'Mare goes well for her!' The bald man was hopeful that her Ladyship would buy the mare from him.
'Maybe.' Burroughs would not commit himself.
Campion turned the horse again, and forced it into a canter. She leaned forward, trying to hear if the breath was whistling in the mare's pipes. 'Come on, girl! Come on!' She slapped its neck.
The owner of the horse, Harry Trapp, was a farmer who had ridden this day from the PiddleValley. He knew that LazenCastle would always buy a decent horse.
Campion turned the horse again and this time she galloped the mare up the slope of the field, across the grain of the plough, and she kicked her heels back to see what speed the animal would show in this deep, wet ground. Mud flecked the skirts of her dress and cloak. She turned at the field's head and cantered toward the two men. Her cheeks were glowing, her face alive with pleasure.
She swung herself from the saddle, slapped at some of the mud on her cloak, and went to the horse's head. 'She summered in a field, Mr Trapp?'
'Yes, my Lady.'
That, she thought, explained the horse's poor condition. She was newly shod, but the shoes had been put on over feet battered by a summer on dry land. 'Has she had any oats?'
'No, my Lady. But she filled up nicely last winter.'
Campion ran her hand down the horse's neck, down the forelegs to the chipped knee. The farmer shrugged. 'That don't stop her, my Lady.'
'Why are you selling?'
The farmer shrugged. 'Ain't got no call for her, my Lady. Too good to pull a bloody cart.'
'Don't you swear to her Ladyship,' Simon Burroughs said.
'Sorry, my Lady,' the farmer said.
Campion hid her smile. All the men in the Castle, Simon Burroughs included, swore freely in front of her, but were outraged if any outsider took the same liberty.
The mare was broad and firm at the root of her neck, and was hardly blowing because of the exercise. She would, Campion thought, make a good hunter, but would never breed the foal that Campion wanted which would be as fast as any in England. She opened the horse's mouth. 'Six years old?'
'Yes, my Lady.'
'Seven,' said Simon Burroughs. 'You tried to sell her last year to Sir John. You said she was six then.'
'Seven,' said Mr Trapp.
'What do you call her?'
'Emma.' He seemed ashamed of the name.
'It's a nice name.' Campion was looking at the mare's eyes. There was a tiny fleck in the left eye, but not in the line of vision. 'What are you asking?'
The farmer hesitated. He was not used to bargaining with girls, let alone the beautiful daughters of the aristocracy, and in truth what he was asking was inflated outrageously simply because he had come to Lazen which was famous for its fortune. He decided to brazen it out. 'Squire at Puddletown offered me seventy pounds for her.'
'You should have taken it,' Campion said. 'Feed her two pounds of oats a day for a week and I'm sure he'll offer it again.' She smiled at the man and held him the reins. 'Thank you for coming, Mr Trapp.'
'My Lady!' The farmer was blushing. 'I thought she'd be happier here.'
Campion gave him her most beautiful smile, pleased by the compliment. She knew what the horse was worth, and so did the farmer, but it would be unthinkable to buy the mare without going through the necessary bargaining. She pushed a muddy hand at her hair. 'You can't expect me to pay top price for a horse that's been out at grass this long. It's going to take me a month just to put some muscle on her!'
'You rode her!' Mr Trapp pointed out reasonably. 'Wasn't pumping one bit when you brought her off the plough! She'll be fit for anything in a month!'
She ran a hand over the mare's chipped knee. 'Did you splint this?'
But the farmer was not listening. He was staring instead at a vision that approached along the path which came from the Castle. The farmer's jaw dropped. No one would believe him in the taproom tonight.
A middle-aged man stepped precariously between the puddles. He wore breeches of dark blue silk, above tasselled boots of white leather that had been polished to glass brightness. His tail coat was of grey velvet, and his shirt and stock of white silk. He wore no hat or wig, instead his silver hair had been drawn back and tied with a black velvet bow. His fingers were lavishly beringed. In his right hand was a tall ebony cane, topped with gold and decorated with blue ribbons. On his thin, mischievous face there was powder and, on his left cheek, a black beauty patch. He smiled beatifically at the farmer. 'May blessings rain upon your head, dear man.'
The farmer shook his head. 'Sir?'
'May the light of his countenance shine upon you, and give you peace.' He spoke with a distinct French accent. 'Is that a horse?'
Campion laughed. 'Hello, uncle.'
He grimaced. 'Good God! Is that you, dear Campion? I thought it was a dairy maid. Mr Burroughs.' He gave the slightest bow. 'I bid you good day.'
'Sir,' the head coachman said.
Campion patted the mare's neck. 'We're buying a horse, uncle.'
'I can't think why. You have so many, and all they do is clutter up the stables. You should buy a unicorn, dear Campion, a white unicorn with pearls upon its horn. I might learn to ride such a beast.' He smiled wondrously at the farmer. 'Can you see me in a unicorn's saddle, sir? I think reins of gold would suit me, don't you?' He put fingertips to his mouth. 'You must forgive me, dear sir, for you have not the advantage of my name.' He bowed to the farmer. 'Achilles d'Auxigny, my most humble duty to you.'
'Eh?' said the farmer.
'This is Harry Trapp, uncle, and you're not to embarrass him.' Campion looked at the coachman. 'I want her, Simon, but I won't pay more than we paid for Pimpernel.'
Burroughs grinned. 'Yes, my Lady.'
'You'll forgive me, Mr Trapp?' She smiled at him. 'And thank you for bringing Emma here.'
'You're welcome, my Lady.' The farmer was blushing again because the Lady Campion was offering him her hand. He wiped his right hand on his smock and took hers. 'Thank you, my Lady.'
'And make sure you get something to eat before you ride home.'
'I will.' Harry Trapp smiled at her. He knew a real aristocrat when he met one, not some frippery floppery like the weird Frenchman.
Campion took her uncle's arm and led him back towards the Castle. 'You shouldn't be cruel to people.' She spoke, as she always did in private with him, in her perfect French.
'I do enjoy teasing your yokels. They are so very teasable.' He smiled at her. 'You do look dreadful. Do you have to dress like a peasant? And can't you leave horses to grooms?'
'I like horses.'
'It is time you were married,' Uncle Achilles said irritably. 'A good husband would keep you out of the stables.'
She laughed at him. She liked her Uncle Achilles, her mother's younger brother. His elder brother had become the Duc d'Auxigny, and had inherited with the Dukedom the Marquisates of a score of French villages and become Count of two score more, while Achilles, the younger brother, had inherited nothing except a minor title he refused to use, a noble name, and a clever head. Against his will he had been trained for the priesthood. His noble birth had insured a swift rise to a rich bishopric, a rise that his scandalous, hedonistic behaviour had not impeded in the least.
The revolution in France had let him slide, like Bertrand Marchenoir, out of the priesthood. He refused to take the Constitutional Oath, resigned his See, and when the burning of the great houses began, and when the stories of hacked, raped and slaughtered aristocrats spread through France, he had fled with his widowed mother to the Earl of Lazen's London house. The Duchess still lived on Lazen's charity, a charity she constantly criticised. Uncle Achilles, more independent, earned a living from the British government. He did not care to talk much about his work, but Campion knew from her father that Achilles d'Auxigny helped ferret out the secret agents who were smuggled into Britain as so-called refugees from the revolution.
They went through the kissing gate that led to the Castle's gardens. Campion, holding her uncle's arm, smiled up at him. 'I can't really imagine you as a bishop.'
He pretended indignation. 'I was a most loved bishop! I used to preach a very good sermon in which I would terrify a parish into making their confessions. I would then listen in the confessional and make a note of which ladies had committed adultery. Then, if they were very pretty, I would visit them and compound the offence, though with instant forgiveness, of course.' He laughed at her expression.
Turning Achilles d'Auxigny into a priest had been his father's ambition. Achilles' father had been known in France as the Mad Duke. He had believed himself to be God and, for his own worship, he had built a shrine at his Chateau of Auxigny in which, by careful mechanical contrivances, he would perform miracles. Undoubtedly the Mad Duke had hoped that his youngest son would preach the family gospel. Instead, as Achilles was fond of saying, his father had thought of himself as God and taught his children thereby that there was none. Now he looked at his niece. 'I always told your father not to marry into our family. We're all quite mad.'
'You're not.'
He shrugged as if he did not care to argue the point. 'I just made my farewells to your father. Everyone says you did a remarkably fine thing with his leg.'
'I just sewed it up, uncle.'
'Just sewed it up, indeed! I couldn't have done it. I would have fainted.'
She laughed. She made him walk with her towards the ornamental lake. He complained that it would rain, that he had neither hat, umbrella, cloak or gloves, but consented to accompany her.
'I do hope Lucille can take to your English ways,' he said dubiously. 'Horses and walking. It's most uncivilized.'
'She'll be too busy having babies,' Campion said. Her brother would be coming with his bride within the week. 'Lots of babies.'
'How utterly dreadful. I do hate babies.'
She laughed, refusing to believe him. Achilles d'Auxigny watched her as they walked. She was, he thought, the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. His sister had been beautiful, but in marrying the fifth Earl of Lazen, his sister had created this extraordinary girl, hair as gold as pale wheat, eyes the colour of the Virgin's dress, a face of strong lines, softened by the mouth and by an indefinable air of goodness that she carried quite unconsciously. She had, her uncle thought, the clearest skin he had ever seen, eyes that shone with happiness; she was a girl of delicate, wonderful beauty. He squeezed her arm. 'When are you going to marry, Campion?'
She smiled at the question. 'You don't give up, uncle, do you?'
'There are a hundred young men who would lay their souls at your feet! A thousand!'
'Nonsense.' She looked away from him. 'That coppice needs trimming. I told Wirrell last week.'
'And don't change the subject,' Achilles said. 'You should marry someone, my dear Campion. It is time you were worshipped. That is what women are for! To be worshipped, to be stroked, to be adored.'
'To be loved?'
'You talk of illusions.'
'To be decorative, then?' she asked him teasingly.
'Of course,' he replied seriously.
They had reached the strip of grass between the Castle's lake and the great, wrought-iron fence that fronted the Shaftesbury road. Achilles stopped and looked over the water. 'Magnificent.'
They were looking at the celebrated view of Lazen, the one that had been drawn and painted so often that Campion claimed the artists' easels had permanently marked the lawn at this spot.
From this lake bank LazenCastle spread across their view in all its magnificence. The Castle had taken two centuries to build, yet it was marvellously coherent. It was really three houses. To the right was the Old House with its Long Gallery and its great windows that reflected the day's grey light. The Old House was joined by a bridge of rooms to the Great House, and the bridge also formed the portico beneath which carriages drew up to deliver guests to the Castle.
The Great House was the tallest building, topped by the huge banner of Lazen, and fronted by the fluted columns that reared so arrogantly from the great spread of gravel. It was there, in the Great House, that Campion's father had lain for fifteen years, ever since his best-loved hunter had fallen on him, rolled on him, and bequeathed him paralysis and pain.
To the left was the lowest part of the building, the Garden House that was joined to the Great House by a curving, pillared arcade. It had been built for Campion's mother, a gift from her husband, but now it was used as a guest wing. It was in the Garden House that Uncle Achilles had been staying on this visit that ended today.
Campion stared at LazenCastle, seeing it reflected in the wide lake. It was home to more than two hundred people; grooms, maids, cooks, footmen, postilions, cellarmen, seamstresses, servants by the score, and all fed and paid by Lazen, their babies born in the town and raised in the Castle's shadow, their beer brewed in the Castle's brewhouse, their linen pounded in the Castle's fullery, their corn ground in the Castle's mill.
Her uncle stared at her. 'Do you ever get tired of it?'
'Never!' She smiled wistfully, took his elbow again, and began walking. 'Do you ever wish that nothing should change?' She looked up at him. 'That everything would just stop?' She waved at the Castle. 'Perhaps next summer? On a day of perfection? If we could just leave it like that for ever?' She laughed at her own fancy.
He stopped walking, took her face in his long, thin hands on which, perversely, he still wore his bishop's ring, and kissed her solemnly on the forehead. 'Dear Campion, may I say something offensive?'
'Uncle?'
'This is serious advice.'
'Oh dear.' She smiled.
'It is time you grew up.' His face, thin and intelligent, was extraordinarily attractive. He was the cleverest man Campion knew, the most interesting, the most unexpected. The lines of age seemed delicately etched beneath the powder on his face. He smiled. 'I've offended you.'
'No.'
'I should have offended you, then.' He took her elbow and walked on with her. 'Lazen is not yours, my dear. It will go to Toby and Lucille. You will lose Lazen just as I lost Auxigny. You have your own life to make and the sooner you make it, the better. You should not be here adding up columns of figures and worrying about the harvest and paying the wages; you should be in London. You should be dancing.'