Page 53 of The Secrets of Ashmore Castle

It depicted bowing maidens scattering rose petals before a bearded man robed in red and gold. Both girls seemed completely absorbed, but they glanced round as the men came up to them.

‘What do you think of this gorgeous piece?’ Richard divided the question impartially between the two girls, but it was Miss Sanderton who answered, and Giles she looked at. Miss Bayfield only peeked from under her eyelashes – but it was also Giles she peeked at.

‘It is gorgeous,’ said Miss Sanderton. ‘I love all his work – so rich and delicious you want to eat it! Like one of the French gâteaux in Gunter’s window.’

‘I know just what you mean,’ Giles said. It was always such a relief to talk to her after the other debutantes. Each time they met, they seemed to be resuming a conversation that had been going on between them for years, as if they had always been friends. ‘Was there a “but”? I sensed a “but” in your answer.’

‘Not about the painting, but the subject. Women scattering petals for a man to trample on. Things never change, do they?’

‘I don’t remember anyone ever scattering petals for me,’ he said, amused.

‘I wasn’t speaking literally,’ she said.

‘Oh, but what man doesn’t dream of lounging like a sultan,’ Richard put in, ‘while a dozen handmaids wait on his every whim?’

‘Now you’ve shocked Miss Bayfield,’ Giles said.

For a wonder, she looked up, her cheeks pink with her own daring, and said, ‘I’m not shocked. I know men do like those things. Besides, women like to look after men. When they really care for them.’

The blush suited her, Giles thought – which was just as well, since she blushed so often. But he knew by now that she responded better to a softer tone of voice. Liveliness, raillery, unnerved her. He said, ‘It is not called the gentle sex for nothing. Women are naturally kind. And men should not take that kindness for granted.’ She lowered her eyes, but he thought she was pleased with his answer. ‘Do you like the painting?’ he asked.

‘It’s very pretty,’ she said, ‘but—’ He had to coax the rest of her answer out of her, and was surprised when he heard it. ‘I think it’s too easy to like. As Nina says, like a rich cake.’

‘What sort of paintings do you prefer?’ he asked.

‘I think, the impressionists,’ Miss Bayfield answered. ‘They – they make you work harder.’

Giles had thought her a timid, kitten-like creature, and had assumed she would like pretty, kitten-like things. He could not fit this opinion into his picture of her. And she, confounded by her own boldness, had now retreated into silence. To Miss Sanderton, he therefore addressed his next remark. ‘I remember we once spoke of pointillism. It seems you and Miss Bayfield are both connoisseurs of art.’

‘We did look at a lot of paintings when we were at Miss Thornton’s school,’ Nina said. ‘She believed an educated female must have a good grounding in the arts. And she made us think about why we liked them or didn’t.’

‘She sounds very enlightened,’ Giles said.

Richard laughed. ‘I’m surprised she hasn’t been run out of the country! Education for females? The old guard won’t approve of that!’

Miss Sanderton leaned in to look at the label for the Alma-Tadema picture. ‘Caracalla,’ she read. ‘I don’t know who or what that is.’

‘He was a Roman emperor,’ Giles said, remembering how, by coincidence, he had mentioned him to his aunt not long ago.

‘I’ve never heard of him,’ said Miss Sanderton. ‘We only did Julius, Augustus, Tiberius and – which were the others, Kitty?’

‘Caligula and Claudius,’ Miss Bayfield answered, without looking up.

‘Caracalla was one of the later ones,’ Giles said. ‘Son of Severus, brother of Geta.’ He saw Richard looking at him with raised eyebrows that said, Can’t you think of anything better to talk to girls about? But Miss Sanderton seemed interested. ‘When I was a boy I was made to recite the names of all the emperors and their dates, in order,’ he explained apologetically. ‘I never managed to get past Caracalla.’

‘I had to learn the kings and queens of England. All the way back to those Edwys and Eadreds and Edgars.’

‘Despite living in India?’

She smiled. ‘You remembered that?’

Her eyes were dark brown. It fascinated him. Everyone in Egypt had dark eyes, of course, but he didn’t think he’d ever encountered them paired with such fair hair. ‘I remember everything you said.’

There was a moment of such tension in the air, it was as though they were generating electricity between them. And then he remembered where they were, and what his business in London was. He came down to earth with a bump.

Richard stepped in – quite literally, between Giles and Miss Sanderton – and said, ‘You obviously know much more about art than I do, Miss Sanderton. Come and tell me all about this next picture, Sargent’s portrait of Mrs Leopold Hirsch. I know Sargent is supposed to be the best, but you shall tell me why I’m to like it.’

She obeyed him with a polite smile, and Giles offered his arm to Miss Bayfield, on the ‘foursome’ principle – so that the chaperones would not come and interfere.