‘Oh, Miss Mary, that would be. Well now, Mr Wilmslow said as he thought she would not keep away long.’
‘You make her sound a little like a household ghost.’65Sir Rowland smiled. ‘I take it we have not seen an apparition?’
‘No, sir, course not. Mind you, if anyone was to haunt us it would be her, poor soul. So sad it was.’
Sir Rowland waited, patiently, for more information. He was, by nature, a patient man. Eventually, since the mournful tutting helped him not at all, he spoke again.
‘In what way, Mrs Peplow?’
‘Why, sir, she was born here, and lived every day of her life here, loved it more ’n Master Edmund – Lord Damerham, I should say. When he had to sell, she and her ladyship went to the dower house, which her ladyship retains for life, howsoever the land and bricks are yours now. Fair broke her heart it did.’
‘That gives me the explanation I need. Thank you. I really ought to leave my card at the dower house and, er, also return the visit to Lord Cradley, who, it seems, drives a curricle with red wheels.’
Mrs Peplow vouchsafed a snort, which showed that she, like ‘Miss Mary’ did not think much of such an ostentation. Sir Rowland and his brother returned to the yellow saloon where cards and periodical had been abandoned.
‘At least it is now entirely reasonable for “Miss Mary” – and I ought to have thought to ask the family name – to have no good word to say about “Sir Rowland”, what with “his” treatment of her upon the road, and being the usurper of her family acres.’ Sir Rowland shook his head. ‘No wonder also that66she felt the right to fish here. I fear extending her the offer to do so at any time she wishes might be seen as condescending, and even offensive, but, at the same time, not to do so would be churlish in the extreme. I can see, Tom, that we are going to have to tread very carefully hereabouts.’
‘You may have to do so, Roly, but I will be gone by the end of September, remember. I want to have a few days in Hall before term starts. I shall look the innocent brother and observe your discomfiture as you tread upon eggshells.’ Tom grinned.
‘You show remarkably little respect for the head of the family.’ The reprimand was given in a severe tone, but Sir Rowland’s expression gave the game away.
‘I do, don’t I,’ agreed Tom, his grin widening. There was silence for perhaps a minute and then he posed a serious question. ‘Will this place suit you? I mean, it is sound enough, but a bit outdated, and some parts are real knights-in-armour stuff.’
‘It is infinitely more convenient than Skillerslaw, and I have little doubt that Wilmslow will report the land as good and making a profit when I see him tomorrow. By the by, I would have you present at that meeting.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you are my heir, remember?’
‘Yes, but only until you set up your nursery. You look healthy enough.’
‘But we never know what may be around the corner. Our own father never thought to inherit, and yet he did67so. Besides, I might be run down by Cradley in his red-wheeled curricle.’
‘No, really.’ Tom burst out laughing.
‘And to go back to whether I will settle here, I think it very probable. I like what I see, and once this place is properly staffed again it will be very comfortable.’ Sir Rowland looked about the room. It was not ‘his’, for there was nothing of his own in it, and from what he had gathered from his lawyer, the late Lord Cradley had only purchased the property a month before he died and had bought it, contents and all. The room still had the subtle mark of a woman about it, no doubt Lady Damerham. A thought, like a wisp of smoke, also entered his head that there might be the mark of ‘Miss Mary’ in it too.
His brother brought him from any further contemplation of the ambience.
‘Not sure it will be comfortable living with your lady angler as a neighbour. If she were a fish she would be a pike, a great brute of a beast gobbling up everything in her path.’
‘What an infelicitous comparison. I do not see anything piscine in her looks whatsoever, of whatever species.’
‘True, but you wait. She might hit you on the head like that trout.’
‘Ah, now that, I admit, is a possibility. I shall have to try and placate her.’
‘Which is something that I would like to stay and68watch. You will not have an easy time of it.’
‘No, I do not think that I will,’ agreed Sir Rowland, thoughtfully. It did not seem to worry him, for he smiled to himself.
Mary Lound was not smiling, despite her catch. She did not like being wrong, and she liked being shown to be in the wrong even less. She told herself that since the man she had disparaged was not in fact Sir Rowland Kempsey, and that it had been a very natural error to assume that the gentleman in the red-wheeled curricle was him, she had no need to feel embarrassed. It did not help a jot. She returned to the dower house with cheeks that felt as if they burnt, and since it was not her fault that they did so it must be the real Sir Rowland’s. He could have introduced himself at the outset, she told herself, rather than permit her to say what she did. Yet he had chosen to let her blunder on, and she was almost certain he had found it funny. Funny! Ha!
She entered the house by the back door, and went down to the kitchen, where Cook was overseeing the preparation of vegetables.
‘Miss Mary. Now what brings you down here, miss?’
‘Two fine trouts bring me, or rather, I bring them. I am sure that you can do something delicious with them for dinner, unless you are so advanced with your preparations. If so, they will be fresh enough tomorrow if left in the larder.’ Mary took her basket and opened69it to reveal the fish, and lifted them tenderly from their bed of grass.
