Page 34 of The Mistress of Ashmore Castle

Maud returned the ball hard. ‘It would hardly serve the family if Rachel did not have the debut appropriate to her position. But I don’t expect you to understand the nuances of society. Rachel will make a great marriage, and it will reflect well on all of us. Your son will reap the benefit – little Lord Ayton. I must see him before I leave. Have him brought down after luncheon.’

‘You could go up and see him now,’ Kitty suggested pointedly.

Maud raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh, I think not. And now, if you’ll ring, please, I’ll talk to Moss and Mrs Webster. Oh, and send someone after Alice and have her brought back. I’m having some gowns made for her, but they’ll need to be fitted, so she’ll have to come up.’

‘But she’s not out yet,’ Kitty said, surprised.

‘There are plenty of places a girl not yet out can be shown, and I wish to shape her before her debut next year. She is much too rough about the edges. She won’t have a come-out like Rachel’s – there’d be no point – but I will not have her make a show of us. Ring the bell, Kitty,’ she concluded impatiently.

Kitty turned away to obey, and for a moment was in profile to the dowager. She heard a hiss of indrawn breath, and when she turned back, having pulled the bell, she found herself being closely scrutinised.

‘So,’ Maud said, in a deadly voice. ‘Have you something to tell me?’

Kitty was startled that she had latched on so quickly – none of the others had noticed anything yet; though of course when you saw someone every day you were less likely to see a difference that had come on gradually. But she knew there was no sense in prevaricating. ‘Yes, I am expecting another baby,’ she admitted.

‘Indeed? And how far along are you?’

‘Four months, I think.’

Maud’s nostrils flared. ‘You were proposing to tell me when, exactly? Or was I to be kept in the dark? Upon my word, Kitty, you have some strange ways of going about things. I wonder, indeed, what it was your parents taught you. Perhaps people who live in Hampstead have different customs from the rest of us.’ She said Hampstead as if it were Borrioboola-Gha.

‘I wanted Giles to be the first to know,’ Kitty said stiffly. ‘My own parents don’t know yet. We Hampstead people believe the baby’s father is the most important person.’

Maud was gathering her forces to retort, but the door opened and Moss came in. When the dowager rang, the butler himself answered the drawing-room bell.

‘Ah, Moss,’ Maud began. ‘I sent for you to—’

But Kitty couldn’t allow that. She spoke over Maud, with determined authority. ‘I should like to speak to you and Mrs Webster together, Moss. Please bring her here to the drawing-room, right away.’

It was only a small triumph. But with the dowager, that was all Kitty could hope for.

Rose, going past the door, saw Dory in the ironing-room and paused to watch her. ‘What’s that, then?’ she asked, after a moment.

Dory lifted the garment by the shoulders and shook it out for Rose to see. ‘A dress for Miss Arabella. I made it out of an old thing of Lady Alice’s.’

‘You’ve done a nice job,’ Rose remarked.

‘I can’t help feeling sorry for those poor children – nobody seems to want them. I’m going to make something for Master Arthur next. Knickers and a Russian blouse, I thought, for him to play in.’

Rose nodded, examining Dory as she put the dress back on the table and applied the iron again. ‘You’ve been spending a lot of time in the nursery lately,’ she said.

Dory didn’t look up. ‘I take my sewing up there sometimes, instead of the sewing-room. It’s nice to have company while I work.’

‘Hmm,’ said Rose. ‘You do seem to have been a bit glum lately. Since Christmas, really. Is everything all right?’

‘Of course,’ Dory said. Now she looked up. ‘Winter gets everybody down, doesn’t it?’

‘And working in the sewing-room, I suppose you’d notice that Mr Sebastian doesn’t play his piano so much, these days. I think you used to enjoy his playing, didn’t you?’

‘Yes. You can really do with something to listen to while you sew. Now I can listen to Jessie and Nanny chatting. And children always liven up the place.’

Rose snorted, and pushed away from the door jamb. ‘Most people wouldn’t agree with you there. Children should be seen and not heard.’

‘Poor things! Sometimes, when Jessie’s busy, I tell them a story to keep them from under her feet, and they sit and listen, so quiet and good.’

‘Well, don’t let Mrs Webster catch you up there,’ said Rose, moving away. ‘You know she likes people to be in their place.’

The man waiting for Sebastian at the Blue Posts in Rupert Street was as nondescript as it was possible for a person to be. He was dressed like a member of the clerking fraternity, his clothes old but well-kept, his boots decent and polished, but not to a high shine. His face was clean-shaven, his hair neatly cut, and his features were so unremarkable that if you turned away from him it was hard to remember what he looked like. If you had to describe him to a third party, ‘medium’ and ‘ordinary’ would be the words you reached for. His name – or the name he chose to give – was, appropriately, Mr Bland.