Page 137 of The Mistress of Ashmore Castle

‘I was thinking this is slow work. I’m pretty sure they’re going to draw a blank here as well – yes, you see, they’re pulling hounds out now. I can think of better things to be doing. What say on the way to the next draw, you and I slip away through the woods? I know a charming little inn over at Mersitone where there’ll be a good fire and something agreeable to drink and eat. Where we can be cosy and talk to our hearts’ content.’

Nina was half thrilled, and half appalled. She stalled him. ‘What on earth would we talk about?’

‘Ourselves – the most interesting subject in the world to two attractive young people. But if you don’t feel like talking, there are other things.’ He touched the back of her hand with the handle of his whip, then ran it back and forth like a caress.

Now she was uncomfortable. She moved her hand away. ‘You mustn’t say such things.’

‘Why not? No-one can hear. And don’t pretend you haven’t been thinking them. I’ve seen the way you look at me.’

‘You’re mistaken,’ she said awkwardly. ‘I don’t look at you in any particular way.’

‘You look at me like a woman who needs loving. You have the wistful look of a cat at the window, watching the birds fly by, unable to get at them through the glass.’

‘Don’t be absurd. I do not,’ she said. ‘And you mustn’t talk to me like this. I’m a married woman.’ He only smiled, and she added, ‘Besides, I am loved. My husband loves me.’

‘But you don’t love him.’

She turned her head away. ‘Stop it,’ she said, low and angry.

‘And in any case,’ he went on, unabashed, ‘I’m not talking about the sort of love an old man can give a lovely young woman in the prime of life. You need loving properly, thoroughly. Every woman deserves that. I should like to kiss you until your lovely face has that expression of astonished bliss – like the cat that has got at the cream.’

He was handsome and familiar and she was young and lonely. She felt a pang deep in her stomach, of excitement and longing. She had never been loved, in the way he meant, and it shocked her that he recognised it. She was shocked, too, with her own reaction. Just for a moment she wanted him, and the betrayal that represented made her angry with herself, and angrier with him.

‘I have no wish to be kissed by you,’ she said bitterly, and it was true. The yearning feeling in her stomach was for Giles, and that was yet another betrayal. ‘Leave me alone. And never speak to me like this again. I’m a—’

Even then he was not abashed. ‘You’re a married woman, I know. You’re my sister’s bosom friend. I assure you I’m interested in your welfare, that’s all. Friendship and kindly concern are my motives.’ He turned his horse, preparatory to moving off. ‘Look, they’re coming out – we’re on the move,’ he said. Talleyrand began to circle on the spot, ready for action. He spoke in broken phrases when his face was towards her. ‘I can – be patient. When – the fruit is – ripe, it comes off in your – hand without a tug.’

I’m not fruit! she thought, gathering Jewel’s reins and preparing to follow. But just then, she rather was. It wasn’t natural for a healthy young woman to live as she did, unmated and unfulfilled. She didn’t want to want Adam, but she was afraid that if she encountered him at the right moment in the right place, something might happen.

On the way to Germany Giles and Kitty stopped off in London to see Aunt Caroline.

‘Why does she have to get married at this time of year?’ Giles complained. ‘She could have waited until spring.’

‘I believe the prince doesn’t want to wait,’ Caroline said mildly.

‘What possible difference can it make to him? Why must he hurry to secure her? I don’t suppose there are any rivals for her hand, and she hasn’t any money.’

‘Don’t be so cynical, Giles. You have not considered that he might be in love with her.’

Giles was about to explode – In love? With my mother? – when he caught Kitty’s anxious eye and realised how rude that would be. But, of course, both women read it in his face.

‘You’re not quite fair to poor Maud,’ Caroline said. ‘She had to be mother to all of us from a very early age, and run the house too, and Papa was never appreciative. Now she hasn’t any cares of that sort, she can be less . . . forbidding. And consider, she is probably a different person when she’s with the prince.’

‘Hmph,’ said Giles, unable quite to believe it. But he managed to say, ‘I hope she will be happy with him. I’m surprised she’s satisfied with such a small wedding. You’d think she’d want our whole tribe to share her triumph.’

‘She said in her letter she thinks it would look ridiculous at her age to have the sort of wedding she was planning for her daughter. So it’s to be close family only.’

‘But you’re not going?’ said Giles.

‘She knows I can’t bear the cold at any price. I’ll see them in London next year on their bridal tour. Vicky and Bobo will be there, and she says Stuffy is going over from Venice, though I haven’t heard anything from him about it.’

‘What on earth is he doing there all this time?’ Giles asked. ‘Almost three months, he’s been away.’

‘Renovating his house – that’s all I know. Of course, we don’t know that he’s been in Venice the whole time. You know what he is for wandering. There are plenty of English people living in Italy he might visit. In any case, I don’t expect he knows how long he’s been away – he doesn’t have a very firm grasp of time. But you can ask him at the wedding what he’s been up to, if you really want to know.’

He shrugged it off. ‘Mere idle curiosity. Well, Aunty, I suppose we had better be leaving if we’re to catch that train.’

‘Have you got plenty of warm clothes, my dear?’ Caroline asked Kitty. ‘It can be colder in Germany than you can imagine.’