Amberley Chronicles Boxset I: The Impostor Debutante My Last Marchioness the Sister Quest (Amberley Chronicles Boxsets Book 1) (47 page)

Chapter 21

This time, the appointment at the solicitor’s offices in Norwich went off without a hitch. All parties arrived most punctually. The contract was signed by the five principals, and duly witnessed. Jonathan handed his bank draft to the solicitor, who would transfer the deed as soon as the money was credited to his account, to be distributed in equal parts to the Selbington siblings. Paul insisted on handing the keys to Jonathan immediately, and this time he accepted them.

Soon enough they were shaking hands and preparing to depart, the four sellers in excellent humour and perfect charity with each other and Jonathan.

“I am planning to call on the ladies of Spalding Hall to discuss a family matter,” Jonathan said to Paul, drawing him slightly apart while the solicitor was making the two copies ready. “As you know the family well, what time is best? I would prefer that Sir Charles not be present, if at all possible.”

“Sir Charles almost never takes tea with them,” Paul said, “I could call at Spalding Hall around five, when they will be assembled around the tea tray, and bring you with me. As Miss Trellisham’s future husband I also have an interest in whatever family matter you plan to discuss. Is that plan agreeable to you?”

Jonathan considered for a moment, but decided that there would be no hiding the relationship, once he divulged the true reason for his presence in Bellington.

“Very well. I’m obliged to you.”

“Then I’ll come to the inn about twenty minutes to five, and we can walk over to Spalding Hall. Of course you never know with Sir Charles, he might join us merely to discover the reason for our visit.”

“I could not help noticing that his nature and manners are somewhat different from those of the rest of his family.”

“Quite an understatement. But as an old acquaintance and friend of the Spaldings, I had better leave Cherry to tell you all about it.”

“Are you going back to Bellington right away? It would please me to invite your sisters and yourself to lunch, if there is a suitable place here in Norwich. You know the town better than I.”

Selbington consulted his sisters, and the whole group repaired to the Oar and Lamb, where they hired a private dining room, so that the young ladies would not be exposed to ogling by the common clientele. The solicitor had declined the invitation to join them, citing another appointment.

Over the meal, the four Selbingtons regaled Jonathan with their memories of their uncle, Sir Jasper Lobbock, and their childhood games on his estate. Even now they showed no regret at having sold the place to a stranger, outside the family. On the contrary, they assumed that he and Cherry would be permanent members of local society, and asked about his plans for entertaining at the Manor.

“Maybe in future years,” he said evasively. “If it ever happens, you are all invited to the first dinner or ball, whatever it will be.”

“We’ll certainly come. I’ll want to see what changes Cherry and you have made,” Miss Selbington declared. “That folly, for instance, should be either repaired or torn down.” Did she have to remind him of a place he would much rather forget?

“It’s no longer our problem and I for one am glad of it,” Melissa reminded her sister. “Nor am I going to miss the hogs and their smell.”

“You like their meat well enough,” Paul said. “They are useful animals.”

“Let’s not talk of butchering pigs,” Gertrude said, shuddering theatrically, “when we are about to eat.”

“I wonder how you will get on with Sir Charles as your closest neighbour?” Melissa speculated. “He is universally rude, even to Lord Pell on the rare occasions they meet.”

“Yet he is a frequent guest of your parents, I gather?” Jonathan thought back to the dinner party. “I noticed that everyone simply ignores his jibes.”

“Nothing else to do, unless to cut him completely, and we cannot do that for the sake of his family,” Paul explained. “Patch, Prune, Cherry and Matt are old friends. Besides, our father believes in universal charity.”

“That is admirable. Though it would be better if some way were found to make the man behave more politely.”

“At his age, and with his wealth? Too late,” Melissa Selbington said. “Manners and character must be formed in youth. It is interesting that his atrocious behaviour has not prevented Sir Charles from making a fortune in munitions, and being knighted. Apparently courtesy is not a necessary ingredient for commercial success.”

“No, but neither is it an impediment, in most cases,” Jonathan defended his profession. 

“Until he sold the works,” Paul recalled, “he spent most of his time there, and the family was not so much harassed.”

“Poor Patch and Prune,” Melissa said, daintily patting her lips with the napkin.

“I understand that he only very grudgingly gives them money for clothes, or anything else,” Gertrude observed.

“Patience looks beautiful no matter what she wears,” Paul Selbington said. “It is really not our place to speculate on the internal economics of our neighbours, Gertrude.”

“Maybe not, but one cannot help doing so. What else is there to do in a small town like ours? I would hate to be dependent on a pinch-purse like Sir Charles. That he is so rich must make it even harder to bear.”

“Does the younger Mr. Spalding not have any profession or income of his own?” Jonathan asked, since the girls were talking so openly.

“Matthew studied in Oxford. Since he came down and married Prune he oversees some of his father’s properties, and the tenants,” Miss Selbington said, “but Sir Charles has threatened to disinherit him and the children, if he should move away from our town, or strike out on his own. Since there are few chances to do so here in the neighbourhood, and prospective employers would hesitate to offend Sir Charles, he is kept at his father’s beck and call. And of course, there is his stutter.”

“Sir Charles did put me in mind of a certain Sheridan phrase,” Jonathan said.

“
A damned disinheriting countenance
, you mean? Yes, that’s Sir Charles all over.” Paul signalled to the waiter for more ale.

***

Selbington arrived at the inn as promised, and together the two men walked towards Spalding Hall just before five.

“Can I assume that your family matter will not bring any trouble or sorrow on Miss Trellisham?” Paul asked Jonathan.

“That is certainly not my intention.”

As Selbington had predicted, the ladies were all assembled for tea, and to Jonathan’s relief, Sir Charles was not in sight. He had no desire to discuss his parents’ negligence in the hearing of that sarcastic old man.

Jonathan’s eyes flew to Cherry, sitting primly on a stuffed chair, as though butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. She blushed under his regard, but showed no other sign of discomfort as they all greeted each other politely. All the ladies of the household were present; Matthew Spalding, they were told, was out checking on some tenants with his father.

Lady Spalding hospitably offered the visitors tea and refreshments. Jonathan accepted a cup, but declined the small sandwiches and miniature scones.

Selbington had chosen a seat close to Patience, and from the heated glances they exchanged, Jonathan could not doubt that theirs was a mutual love match.

“This is not merely a social call,” Selbington told the five ladies. “Mr. Durwent – Jonathan - tells me he has a particular matter he would like to discuss with you.”

Five pairs of feminine eyes turned to Jonathan in polite, puzzled or apprehensive enquiry.

“My parents lived in Lancashire at the time of my birth, not quite thirty years ago,” he began. The ladies looked askance at this unasked-for information.

“It has recently come to light through a diary my mother wrote, that she had two children at the time. Me, and a girl they baptised Mary Rose, my twin sister. It seems that when we were three weeks old, for reasons I cannot understand or imagine, they gave my sister away to Mr. and Mrs. Trellisham.”

“Oh, God!” Cherry exclaimed. “Surely it cannot be!”

“At last we learn something about our past!” Prune looked at Jonathan in wild surmise. Patience shook her head in wonder.

Lady Spalding and Miss Spalding exchanged glances, but chose not to comment.

“Good Lord. Then you two have a problem,” Selbington said, looking from Jonathan to Cherry. “If only I’d known about this earlier, - there could be a tremendous scandal, if this leaks out.”

“Who are your parents? Were they too poor to keep their child?” Miss Spalding asked.

“They both came of perfectly respectable, if impoverished county families. My father was a clergyman, still a curate at that time. Two years later he obtained preferment, and was Vicar in a small town until his death. My mother is also deceased.”

“So the child would have been Mary-Rose Durwent?” Lady Spalding said. She was holding her cup in her hand, but had forgotten to drink. “I take it you are trying to find your sister?”

“Indeed. That was my purpose in travelling to this place. I have also bought the Lobbock Estate, but that was merely a fortunate coincidence.”

“Neither Prune, Cherry nor myself look like you, myself least of all,” Patience said doubtfully.

“No, but my younger sister Emily – my only other surviving sibling, - does not look much like me either.”

“I cannot tell you which is your sister, but I know who it isn’t,” Miss Spalding said to general surprise.

“Please, Aunt, what can you mean?” Cherry exclaimed, as Prudence and Patience were staring at the old lady.

“I have known from the first that Patience is the true daughter of the Trellishams,” Miss Spalding said. “There are so many clues that everyone should have realised it years ago. Your features are almost identical to the older Mrs. Trellisham, your paternal grandmother, Patience. Then the interest in religion, in music, the stubbornness, - it could not have been clearer. Besides, we had written proof. When Patience was born, your mother wrote to us. Anna specifically mentioned the name and your fair curls.” She looked challengingly at Lady Spalding.

“You also knew?” Patience asked, eyes wide.

Lady Spalding hesitated, nodded. “Well, yes, but we destroyed that letter long ago.”

Jonathan frowned. “Why did you destroy it?”

“Sir Charles, of course,” Selbington said in a disgusted voice. “Had he known which girls were not related to his wife, he might have got rid of them.”

“Sent us to the poorhouse, most likely,” Prudence Spalding said. “Even as things stood, he threatened to do so more than once.”

“We could not allow that to happen,” Miss Spalding confirmed.

“No, indeed.” Lady Spalding finally put down her cooling tea. “My sister had sworn to treat her three girls exactly the same, they were her daughters in all ways but one. It would have betrayed her memory to tell what I knew.”

Prudence got up, and kissed her on the cheek. “Thank you, Mama-in-Law.” Jonathan noticed uncomfortably that there were tears glimmering in her eyes.

“But once Prune married Matt, and Cherry had married Max,” Patience said, “you could have spoken. Sir Charles could not have done anything more at that point.” She was grasping Selbington’s hand in hers.

“After keeping a secret for so long,” Lady Spalding said, “one does not easily betray it. And remember all those aspersions my unlamented mother-in-law used to cast on your birth. On balance it seemed better, even then, that Sir Charles not learn for certain that Prudence was adopted.”

“Either you, Mrs. Spalding, or your sister Cherry must be my twin sister,” Jonathan said, looking from one to the other. “Do you have any idea, which is more likely?”

Everyone in the room looked from the two women’s features to his, trying once again to make out a family resemblance. “Prune’s chin, maybe?” Miss Spalding said, without conviction. “Both have brown hair.”

“But Prune has brown eyes, and yours are blue,” Patience said to Jonathan. “Does she look like your other sister, perhaps?”

“In some details, but I cannot tell for sure. It would be best if there were written proof, but the chances of that are slim at this late date.”

“What of Serena Mills?” Miss Spalding suggested.

“Who?” Jonathan told himself to be patient.

“I never heard of her,” Prudence said. Patience and Cherry also shook her heads.

“Serena Mills, as she then was, was your mother’s best friend since they were about twelve,” Lady Spalding told the young women. “They had no secrets from each other. After Serena married a squire over Trepsham way, they kept up a frequent correspondence.”

“Is this lady still alive?” Jonathan asked.

“As far as I know. She would only be in her fifties. Her married name is Bolston – Mrs. Oliver Bolston.”

“I remember Mother writing letters to a friend in Trepsham,” Patience said. “And she was always glad when a letter came back from there. Don’t you recall, Prune?”

Prudence shook her head. “No, but I do hope this lady knows which of us is which. And maybe she’ll know where the third child came from, as well. It is high time this mystery was cleared up.”

“So my next step is obvious,” Jonathan said, “I will visit Mrs. Bolston and endeavour to find out what she may know about my sister.”