“Nevertheless,” Mama said, “it would be seen to be putting yourselves forward, and the duke would frown upon it. We must at all costs do nothing to give him cause to send us away. He is happy for us to befriend the duchess, and we make ourselves useful where we can. I am helping Cousin Hester and Charlotte is tidying up the household accounts, and I am sure the rest of you are finding ways to help out.”
“I am exercising the horses,” Augusta said quickly.
“Yes, the two mounts trained to accept a side saddle,” Charlotte said, making the others laugh.
“Oh, the grooms can ride the men’s horses, but only a lady can ride a lady’s horse,” Augusta said, her chin rising. “I am providing a necessary service, but I am not sure that Maria or Sophia are finding useful ways to occupy themselves. Maria lounges around in the library all day and I do not even know what Sophia does with herself.”
“Wishes she were dancing,” Maria said, with a sympathetic smile. “It is all very well for the rest of us, who are quite content to be buried in the country since we have our favouriteoccupations here, but Sophia must be missing Norwich and the assemblies.”
Sophia sighed gustily. “Oh, the assemblies! And we cannot even get to the piffling little assemblies in Brinchester for this foul weather, and it will soon be Lent and there will be no pleasure to be had until Easter.”
The ladies sighed in unison, for although Sophia loved a ball above all things, her sisters never missed an opportunity for dancing either, for how else were four spinsters ever to find husbands? And that thought brought Sophia back to the intriguing new gentleman at Staineybank.
“Is Mr Payne eligible, Mama, would you say?”
“Why certainly, dear! The son of an earl — how can you even ask the question?”
“I do not think he has very much money. He said his father keeps him in poverty, and his clothes are shockingly worn.”
“Unmarried gentlemen are often careless of their appearance, Sophia. Once they start thinking of matrimony, they generally become very smart, and I am sure Mr Payne will do so, too. Bachelors spend their allowances on gaming and horses and… well, other things, but once they have a wife and children to support, they become perfectly respectable.”
“What other things?” Maria said.
“Male things,” her mother said, with pursed lips.
“Are you saying he isnotrespectable now?” she persisted.
“Really, Maria!” her mother said, rather flustered. “All these questions are most unbecoming. You need only know that Mr Payne is most eligible, and if one of you should have the good fortune to attract him, then your brother will enquire into his exact financial position, so you need not be concerned. His father will want him to be suitably settled, and what could be more suitable than an alliance with the Duke of Brinshire’s family?”
“So we may try to entice him?” Charlotte said.
Her mother winced at such plain speaking. “You have my approval to get to know him better, and if he should like one of you… well, let us see what happens, shall we?”
“I wonder if he rides?” Augusta said.
“I am sure he will be very learned,” Maria said. “One cannot be an architect without knowing a great deal.”
“Only of art,” Charlotte said loftily. “I doubt he reads poetry, Maria. If he is purse-pinched, he will be looking for a wife who knows how to keep house economically.”
Sophia said nothing. She was more interested in whether Mr Payne could dance, but she was unlikely to find that out soon. The others soon fell into their usual man-hunting conversation, of strategy and the proper means of taking turns with him, which always resolved itself into Charlotte claiming the superiority of age and the others loudly denouncing any such idea. Sophia had heard it all before, and no matter what schemes they dreamt up, they always ended in disappointment. This time would be no different, she was sure.
And she would not mind a bit, if only she could dance now and then.
Glumly, she crumbled her breakfast roll and tried to count in her head the number of weeks until Easter, and the next certain assembly.
***
Simon spent the whole day with Richard Merrington. In the morning, he looked at his multitude of sketches and listened to his description of the discussions with the duke. He was most interested in the drawings of the orangery at Marshfields, home of the Duke of Camberley, which had inspired the original idea of building one at Staineybank. Merrington and his wife hadvisited the duke, who was recovering from illness and found the orangery a warm and congenial place to spend his days. Mrs Merrington had liked the place, and Simon could see why. Merrington’s drawings showed a light and spacious room with high windows, filled with light, and a multitude of fruit trees dotted about. He had put the duke into his drawings, too, and his wife, which brought a sense of human scale to the magisterial dimensions of the building.
Yet when he saw Merrington’s own designs for an orangery, he saw nothing magisterial. The simple brick structures had no grandeur or elegance, they were merely practical.
“Why so small?” he said, puzzled.
“The expense!” Merrington said brusquely. “The duke may not care how much this costs, but I do.”
“Why?”
“Because… good heavens, do I have to explain it to you? The duke has a vast income now, but if he spends by the bucketful, he will very soon find himself in deep water. Or rather,Iwill find myself in deep water, when I inherit. There is nothing more miserable than an income inadequate for the wants of those dependent upon it.”
