Victoria Holt (7 page)

She took my hand in hers, which was surprisingly warm. I had expected it to be cold…as stone.

“I am delighted to meet you,” I said.

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” she replied. “Your aunt has been telling me so much about you.”

“Come and sit down,” said Aunt Patty. “Dinner will be served in about ten minutes. Isn’t it fun to have Miss Hetherington with us!”

She was smiling at me, almost winking. Fun seemed a strange word to use in connection with Miss Hetherington—except that, with Aunt Patty, all life fitted into that category.

I sat down, very much aware of the piercing blue eyes on me searchingly and I felt every detail of my appearance was being noted and that everything said would be weighed up and used in evidence for or against me.

“As you know, Cordelia has just returned from Schaffenbrucken,” said Aunt Patty.

“Yes, so I understand.”

“Two years she was there. Few people stay longer.”

“Two or three years is the usual span,” said Daisy. “It must have been a most exhilarating experience.”

I said that it was.

“You must tell Miss Hetherington about it,” said Aunt Patty.

She was sitting in her chair smiling and nodding. Her pride in me was a little embarrassing, and I felt I must do my best to deserve it.

So I talked of Schaffenbrucken—the daily pattern, the classes, the social activities…everything I could think of about the school until Violet coughed timidly and said we should go in to dinner.

Over the fish, Daisy Hetherington brought up the subject round which she had been skirting until this moment.

“My dear Patience,” she said, “I hope you are doing the wise thing in giving up.”

“No doubt of it,” said Aunt Patty cheerfully. “My lawyers and the bank all think it’s right…and they are rarely wrong.”

“So it is as bad as that!”

“As good as that,” retorted Aunt Patty. “There comes a time when a woman wants to break away. The time for me is now. We want a peaceful life…all of us, and that is what we are going to get. Violet has been working far too hard. She’s going to keep bees, aren’t you, Violet?”

“I always had a feeling for bees,” said Violet, “ever since my cousin Jeremy was all but stung to death when he got in the way of the queen bee.”

Aunt Patty burst out laughing. “She had a grudge against her cousin Jeremy.”

“No such thing, Patty. It served him right though. He was always interfering. My mother used to say ‘Let a bee be and he’ll let you be.’”

“Beekeeping may be an interesting hobby,” put in Daisy, “but if you are looking for profit…”

“All we are looking for is some lovely honey,” said Aunt Patty. “It is delicious in the comb.”

I knew Aunt Patty. She was deliberately making the conversation frivolously light; she was most anxious that Daisy Hetherington should not guess what a serious purpose she had.

“We are all looking forward to the simple life,” she went on. “Violet, Cordelia and I.”

Daisy Hetherington had turned her eyes on me. I could almost feel them probing into my mind. “Shall you not find it rather restricting, Miss Grant? At your age, after your education, and your sojourn at Schaffenbrucken…it seems rather a waste.”

“Schaffenbrucken is never a waste,” put in Aunt Patty. “It stays with you all your life. I always regret
I
never went, don’t you, Daisy?”

“I consider it to be the ideal finish to an education,” said Daisy. “That…and other establishments like it.”

“For instance Colby Abbey Academy for Young Ladies,” said Aunt Patty rather mischievously. “Oh, a great reputation! But in our hearts we know that nothing…simply nothing…compares with Schaffenbrucken.”

“All the more reason why your niece should not stultify in the country.”

“It is for Cordelia to choose what she will do. She was really brought up to teach, weren’t you, Cordelia?”

I said yes, that was so.

Daisy turned to me. “You have a vocation, I daresay.”

“I like the idea of being with young people. I always thought that was how it would be.”

“Of course, of course,” said Daisy. “I should like to look round a little while I’m here, Patience.”

“But of course. This is the last week, you know. It is all Christmas festivities. Not so much of the school curriculum now as Christmas jollities, and as it will be the last Christmas…”

“What are your girls going to do when you close…end of next term isn’t it?”

“I daresay some of the parents will consider Colby Abbey if I let them know you are a friend of mine. They like connections. Many parents were very interested to hear that Cordelia was at Schaffenbrucken. They thought, of course, she was going to teach here.”

“Yes, yes,” said Daisy, and even she could not hide the speculation in her eyes.

I was being considered and strangely enough I was intrigued by it. In a way I was attracted by Daisy Hetherington. She challenged me. I knew that she was a woman whom I could admire. She would be hard; I could not imagine her ever being governed by sentiment, but she would be just and appreciative of good work—indeed, I could not imagine her tolerating any other sort.

I thought of long days in the country…doing nothing in particular; listening to Violet on beekeeping, partaking in village fetes, holding stalls at bazaars, sharing jokes with Aunt Patty…and what else? Going on like that until I married. Whom would I marry? The vicar’s son if he had one. But vicars almost always seemed to have daughters. The doctor’s son? No. In spite of the fact that I should have a home with Aunt Patty, I wanted something more. Aunt Patty herself was the first to understand this. We should not want to spoil our precious relationship by boredom. She thought I should go out into the world and had made it clear to me that she saw through Daisy Hetherington a way to start about it.

Daisy told us about Colby Abbey Academy for Young Ladies and as she talked she seemed to lose her granite look; a faint color came into her cheeks; her blue eyes softened; it was clear that the very center of her life was the school.

“We have the most unusual setting. The school is part of the old Abbey. It gives us such a rare atmosphere. I think settings are so important. Parents are quite impressed when they see the school for the first time.”

“I thought it was a little spooky when I saw it,” said Aunt Patty. “Violet had nightmares in that room you put her in.”

“It was due to the cheese I’d eaten for supper,” said Violet. “Cheese does that to me.”

“People can imagine anything anywhere,” said Daisy, closing the subject. She turned to me. “As I was saying, a most interesting setting. So much of the old Abbey was destroyed during the Dissolution but quite a large part remains…the refectory buildings and the chapter house. In the sixteenth century the house we now occupy was restored by one of the Verringers, and they built the Hall at the same time using some of the stones from the Abbey. It’s the home of the Verringer family who own the Abbey and most of the land for miles round. They are very rich and influential landowners. I have two of the girls with me…so convenient for them and good for the school at the same time. I should not expect Jason Verringer to send them anywhere else. Yes, a most unusual setting.”

“It sounds very interesting,” I said. “I suppose the ruins of the Abbey are all around you.”

“Yes. People come to see them, they are written about, and that brings the school to people’s notice. I should like to buy the place but Jason Verringer wouldn’t allow that. Naturally, I suppose. The Abbey lands have been in the family since Henry the Eighth gave them to them when the Abbey was partially destroyed.”

“I’m glad I was able to own Grantley,” said Aunt Patty.

“How fortunate that you were!” retorted Daisy tersely. “It has stood you in good stead when the school failed.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say failed,” said Aunt Patty. “It is just that we have decided to part company.”

“Oh I know…on the advice of your lawyer and banker. Very wise, I am sure. But sad. Yet perhaps for you the quiet country life will have its charm.”

“I intend that it shall,” said Aunt Patty. “We all do, don’t we Cordelia…Violet? Vi dear, you’re dreaming. You can hear those bees buzzing, I’m sure. I can see you with one of those things they wear over their heads to prevent them getting stung, going out to tell the bees all the local gossip. Did you know, Daisy, that you have to tell the bees…or it’s unlucky or even worse. They don’t like it. They fly away in high dudgeon and they may be so incensed that they plant a few stings first. Did you know they leave their stings behind in the flesh when they sting and it kills them. What a lesson to us all. Never give way to anger.”

Daisy said to me: “I am sure that after your training and your session at Schaffenbrucken you will feel you want to use your qualifications.”

“Yes,” I replied. “I think I might feel that.”

Then she went on talking almost directly to me of Colby Abbey Academy, of the number of teachers she had, of the subjects which were taught, how she was concentrating on older girls. “Most of ours leave at seventeen. Some have actually gone on to Schaffenbrucken or some place on the Continent. Why do people always think they have to go abroad to learn the social graces? Surely we in this country are the best exponents of them in the world. I want to make people realize that and I have been thinking of adding some extra training for older girls…say eighteen or nineteen…dancing, conversation…debates.”

“Oh yes, we had that sort of thing at Schaffenbrucken.”

She nodded. “We already have a dancing master and a singing master. Some of the girls have excellent voices. Mademoiselle Dupont and Fräulein Kutcher teach French and German and are very adequate. One must have the natives of the respective countries.”

I listened attentively. She had inspired me with a desire to see the Abbey school.

It seemed disloyal to Aunt Patty to want to get away from home, but I really did believe I should not want to be there all the time and coming home for the holidays would be wonderful. I could almost hear the humming of Violet’s bees and see Aunt Patty wearing an enormous hat sitting under one of the trees at a white table on which were laid out cakes, meringues and strawberry jam. Pleasant…homely…comfortable, but I could not stop thinking of that Abbey with the ghostly ruins nearby and the mansion, the home of the all-powerful Verringers about three miles away.

I was still thinking of it when I retired and I had not been in my room more than five minutes when Aunt Patty came in. She threw herself in the armchair puffing slightly with exertion and merriment.

“I think she’s hooked,” she said. “I think she is going to make an offer. She always makes quick decisions. Prides herself on it. I could see that Schaffenbrucken was turning the scales.”

“I was rather intrigued.”

“I could see it. She’ll make you an offer. I think you ought to take it. If you don’t like it and she tries to ride roughshod over you, you can walk out at once. But she won’t. Give her a fair day’s work and she’ll look after you. I know her well. But as I say, if anything should go wrong, Vi and I will be waiting for you. You know that.”

“You always made things very easy for me,” I said emotionally. “I’ll never forget arriving at the dock and seeing you there in that hat with the blue feather.”

Aunt Patty wiped her eyes. There were sentimental tears but tears of laughter too. “Oh, that hat. I still have it somewhere. I reckon the feather’s a bit mangy. I could put a new feather on it. Why not?”

“Oh, Aunt Patty,” I said, “if Daisy Hetherington does offer me a post…and I take it…it isn’t because I don’t want to be with you.”

“Of course it’s not. You’ve got to have a life of your own and it’s not for the young to bury themselves with the old. Vi and I have our interests. Your life is just beginning. It’s right for you to step out into the world, and as I said, play your cards rightly and one of these days…who knows? She doesn’t own that place, you see. Just a lease on it, I suppose. She must have got that from those Verringers she’s always talking about. She’s comfortable enough there. I’d like you to go in with Daisy. I have a great respect for her really. At the best it could lead to big things and at the least it could be valuable experience.”

We embraced. She tiptoed out looking happily conspiratorial; and I went to bed and slept well after my previous night’s distorted dreams.

***

The next day I had a long talk with Daisy Hetherington and the outcome was that if I would care to join her school at the beginning of the spring term she would be pleased to have me. I should work out a curriculum similar to that which had been followed at Schaffenbrucken and in addition to taking debating and conversation classes I should exercise the girls in deportment and teach them English.

It seemed an interesting project and as she had already whetted my curiosity with descriptions of the school which was part of an abbey, I was very inclined to accept.

However, as I was concerned about Aunt Patty and I knew she was urging me to go for my own good rather than her pleasure, I did hesitate.

“I must have your reply immediately after Christmas,” said Daisy, and it was left at that.

Aunt Patty was delighted. “The right approach,” she said. “Not too eager. Well, Daisy will depart immediately after the carol concert. She is staying for that just for the pleasure of telling us how much more accomplished are the carol singers of Colby Abbey Academy for Young Ladies.”

In due course Daisy left with gracious thanks for our hospitality and with the command that my reply must be with her before the first of January.

Then it was time for the girls to leave. We said sad farewells and many of them were regretful because it was the last Christmas at Grantley Manor.

Christmas was much as it had always been. There was the traditional goose and Christmas pudding and many of our neighbors joined us during the two days. The local fiddler came in and we danced in the hall. But everyone was aware that it was the last time and that must mean a certain amount of sadness.

I was glad when it was over, and then I had to make my decision, which I suppose I had already done. I wrote to Daisy Hetherington accepting her offer and telling her that I should be prepared to start at the beginning of the spring term.