Page 73 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

‘If you can’t persuade her, how can I?’

‘You know about society.’ Her mouth trembled. ‘You bought her a piano.’

‘Oh, darling!’ He took her hands. He couldn’t bear the look on her face, the hope as much as the despair. ‘I’ll do my best. I’ll talk to her like a Dutch uncle.’

Chloë was at home, in the flat behind the Royal Albert Hall owned by Sir Thomas, where she lived with the Scottish housekeeper, Mrs Mackie. She was at her practice when Richard arrived, but Mrs Mackie said she would announce him.

‘Sir Thomas is not here?’ he asked.

‘No, sir, he is not. He was here last evening,’ she added, with a significant nod that suggested she knew what the situation was. ‘Customarily my young lady does not like to be disturbed when she is playing at the piano, but I think she will make an exception for you.’

She went away; Richard heard the piano stop, and a moment later she reappeared in the doorway of the drawing-room to say, ‘Will you come away ben, sir? Miss Sands will see you.’

Chloë was just rising from the instrument. He had not been sure what her mood would be – defiant, perhaps, or elated? – but she gave him a calm, enquiring look. ‘Richard,’ she said. ‘What brings you here? Would you like some coffee? Mrs Mackie, bring coffee, will you?’

When the door had closed behind the housekeeper, she said, ‘Were you just passing or has something happened?’

‘You ask me that?’ he said. ‘I come from your mother, and before that my grandmother, both of whom are devastated.’

She gestured him into a seat and took the one opposite. Her beauty, he thought, had only grown in the time he had known her – she had been a lovely girl, but had matured into a striking woman. It was wasted, he felt, on a musical performer, who could have looked like a mangold wurzel for all it mattered. If only David of Wales had been older, she was lovely enough to have been the future queen of England.

His words had not troubled her. ‘Is this about Sir Thomas asking me to marry him?’ she asked.

‘What else?’ he said. ‘I can’t believe you agreed.’

‘Why not?’ she said simply.

‘Do you really not see? My grandmother is convinced it was all your idea.’

‘Oh, no,’ she said. ‘I hadn’t thought of it. But he has been growing more in love with me, and I could see the difference when he came back from the country after Christmas. Before, I think it was just a craze, the way men can be mad for a woman they have only seen and hardly know. Men have made themselves foolish over me before, because of my looks. But I told you, didn’t I, that I knew how to handle it? You were afraid he would push me into being his mistress.’

‘I wish now that he had,’ he said. ‘It would be better than this.’

She looked hurt. ‘How can you say so? Marriage is honourable.’

‘Marriage after a divorce is not,’ Richard said. ‘There would be a dreadful scandal. To many people it would not even be a marriage.’

‘Oh, Mother said all those things,’ she said. ‘She doesn’t understand.’

She broke off as Mrs Mackie came in with the tray. The housekeeper looked at Richard keenly and at Chloë frowningly as she placed the things, and went quietly out. ‘She doesn’t approve,’ Chloë said calmly. ‘She’s been with him for years. Old servants don’t like change.’ She poured the coffee and handed Richard a cup. ‘And now Mother’s persuaded you to come and talk to me, hasn’t she? But I promise you I know what I’m doing.’

‘I honestly don’t think you do. You don’t understand that divorce can only be obtained after proof of adultery is presented—’

‘There is no adultery,’ Chloë said sharply. ‘How can you think it?’

‘I don’t think it. But this is how it would work: Sir Thomas would have to persuade Lady Burton to submit a petition against him for adultery and cruelty – and how he can do that I have no idea. If she hasn’t wanted to divorce him so far, I don’t know why she would now. But if she did, he would have to go to an hotel with a woman and be found in bed with her by one of the hotel staff, who would give evidence in court about it. The woman and the member of staff, and probably the hotel manager as well, would be paid a fee for this – this chicanery. What evidence would be presented for cruelty I don’t know and would rather not imagine.’

‘Yes, I know. He explained it all to me.’

‘Then how can you bear it? It’s all so tawdry! How can you want to be part of it?’

‘I won’t be. He will arrange everything. And my name will never be mentioned.’

‘It will be all over the newspapers when he marries you afterwards and everyone knows you were the reason for the divorce. And I promise you, you will be blamed far more than he is. The woman in the case always is. Your name will always be tainted.’

She made an impatient gesture. ‘I will be Lady Burton. That will be my name.’

‘It that why you’re doing it? For the title? Or is it his fortune?’