‘Much heed I should have paid! Does Lady Denny know? Why should she wish you not to see Jasper? Don’t she like him?’
‘No – that is, she does not know him, but only his reputation, and I fancy she thinks I might be taken-in.’
‘Oh!’ He frowned ahead, checking his horses a little as they approached the lodge-gates. ‘I don’t know much about such things, but I shouldn’t think you would be. Ought I to ask Jasper what his intentions are?’
She could not help laughing. ‘I beg you will not!’
‘Well, I’d as lief not,’ he owned. ‘Besides, I see no sense in it: he couldn’t tell me he meant to seduce you, even if he did, and, anyway, what a totty-headed notion that is! Why, when I wanted to get rid of Nurse he said she must stay at the Priory to play propriety! I never thought much about the stories people told of him, but I daresay they weren’t true. In any event, you probably know more about ’em than I do, and if you don’t care why should I?’
They had passed through the gates by this time, and were bowling up the avenue that wound through the park. Venetia said: ‘I don’t know why anyone should care, but they all seem to think that because I’ve lived my whole life in this one place I must be a silly innocent with much more hair than wit. I’m glad you don’t, love. I can’t tell what may happen, but – if Damerel did wish to marry me – you at least wouldn’t dislike it, would you?’
‘No, I think I should be glad of it,’ he replied. ‘I shall be going up to Cambridge, of course, next year, but there will be the vacations, you know, and I’d rather by far spend them in Damerel’s house than in Conway’s.’
This view of the matter made her smile, but no more was said, for at that moment the last bend in the avenue brought the house into sight, and she was surprised to see that a laden post-chaise-and-four was drawn up at the door.
‘Hallo, what’s this?’ exclaimed Aubrey. ‘Good God, it must be Conway!’
‘No, it isn’t,’ Venetia said, catching sight of a feathered bonnet. ‘It’s a female! But who in the world – oh, can it be Aunt Hendred?’
But when Aubrey pulled his horses up behind the chaise and the visitor turned, Venetia found herself staring down at a complete stranger. She was still more astonished by the discovery that the stranger was apparently superintending the removal from the chaise of a formidable quantity of portmanteaux and bandboxes. She turned her bewildered gaze towards Ribble, her brows lifting in a mute question; but he was looking quite stunned, and before she could ask for an explanation the stranger, who was a middle-aged lady, dressed in the height of fashion, stepped forward, saying with an air of affable assurance: ‘Miss Venetia Lanyon? But I need not ask! And the poor little lame boy?Iam Mrs Scorrier, which you have perhaps guessed – though the butler seems not to have been informed of our expected arrival!’
‘I beg your pardon, ma’am,’ said Venetia, descending from the phaeton, ‘but there must be some mistake! I am afraid I don’t understand!’
Mrs Scorrier stared at her for a moment, an expression far removed from affability in her face. ‘Do you mean to tell me that what that man said is true, and you havenotreceived a letter from – I might have known it! Oh, I should certainly have guessed as much when I discovered in London that no notice had been sent to theGazette!’
‘Notice?’ repeated Venetia. ‘Gazette?’
Recovering her affability, Mrs Scorrier said, with a little laugh: ‘So naughty and forgetful of him! I shall give him a tremendous scold, I promise you! I daresay you must be quite at a loss. Well, I have brought you a surprise, but not, I hope, an unpleasant one! Charlotte, my pet!’
In response to this call, which was directed towards the open door, a very fair girl, with large, apprehensive eyes of a light blue, a quantity of flaxen ringlets, and a soft, over-sensitive mouth, emerged from the house, saying, in a nervous breathless voice: ‘Yes, Mama?’
‘Come here, my love!’ invited Mrs Scorrier. ‘Dear child! You have been so anxious to meet your new sister, and your little lame brother, have you not? Here they both are! Yes, Miss Lanyon: this isLadyLanyon!’
ELEVEN
The shock held Venetia silent for several moments, which was perhaps fortunate, since the first thought to leap to her mind was that the announcement could not be true. She realised immediately that it must be true; and, as the extraordinary nature of the situation came home to her, began to laugh. ‘Oh, howoutrageousof Conway, and howlikehim!’ she exclaimed. She put out her hand to Charlotte. ‘How do you do? What a shocking welcome you have had to your new home! You must forgive us, for indeed we had not the least notion that we were to have this pleasure! I collect that Conway is not with you? Where – Oh, you will tell us all about it presently, but first I must see Mrs Gurnard – our housekeeper, and tell her which rooms to prepare. Pray let me take you in! I daresay you must both be tired after your journey.’
She led the way into the house, and to the drawing-room, where a fire had recently been lit, and begged the two ladies to be seated. Charlotte, who seemed to be too shy to raise her eyes for more than an instant, murmured something about kindness, and being so very sorry, to which Venetia replied smilingly: ‘Now that we have each of us begged pardon of the other I think we should unite in abusing the real culprit, don’t you? I believe Conway would do almost anything rather than writea letter – to him a Herculean labour! – but it is certainly too bad of him to have failed onthisoccasion! Won’t you take off your hat, and your pelisse? I am sure you will be glad to some refreshment after your journey: do you like tea? You shall have some directly, and then I’ll take you upstairs.’
‘Thank you! So very kind! If it is not a trouble!’
Mrs Scorrier, who had been looking appraisingly about her, laughed at this, and exclaimed: ‘You will make Miss Lanyon think you quite a goose, my love, if you talk like that! You must remember that you are in your own house, must she not, dear Miss Lanyon? Some tea would be very welcome, though I do not in general indulge in that luxury at this hour. But Charlotte, I must tell you, is in a delicate situation, and although we lay at Doncaster last night I daresay she is quite done-up.’
‘In a delicate situation!’ Venetia looked in some amazement at Charlotte. ‘You have been married for some time, then!’
‘July,’ whispered Charlotte, blushing. ‘Conway was on furlough, you see – in Paris.’
‘I don’t wonder you should look amazed, Miss Lanyon!’ said Mrs Scorrier, disposing herself on a sofa beside the fire, and drawing off her gloves. ‘I promise youIwas so much amazed that I let Sir Conway sweep me quite off my feet. Such a whirlwind-romance as it was! A case of love at first sight, and nothing would do for Sir Conway but to carry his treasure back to Headquarters with him. Indeed, I believe if I had refused my consent to the marriage he would positively have eloped with her!’
‘Oh, Mama!’ faintly protested Charlotte.
‘But – you were not previously acquainted? I had supposed – Well, that was certainly a romance! I shall look forward to your telling me all about it – when you have had some tea!’
She excused herself gracefully, and went away to confer with Mrs Gurnard. She had seen her standing at the foot of the stairswhen she had entered the house, and had known, without venturing to meet her speaking eye, that she was far from pleased. She had now acquired reinforcements, in the persons of Nurse and Ribble, and no more than a glance at these three devoted retainers was enough to inform Venetia that trouble lay ahead. No time was lost in disclosing its root: upon being desired to send in a tea-tray to the new arrivals Mrs Gurnard replied in icy accents: ‘I have already ordered it to be done, Miss Venetia – her ladyship’s mama having desired me to do so. Not,’ she added carefully, ‘that it was necessary for her to have spoken to me on the matter, for it was on the tip of my tongue to have asked her ladyship if she would take some tea, or a glass of wine, to refresh her after her journey.’
‘Miss Venetia!’ broke in Nurse. ‘In my very hearing that Mrs Scorrier, or whatever she calls herself, told Mrs Gurnard to be sure the beds were well-aired! If she had had the audacity to say such a thing tomeI’d have told her to her head that this is a gentleman’s seat, and not a common inn!’
‘I would not so demean myself, Nurse,’ said Mrs Gurnard loftily. ‘But when it comes to her saying that the best bedchamber must be prepared instantly for her ladyship –’
