Page 49 of To Catch a Husband
‘Oh, I am certain.’
‘Then will you agree to accept that if anything is within, it is yours, because it is what your antecedents put there, and whatever the law may say, morally you should be the custodian?’
‘I … yes, unless that means you want to give me spiders.’ Mary had stepped a pace back. ‘If it has not been opened for fifteen years there might be tribes or282colonies, or whatever you account spiders in.’ She did sound a little nervous, and he laughed.
‘Agreed. Anything living belongs to the house. Now shall we see what there is inside? This one or,’ his hand moved down one panel, ‘this one? Ah!’ The boss moved, a little reluctantly, but the panel remainedin situ.
‘I recall Grandpapa pressing a part so it swung outwards, Sir Rowland.’
He glanced behind him at Miss Lound, but she now had her eyes tight shut, presumably to avoid seeing arachnids. His hand moved to push the panel and it opened, slowly.
There was no immediate evidence of spiders, but of a simple box-shaped recess in the wall, about two feet wide and tall, and about eighteen inches deep. There was a rolled parchment, slightly dusty, and two tin boxes. He withdrew the roll first, blowing the dust from it, for the tiny chamber was well sealed and really quite clean.
‘Do you know what this may be, Miss Lound?’ he asked, turning to her.
‘Oh, yes, I had completely forgotten it. It is a long family tree that goes back beyond Sir William Lound and the creation of Tapley End. I remember now that it had little heraldic shields upon it.’
He handed it to her, suggesting it be unrolled upon the desk, and then took the two boxes, not at all dusty, to weigh the parchment and prevent it rolling up again. The family tree ran the length of the substantial desk and was written in a very neat hand, with, as Mary had283recalled, the arms of the families who had become allied by marriage to the Lounds, where applicable.
‘It is rather splendid,’ he remarked.
‘I was only interested in the heraldry, because of the colours, and the devices. You see here,’ she leant forward and her finger hovered over one where a fierce red boar’s head was shown in profile. Sir Rowland, himself leaning a little, was more interested in the less fierce profile of Miss Lound. ‘I always thought seeing that on a knight’s shield in battle would frighten the enemy.’
‘And I have found Sir Robert and … you did not say that the Lady Elizabeth was the daughter of such an illustrious house as that.’
‘Well, it was a long time ago and just before they gained the dukedom. However, I think Sir James, as he was before his elevation, found it useful having a duke as an uncle. It opened doors.’
‘I have no doubt of it. And to have your ancestry traced back as armigerous to 1236 is not to be sniffed at.’
‘Oh, I have never sniffed at my ancestors, Sir Rowland, I promise you.’ She grinned at him. It was the first time since that unfortunate afternoon in the great hall that she had done so, and he felt as if a great weight had been lifted from him.
‘Now, shall we see if that letter is in one of these boxes?’ He lifted a box and rolled up the parchment. When it was once more tied with its worn binding, he opened the first box, and Mary gasped. There was paper284within, but not letters. Sir Rowland removed a bound bundle of notes.
‘My goodness!’ exclaimed Mary.
‘Let us see.’ Sir Rowland began to count. ‘Some of these are for fifty pounds, others for twenty.’ He made two piles. ‘Well, Miss Lound, you are precisely eight hundred and sixty pounds the richer.’
‘No, no, you cannot include money, Sir Rowland.’
‘But you agreed, and it is most certainly not alive.’ He concealed his delight, since he had checked the boxes beforehand, and that was why he had made his offer. ‘It is not charity, Miss Lound. This money belonged, presumably, to your grandfather, and whilst one could possibly argue that it ought to pass to your brother, he is not in the country, and to be frank, I feel he appropriated some things which really ought to have been yours, such as your horses. Undoubtedly, ma’am, this does not belong to me. For me to retain it would be impossible.’ He handed her the bundle. ‘Now, what else is here?’ He wanted to distract her.
He opened the second box where there was a collection of folded letters, the seals long ago broken.
‘I think you should peruse these, not me.’
‘Well, I will do so, but if we do but look at the style of the hand, we will more quickly be able to deduce any that are of great age, for the style of forming the letters was very different a century and a half ago.’ Mary opened the first letter, shook her head and set it aside. He took a small pile and opened them enough to see if the285writing was more archaic. It only took a few minutes to reduce the likely epistles to a heap of five. Mary checked them one by one, and on the third gave an exclamation of triumph.
‘Here, this is it! The writing is a little difficult, and some spellings … well, I suppose those may have changed. It is dated the 12th May, 1682, and it is definitely from Sir Robert to his son, James. Now, where is the passage? Yes, here it is.’ She cleared her throat, and began, slowly but not ponderously. ‘He says “You asked me about my grandsire, Valentyne Lound. I have some small recollection of him as an old man, but he died when I was but seven years of age. However, there was a portrait of him, a miniature by Hilliard, and accounted a very good likeness, painted in 1586, after his time at sea. He was a man of lithe”,’ Mary frowned, ‘I think that says “lithe”, well we shall account it so. Yes well, “lithe build, with copper-coloured hair and a close-cropped beard in the manner that was popular at the time, and he had about his neck a chain of Spanish gold, I remember right well, for my father told me that. He was dressed very fine, in green and gold, and held his head proudly. It was painted the year of his marriage, when he was eight and twenty, and I think he was well pleased with his life then, for he had wife, wealth and a good name, and had even been commended by Her Majesty. Sad I am to say that this picture was stolen during the dark years of the Regicide Cromwell, as was so much of quality from this, our house, to our great sorrow and distress. Howsoever, I286am pleased most mightily to hear of your diligence in your studies, and hope that you will be able to advance the name of Lound in the service of your king and your country”.’ She sighed. ‘Sir Robert died before James was elevated by Queen Anne, of course, but I think he knew that his son was indeed doing as he had instructed.’
‘I have looked at the books in the library here, and it is clear that your great-grandfather and grandfather were interested in far more than just the acres upon which they lived. I have found books upon the sciences and philosophy, and travel and history, well used.’ Sir Rowland smiled at her.
‘Yes. Grandpapa was an interesting person. I think he was disappointed in my papa, who was very unlike him in character. Papa was interested only in … Papa.’ Mary said this without emotion, but simply as a fact. ‘He spent much of his time, and money, in London, until he became ill with the gout, and then dropsy. One should not be glad of ill health, but it did mean that during his last years he was not so able to deplete the estate.’
It occurred to Sir Rowland that her relationship with her father was not one which would lead her to see the married state, legally subject to a man, as a good thing. Her sire and her elder brother had been very fallible, if not culpable, and the best relationships she had had were with a brother and a man she clearly treated as a brother. Unfortunately, his feelings towards Miss Lound were not fraternal, and he would regard her treating him as a brother as a huge disappointment.287
‘Do you wish to take the letter and the other documents back with you to the dower house?’
‘Oh no,’ she exclaimed, ‘they may be “mine” but they are also of this place. If … if you do not object, when I have read them, I would like to place them back where they belong, where they have been kept for generations.’
