Page 110 of The Mistress of Ashmore Castle

‘I just said you wanted to look at it, my lord. It was not my place to explain your reasons or his to ask. He will have supplied himself with a reason. For instance, you might simply want to know what there is that might be sold.’

Giles thought, I’m surprised there’s anything left after my father’s depredations, but he didn’t say so aloud, of course. ‘I don’t see that we are any further forward,’ he said. He did not need to add, ‘I’m sick of the whole thing,’ because his expression said it for him.

‘If I might presume to suggest, my lord?’

‘Yes, anything!’

‘Silver, particularly old silver, is a different matter from a stamp collection. Dealers keep a record of the pieces that pass through their hands. And the police could put out an enquiry about a particular item.’

‘The police,’ Giles said with dissatisfaction.

‘Not the village bobby, my lord, but someone higher up.’

‘The chief constable?’

‘I’m sure he would be happy to help, my lord.’

Giles nodded. ‘But we still need to know that the pieces are missing.’

‘Any search would alert Hook, if he is guilty, perhaps provoke him into some rash action.’

‘Then we’d know, wouldn’t we?’ Giles said.

On leaving Kincraig, the party went first to Ashmore for Maud, without great enthusiasm, to inspect the new baby and congratulate Kitty. ‘It’s just as well you had a boy,’ she told her briskly. ‘Since you have made such a piece of work of it, you will be glad not to have any more.’ She thought of adding a few words of advice about how Kitty should conduct herself when Giles took a mistress, but decided that was for Kitty’s own mother to address. To Giles she said, ‘I’m told your wife should be fully recovered by the time the families come back to the country, so you will be able to host the social events that will be expected. The timing, as it turns out, is good.’

‘Why should you think I want to hold social events?’ he asked, faintly amused, slightly affronted.

She raised an eyebrow. ‘It is not about what you want, Stainton. It is what is expected. You have a position to keep up, and since you do not seem to care for Town life, it is more important than ever that you lead the county. You have a son to follow you, now. And I hope that Kitty will make more of a showing, now that she is released from childbearing duties. You cannot always rely on my presence to fill the gap.’

‘Why is that, Mother? Are we not to have the pleasure of entertaining you this autumn?’

She knew it was irony, but it slid off her armour of certainty. ‘My future plans are in a state of flux. And that is all I have to say on the subject.’

Alice was greeted tempestuously by Arabella and Arthur. She thought them poor, sad things. The vigorous outdoor life of Kincraig and the company of the cousins had helped them across the worst period, and given them colour, but they were unnaturally subdued. Coming back to the Castle had reminded them of the loss of their father, whom they had loved more than their mother, and the lack of other children promised a dull future in which to mourn him. Alice offered to take them out riding, and vowed inwardly to speak to Giles about getting them a governess. She did not want to find herself with them permanently on her hands. She had no hope that Linda would do anything for them.

She assumed Linda would be staying when the dowager and Rachel went off to France. She, Giles and Kitty – without speaking of it aloud to each other – were all gloomy at the prospect of having Linda heaving herself angrily about the Castle, complaining about everything, but saw no alternative. The estate at Frome Monkton was being wound up and the creditors paid off but it was clear there would be nothing left over, so Linda and her children would have nowhere to go. Ashmore Castle, her childhood home, would have to take them in; and, except for the times when it might be hoped Aunt Caroline would have her in London for a few weeks, she would be theirs for ever. And since she could not enjoy London gaieties while in mourning, she’d be at the Castle at least until the following June.

But Linda had no intention of being incarcerated at Ashmore. At the very first discussion of the trip to Biarritz, she made it clear that she expected to go too.

‘Aunt Vicky and Uncle Bobo will be expecting me,’ she said. ‘They would take it as a snub if I were not to go.’

‘You are in deep mourning.’ It was Maud who pointed out the obvious. Giles had been feeling a guilty relief at the thought of her departure.

‘I can’t see that that matters, when visiting relatives,’ Linda said briskly. ‘In fact,’ she added, buttering a roll, ‘I don’t think the rules of mourning need to apply when one is abroad, where one is not known.’

‘Aunt Vicky and Uncle Bobo know you,’ Alice pointed out innocently.

Linda scowled. ‘But it would put a dampener on them to have someone in widow’s weeds hanging around the house when they are there to enjoy themselves.’ And she went on quickly, in the tones of sweet reason, ‘I think it would present a very odd appearance, full blacks at a place like Biarritz, where everyone is in light clothing and bright colours. Of all things, I abhor making a spectacle of myself. We would be stared at, Mother, and I know how you hate that. No, I think on the whole it would be better if I leave off heavy mourning when I get there. I can wear lavenders and greys, and be decent.’

‘Have you got any lavenders and greys?’ Rachel asked, savouring the petite marmite, so unlike the lumpy cock-a-leekie soup that was the standard fare at Kincraig. When she was growing up, there had not been much difference between Ashmore and Kincraig food. Ashmore dishes were much more delicate now.

‘I’ve some old things. But you’re going to Paris first for clothes,’ Linda pointed out. ‘I can get new things there.’

Maud made a sound of annoyance. ‘And how, precisely, will you afford new clothes? Or your ticket? You surely do not think I shall pay for you?’

Her eyes locked across the table with those of her daughter, and the air bristled with all that was unspoken. Cordwell left you penniless, said Maud’s accusing gaze. And Papa left you penniless, said Linda’s. Rachel looked timidly at Giles, and then at Kitty, knowing full well that all the lovely things she had sported at her come-out, and all the fun she had had, had been paid for by Giles, or rather by the estate, and therefore out of Kitty’s fortune.

And Giles was thinking, Am I to be burdened with this ridiculous extravagance for ever? Why should I pay for their pleasures? Why can’t they stay quietly at home? Ah, but that was not the delightful alternative it might seem, was it? When it came down to it, he would be glad to pack his mother and sister off to France, and peace by his own hearth came at a price.