trimmed with artificial daisies.

Then, drifting down the river, reclining on cushions, was luxurious; watching the fine play of muscle in Richard’s arms as, sleeves rolled up, he rowed with expert smoothness. How well he did it! How well he did everything. She indulged herself with gazing at his face as he concentrated on guiding the boat through the usual August river traffic. She no longer tried to see likenesses in his features to his father’s. He was himself, and now she only saw that he was attractive – a good, firm face. A face one could love.

Once they had got past the crowds, Richard sought out a quiet bit of bank for them to settle on, under a large, spreading tree. He arranged the cushions from the boat and the rug that came with the picnic basket to make her comfortable, and she let him fuss over her, seeing it pleased him. The picnic, acquired from a hotel between the station and the river, was good: cold chicken, pork pie, tomatoes, buttered rolls, Eccles cakes, Battenburg cake, and fruit – peaches and grapes. The sun flickered through the leaves and threw dappled shade across their faces; the river chuckled a little against the bank with the occasional passing boat; four brown cows had come down to the water to stand knee deep, just far off enough to be a charming addition to the landscape.

‘Talk to me,’ Richard said, reclining on one elbow, a branchlet of grapes in hand. ‘Tell me your life.’

‘I think you’ve heard most of it already,’ she said. The talk between them was always easy and satisfying.