Master of Gothic House 7

 

Chapter 7

 

Angela, meanwhile, had smiled at Clara and Tommy.

“Do you really want to go to sea?” she asked Tommy, moving closer to the pair, and the dour-faced older maid with them, who sniffed at the question.

“I like sailing,” said Tommy. “And if I have to go away to school, I might as well go away somewhere where I get paid, and be the man of the house, like I ought to be.”

“You should not have to be thinking about that,” sighed Clara.

“Indeed not, Master Tommy!” said the maid.

“This is Martha; our sole servant,” said Clara. “She disapproves of me doing this but I have to provide for Tommy somehow, so we shut up the house. I could sell it, I suppose, but it’s our contact with the past, and with our parents.”

“Is it tactless to ask what happened?” asked Angela. “I’m with Mrs. Partridge, or Cookie, who used to be the cook-housekeeper for my family, she has her own little bakery shop, but I want to be able to look after her properly. And Jenny is my maid.”

“Our parents died in a road accident about a year ago,” said Clara. “The weather was bad, they decided to hurry home, and... well, what exactly happened, nobody knows, but they went off the road, and they, the coachman, and the horses all perished in the cold. It’s taken a lot of willpower to travel by coach to come here, especially in winter. Papa left a decent living in the funds, but not for Tommy to go to school and university, as he was a stockbroker and we relied on his dealings.”

“Oh, no, how dreadful!” said Angela.  “At least I had some expectation of losing my parents, who were older parents, my father died and my mother followed him. But of course, that makes me homeless, as the new vicar needs the vicarage.”

“Well, if neither of us is chosen, perhaps you and Mrs. Partridge will come and live with us, and I’ll  learn bakery,” said Clara. “It’s a large house for just two of us.”

“Why, how generous!” said Angela. “I do hope he chooses someone like you, for I have a suspicion that I have met him, and as well as being very good looking, he is downplaying his wealth, I think. Though if the place he has inherited is mortgaged to the hilt, having a practical wife would be helpful, I should imagine.”

“So long as Tommy does not want, I do not care,” said Clara. “Though it would be nice to find that I could find a man I might like and even come to love.”

“If he is who I think he is, he is very charismatic,” said Angela.

They scarcely heeded Jane Northcote leaving dramatically as they began to chat about the current fashions, to Tommy’s disgust, alleviated by Jenny producing a length of string to teach him cat’s cradle.

The Indian servant with the turban came, and called, “Abigail  Hendry.”

 

oOoOo

 

“I am sorry, Miss Hendry, but I have difficulty believing that you are twenty summers old,” said Edwin, as Alexandra gave a schoolgirl bob and sat at his invitation.

“Oh, dear, that’s because I’m Miss Alexandra, not Miss Hendry,” said Alexandra.  “But I am sixteen and nearly out of the schoolroom, you know, and when Abigail balked at the last minute, it seemed like a good idea to come and explain why, and at least fulfil her implied promise to be available.”

“Miss Hendry,” said Elinor, tartly, “I have to wonder whether you understand what it is for which you are volunteering; and I wonder at your mother permitting this.”

“Oh, believe me, ma’am, I have a better idea of what I might be letting myself in for than my older sister who is... well, Mama said she was blue when she was born, and her understanding is severely limited. I asked if she was ready for the discomfort of childbirth and she said she could wear a thick cloak to protect against the spines of searching under a gooseberry bush for a baby.  Yes, exactly!” she added as neither Elinor nor Edwin could fully suppress a grimace. “My sister is the sweetest person, but she did not perfectly understand when Mama explained about growing up to her, and she... well, she had hysterics when it was explained. Only I have four younger sisters, and Charley is at university and is very expensive, because boys are, and Christopher will be needing to go to a good school soon, so one of us must marry well to make sure the rest are cared for, and to be honest, I thought the prospect of India prodigious exciting, as I have ambitions to see the world, and would not be satisfied, as Abigail would, with a pink silk gown and chocolate to drink every day.” She came up for air.

“My goodness!” said Elinor, faintly.

“Well, I have to allow that you are a corky lass to consider such a thing,” said Edwin. “But I fear I was hoping for a wife a little closer to me in age, to be a partner and a helpmate. I mean, in the general scheme of things, the disparity in age of a little under a decade would be less... considerable... were you two-and-twenty, and I was two-and-thirty, but as things stand...”

“I will inevitably get older,” said Alexandra. “And I don’t mind only having one new bonnet a year in order to see my siblings have a decent life.”

“I want to talk to your mother; go and wait in the other room and send her in,” said Edwin.

 

Mrs. Hendry curtseyed, and took a seat.

“She’s very mature for her age,” she said, with a sigh. “My husband left us the house, and enough to live on frugally, but Charley isn’t used to being frugal, and, well, we can scarcely maintain him at university, especially having had to buy off a young woman with whom he became entangled.  And Alexandra has virtually reared the younger ones as Abigail is almost a full time job herself. We’ve had to let all but a married couple as servants go, and they accept lower wages than they should, to remain with the family. I had to refuse to pay for a valet for Charley, and he feels it most keenly, as the other fellows all have personal servants but he must rely on the scouts. I gather that’s what they call the university servants.”

“It strikes me, madam, that if this son of yours was a decent sort of character, he would have come down from Oxford to take a job, to help his family out, instead of being a drain on the resources,” said Edwin, tartly. “I find it incredible that you are prepared to sacrifice your very young daughter to maintain the lifestyle of a selfish young man who sounds as if he has the makings of a libertine, and the family feeling of a cuckoo.”

Mrs. Hendry burst into tears.

“Oh, I did not want poor Charley to suffer!” she sobbed. “His father was so proud of his achievements; he was an army man, sold out and invested his sell-out when his older brother died, and he inherited the place. It’s got a home farm, which helps, but he wanted Charley to have the advantages of being the son of the squire, so I have not been quite honest with Charley about how hard it has been.”

“Well then!” said Edwin. “I am going to write to my man of business right away, and tell him that he is to look over your property and your finances, and see what can be done to help you; but on the condition that you write an honest letter to your son, to explain how things are. Is he in his final year?”

“No, he is in his second year,” admitted Mrs. Hendry. “He complained so much when he was at home in the long holidays, about eating cheap cuts of meat, and he actually threw a leg of mutton at me. He is not used to making do....”

“I see,” said Edwin, appalled at this behaviour. “I can offer him a position in my India office, where he might make a man of himself.”

“I don’t think he’d accept it,” said Mrs. Hendry.

“I think I can induce him to do so,” said Edwin, who had every intention of telling his brother in law to have this infernal young wastrel kidnapped, and waking up on a ship to India, and offered the choice between being a common seaman, and taking the position as a clerk in Edwin’s importing business. The boy did not deserve a sister like Alexandra, but Edwin did not feel he could marry a schoolgirl, however corky she might be.  He went on, “Take Miss Alexandra home, and as well as sending my man of affairs I will see about finding her a sponsor in a year’s time. Perhaps starting as my aunt’s companion; after all, she does entertain, and it would give Miss Alexandra a wider social sphere.”

“Oh! You are all that is good,” said Mrs. Hendry.

Elinor sighed quietly; she thought her nephew too generous, but it was hard not to admire the plucky Alexandra.

“Yes, I will take her on as my companion,” Elinor agreed.

They managed to get rid of Mrs. Hendry and her effusive thanks.

“I take it you have plans for Charley,” said Elinor.

“I am about to take a hand in his further education in life,” said Edwin. “Much will depend on how he reacts to his mother’s letter, but if he needs to learn a bit more to be a gentleman, I know a most excellent tutor.  A former clerk of mine, late of the army, and quite prepared to be blunt.” It would cost more than keeping Charley in university, but hopefully would prove an object lesson.

Edwin called for coffee and a light nuncheon to be sent for the ladies as well as for himself, Elinor and Ram Gopal, whilst he composed a letter to James Ringshall, and directed him to go to see the Hendry estate, as well as asking one Master Sergeant Debenham to come out of retirement to break and build a recruit.

 

“I wonder if there’s a reason for the order in which he is seeing us,” said Clara.

“Probably the order in which he got the letters,” said Angela. “Tempting as it is to hope that he’s saving the ones he liked the sound of best to last, I suspect it’s something more mundane. Two of three sent away, though, though at least he fed Alexandra and her mother; they don’t seem too upset.”

The mother and daughter had finished eating, and Alexandra ran over.

“Thank you both, you stood up against those old cats,” she said. “I might meet whichever one of you marries him again; I’m going to be his aunt’s companion. And I think he’s going to sort out my brother. Do you think it wicked of me to sometimes dislike Charley for all his demands so sometimes we have to live on potato and turnip stew several days of the week so he can pay his tailor?  And he’s become very arrogant since he was up at university, and demanding.”

“I think it’s very reasonable to dislike someone who behaves like that,” said Angela. “Especially when you compare him to Tommy, here, who is ready to go into the navy to help his sister out. That’s what brothers who are real men do.”

“Well, I hope the Indian gentleman plants Charley a facer,” said Alexandra. “Oh, bother, I’m not supposed to copy his sporting cant.”

“We’ll pretend we didn’t hear,” said Clara.

 

Edwin might not intend planting his fist into Charles Hendry’s face in a physical sense, though he had no doubt he would be capable of doing so, but he sauntered into the main tap to leave a couple of letters, which he scrupulously franked, now he was a viscount and entitled to do so. James would groan over Edwin’s quixotic generosity to a widow and her long family, but Edwin had no doubt that James would find a way to help her to recoup her fortunes somewhat, if the expensive Charley was out of the picture, even if only by moving temporarily to less pleasant surroundings and letting the house to some wealthy cit for a year or two. After all, it sounded as if Mrs. Hendry had been used to following the drum before her husband sold out. Making do seemed second nature, and sometimes one had to regroup. He had suggested the phrase to James in a postscript before sealing the letters and leaving them for the post.

Just two women to go, and then they could be on their way.

 

Edwin had also seen to having nuncheon provided for Doctor Mortimer, and Jeb Curtis, and a brief note that Miss Mortimer would be joining the house party, if Doctor Mortimer wished to get home in the light. He would send word to have Jeb’s equipage readied as soon as his own was ready to leave; and directions to the young man in case he lost them.

He would have to be quick in the last two interviews; but then, the idea of an accident as darkness was closing in was more or less what Edwin had planned for.