Page 81 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle

‘Not nearly most,’ he said. ‘You’ve never spoken about your marriage. Who, for instance, was Mr Sands?’

‘Do you really want to know?’

‘I really do. Expound, please.’

‘Vancourt Sands was an importer of cigars. You may have heard of him,’ she said.

He frowned. ‘Vancourt Sands – of course I have. But I didn’t know it was one person. I thought it was a company, like Mappin and Webb.’

‘He was very much one,’ she said, her mouth turned down. ‘He was a lot older than me and not – not a very attractive character. My mother and father – I won’t say they forced me into the marriage, but they urged me very hard. Van was rich, and they were not.’

‘Was he unkind to you?’

‘Not directly. He used me to further his business – that was what he wanted me for. I was beautiful in those days—’

‘What do you mean, in those days?’

‘Don’t interrupt. Van’s clients included the highest in the land, right up to and including the Royal Family, and to keep them sweet, and to recruit more customers, he held regular dinner parties – gentlemen-only dinners.’

‘Oh? Oh!’

‘Not what you’re thinking. But I was the only woman there. My job was to welcome the gentlemen, to circulate among them in the drawing-room and see they were all comfortable, well supplied with drink. Flirt with them just a little and make them feel good. Then at the dinner table I sat at the head and kept the conversation going. I had to read up in advance about politics and world affairs and society gossip. “You must sparkle,” Van would say. “You must scintillate, Molly.” It was he who first called me Molly. Only when the cloth was drawn and it came to the cigars and port was I released, and could go to my room, usually with a headache. It was at one of his dinners, of course, that I met your father.’

‘I think I had guessed that,’ Richard said, a little stiffly. He didn’t want to talk about his father and Molly in this context; but still he wanted to know. ‘Did your husband . . .?’

‘Pimp me to him?’ she said brutally, but with a wry smile. ‘No, he wasn’t that bad. But he’d told me, long before, when the dinners first started, that if any of the gentlemen wanted to . . . that if the situation arose . . .’ She shook her head, as if to clear it, ‘. . . I was to keep them in a sweet temper. The dinners must be a high spot in their calendars. They must look forward to it above anything. So I flirted and flattered. I’m not proud of what I was then—’

‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Richard interrupted angrily. ‘You were in no position to—’

‘Refuse? But I did. I had propositions, many of them, but I treated them lightly and laughed them off. Until—’

She had no need to say your father. The words were like little darts to his heart. He had said all along that he did not care that she had been his father’s mistress. But he had taken care not to think about what that really meant. Until now. Inwardly, he shrugged. He had made her tell him. He had to face up to it.

‘So he knew about you and my father.’

‘He approved of the situation. Your father was a valued client and had many friends. And he and I – Van and I – we didn’t – we no longer—’

‘I understand,’ Richard said hastily.

‘William was the only one,’ she said, holding his gaze steadily. ‘At least, on my side. On his side . . .’ She shrugged. ‘It’s different for men.’

‘It need not be,’ he said hotly. She was silent. After a moment, he asked in a more normal tone, ‘What happened to him – your husband?’

‘He died. He was a lot older than me, as I said, suffered from bronchitis and had a heavy cough every winter. And one winter, it was too much for him. He developed pneumonia and died. Strange to think I was only married for five years. In retrospect it seems so much longer.’

‘But then,’ Richard frowned, ‘he was very wealthy. Surely you must have been left a fortune.’

‘Ah,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mention that I was his second wife. And he had a son by his first wife, a grown man with a wife and child of his own. He left everything to Edgar. I appealed to him for help, for justice, but he said he would not spare a penny for a woman such as I was. He said he was sure I had plenty of paramours who would keep me.’

‘I should like,’ Richard said in even tones, ‘to kill that swine.’

Molly shook her head. ‘It was a long time ago. It hurt me at the time, very much, but the memory of pain fades. I had my skill as a pianist, which allowed me to earn a respectable living. And your father was kind. He would have given me much more, but I was proud and wouldn’t take it. After what Edgar had said, I had to prove to the world, or rather to myself, that I was not what he’d called me. I let William provide me with a house, but I would not allow him keep me entirely. Though I let him give me the occasional gift, for Chloë’s sake.’

‘Ah, yes, Chloë,’ Richard said, and paused, not knowing how to go on.

‘Chloë was two when I first got to know your father,’ she said, and saw his brow clear. ‘How long have you wanted to ask that?’

‘No time at all,’ he said blithely. ‘I knew she was not my father’s child. She looks nothing like him.’