‘Really,’ he repeated, and shot inside his room. He hadn’t had the slightest intention of going to church, but for some reason the words had slipped out, as if in an instinctive gesture of defiance – he would not be cowed! As he dressed carefully, he wondered how the devil he could extricate himself from sitting through the tedium of another service conducted by the Reverend Septimus Tate.
During breakfast, and after Kit, Hope and Allegra had had their fill of gawping at him, making much of his blackened eyes and saying he had only himself to blame, Romily asked if there was anyone else who was thinking of attending church that morning. To Arthur’s disbelief, Kit announced that he planned to go. ‘Why don’t you come?’ he added to Hope while spreading marmalade onto his toast. ‘The more the merrier.’
‘I was going to try and do some work,’ she said. ‘I was rather hoping somebody might look after Annelise for a few hours.’ She looked first at the child squirming in the high chair next to her, then around the table, as though seeking an offer of help. Her gaze finally settled on Allegra. Arthur let out a sarcastic laugh as his cousin refused point-blank to meet Hope’s eyes.
‘Oh Hope,’ he said, ‘do you really mean to say you’d trust a child into Allegra’s keeping? More fool you! And while we’re on the subject of Annelise, do we have to put up with this wholly unorthodox habit of yours of including her with us while we eat? The sight of her cramming food into her mouth quite puts me off.’
‘What would you suggest I did with her?’ demanded Hope. ‘Lock her in her room until we’ve finished?’
‘Sounds like a reasonable solution to me,’ he said. ‘Better still, confine her to the kitchen and leave the maid to see to her.’
‘My maid’s name is Florence, Arthur,’ said Romily from her end of the table, ‘as well you know, and while she is more than happy to help out, I don’t want her taken advantage of.’
‘I thought that was the role of a servant, to do our bidding.’
‘In your world maybe,’ said Hope, ‘but I for one agree with Romily.’ She looked across the table to Allegra again. ‘Are you busy this morning, Allegra? Or are you joining Kit and Arthur at church?’
‘I rather fancy Cousin Allegra may well now put her popish tendencies aside and rush to fill the pews of St Mary rather than be landed with the job of babysitting.’
‘Arthur,’ said Kit, ‘could you possibly be any more insufferable?’
‘Sì,’ said Allegra, finally speaking, ‘che peccato—’
‘In English!’ Arthur said with a bored shake of his head.
Allegra glared at him. ‘I was going to say, what a shame that whoever hit you did not do a better job and make it impossible for you to open your big offensive mouth.’
A sharp rap on the table brought silence to the room. ‘Enough!’ said Romily. ‘Arthur, if you have nothing constructive or pleasant to say, kindly leave the rest of us to finish our breakfast in peace.’
Wholly satisfied with the outcome of his contribution to the proceedings, and with exaggerated insouciance, Arthur tossed his napkin onto the table, pushed back his chair and slowly stood up. ‘Anything you say, stepmother dearest. Your wish is my command.’
‘If only that were true,’ he heard her say as he left the room at an unhurried pace.
As the bells rang out, calling the village to morning service, Arthur set off for the church, through the gate at the end of the garden. Ahead of him he could see Kit, and it wasn’t long before he’d caught up with him. ‘You couldn’t persuade Hope to join us, then?’ he said to his brother.
‘It was no more than a passing thought to ask her. But I’m surprised a raging atheist like you is so keen to go to church.’
‘I could say the same of you. Or are you suddenly in need of some special spiritual guidance?’
‘I would have thought you’d be the one more in need of that. Honestly, Arthur, why do you have to keep goading us? Can’t you take up fox hunting or some other barbaric blood sport?’
‘A man must take his pleasure where and how he can.’
‘Yes, but if you carry on like this, Romily will report back to Roddy that we haven’t fulfilled the wishes of Dad’s will.’
Arthur laughed. ‘Plenty of time yet to make a good impression on our stepmama.’
‘I wouldn’t count on it.’ Kit came to an abrupt stop. ‘Look, you may have married money with Irene, but the rest of us aren’t so fortunate. Can’t you just for once in your life think about somebody else’s situation rather than your own?’
‘Come off it, Kit, you know as well as I do we’re never going to see a penny of the old man’s money. The four of us being forced to spend a week together is nothing more than a charade, one last attempt by our father to humiliate us. You must surely have figured it out by now. Romily gets the lot no matter how we behave.’
‘I don’t believe you! Dad wouldn’t do that. He was many things, but he never went back on his word.’
‘I wish I had your sunny optimism. And who knows, maybe Romily and Roddy cooked this little enterprise up between them.’
‘For what purpose?’
‘Ah well, that may yet come to light. All I’m saying is that Roddy might not be the confirmed old bachelor he once was.’
