Page 25 of Rivals at Ashmore Castle

‘They are quite nice,’ Bobby said judiciously. ‘The thing is to be strict with them from the very beginning. It’s no good thinking how sweet and delicious they are and telling yourself you’ll be cross and cruel when they get older, because it will be too late by then. Aubrey would have been a hopelessly indulgent father if I hadn’t set the tone.’ Nina laughed and Bobby said, ‘I am perfectly serious! It’s the same with children as with dogs.’

‘Your dogs climb on the furniture,’ Nina reminded her.

‘My point exactly – I didn’t nip it in the bud when we first got them. But also, I must tell you, don’t forget to enjoy them. The children, I mean. Because they grow up so quickly. Rupert will be going off to Uppingham this year, if you can believe it! Of course, it’s the other way round for his father – Aubrey couldn’t wait for Rupert to grow up enough so he could take him fishing and play cricket with him. Men don’t care for babies or very small children.’

‘What about Elizabeth? I might have a girl, you know.’

‘Oh, daughters are always babies to them, when they notice them at all. But you’ll have a boy – I can tell.’

‘Really? My maid Tina says her mother has an infallible method, involving a piece of string and a coin with a hole in it, but I haven’t tried it yet.’

Albert appeared at the door of the drawing-room, announcing Lady Clemmie and stumbling over her title, calling her Lady Leacock and then correcting himself with a blush. Clemmie gave him a kindly it doesn’t matter a bit look, and when he had gone away to fetch the tea-tray, Bobby said, ‘There’s another example. We were just talking about starting as you mean to go on, Clem. You tried to make him feel better, but he’ll never learn that way. Sheer terror is the best teacher.’

Clemmie said, ‘I can tell you didn’t have a stern father who made you miserable.’

‘Oh, no, Pa was a perfect poppet. I wound him round my thumb, and you see how badly I’ve turned out.’

‘What about you?’ Clemmie asked Nina.

‘Mama and Papa were never stern, but they died when I was a little girl, so I can’t say whether they did the right thing or not,’ Nina said. She had adored her parents, and the loss of them had created a dark hole inside her that she thought could never be filled.

Clemmie said, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. Forgive me for asking.’

‘My aunt brought me up. She was very strict – make of that what you will.’ She changed the subject. ‘We were talking about telling the sex of a baby using a coin with a hole in it.’

Clemmie was puzzled. ‘Can’t you just look?’

Nina laughed. ‘Before it’s born, I mean.’

‘My father had a collection of old coins,’ Clemmie said, ‘and I remember some of them had holes in the middle. They came from China, I believe, or possibly Japan. Somewhere in the Far East, anyway. It’s hardly necessary to put holes in coins, however, when the finance of the country has a hole right through it.’

‘Oh dear, are we going to talk about politics?’ Bobby said.

The conversation was halted as Alfred and the under- housemaid Ruby came in with the trays. When they had gone, and Nina was pouring the tea, Bobby said, ‘Aubrey is terribly worried about having twenty-nine Labour Party MPs in the Commons since the election. He says it’s the end of civilisation.’

‘But isn’t he a protectionist?’ Nina said. ‘I thought the working classes were in favour of protectionism, because it keeps food prices low, so shouldn’t he be glad of them?’

‘He says there’s no knowing what way they’ll vote on anything, because it’s all so new to them. They’ll follow the last person who spoke,’ said Bobby.

‘I don’t agree,’ Clemmie said. ‘They’ve waited so long for this, I believe they’ll take it very seriously and think deeply about the issues.’

‘I suppose Mr Cowling is a free trader?’ Bobby said to Nina, spreading butter on a crumpet. ‘Industrialists usually seem to be. Though Aubrey says tariffs protect English goods from competition, so they ought to be for them. These crumpets are delicious! Does Mrs Deering make her own?’

‘No, they’re from Weston’s in the village. She does bake her own muffins, though.’ Nina turned back to Clemmie. ‘Do you think having Labour MPs will do anything for the Cause?’

‘I’m not sure,’ Clemmie said. ‘A lot of working-class men resent women for taking jobs away from men. Some of them think women oughtn’t to work outside the home at all. But in many families, if the woman doesn’t work, there simply isn’t enough money. And it’s thought that having the vote would lead to higher wages for women, which in turn would push up the men’s. So there’s no knowing which way the Labour MPs will lean.’

‘Which is exactly what Aubrey said,’ Bobby concluded triumphantly.

‘I can never quite make out from what you say whether your husband is for votes for women or against,’ Nina said, amused.

‘Oh, like most men, he wouldn’t mind me having the vote, as long as he doesn’t have to stir himself about it,’ said Bobby.

Clemmie smiled too. ‘The thing is to build up a sufficient swell of opinion so that it’s easier for them to go along with it than resist it.’

‘And how do you do that?’ Nina asked.

‘That’s the question,’ Clemmie said. ‘The whole nub and nexus of the problem.’