“Oh… yes, yes, of course. Do mind the steps, Lady Esther, for some flags are cracked. Landerby may be imposing, but the late duke neglected it terribly. Not that I mean any disrespect to my father-in-law, naturally, for I am sure he had many other calls on his purse, but it does seem a shame. We have thrown an army of servants at it this past month, so I hope you will not— Oh, careful, Miss Franklyn! The steps are so worn. Do take the greatest care. Now just down here is the Great Hall. I had hoped, Lady Esther, to house you and Mr Franklyn in the Great Chamber, but sadly the damp could not be got out of it, despite weeks of blazing fires. We have men on the roof mending all the leaks. This way, if you please. Do mind these steps, they are so uneven. Miss Franklyn, pray hold the rail. This way! This way!”
Passing through great echoing chambers, their stone floors only partially covered by threadbare carpets, the damp air chilling even now, in the height of summer, Bea thought it would take more than an army of servants to bring Landerby Manor to any degree of comfort. It needed a small fortune spent on it. But then the Duke of Wedhampton was reputed to have a very large fortune, the late duke having been reluctant to spend so much as a single unnecessary farthing if he could possibly help it, or, even better, if he could persuade someone else to spend it on his behalf. But that was how the rich became even richer, she supposed, by hanging on to their farthings.
They ascended a staircase lit by newly cleaned windows, which only revealed in starker detail the cracked stonework and dust in the air. Their feet threw up clouds of it as they passed by, and a scattering of half-filled buckets here and there suggested that the men on the roof would be kept busy for some time.
“Here we are,” the duchess said, throwing open a door. “This is for you, Lady Esther, and there is a dressing room beside it. And Miss Franklyn, your room is just through here.”
It was not large, but it was a corner room with windows on two sides, coloured buttercup yellow by the afternoon sun. One window had a view over lawns to a church and a line of trees that perhaps marked a stream, and the other overlooked the stable yard, where their carriages were just arriving. As she watched, grooms moved forward to unhitch the horses for the postilions to return them to the last staging post.
“Do you think you will be comfortable here?” the duchess said anxiously, following Bea into the room. “We have contrived as best we may, but the house is in such a state of decay I scarcely know what to do about it. I hope Lady Esther will advise me, for I have not the least idea how to go on. I was never intended to be a duchess.”
“It was all very sudden, was it not?” Bea said sympathetically.
The duchess nodded, sitting down with a sigh on the bed. Next door, the thumps and huffs and grunts suggested that trunks were arriving. Lady Esther’s imperious voice could be heard giving instructions. Bea sat down beside the duchess.
“When I married George, he was the second son of a second son, Miss Franklyn, with four people ahead of him in the succession. No one cared who he married, and I was only a lowly squire’s daughter… not even an eldest daughter! Youngest of five, and not a bean to my name. But Henry and George both offered for me… Henry was George’s elder brother, you see, but he never expected to inherit, either, so it was left up to me to choose which of them I wanted… or neither!”
“How did you choose?” Bea said, for the question of choosing a husband was much on her mind.
The duchess roared with laughter. “I kissed them! At least, Henry kissed me, and that was pleasant enough but it did not set me on fire, if you understand me. Have you ever been kissed, Miss Franklyn?”
“No, never.”
“Oh, then you will not know, but with the right man, something magical happens when you kiss. So having kissed Henry, I wanted to kiss George, too, and so I did and I knew… I just knew. And so did he. If ever you want to know about a man, what kind of man he is, then you must kiss him, Miss Franklyn, then you will know.”
“So you kissed Lord George,” Bea breathed, enchanted with the story, “and you justknew.”
“Yes, and so we were married, and we had our sweet little house and our sweet baby came along and we were so happy. And then… it was dreadful! So many deaths! First George’s father, and then his uncle and cousin, one after the other. And then poor Henry was the heir and he rushed out and got himself married, and then he died too! And bless me, but the old dukewent and died straight after. I was so terrified that George would die, too. It was quite horrid, as if we were being punished for something. But then we were in a dreadful state because Louisa… Henry’s wife, that is… his widow, poor girl. Can you imagine, only married a month and then widowed? Anyway, she was with child and so was I, so we all had to wait to see if she had a son who would be the new duke, but she had a girl, poor thing, so it was all for nothing. Although she is still at Rodmersham, for George has not the heart to ask her to remove to the Dower House. And in the end, I was the one who had a son, and so the succession is secure… for the moment. But Thomas… he is George’s younger brother, you see, and everyone is wild for him to marry soon, and start producing more sons.”
“Lord Thomas… he is here, is he not?”
“Oh yes, but how much we will see of him I cannot say, for he is one of these learned men talking Latin to each other. But two of my cousins are here — you will like them, I am sure. Several other young ladies, too. We shall find much to amuse us, shall we not? Do you ride, Miss Franklyn?”
“I do. My horse is being brought here in easy stages.”
“Excellent. This is supposed to be good riding country, although I have not had time to explore myself. Oh good, here are your boxes at last, and this is Peggy, who will unpack for you. Do you have a maid with you?”
“My stepmother’s maid will see to both of us.”
“Of course, but send for Peggy if ever you need any additional help. The ladies tend to gather in the State Saloon in the afternoons. Ask a footman to direct you. There are no bell pulls here, just hand bells and footmen everywhere — you cannot go far without finding one. And there are names on all the occupied rooms, so that you don’t wander into one of the gentlemen’s bedrooms by mistake. I shall see you later, Miss Franklyn.”
And in a flurry of muslin skirts, she was gone, leaving Bea amused, if a little breathless.
9: Landerby Manor
Bertram was surprised to find himself looking forward to Bea’s arrival. The presence of the Duke and Duchess of Wedhampton changed the atmosphere of the gathering, although not in themselves, for they were mild-mannered by nature and not at all high in the instep. In addition to the title, however, they had inherited all the old duke’s vast retinue of very grand servants, starting with a house steward, comptroller, three secretaries, chaplain, butler and housekeeper, and not forgetting the team of six cooks and man-cooks who contrived to lade the dinner table with a cornucopia of delights. There were, it seemed, certain traditions that must be followed in order to ensure the dignity and honour of the ducal family.
All the comfort of the relaxed meeting of intellectuals, where scarcely a word of English was spoken for the entire month, was lost in the increased size of the company. Several of the participants now had wives with them, and the wives brought sisters and cousins and even their mothers, occasionally, and now the duchess had invited her cousins and several other youngladies. Having made a successful and happy match herself, she was determined to bestow the same happiness on everyone else within her orbit, whether they wished for it or not.
Into this tiresome setting, the Franklyns arrived with all the charm and familiarity of home. When Bertram and his fellows streamed out of their meeting and entered the faded grandeur of the State Saloon, almost the first sight he saw was Bea’s smiling face across the room, her black curls bouncing merrily as she waved to him.
Seeing that Lady Esther and Mr Franklyn were absorbed into the crowd around the duchess, he weaved his way across the room and executed a more than usually jaunty bow.
“Miss Franklyn, what a pleasure to see you here, and precisely at the appointed hour. May I take it then that you had an untroubled journey?”
“Oh yes, not the least trouble in the world. Is this not an amazing house? We got lost just coming down from our rooms, for although the building appears to be symmetrically arranged around the courtyard, there are so many rooms and oddly shaped passageways that we could not work it out at all. First of all we came down the same stairs we had gone up to find our rooms, but then we could not recognise anything and we ended up in a long open passage with columns, but quite in a different part of the building, and Papa would not go back or ask the footman we passed at the foot of the stairs, and Mama got very cross with him. In the end, she made us walk across the courtyard to the Great Hall and there was a footman by the front door, so she asked him how to find the saloon. But it was so amusing! Fancy being in a house large enough to get lost in!”
“It is confusing, that is true,” Bertram said, and he could not help smiling at her laughing face. “The fact is, the house may look symmetrical, but it is not at all. Should you like to knowhow it works? If you understand it, you will be able to lead your mama and papa about without anybody getting cross.”
