Page 76 of The Secrets of Ashmore Castle

‘My mother’s brother. Earl of Leake,’ said Richard. ‘His seat’s in Northumberland, but he has a place on the Spey for fishing.’

‘We should go,’ said Bracegirdle.

‘We should,’ said Richard. ‘But I have to get my brother married first.’

‘Right! Get the brother married. Then we’ll all go and visit your uncle Leake.’

‘On the Spey,’ Keenswell added.

‘For the fishing. Think he’d like us to come?’

‘I’m sure he’d adore it,’ said Richard.

*

The next morning, Speen roused Richard from a deep sleep with a cup of coffee and said, ‘There’s two gentlemen downstairs to see you.’

‘What time is it?’ Richard asked, struggling back to the world.

‘Half past eleven. Her ladyship’s at church, but I let you sleep in.’

‘Two gentlemen?’

‘Came in a motor-car. Very keen to see you, sir. Said something about plans made last night.’

Downstairs, Richard found Bracegirdle and Keenswell looking surprisingly alert. He commented on it.

‘I think I’m still drunk,’ Bracegirdle admitted. ‘But that’s all right.’

‘What are you doing here so early?’ Richard asked.

‘Agreed last night,’ Keenswell said. ‘Don’t you remember? We decided we’d borrow Farringdon’s motor-car and go for a spin.’

‘To Richmond,’ Bracegirdle added.

‘I seem to remember Richmond being mentioned,’ Richard said, with a frown, ‘but I can’t remember the context.’

‘Going for a spin, luncheon by the river, fresh air, et cetera. Are you ready?’

Richard grinned. ‘Why not? Who is Farringdon? Never mind. I’ve never driven a motor-car. I’ve always wanted to. I suppose it must be easy.’

‘Must be,’ said Keenswell. ‘Farringdon manages, and he’s an awful fool.’

‘Let’s go, then,’ Richard said, eagerly.

It was a 22h.p. Daimler, with two seats in front and two behind. ‘Goes like the Dickens,’ Keenswell promised. Bracegirdle took the wheel to begin with, but after he’d manoeuvred them at a modest pace through the narrow streets, Richard became ever more anxious to ‘have a go’. Finally, when they got out onto the wider Oxford Street, Bracegirdle agreed to let him take over. Having had the controls explained, Richard took the wheel with supreme confidence, and after a few mighty coughs from the engine, some stops and starts and one alarming passage of going backwards, he got the hang of it. ‘Couldn’t be easier!’ he crowed, as they bowled along. ‘Nothing to it! Let’s have some fun.’

‘Hang on to your hats, boys,’ Bracegirdle said, grinning.

‘Hang on to everything,’ Richard said, and let out the throttle.

The journey down to Canons Ashmore by train was not long. Kitty beguiled the time by rereading the guidebook’s description of Ashmore Castle. She had been studying it ever since the invitation came, following Miss Thornton’s rule of being prepared.

Ashmore Castle, the first sentence said disappointingly, was not actually a castle, though the first Earl of Stainton, when rebuilding the house in 1780, had finished the parapet with crenulations to reflect the name. But there had once been a castle – a motte-and-bailey fortification built in 1080, and abandoned in 1202. It had been a little to the north-west of the present house, and the mound of the motte could still be discerned, though there were no stoneworks left above ground.

The stones of the bailey had been removed by local people over the years, many of them to build, in 1232, an Augustine priory in the valley, from which the village of Canons Ashmore took its name. In 1248 the canons had been given permission to alter the course of the river Ash to create fish pools. When the priory had been dissolved by Henry VIII in 1536, the pools had been abandoned, and subsequent flooding and encroachment of surrounding trees had created the present Ashmore Carr (a carr, the book explained helpfully, is a waterlogged woodland).

The Priory and its lands had been granted immediately after the dissolution by the King to his friend and courtier Henry Tallant, who had pulled down the priory house and used the stones to build a new house in a more elevated situation further up the hill. Local people had dubbed it Ashmore Castle because of the vaunting ambitions of its owner. He and his son showed remarkable agility in managing to thrive under both Mary and Elizabeth, and his grandson was raised to a barony by James I in 1620. The house was massively extended and altered in 1710 by the fourth baron, with a grant from Queen Anne, in whose favour he found himself after the fall from grace of the Marlboroughs. The earldom was granted in 1780, for services during the Siege of Charleston, and on his return home the first earl largely rebuilt the house in Georgian style, adding the famous battlements.