Page 124 of The Secrets of Ashmore Castle

‘Out of the question,’ said Lady Stainton.

Giles leaned against the mantelpiece and fiddled with a china figurine. ‘I don’t think it is. The one we have – what’s her name? Oxhey?’

‘Oxlea.’

‘I think you must admit, Mama, that she is not very good. If we are to entertain, as I assume you must want us to, we must have a better one. Good heavens, this is an earl’s house – we ought to be serving the finest food. What if the King were to come?’

‘The King thinks altogether too much about food. It is vulgar.’

‘I’m not talking about twenty courses, larks’ tongues and fillets of unicorn,’ Giles said impatiently. ‘Just well-cooked English food that I can eat.’

‘You have learned finicking ways with all the time you’ve spent abroad,’ Lady Stainton said. ‘No-one else but you complains.’

‘Well, I’m the earl, so who else matters?’

‘Yes, I thought that would come!’ she said angrily. ‘Arrogance, Giles! Disrespecting your father’s memory! Dismantling everything he stood for! Trampling on my feelings as a widow!’

‘I’m not doing any of those things,’ Giles said, exasperated. ‘I just want a new cook.’

‘The food at the Castle was always good enough for your father.’

‘For heaven’s sake, Mama!’

‘There is no question of dismissing Mrs Oxlea,’ Lady Stainton said, with absolute determination. ‘No question, do you hear?’

She was trembling with rage. Suddenly he felt an unwilling sympathy for her. She had been in charge of a household since her own mother had died when Uncle Stuffy was only an infant and she was just a girl. She was an autocrat who had run first Cawburn Castle, and then Ashmore, and to be usurped by a much younger woman must be difficult for her to contemplate.

He tried to speak reasonably, gently. ‘I just want to make my life more comfortable, that’s all. It is my home, after all.’

‘Your home!’ she cried furiously, and then quite suddenly grew icily calm. ‘I suppose you’d like to pack me off to the Dower House?’

It gave him pause. He knew what she was saying. If she went to the Dower House, he would have to pay her jointure, and it would be most inconvenient just now to find the money. She could hold that over his head whenever a dispute arose. It was blackmail. He had a flare of anger. ‘I will be master in my own house,’ he said.

She glared at him with white fury. ‘Burn the whole place down, if that’s what you want! As you so elegantly remind me, you are master. I have no rights here any more.’

She swept out, and he sighed wearily and rubbed his temples. How much more of this would he have to endure?

Everyone had been at the Commercial Road property in the morning, with the architect’s drawings, and now, after luncheon, they were settled in at Aunt Schofield’s house discussing the plans. Tea was brought in, and Nina did her duty with the teapot, and helped Haydock and Minny hand the cups round. In the general changing of places, she found herself on a sofa beside Mr Cowling. He was looking different lately, she thought. He seemed to have had his hair cut in a different way, and his suit was new and his necktie had a certain jauntiness. Becoming involved in the Free Library project seemed to be invigorating him.

The first thing he said to her, however, was ‘That’s a pretty dress you have on, Miss Sanderton, if you don’t mind my saying so. Is it impertinent to comment on it?’

‘Not at all,’ she said, rather touched – he seemed so anxious not to offend. ‘As you must know, sir, a female takes to compliments as a duck takes to water.’

He smiled. ‘You have such an original way of talking! You always amuse me. I wish all ladies were as conversable as you.’

‘Not all gentlemen like ladies who talk,’ she said. ‘I was at a political meeting a while back—’

‘Aye, I know. Morris told me about it. Not that I’d have taken a lady there myself. It’s no place for a woman – though I wouldn’t criticise him, for he’s as good a fellow as ever lived. But politics is not the business for females.’

‘Politics controls every aspect of our lives. Should we not have a say in it?’ Nina said.

He thought about it. ‘I can see why you’d say that, you being a very clever young lady, and a thinker, but someone has to be in charge. I wouldn’t like it if my workers wanted a say in how my factory was run. I treat them well – you don’t get good work out of unhappy folk – but what I say goes. It has to be that way.’

Nina saw many obvious flaws in the argument, but she didn’t want to upset him, so she said instead, ‘I’m sure you are right. Have you any new shoe styles coming out for the Little Season?’

‘Now that was an obvious change of subject,’ he said genially. ‘You think I’m an old fellow not worth arguing with, don’t you?’

‘Oh dear, not at all,’ she said. ‘I just didn’t want to be disputatious. And I would never think of you as an old fellow! Whatever put that into your mind?’