An Introduction To The Eternal Collection Jubilee Edition (116 page)

“What else does she say?” Caroline asked eagerly.

“She writes to me,” Mrs
.
Edgmont continued, “because she has decided to give up the post. By great good fortune her brother, who went out to India with the East India Company, has come home with quite a considerable fortune. He wants dear Fanny to keep house for him and so, after many years of working in other people’s homes, she will have the happiness of tending one of her own.”

“Did she tell you anything about Brecon Castle and the people in it?” Caroline asked.

“Yes, she writes a great deal of the Dowager,” Mrs. Edgmont replied. “She is devoted to her and very sorry to leave her, but she adds that there are other people in the house on whom she will be pleased to turn her back. She says “I
will not tire you with details, my dearest Debby, it is sufficient to say that nowadays people obtain positions of trust and responsibility which they abuse to the fullest extent - people who, because of their behaviour, are not entitled to style themselves Ladies”.

“‘Something or somebody has upset her,” Caroline said with a smile.

“Of course, dear Fanny is too discreet to mention any names,” Mrs. Edgmont said.

“Which makes the letter very dull,” Caroline commented. “Oh, I don’t think so, dear. Let me see if she says anything else. Yes,
“The servants come and go continually and who shall blame them under the Circumstances?”

“What circumstances?” Caroline asked.

“She does not relate them, dear,” Mrs. Edgmont replied, scanning the closely written pages.

“How truly maddening!” Caroline complained. “Is there nothing else?”

“No, just that she is sorry to leave and wonders if I could find anyone to take her place,” Mrs. Edgmont replied.

“What is that?” Caroline asked quickly.

“She wants me to recommend a new companion for the Dowager,” Mrs. Edgmont, answered. “Now, let me think. Is there anyone I would consider suitable? It is a pity that that nice daughter of your father’s attorney is not available. She was looking for a position of the same sort last year, I remember, but I believe she is perfectly satisfied where she is at the moment.”

Caroline got to her feet.

“Wait a minute, Cousin Debby,” she said. “I have an idea – .Yes, a very good idea – in fact, I have the very person
for
you.”

“Indeed, Caroline, and who night that be?”

“Er – there – there was a girl at school with me. She was nice and I was very fond of her.”

“I thought you disliked everyone at Madame d’Alber’s Academy,” Mrs. Edgmont said suspiciously. “You were only there three months, Caroline, and you came home vowing that you would not set, foot inside it again, declaring that everyone was unkind to you.”

“
No, no, there were exceptions - I dare say I said that, but was so frightened that Mama would insist that I should go back for a further term. I could not have borne it, Cousin Debby. Most of the girls were prim little hypocrites - I hated them! But there was one there, no two, of whom I was very fond, and this particular girl of whom I speak is the very person to be companion to the Dowager Lady Brecon.”

“Is she of good breeding, Caroline?”

“
Oh, very good,” Caroline answered. “I assure you that she comes of a most distinguished family. She is well-educated and of great sensibility. Please recommend her, Cousin Debby. I should be so glad if you would.”

“Well, of course, Caroline, if she is a friend of yours and in need of employment, I will do my best. Where is she living at the moment?”

Caroline took a deep breath.

“Now that is the strangest thing, Cousin Debby. There was another girl at school with me who was in fact my only friend – with the exception of course of this girl of whom we are speaking – and Harriet, for that is my other friend’s name, lived at Cuckhurst, I have only just recalled it, but her father was the Vicar of Cuckhurst and her fees at the school had been paid through the kindness of his patron. I never bothered to find out who the patron was, but now I am sure it must have been the Dowager Lady Brecon or even Lord Brecon himself.”

“But what has your friend to do with this other girl?” Mrs. Edgmont asked, bewildered.

“The girl I wish you to recommend is living at the moment with Harriet at Cuckhurst,” Caroline exclaimed triumphantly.

“I understand, at least I think I do,” Mrs. Edmont said, “It all seems somewhat of a tangle.”

“Not really, Cousin Debby. All I beg is that you will be vastly obliging and write at once to your friend Fanny saying that you are recommending a very suitable person for the position, while I will write to my friend and tell her of your kind recommendation.” Caroline paused and then added breathlessly, “And yes, I know - I will drive over and stay the night with Harriet and then I can take your recommendation in person.”

“Really, Caroline, I cannot think such extreme measures are necessary,” Mrs. Edgmont said. “I am sure the Vicar of Cuckhurst would be embarrassed by your visit and the letter can quite easily go by post.”

“But I would love to see Harriet again, I swear I -would,” Caroline said. ‘Pray do not put obstacles in my way, Cousin Debby. It is all settled and you will be doing a real kindness.”

“Well, I do not know what to think,” Mrs. Edgmont said. ‘I wonder Caroline, if I really ought to recommend someone I have not actually met. It is all very well for you to speak for the girl, but what does anybody else know of her -your mother for instance?”

“Oh, but Mama knows her,” Caroline said hastily. “She knows her well and likes her very much.”

Mrs. Edmont smiled.

“That, dear, is different. Why didn’t you say so at the beginning?” Then she added, “Perhaps it would be wise to write to your mother on the matter and ask her for a personal letter of recommendation.”

“Cousin Debby, how could we wait for that?” Caroline asked in dismay. “Why, the position might be filled a thousand times over before Mama could reply.”

“Yes, yes, of, course! Well, if you assure me that your mother knows this girl. Has she stayed here?”

“Yes, of course she has,” Caroline said, “and both Mama and Papa are devoted to her, in fact they treat her like one of the family –-she might be their own daughter. Now sit down and write to your dearest Fanny while I send a groom off to tell Harriet I am arriving on a visit.”

“Do you wish me to accompany you, dear?”

“Oh no,” Caroline replied. “I will take Maria with me. They might not have room for more than one guest.

“Well, it seems a long journey when the post could easily take the letter,” Mrs. Edgmont said. “But, if it gives you so much pleasure, Caroline dear, I dare say there is no harm in it.”

Caroline hurried towards the door.

“Write the letter now,” she pleaded. “Please, Cousin Debby.”

“Yes, of course, at once,” Mrs. Edgmont said, feeling for her lorgnette. Then, as Caroline had almost shut the door after her, she gave a little cry. ‘Caroline! Caroline!”

“What is it?”

“You have omitted to tell me the girl’s name.”

“Oh, how silly of me,” Caroline said. “It is Caroline Fry.”

“Why, she has the same name as you,” Mrs. Edgmont said.

“Yes, isn’t it strange?” Caroline answered, “but then I have always said that mine was a monstrously common name.”

Caroline sped upstairs to her own room where she penned a letter to Harriet Wantage. Then having stuck a wafer on the envelope, she carried the note with her own hands to the stable yard.

“What can Oi do for, ye, m’lady?” old Harry asked.

“I want a groom to take this at once to Cuckhurst,” Caroline said. “It is for the Vicarage and tell him, Harry, that he is not to wait for an answer.”

The old groom scratched his greying hair.

“Them seem queer instructions to Oi, m’lady. ‘Tis usual for a groom who has travelled all that distance to have his glass o’ ale and put his horse in the stable for a rest.”

“I care little what is usual,” Caroline said. “You are to tell the messenger, Harry, that he is to leave the letter and turn about forthwith. Here’s half a guinea. Tell him from me that he can go to the nearest inn and get his ale, but he is not to wait at the Vicarage. Is that clear?”

“Very good, m’lady. Oi suppose this one o’ them new-fangle’d ways a’ be’aving as ye have learned up in London Town but blessed if Oi can see the sense on it.”

Leaving the old groom grumbling to himself, Caroline went back to the house. Although he might argue with her, she knew her commands would be carried out and that now she ran no risk of receiving a refusal to the suggestions she had made in her letter to Harriet.

There was a rising sense of excitement within her. The night before she had lain awake worrying, trying to find a way to help Lord Brecon, and now miraculously things were happening. The plan she had in mind was a dangerous one, and yet she believed she could carry it through. Just for a moment she thought of her mother.

“But I am not doing anything wrong,” Caroline argued, “I am helping someone I am being kind and unselfish, and besides, in the position of companion I shall certainly not be able to be anything but subdued, well behaved and very, very womanly.”

She had reached her own room by this time and she made a grimace at her reflection in the mirror. She certainly did not look very like a companion. There was something very aristocratic about her lovely face, and something rather wild and untrammelled, too, in the way her red-gold curls danced around her forehead and over her tiny ears. Caroline seized a brush and tried to smooth them down, but they defied her, and after a moment she threw down the brush on the-dressing-table and going across to the bedside, pulled the bell rope violently.

It was only a few seconds before she heard Maria’s feet come running down the passage. She came quickly into the room.

“Lawks, m’lady, but I thought you were taken ill. The bell rang so violently as almost to startle me out of my skin.”

“Start packing, Maria,” Caroline said.

“Is your ladyship going away?” Maria asked.

“Yes, and I am taking you with me.”

Maria clapped her hands.

“Oh, m’lady, how glad I am! I have been humiliated at your being maided in London by that stiff-necked old hag at Vulcan House. “Tis my place to attend to Lady Caroline,” she told me. “I was here before she was born.” “If you told me ‘twas before the house was built, I would believe you,” I says, and she hated me from that moment, m’lady. I was rude, I grant you, but I couldn’t abide her taking you off my hands like that after you had chosen me as your very own maid.”

“Yes, yes, Maria,” Caroline said absently, “but we are not going to London.”

For how many nights shall I pack, m’lady?”

Caroline walked across to shut the door which was slightly ajar.

“Listen, Maria,” she said. “Can you keep a secret?”

“You know I can, m’lady.”

“Will you do me a service then?” Caroline’s tones were grave.

Maria’s eyes opened wide, her smiling, chattering mouth was still and solemn. She was silent for a moment and then in a voice quiet and strangely unlike her usual tone, she said,

“I would give my life for you, m’lady. You know that.”

“Thank you, Maria, I know I can trust you,” Caroline said. ‘Well, we are going on a journey of vast import. It is to help someone - a man who is in grave danger.”

Maria clasped her hands together.

“Oh, m’lady, ‘tis, then – a journey of love.”

For a moment Caroline looked startled. She stood very still and there was a sudden loveliness in, her face and, in the depths of her eyes which had never been there before.

“I believe you are right, Maria,” she said softly. “It is a journey of love.”

4

Caroline bent forward and looked out of the window of the coach. It was travelling fast, for Lord Vulcan had his coaches specially built for speed and the new roads invented by Macadam made journeying both smooth and swift.

“We shall be there soon,” she said to Maria who was sitting beside her. “The last milestone said
“Three miles to, Cuckhurst”
and we must have done over half that distance by now.”

“Oh, m’lady, I am so frightened,” Maria quivered.

“Try not to be so chicken-hearted, Maria,” Caroline answered. “It is quite simple, as I have told, you. Immediately we arrive I am sending the coach on to Brecon Castle with two letters, one the recommendation from Mrs. Edgmont, the other from myself asking for an interview. You can travel in the coach until it reaches the drive, then you must get out and walk. You go to the back door, enquire for the housekeeper and present the reference that I have given you. Do not forget that I signed it with my mother’s name, and you had better ask for the position of an under-housemaid ”

“Oh, m’lady, supposing they have a suspicion that the reference is forged?”

“Really, Maria, you are too nonsensical,” Caroline exclaimed. “Who would imagine any such thing? You promised to help me, Maria, and this is the one-way you can do it. You are likely to hear far more in the servants’ hall than I am in the dining room, and if I get the position of companion to Lady Brecon, you can put in a good word for me with the other servants, say that I am continually staying at Mandrake and that Lady Caroline Faye is devoted to me, for indeed I dote upon myself.”

Maria giggled for a moment, and then her face grew serious again.

“I don’t know what to think of it all, m’lady, indeed I don’t, for ‘tis heading for trouble you are, as sure as I’m sitting here.”

“Stop croaking, Maria, and remember that this is no prank, we go to save a man’s life.”

“Well, ‘I’ll do my best, m’lady, because I promised you I would, but if you asks me - ”

Caroline interrupted her with a cry.

“We are arriving, Maria! See, this must be Cuckhurst village. There is the church, and yes – that must be the Vicarage. Slip well into your corner, for I have no wish for you to be seen.”

“Oh, m’lady, m’lady – ” Maria started, but at that moment the carriage door opened and a footman let down the steps. Caroline stepped out. As soon as she reached the ground, she turned and spoke to the coachman on the box.