Page 108 of The Mistress of Ashmore Castle

‘No! To stay in if he needed it – for instance, if a concert at the hall ended late and he missed his train. But, as it happens, he’s never used it. It’s spacious, and quiet, a bit old-fashioned, but comfortable. And before you ask, there’s a live-in housekeeper, a very steady middle-aged woman, who would take care of me, so it’s entirely respectable. And it has a seven-foot concert grand in the drawing-room.’

‘Ah,’ said Richard. ‘Now I see the attraction.’

‘Please don’t be hurt. The piano here is splendid, and we’re very grateful to you for buying it for us, but I need constant access to a superior instrument.’

‘Don’t you have that at the college?’

‘I have to share with the other students. Sir Thomas wants me to work seriously on Schumann this term. He wants me to work towards a concert at the Queen’s Hall, which he will sponsor, a concerto with full orchestra.’ She looked at him with raised eyebrows, to see if he understood the full glory of it. ‘It will be my public debut. And afterwards – perhaps there might be a trip overseas, concerts in Paris and Berlin.’

‘You see?’ Molly appealed to Richard. ‘Would he do all this for her – at enormous expense – and put her in a flat, if he didn’t expect something in return?’

‘Mother!’ Chloë coloured in anger.

‘Your mother’s right,’ Richard said, trying to keep the atmosphere calm. ‘Gentlemen don’t lavish time and money on a beautiful young woman—’

‘Beautiful!’ Chloë said witheringly. ‘What has that to do with it?’

‘Everything, I’m afraid. You have no idea how shallow, vacuous and venal men are, even the best of them. Lavishing time and money, as I was saying, on a beautiful young woman for nothing but smiles seems unlikely. A man does not purchase an orchard without wanting to taste the fruit.’

‘Don’t be disgusting,’ Chloë said, but without heat now. She was dismissing his opinion. ‘You don’t understand.’

‘I understand that, even with a housekeeper, tongues will wag.’

‘What do I care if they do?’

‘You’ll care if people won’t come to your concerts because they think you’re a fallen woman.’ He saw that point, at least, strike home. ‘If the flat is large and spacious, as you say, why can’t your mother live there with you?’

‘My point exactly,’ Molly said.

‘Because I need to be alone to work,’ Chloë said. ‘We need to be alone to work. Having Mother fluttering around worrying about what people might think and watching every movement in case a hand accidentally brushes an arm—’

‘As if I would!’

‘You would. And then there’d be your pupils, coming and going, banging away at their scales and “Frère Jacques”. How could I concentrate?’

Richard intervened before Molly could explode. ‘Chloë,’ he said seriously, ‘this man means you harm.’

She looked at him for a long moment, a clear, rather pitying look. ‘Oh, Richard, do you think I don’t know about men’s lust? Music is full of it. I’m not a child – and I know you’ll say, “That’s the point.”’

‘You anticipate me.’

‘But I know him. He hides nothing from me. And I can control him. He will never do anything I don’t want him to. He treasures my ability beyond anything else that might be in his mind. It’s the music, don’t you see? The music is everything. He would never risk that for a moment’s base pleasure. And I would never jeopardise my career by a moment’s inattention. I think,’ she added thoughtfully, stopping Richard as he was about to speak, ‘that he’s rather afraid of me.’

Molly groaned and put her face into her hands, but Richard studied the beautifully sculpted face and calm, clear eyes before him, and after a moment he said, ‘I think he might well be. I think I would be, if I’d had the misfortune to fall in love with you.’

She wrinkled her nose and laughed, suddenly human. ‘Misfortune?’

‘A man wishes to be first in the heart of the woman he loves,’ he said seriously, ‘and the best a man could ever be with you is second – to music.’

Molly emerged and looked questioningly from one to the other.

Chloë turned to her, becoming brisk. ‘You will have to agree to this, Mother, because I shall be twenty-one in a few weeks and then I’ll be able to do as I please. But I don’t want to quarrel with you. Please try to understand. I shall be perfectly safe, I promise you. And perfectly respectable. And,’ she concluded with the clincher, ‘it’s something I must do. I have to move on. I can’t do what I need to do living here.’

‘It seems,’ Molly said stiffly, ‘that I have no choice in the matter.’

‘Please, Mummy!’ Chloë begged softly, with the childhood word. ‘Give me your blessing.’

And then they were embracing. ‘Oh, my darling child,’ Molly said, muffled in her hair. Then she set her back. ‘If he should so much as look at you—’