Page 57 of Rivals at Ashmore Castle
‘Why do men prefer silly women?’ she asked.
‘I’m not sure we prefer them.’ he said. ‘It’s more that we don’t expect to converse with females. Everywhere that we spend much time – at school, at university, in the army, the Church, the law, the office, in our clubs – we only ever talk to men. Women are for other purposes.’
‘Women are pretty playthings,’ she suggested, ‘and the rational man does not talk to inanimate objects.’
‘Come, that’s a little harsh.’
‘My father used to talk to his dogs,’ she offered, in mitigation.
‘I have been known to curse my collar studs,’ he admitted. ‘But they never seem to mend their ways.’
‘Now you are talking to me as if I were a human being! Why are you different from other men?’
‘Perhaps because,’ he said slowly, ‘I once knew a woman with a mind, who gave me a taste for it.’
‘Is she the one who makes you look sad? The one who makes you think marriage is not for you?’
‘You believe I think that?’
‘You have that air. It’s very useful, by the way. You should cultivate it. It allows you to enjoy female company without being suspected of serious intent.’
He laughed. ‘You are too acute.’
‘Oh dear, I’ve failed again. If my sister could hear me, she’d be horrified. She keeps giving me sterling advice and I keep forgetting it.’
‘Forgetting – or ignoring?’
She gave him a stern look. ‘You are very cruel, sir, to suppose I know the difference. Kindly address me as a gentleman addresses a lady.’
‘Very well.’ He affected a drawl: ‘I say, Miss Rowsham, don’t you find rain is awf’ly wet and spoils one’s clothes?’
‘Oh, yes, Mr Tallant!’ she breathed, gazing at him adoringly. ‘How clever of you to notice!’
Alice was furtively sketching the dancers on the back of Rachel’s invitation, which she had begged from her. She thought her sister rather distracted, and understood why when she spotted Angus in the crowds, with a small, very dark young woman on his arm. She didn’t understand how things stood between Rachel and Angus, but she did note that Rachel had been walking about with Jervis Farocean all afternoon, so she could hardly complain if Angus was squiring some other young lady. She just hoped they would be able to put all that behind them when Rachel came of age in six weeks’ time.
She didn’t notice someone come up beside her until a familiar voice said, ‘We meet again, Lady Alice. Can I persuade you to pause your labours for long enough to dance with me?’
She looked up and met Bentham Farocean’s smile with one of her own. ‘Gladly,’ she said.
‘I was wondering if you were the official recorder for this affair,’ he said, leading her onto the floor. ‘How is the art course going?’
‘Very well,’ she said. ‘I’m learning so much. I’m taking special lessons, you know, from Ivor Wentworth.’
‘The Ivor Wentworth? I’m impressed,’ he said. ‘I must say, I’m always taken by the way he paints cloth – velvets and brocades and silks and so on. They always look so real you feel you could touch them. How on earth do you create the impression of the softness of velvet, for instance? I’m lost in admiration.’
‘We haven’t done velvet yet. But I have had one lesson on satin. It’s all in the light, you know.’
‘Fascinating,’ he said.
But it only sounded polite, and his eyes were on the other dancers, so she dropped the subject and said, ‘Are you making much stay in London? Have you another sister to bring out?’
‘Yes, Alexandrine – but she’s the last. So I shall probably not be in London much after this month.’
‘Do you only visit to bring out sisters, then?’
‘If I were free to follow my inclinations I’d live here,’ he said. ‘But I’m at my father’s command, and he needs me in the business. I shall be leaving soon for Hamburg to set up an office there, and I don’t suppose I shall be able to come back very often.’ He smiled down at her. ‘My salad days of heedless youth are coming to an end. I’m being forced into adulthood and responsibility.’
‘What a pity,’ she said lightly. ‘But perhaps when you are mayor of Hamburg I shall be called upon to paint your official portrait, and we shall meet again.’
