An Indelicate Situation (The Weymouth Trilogy) (16 page)

‘No, William will not shoot her but his wife may do
so
-
not physically, most likely,
(although I daresay she might have a go
if she
happens to
own a pistol
)
but metaphorically
at least. Just
think what
would
happen
if ever she suspected such a
n affair
. Her
fury
-
and her
retribution
-
would know no
bound
s
. The poor girl would never get employment ever again – and then what should she do? William would never act honourably towards her
. Even if he wanted to,
Georgiana
would never allow him to offer her so much as a penny. She would be thrust
onto the streets
to
starve. But
I can perhaps do something to help her – to warn her of the danger she is in. I could not live with myself if I were
just to stand by and do nothing
– but I
don’t know how to go about it.
I do not feel that we are on such terms as to make my intervention acceptable to her.
I wish you would help me rat
her than treating it like a
joke.’

Andrew could see that his wife was genuinely concerned. It was no less that he should have expected.
He placed his hand
softly
on her arm to reassure her.

‘You will find the right place and time, depend upon it, my dear
. Go with your own impeccable instincts. Say what you need to say in that gentle, unthreatening way of yours and
I daresay
you won’t go
far wrong.’

Having established some understanding between them by dint of Mr Staveley’s admission regarding Miss Brewer,
and their subsequent evening ramble home,
it was only natural that Freddy and Maggie should continue
some intercourse in the same vein whenever the opportunity arose.

The opportunity actually arose quite shortly after
the Berkeley
s’ party, as Mrs William had forged an alliance with another matron with children of a similar age to
the twins
and had
rather bravely
determined on taking them to visit the family without their governess’s support.

Maggie had therefore decided to undertake some much
-
needed practice on the Wrights’ pianoforte whilst she had the chance and Freddy, being immediately attracted by the sound of the music, had
abandoned the work he was doing to mend Master Will’s new boat to
come into the music room to listen
to it
.
He was wearing the somewhat old
-
fashioned snuff
-
coloured coat and knee
-
breeches
that he habitually wore in the daytime. She wondered fleeti
ngly whether he actually own
ed anything else.

‘You p
...
play m
...
magnificently if I
may say so, M
...
Miss Owens,’
remarked
Freddy
, as
she concluded her
first piece. ‘And th
e way in which your fingers fly
over the keys on
that fast b
...
bit. Well – I canno
t im
...
imagine how you can
possibly hit all the right notes.’

Maggie gave a little laugh.

‘It’s all down to practice, I suppose, Mr Staveley
. After a while you get to know the piece so intimately that you no longer have to think about what it is you are doing. I know all these pieces so very well that I scarcely need the written score at all.’

‘I like m
...
m
usic,’ he said. ‘We don’t get anything good on b
...
board ship, of course,
but we do
sing and
p
...
play
quite a
bit. I can p
...
play the fife and the fiddle
,
though I wouldn’t
pretend to
be
m...
much
good.’

‘And are you able to read music, Mr Staveley?’

‘No, not at all. I have to p
...
pick things up as b
...
best I can.’

‘What a pity. Perhaps we could have tried a duet.’

Mr Staveley looked gratified.

‘I should like that,’ he said. ‘P
...
perhaps we could try something
?
It m
...
might entertain
Miss B
...
Brewer when next she calls round.’

Maggie felt a little mean. She had not meant anything by the suggestion, really. She had merely said the first thing that had come into her head. However, the thing was said and Mr Staveley appeared
to be
so enamoured of his great idea that he went immediately up to his room to fetch
his violin. And to be fair, he actually was quite good – remarkably so, in fact, for it turned out that he had only to hear a new piece once or twice to enable him t
o execute an accompaniment
which complemented it exactly.

‘Well,’ she said, once they had tired themselves out at last. ‘You surprise me, Mr Staveley. You are too modest by far. I doubt that I could pick up a tune as flawlessly as you have done
without even the music to fall back
up
on
.’

Mr Staveley was obviously pleased.

‘You are far too modest about your accomplishments,’ she continued. ‘Perhaps Miss Brewer would be more impressed were you to
advertise
them
a little
more.’

‘Do you really think so? You’re b
...
being very kind. It would be wonderful to im
...
imp
...
impress Miss B
...
Brewer.’

Maggie smiled.
She found his naivety quite engaging.
She closed the lid of the piano and stood up to go.

‘Oh – do you have to go, M
...
Miss Owens? I thought we could have some tea.’

‘That’s most kind of you, Mr Staveley
, though
I doubt that Mrs Wright would be happy for me to make free with her tea in her drawing room.’

‘B
...
but it is m
...
my drawing room as well,’ he pointed out, quite reasonably. ‘That is, as m
...
much
mine as anywhere is.
M
...
my
mother invested heavily in this house and I h
ave every right to use it as I
please. I would like you to have tea with m
...
me as m
...
my guest. I do not really care what
m
...
my cousin
might think
at all
.’

Maggie was a little surprised, and not a little impressed, by this unexpected show of spirit in a young man whom
she had previously thought of,
when she had thought of him at all, which was not very often
,
as some
what
lacking in resolve
. She rather liked the idea of taking tea with him in Mrs Wright’s drawing room. It would be a little act of defiance. So she accepted his invitation, listened to his stories – he had certainly done things and seen sights that Maggie could hardly even dream of – drank her tea and felt that, on reflection,
she had spent a much more enjoyable
afternoon
than
she
could
reasonably have expected
to do
.

Despite a slow descent towards middle age Mr Berkeley still retained many of the habits of his younger days, of which enjoying a game of cards with his good friend Mr Ignacious Brewer and their gambling partners, accompanied by several glasses of wine, ale or brandy
,
according to the whim of the day
,
was perhaps one of the least constructive. Not that the gambling was too serious. For most of the time the stakes were quite trivial – hardly anything at all, in fact – and having already seen the damage that could be done by gambling high (his wife’s previous husband having gambled away her house and lands himself several years ago) Mr Berkeley was ever careful to keep them that way. Mrs Berkeley, indeed, would probably rather he found some more constructive activity with which to occupy his leisure time but she knew her husband so well, and trusted him so implicitly, that she knew that she need never even so much as drop a hint to him that she would prefer him not to go.

So when Andrew announced that he would shortly be setting out to meet his acquaintance at the Golden Lion and asked whether Kathryn had any
errand
s for him whilst he was in town, she smiled quite contentedly at him
and
shook her head
, explaining
that she would
actually prefer
to walk
down
with him
as s
he was planning to v
isit Harvey’s library and
could therefore undertake her own commissions
on the way
.

It was a fifteen minute stroll down the hillside and across the town bridge from Belvoir House to the town centre. The whole town was a hive of activity. Building work was still going on along both sides of the river, with some particularly elegant new terraces being constructed on the land that Mr Berkeley had himself invested heavily in several years before. His investments were now beginning to bear fruit and he had recently acquired a number of houses to add to his growing portfolio – a happy timing, in actual fact, as his increasing family was starting to make demands upon his purse which he knew only too well would continue to increase for many more years to come. Andrew and Kathryn walked on through the noisy, bustling quayside, absorbing the atmosphere and looking at the boats
-
boats of every description loading, unloading or simply moored up for a while
-
and at the dockers,
warehousemen
and
sailors
of every
nationality
busily
seeing to their affairs
.

‘I shall leave you here, then, Drew,’ Mrs Berkeley was saying. ‘I need to visit Mr
Wend
, the jeweller. The catch on my emerald necklace needs some attention before it breaks off
entirely
. I am hoping that he will be able to mend it for me.’

‘I’m a little early, actually,’ he replied. ‘I will walk along there with you, if you will have me?’

Of course Kathryn would have him. There was nothing she liked better than to have him by her side. So they continued their walk, an elegant couple, arm in arm, away from the quayside and on to St Mary Street with its little church and flower
-
fringed square. It was just as they reached the jeweller’s shop that Andrew spotted Mrs William Wright, waddling towards them in a bright green spencer and ornamented muslin gown.

‘Damn it,’ he muttered. ‘I really do not want to meet up with that awful woman today.’

‘Then c
ome into the shop with me for a moment, Drew. With any luck she’ll not have noticed us. You can slip out again as soon as she’s gone by.’

Mr Berkeley appeared to think this a good plan, for no sooner had he opened the shop door for his wife than they were both inside it and making their way to the counter at the far end of
the salesroom. Another couple was selecting from a tray of trinkets, with some other customers close by, so Mr and Mrs Berkeley went past them to await some attention a little further along. Given Andrew’s keenness to avoid Mrs William it was probably fortunate that they did so, for no sooner had they taken their places
at the counter
than they heard the shop bell tinkle as the door opened again and the lady herself waddled in.

Although Mr and Mrs Berkeley detected her, they were so far screened from her direct view by the other customers – and, perhaps, too,
through
not expecting to see them there, so not looking out for them – that Mrs William remained
totally
ignorant of their presence and pushed her way to the front of the queue instead.