Sally James (5 page)

Adam came round the bed and took Kate's arm to lead her, bewildered and unresisting, from the room.

'Where is your aunt?' he asked curtly as the door shut behind them.

'I - I don't know,' Kate stammered, her heart racing from the tension of those last few minutes. 'I haven't seen her this morning.'

'Miss Byford is in the morning room with Mrs Rhydd,' came a reply from behind them, causing Kate to jump at the unexpectedness of it.

'Thank you, Mrs Greenlow.  Please show Miss Byford there. And send for dressmakers. His lordship commands. I do not expect to be back until tomorrow.'

Without a further word he turned away and ran hastily down the stairs. Looking over the bannisters Kate saw him snatch up a hat from a table in the hall and stride rapidly through the front door.

'Does Mr Rhydd not live here?' she asked, puzzled.

'He does most of the time, Miss Kate, especially since his lordship's been so ill, but he’s also had his own rooms for the past ten years or more. Mrs Rhydd lives here all the time, though. Come, I will take you to her.'

Kate followed her into the morning room, puzzling about the promise Adam had given to her grandfather, but soon forgot it as Aunt Sophie smiled encouragingly at her.

'How is your grandfather?'

'He is sleeping.'

'His lordship ordered dressmakers to be sent for,' Mrs Greenlow said disapprovingly.

'Dressmakers?' Mrs Rhydd asked, perplexed.

'For Miss, I presume,' Mrs Greenlow explained with a sniff.

'For Kate? Well, that's very generous of him,' Mrs Rhydd said doubtfully. She stared at Kate, who bore the scrutiny as well as she could. 'I must say you would be improved with a little style,' Mrs Rhydd said slowly. 'Mrs Greenlow, send a footman straight round to Celeste, and say I want her immediately.'

Mrs Greenlow departed, with another sniff, and Mrs Rhydd, after considering Kate for some time, rose and came to stand beside her.

'It will take a day or so for proper gowns to be made up, and you daren't show your face to the
ton
dressed as you are.'

'We have never been clever with our needles,' Miss Byford apologized. 'I hated dressmaking when I was a girl, and somehow there are so many other more interesting things to do.'

'No one would blame you,' Mrs Rhydd said graciously. 'In your circumstances I think you have contrived admirably.' She resumed her contemplation of Kate. 'But we are the same height, though you are a little thinner than I am, child. Some of my old gowns would do for the time being. Come upstairs with me and we will find a walking gown, and perhaps an evening gown. My maid can make the necessary alterations and we could drive in the Park this afternoon.'

Kate was about to protest that she had no intention of wearing a gown which was suitable for an old woman, when she caught her aunt's glance. She bit her lip. It would do no harm to look, and if the gowns were totally impossible she would invent some excuse for evading the projected outing.

'We can't afford to delay,' Mrs Rhydd said as she led the way upstairs. 'Your grandfather may be dead in a few days, and if you are to achieve a respectable marriage, one which befits your birth, you need to be seen in public before we all have to put on our blacks.'

Kate was surprised at the sentiment, but then she reflected she had not previously known her grandfather, and if she had never met him would not have thought it necessary to wear mourning clothes at all. And she didn’t see in the least why there was any haste to marry her off. She had no desire to marry. But she did want to see how people in London behaved so that she could include this in her novels.

To her relief she was pleased with the selection of gowns Mrs Rhydd produced. Eventually, with Miss Byford's approval, they selected a walking dress in a pale olive green, high necked and with long, close-fitting sleeves. It was trimmed with brown Spanish braid, and there was a delightfully pretty matching bonnet.

'It is only last year's fashion,' Mrs Rhydd said, 'and after all, no one will expect you to be up to the minute, living as you do in the depths of the country. This gown was always too young for me,' Mrs Rhydd confided, 'but if it is taken in a little at the waist it should suit Kate admirably. Now, how about this round gown in pink? As I am so fair myself I've always been able to wear pale colours, and it would need no alteration. And here's an evening gown in pale blue. That would serve until we can have new ones made.'

'But what about you, Aunt Sophie?'

'I don't need new gowns, I have no reputation as an Earl's granddaughter to maintain,' Miss Byford laughed. 'Besides, I could scarcely expect the Earl to pay for my vanity.'

By this time Celeste had arrived, accompanied by two girls bearing several bolts of material, and they were shown up into Mrs Rhydd's boudoir. Kate resigned herself to more hours of standing while swathes of material were draped over her shoulders, the merits of different styles and colours discussed, and what seemed to her an inordinately large number of gowns ordered.

'I don't need so many new dresses,' she whispered to Miss Byford when the others, for the moment, were absorbed in comparing different shades in the light near the window.

'Take them. Your grandfather can afford them, and he owes you something for the years he's neglected you.'

Kate grinned, and from then on entered enthusiastically into the selection,

'We'll go shopping for shoes and more hats and gloves and scarves tomorrow,' Mrs Rhydd said as, exhausted by the morning's activity, the ladies collapsed into chairs in the drawing room.

To Kate's surprise, and to a small degree jealousy, she discovered that Miss Byford was on excellent terms with Mrs Rhydd. It was a new experience for her to share her aunt with anyone, and she had rarely seen Miss Byford in such a sparkling mood. They had many acquaintances in the small village where they lived, and neighbouring villages between Oxford and Burford, but few close friends. Their inability to repay invitations had cut them off from some, and Miss Byford had never permitted herself or Kate to become closely involved with the ordinary villagers.

Now, however, as they ate a nuncheon of cold meat and fruit, she was talking animatedly and even laughing at some of the comments Mrs Rhydd was making about people Kate had never heard of. Although they did their best to include her, explaining references and elaborating on the convoluted relationships of everyone, Kate felt totally superfluous. She revived when Mrs Rhydd said they must change ready to go to the Park.

Kate ran up to her room where the maid helped her arrange the walking dress and brush her hair into a more fashionable style. Mrs Rhydd declared herself satisfied, and left the maid plying her needle on the evening dress. They drove sedately to the Park in a luxurious carriage. When Kate saw the younger people driving in dashing phaetons, though, she began to perceive that their barouche was by contrast exceedingly slow and stately. After one circuit during which she bowed or nodded or waved to many of her acquaintances, Mrs Rhydd declared they must walk in order to speak with people more easily.

Kate was staring about her, entranced. The Park was crowded with fashionable people strolling along, and riding or driving, although Mrs Rhydd said London was still empty as most people would still not return from Brighton and other less popular seaside towns, or their country estates for some weeks yet.

There was so much to see, so much to exclaim over, that she pushed to the back of her mind all speculation about the promise Adam had given her grandfather. She could not for the life of her imagine what it might have been, and after a while chided herself about such fruitless questioning, determined to try and forget it.

Kate was introduced to so many people she soon became bewildered trying to remember all their names, and the complicated relationships they all seemed to share. She lost count of the second cousins twice removed she was told about, and whose sister was married to which of the sons of somebody else's cousin by marriage.

One person only made an impression. 'This is my dear Chloe Shore,' Mrs Rhydd said as she introduced a small, red-haired girl with mischievous eyes and a pert, unfashionable nose positively smothered in freckles. 'Why don't you two girls walk on ahead while we talk to your dear Mama?'

Chloe immediately took Kate's arm and drew her out of earshot. 'Oh, how thankful I am to meet someone my own age,' she said, giggling. 'Mama seems to think I can exist on a diet of her friends. Tell me about yourself.'

'There's little to say,' Kate replied, but explained how they came to be in London. 'Now it's your turn.'

Chloe grinned. 'Mama hopes I'll find myself a husband, so that I'll have to forget Luke,' she said, giggling again.

'Luke?'

'He lives near us in Lincolnshire, and we've been friends for years, and we want to marry. Papa doesn't care who I marry so long as he's respectable and has sufficient income to keep me, but Mama would prefer me to marry someone fashionable. But she has promised that if we are of the same mind after I've done the Season next year, she will agree.'

'And does your father agree to this?' Kate asked, amused.

'He'd let us marry tomorrow, it would save him the expense of a come-out! Once Adam and I made it perfectly plain we had no intention of getting married, he'd be happy to give me his blessing for any presentable man.'

'You and Adam Rhydd?' Kate demanded.

'Our mamas were bosom bows when they were at school, and they married neighbouring landowners, and they always planned their children should marry. It was a great disappointment, I believe, when my brother Martin was born a few years after Adam, when they'd hoped for a girl to marry him. Then they had to wait ages for me. It's antiquated! Do you ride? We could ride here in the mornings if you like.'

'I'm not very experienced,' Kate replied. 'I only ever rode the Rector's son's pony at home.'

'We'll find a quiet hack for you. Martin's a good horseman and he'd jump at the opportunity to teach a pretty girl to ride.'

'I'm not pretty!' Kate said, startled.

Chloe giggled again. 'Just look at those antidotes walking towards us. They are sisters, and they've been on the town at least ten years. Don't you think, honestly, that you are prettier than they are?'

'It wouldn’t be difficult,' Kate agreed, infected by Chloe's high spirits.

'Of course not. Now we'll move up a step. Let me see. Yes, that dreadfully sallow girl in the putrid yellow dress.'

'The colour is reflected up into her face,' Kate objected.

'That's her natural complexion. You are prettier than she is. Who next?'

By the time they parted Kate felt she had known Chloe all her life, and they had made many plans for future meetings, including riding the following morning.

As she alighted from the barouche outside Malvern House Kate looked across to the gardens where two boys were crouched down over something, laughing loudly. Then she heard a piteous cry and looked more closely. She saw they had a small tabby kitten and were tying something to its tail, and exclaimed in fury as she ran across to them.

'Let it go, you odious creatures!' she commanded, and snatched one boy by the collar of his jacket to throw him out of her way. The other, startled, looked up at her.

'It's only a mangy stray,' he said dismissively.

'And you're a mangy bully!' Kate retorted, snatching the terrified kitten and easing the string they'd used from its tail, crooning gently to it as she did so, but careful to wrap its needle-like claws within the folds of her cloak.

'How dare you speak to me like that! Do you know who I am?' the boy demanded imperiously, rising to his feet. 'My father will complain about you!'

'I don't care if you're the King of Spain and the Pope and the Emperor of China all rolled into one! You're a nasty little boy,' Kate informed him and marched back across the road.

The incident had taken such a short time the other ladies had only just alighted from the carriage, and were watching open-mouthed as Kate stalked back towards them.

'What on earth's the matter?' Mrs Rhydd asked faintly. 'Why are you having an argument with the Duke's little boy?'

'Son of a Duke, is he?' Kate said, her colour high. 'Then he ought to know better than to torment this poor creature! I pity his poor tenants when they have him as their landlord!'

'What have you got there in your cloak?' Miss Byford asked swiftly.

'A kitten. It can't be more than a few weeks old. They were tormenting it.'

'Put it down, Kate,' Mrs Rhydd said. 'It will find its way home.'

Kate glanced across to where the two boys, unabashed but wary, stood glaring at her.

'If I do they'll catch it again,' she said briskly. 'Please, Ma'am, may I take it inside and give it some bread and milk? It looks as though it's starved. I can feel it's ribs quite clearly, poor little thing.'

Mrs Rhydd wavered. 'Oh, very well. Take it into the morning room, and after you've fed it give it to the footman. He can put it somewhere in the mews where those boys can't get at it.'

Kate gave her a beaming smile. 'Thank you, Ma'am!'

Half an hour later, the kitten had gorged itself on bread and milk and a few scraps of chicken a sympathetic housemaid had brought up to the morning room. Then it had explored its new surroundings, and was enjoying a snooze on Kate's lap when Adam walked into the room.

'What's this I hear about you assaulting the heir to a dukedom?' he demanded as he shut the door behind him.

Kate looked up from where she was sitting in the middle of the floor and grinned. 'Has the little horror complained to you or to his doting mama?' she asked. 'I have no doubt he has a doting mama, or he wouldn’t be such a beastly child.'

Adam sighed in exasperation. 'Get up from the floor! How one can conduct a serious conversation with you I don't know!'

'I like sitting on the floor,' Kate said provocatively. 'Besides - '

Before she could finish Adam had seized her arm and hauled her to her feet. The kitten, rudely dislodged from her lap, clutched wildly at the nearest support which happened to be Adam's leg, and scrambled to climb out of danger.