sorry all, I was up late writing
Chapter 7
Larkin shuffled to the door to open it. Eusebius, impatient, shoved the door hard, and Larkin fell with a cry.
Imogen, coming out to see what the noise was about, picked up one of the chairs in the vestibule and hit Eusebius over the head with it, felling him under her fury, and breaking the spindly French chair.
“Larkin!” she cried. “What has that wicked man done?” she raised her voice. “Help! Help! Assault and battery! A defenceless woman in danger!”
George had already come running.
In the schoolroom, Cornelius barked, “SIT down!” to his charges. “There are adequate men to help and before God, Jasper, whatever you and Evergreen did to Eusebius, let us not compound it.”
“Us, sir?” said Jasper. “Or do I mean ‘We?’”
“You,” said Cornelius. “I heard you preparing to plot and decided that I did not want to know. I still don’t want to know, so pipe down, and sit down, and get back to work. Your ma is more than equal to handling Eusebius and your pa will be there presently.”
His charges shuffled, but got back to work.
George advanced on Eusebius, who untangled himself from the chair, got up, and came at George fists flying. George put up his fists in the approved manner to deflect blows primarily.
“You can leave him to me, George,” said Evelyn. “I saw him charge my wife and attempt to endanger my succession, and as she is tending to Larkin, I can only assume a case of actual bodily harm.”
Eusebius backed off, holding up his palms to fend off a vengeful young sportsman who took pugilism seriously enough to be able to take on a local champion, if not a pet of the fancy.
“Don’t hurt me, my lord!” he cried. “I have no quarrel with you, only with my brother, who has done something monstrous!”
“You’re a bloody liar,” said Evelyn. “I know exactly where Cornelius has been all day, save for the ten minutes or so he was visiting your esteemed father, and by the time he had walked to the church and back, he would not have had time to do anything, monstrous or otherwise, even if I believed such aky-fi nonsense!” He glanced over at Imogen. “Is Larkin badly hurt, my love?”
“His leg is broken,” said Imogen. “And I’m not sure it will ever heal fully. You’ll have to provide him with a male nurse.”
“As magistrate, I order that this fellow will pay for it,” said Evelyn, in a low, angry voice.
“I did not mean to hurt your servant!” squealed Eusebius.
“Nevertheless, you did hurt him,” said Evelyn, in the soft, dangerous tone which made Eusebius’s bowels turn to water. “And I saw you advancing on my wife with your hands outstretched. I can only assume you meant her harm.”
“I... I did not see who it was! I did not mean to be denied seeing my brother to remonstrate!” squealed Eusebius.
At that moment, the rector almost fell in the open door.
“Dear God! What has happened?” he panted.
“Your son attacked my butler, and gave him an injury which could be life-threatening, and will certainly curtail his career,” said Evelyn, his voice steady and cold. “And then he advanced in a threatening way upon my wife, who had the presence of mind to seize a chair to fend him off, as one does with a wild animal, and which his violence has broken apart. I am not a fan of Louis Quinze furniture but even so, it seems an intemperate level of artistic criticism.”
Eusebius opened his mouth to say that the marchioness had smashed the chair on him, and shut it again. He had a horrible feeling that he would not be believed.
“Ladies underwear! Corsetry!” he sobbed. “He sent me the sort of things whores wear! I... I... he insulted me in the worst possible way!”
“Eusebius received a parcel from a shop, which had a receipt with it, signed for in what looked like his own writing,” said Augustus Reckitt. “It contained certain items usually only worn by women, and rather... sketchy and.... frilly. It spilled over when Eusebius opened it.”
“Diw! Well, if you did not want people to see it, why did you not open it when you were alone?” asked Evelyn, who detected his son’s hand in this, having seen the boy set off into town the day before. Jasper would never forgive any man who had bestowed such names as Eusebius Reckitt had done upon his mother.
“I did not send for it!” yammered Eusebius.
“My poor son’s mind has been slipping,” said Augustus, apologetically. “He... he imagined that the organ sounded bad, and he sees things... he saw a goat in his room which was not there...”
“It was there! And the organ made horrible noises!” yelled Eusebius. “Only my brother could have the knowledge to do that, and to dismantle the damage! He was the author of making me look a fool with the dancing dogs!”
“A gentle rebuke to teach you not to be such a sanctimonious fool,” said Evelyn. “But even if Cornelius had sent you underwear of an inappropriate nature, that does not give you the right to barge into my house, half killing my butler, and trying to drive my wife to miscarry my putative heir. If I chose to pursue that to the full rigour of the law, sirrah, you could be hanged!”
Eusebius paled.
“I... I had no intent....”
“And yet, you barged violently into my house where it might be supposed that a gently-reared lady, recently married, might be in a delicate condition, and possibly subject to damaging hysterics even if not attacked in her own vestibule,” said Evelyn.
“I told you, I did not even realise who she was!” yapped Eusebius.
“Well, who do you think would be here, the Queen of Sheba?” barked Evelyn.
In truth, Eusebius had been so blinded by rage that he could not have told if Imogen was male or female, or what she was wearing.
“I... I thought she was a servant sent to stop me,” he muttered.
“Diw! I do not think many servants wear a round gown of lavender lutestring trimmed with blonde lace and beaded on the bodice,” said Evelyn. “Overdressed, my lady, for a morning gown?”
“New evening gown which I was trying on when I heard Larkin cry out, and ran out to see what was wrong, and that fellow advanced on me, hands held out as if he meant to grab me and do who knows what,” said Imogen. “So I picked up a chair to discourage him and screamed, and George came, and you came.”
“And even if you had been a servant, dear God! A man supposedly of the cloth assaulting one of my maidservants? It’s beyond belief!” said Evelyn.
Eusebius sat down heavily on the floor and began sobbing.
“George,” said Evelyn, “Have a couple of grooms put him in the village lockup overnight. I’ll hold court tomorrow.”
“Is... is that really necessary?” asked the rector. Evelyn rounded on him.
“He hass broken the leg of an old man, whateffer, and you know how often such things turn to pneumonia and brings on death! If Larkin dies inside a year and a day, I will have him before the Salisbury assizes for murder, look you, and also if my lady miscarries! Yess, it is necessary!” He hissed his s’s as his Welsh accent intensified. “He needs to realise that actions have consequences!”
“I... I believe that he has lost all ability to reason,” said the rector, mopping his brow.
“I will hear that given in excuse for his actions, but how would you take it if I charged into your house, knocking over your man of all work and advancing on your maid as if I planned to tear her limb from limb?” growled Evelyn.
“I... quite so, my lord, I understand,” said Reckitt, bowing his head. “I will pray for him.”
“He will need much,” said Evelyn, grimly.
“May I talk to Cornelius?” asked the rector, as two burly grooms dragged Eusebius away.
“No, you may not!” said Evelyn. “He is my employee and he is currently in the schoolroom undertaking lessons to my son and some of his friends. In half an hour they will come down to breakfast, and if you were not in the habit of sending peremptory notes to my employee summoning him when he is about his work, I would invite you to join us all at breakfast, but as it is, if he has time to come and speak to you after he has broken his fast and before lessons resume, then he may do so, but I doubt he will have time. I consider that your pandering to your firstborn – yes, I remember growing up with his cruelty to Corny and his attempts to get me into trouble with my father – has made his behaviour worse. It is a shame that you were blinkered in assuming that one son could not lie and that the rest were inveterate liars, otherwise a good judicial spanking applied at a more impressionable age might have cured Eusebius of his holier-than-thou sanctimony, bearing of false witness, and cruel glee at getting others into trouble.”
The rector bent his head.
“A just rebuke, my lord,” he said, softly. He left the house quietly.
The gong went for breakfast, and the schoolroom party trooped down, agog to find out what had happened. Imogen had splinted Larkin’s leg as best she might, and he was being carried to the butler’s pantry.
“What has happened?” cried Jasper, horrified.
“That fellow, Eusebius, pushed Larkin over in barging in the door and broke his leg,” said Imogen, grimly. “So, was it you who sent underwear to him?”
Jasper was staring at Larkin in horror.
He turned to Evelyn.
“Sir, will you whip me now, or defer punishment until later?” he asked. “I sent the underwear. I thought it would be funny.”
“Well, son, at least you have the good sense and firm moral compass to recognise that actions have consequences,” said Evelyn. “I’m not going to whip you, but you will spend every spare moment, until I can get a nurse, in caring for Larkin, waiting on him, settling him upon the utensil when he needs it, and giving him laudanum at need, sleeping on a truckle bed in his room. I think the amount of pain he is in will do more to remind you of consequences than bearing pain yourself.”
Jasper went white, and bowed.
“Yes, pa,” he whispered.
“Your friends will continue with their lessons, and Cornelius will set you work to complete whilst you sit with Larkin,” said Evelyn. “Now go to breakfast.”
Evelyn intended to drive into Salisbury to seek a nurse, perhaps an old sailor, as soon as breakfast was over; but a couple of days having to see the old man’s pain would impress on Jasper the law of unintended consequences, and would drive the point home.
Of course, it was more the fault of Eusebius than Jasper, both in his extreme reaction and in his violence of entry to the hall, but that was something to discuss with Jasper after punishment, about reading the reaction of someone being pranked. Jasper did not know that it was rumoured that Eusebius held alternative preferences, and as such, the sending of female undergarments was a little more pointed than just a laugh over him being shocked that such things existed.
“Underwear?” said Cornelius to Evelyn.
“My son has a rather individualistic sense of humour, but I am certain he was mocking Eusebius for getting uptight about relationships between men and women, not for having... feelings best not spoken about,” said Evelyn. “He’s a good lad, and would not torment someone for being different.”
“I agree,” said Cornelius. “I’d give a monkey to have seen Seeby’s face, though.”
“Me too,” said Evelyn. “But then, I think of poor Larkin.”
“Seeby has never thought of others when he lashes out in anger,” said Cornelius. “I remember once when I said something that angered him, and he pushed me down the stairs, and I knocked into the maid, and her arm was badly scalded by the pot of hot tea she was carrying. I was blamed, of course, for larking about on the stairs, according to Eusebius’s word to papa. The maid knew, and when she healed, she did her best to shield me, but she was too badly hurt to tell papa what had really happened.”
“You know, though I suspect Jasper of being the author of his other vicissitudes, I cannot bring myself to stop your father having him confined as a lunatic,” said Evelyn. “Set Jasper some work so he can sit with Larkin.”
“Yes, I will,” said Cornelius. “Well, the other three will have to put up with doing their chores without his aid, which is how I acquired their attendance.”
“I’m sure Phebe will help out,” said Evelyn. “As she won’t be able to play with Jasper for a couple of days.”
“If they get on well enough, I’ll have her in the class as well,” said Cornelius. “I have no doubt she’s ahead of the others.”
“Yes, but only if they don’t resent her,” said Evelyn.
He called for his gig to be prepared, and laid a hand on Jasper’s shoulder in approval as Jasper organised a truckle bed to be erected in the butler’s pantry.
No comments:
Post a Comment