Robert took a deep breath before answering. A summons from his mother at bedtime was always bad news, but there was no point antagonising her when she was already tired and fretful from the aching hip which troubled her these days.
“You are talking about the Lady Olivia, I collect? A lady whom I met for the first time four hours ago?”
“Lady Olivia, indeed! She is the illegitimate daughter of Lord Rennington, and I will thank you to bear that in mind in your dealings with her. Even if she were stillLadyOlivia, I donotwant you to fall under her spell and treat us to another mortifying spectacle.ThenI said nothing for you were just a younger son and your marriage of little consequence, so I put up with the embarrassment of watching you grovelling for the least sign of favour from that dreadful girl, but now — the hopes of the whole family rest on your shoulders. Do not betray our trust by humiliating us all over again.”
“She is amusing, Mama, that is all,” he said mildly. “She is like Izzy, and yet unlike her, too.”
“You see? Youarefalling under her spell! It will not do, Kiltarlity.”
He noted for the first time how frail she looked. Propped up against the pillows, her grey hair not quite concealed under a voluminous cap, she looked small and vulnerable. His indomitable mother, who had ruled the household with herstrong will and managed even his determined father when she needed to, had an unexpected wobble in her voice. She might tell him firmly that‘it will not do’,but he saw fear in her eyes. She had lost three sons, a daughter and her husband in a very short time. No wonder she feared for him, too.
“Mama,” he said in his most soothing tone, sitting on the edge of the bed and taking her hand in his. “You must not worry so. That time with Izzy… it was a kind of madness that afflicted all of us, not just me. It was five years ago, and I have no intention of repeating it, not for any woman. I am different now, older and, one must only hope, just a trifle wiser. When I saw Izzy a few weeks ago, I realised just what a disaster it would have been for me to marry her. She would not have suited me at all. Let Farramont put up with her tantrums and wildness, for he seems to relish it.”
“Ha! Yes, he is welcome to her, but this child may be just as bad, for all her meek ways.”
“She may be, but I like what I have seen of her so far, and I should not object to knowing her better.”
“A bastard! Really, Kiltarlity, you can do better than that.”
“Until three months ago she was legitimate and eminently suitable, and it is not her fault that her status has changed. When she marries, her husband will give her legitimacy and this interlude will not matter tuppence.”
“If you think that, you know nothing about society.”
“Oh, there are always a few high sticklers, but who cares about them? A husband gives his wife the respectability of his name. Besides, most people judge by a woman’s behaviour and actions, not by legal niceties, and no one could fault Olivia on that score.”
His mother only grunted.
“She said something very wise to me this evening,” he said, smiling at the memory. “She said I should consider thehappiness of everyone when I make my decisions for the estate, and that seems like good advice to me. I already have some ideas of how to proceed. But when I come to marry, whoever it may be, it is my own happiness which will be my primary concern. I cannot marry, or not marry, simply to please you, Mama. You and Papa gave me such a clear example of a happy marriage that you can hardly blame me for wanting the same for myself.”
His mother gave a wry little smile. “Pft! Such flattery! Oh, go along with you, and leave an old lady to sleep.”
Laughing, he went, closing the door softly behind him.
In his room, Maurice helped to ready him for bed, but when he had gone, Robert sat at the small table drawn up near the fire for warmth, and drew paper and pencil from his writing box. Then across the top of the paper, he wrote Olivia’s words, for they were still ringing in his head and he wanted to remember them.‘If you have contented tenants and stewards, they will work better, and that means that the land will be more productive.’Such sensible words!
He began to write, tentatively at first, and then with growing confidence, a list of actions to be taken that would ensure the contentment of his people… his flock! The parson was in the right of it after all. What Robert needed to do was to tend his flock, not extravagantly or foolishly, but carefully. It could be done! Finally, he began to feel that he was in control of his inheritance.
***
For three days, Robert spent as much time as he could with Olivia. There were shooting parties with the men each morning, and on one occasion, when the London newspapers arrived in a great batch, there was a peers’ discussion of Parliamentary business in Harraby’s study, but otherwise hefelt free to seek her out. She was pleasingly receptive to his company, her rather starchy chaperon was complacent and even his mother only grumbled now and then, having learnt that she would have thirty thousand pounds in her dowry.
His sisters disliked Olivia, but they had disliked Izzy, too, and for the same reason — jealousy, for the Atherton girls were ten times prettier than Lizzie and Lucy, and more accomplished, too, not to mention livelier in company. Izzy had had men swarming round her when she came out, and Olivia would, too, that was beyond question, illegitimate or not. It was hard for his sisters, who had never experienced that kind of success. Now the two of them were drifting steadily towards settled spinsterhood, forced to watch a girl like Olivia emerge with all the qualities they lacked.
For Robert, Olivia was fascinating. She was so like Izzy, and yet also her own self. She was never impatient with him, for one thing. He talked to her about his list of improvements, asking what she thought, and she considered each point carefully and then gave her opinion. Izzy would never have done that! She would have got bored after five minutes and looked for some more interesting diversion. Olivia was quite different in that respect, but sometimes an expression or a gesture would be so like Izzy, that it was almost as if the years had rolled back. Each night when he went to bed he wondered if this interest he felt in Olivia was for her own sake, or whether it was just an echo of his passion for Izzy, so intense that it still haunted him.
Once, he even called her Izzy by mistake, and although he caught himself at once and made her a grovelling apology, she was cool with him for the rest of the evening. When the card tables came out, she contrived to sit at another table from him.
On the third evening, when he entered the saloon and found her sitting quietly near the fire, he came straight to her side, as usual. “This settled spell is likely to last for a few days more.Would you like to ride tomorrow? Harraby has a horse in the stable which is trained to a side-saddle.”
“Thank you, that would have been lovely, for I have scarcely left the house these last few days, but we are to leave tomorrow morning.”
“Leave?” he said, stupefied. “But you have only just arrived! You cannot leave yet.”
“But we must. We never intended to stay long, and we only came because— Well, no matter. We must go, and that is all there is to it.”
“You only came because… what? What were you about to say?”
She had gone rather pink, but she answered him composedly. “Because we understood that Lord Embleton was here. I met him at Corland recently, and it seemed a good opportunity to further the acquaintance.”
