Page 131 of The Secrets of Ashmore Castle

‘Well, my lord, nothing really,’ said Giddins. ‘Kestrel has carried sidesaddle in the past, but his paces are poor. And he’s got a hard mouth. I wouldn’t like to trust her ladyship to him – she might not be able to hold him.’

‘Then we must buy something for her,’ Giles said. ‘You must look around for me. I’m too busy to do it myself right now. Try to find something as soon as possible.’ He was turning away, and turned back to say, ‘Why are we keeping Kestrel, if he’s hard-mouthed and poor-paced?’

‘His late lordship liked him for hacking, my lord,’ said Archer. ‘They got on together, as you might say.’

‘You’d better sell him, then. I shan’t ride him.’

‘Very good, my lord. Er – will you be hunting this winter, my lord?’ Archer asked. ‘Because we did ought to look into getting a couple of hunters for you, if you are, you having sold his late lordship’s youngsters.’

‘I suppose time is getting on,’ Giles sighed. ‘Put the word out for me, will you?’

Both men brightened. ‘Nothing easier, my lord,’ said Giddins. ‘In fact, I heard that Lord Shacklock had some nice hunters he was selling. I could drive over first and try them out, and if they seem suitable, you could have a look at them after, when it was convenient.’

‘If they’re nice, why is he selling them?’ Giles asked suspiciously.

The men exchanged a glance, and Giddins answered reluctantly. ‘His younger son’s mounts, my lord. Mr Crispian had a bad fall, racing across country in the summer. Killed hisself.’

‘Ah,’ said Giles. They obviously thought it was a sore point.

*

Nina went in to breakfast, to find her aunt absent. ‘She went out early, miss,’ said Haydock. ‘She said she wouldn’t be long, but for you not to wait.’

Nina took her lone breakfast in silence. She had had a restless night, but her thoughts were tranquil now. She had gone over and over the arguments in her head, and was satisfied that she had come to the right decision. She was lingering over her second cup when Aunt Schofield came back. She heard her in the hall, talking to Haydock as he took her coat and hat; and then she came in, with a parcel under her arm. Unusually, she closed the morning-room door behind her.

‘I have something to show you, Nina,’ she said, and there was tension in her face, as though she had had to come to a difficult decision. ‘Clear a space at the end of the table.’

Nina obeyed, and Aunt Schofield put down the parcel, unwrapped it, and removed a large book. ‘I have gone to some trouble to borrow this,’ she said, ‘because women are forbidden to look at it. I had to ask Mr Carnoustie, who obliged his friend Professor McLaren at the Royal Free to do him a favour. He lectures in anatomy.’

‘Anatomy?’ Nina said, surprised.

‘Yes, child. There are things that I’m afraid most girls go into marriage in ignorance of, but I will not have that happen to you. Whether you marry Mr Cowling or someone else, you shall understand what is involved. Come and stand beside me.’

Nina went, feeling very awkward. She saw there were bookmarks at various points in the large, cloth-bound tome. Anatomy. That means bodies. Am I going to be embarrassed?

‘To begin,’ said Aunt Schofield, and opened the book at a drawing of a naked woman, but with the inside parts drawn in. ‘You have a tube in your body, which allows excess liquid to pass out – here.’

‘Yes,’ said Nina. It was embarrassing – but interesting.

‘You may or may not know, that in the male of the species, this tube is extended beyond the body, in a sort of pipe.’

Ah, thought Nina. ‘In India, when I was a child, I sometimes saw the gardeners – um – relieving themselves in the bushes. They had—’

‘Very well. This male pipe is properly called the penis. And it contains not only the tube for excess water, but another tube that connects with the part of their body that makes the seeds of life. Just as you have, inside your body, another tube, or passage here—’ She showed Nina on the drawing ‘—connecting with the womb, which is the place that new life grows.’

‘I’ve heard of the womb,’ Nina said. ‘And I know babies grow in there. But I didn’t know – I wasn’t sure …’

‘Of course not. Girls are not meant to know. The very idea of discussing it out loud as we are now doing is shocking, and the main reason men have always resisted the idea of women becoming doctors. Fortunately, I married a most enlightened man, who borrowed a book very similar to this one in order that I should understand that most important process for the continuation of life. So I, in my turn, am enlightening you.’

‘Thank you,’ Nina said hesitantly. She didn’t feel very grateful.

‘Very well,’ said Aunt Schofield. ‘To continue. When a man and woman are married, at time of passion, the male pipe, or penis, becomes rigid, enabling it to be introduced into the female passage, to pass the seed into her. The seed thus travels up into the womb and implants itself.’

‘Oh,’ said Nina. Her cheeks felt very hot but her stomach felt cold.

Aunt Schofield went on relentlessly. ‘In good time, when the baby is ready to be born, it passes out of the female body through the same passage, which is extremely flexible and can expand sufficiently to allow the infant to pass. Do you understand?’

‘Yes,’ said Nina. ‘I think so.’ She supposed it was better to know than not to know, but it was a lot suddenly to digest.