An Indelicate Situation (The Weymouth Trilogy) (20 page)

Sadly for Mrs William’s pride – and the hoped
-
for effect of her new outfit – before Maggie was able to effect her commission Georgiana’s shriek had alerted Kathryn to her presence
and caused her to look straight at her, making it impossible for either lady to pretend not to have seen the other. Mrs William’s embarrassment was immediately obvious both to Kathryn and to Kate, although Kathryn was by far the more successful of the two in hiding her amusement at it. Indeed, Kate was so immune to the poor lady’s embarrassment that she could plainly be heard to giggle in much the same way as Augusta had done as she pointed out the unsightly white mess on the
cusp of the
stranger’s
shoulder.

‘Hush, Kate,’ whispered her mama, urgently. ‘It is most impolite to laugh at another person’s misfortunes.’ Then, turning a bright smile upon Georgiana, and providing Maggie with a friendly nod, she said blithely, more loudly this time: ‘Good day to you,
Mrs Wright. I hope I find you we
ll? It is a lovely day for September
, to be sure.’

Kate and Augusta were eyeing
each other
a little suspiciously from behind the skirts of their respective mamas.

‘Oh, my
dear
Mrs Berkeley.’ Mrs William had apparently determined on brazening the whole thing out. ‘Indeed it is – and so
refreshing
to have the breeze as well as the sun.’

‘I do not think you have met my daughter, Katerina,’ went on Mrs
Berkeley
, determinedly
,
ignoring both the mess on the lady’s shoulder and the faces that Augusta had started to pull at t
hem both. ‘She was named after
Mr Berkeley’s mama. She was a
foreign
lady, you know.
Kate, curtsy nicely to Mrs Wright. Mrs Wright is a sort of sister to your Aunt
Jane – so I suppose that she must be
a
sort
of aunt to you as well.’

Kate curtsied dutifully to the rather plump but severe
-
looking lady who towered above her, though she could not
quite
help her eyes from focusing on the ugly white pattern on her
epaulette
.

Mrs William was overwhelmed by Mrs Berkeley’s condescension in acknowledging this exceedingly close relationship between them.

‘Oh
yes
, to be sure – I should be
delighted
to be thought of as Kate’s Aunt. Such a delightful little girl, Mrs Berkeley,
’
shooting the child a particularly vicious glare
,
‘and so like you I should have known her anywhere.’

‘Yes...
well
...
I do be
g your pardon, Mrs Wright, but we must be hurrying along. We
had promised to meet with Mr Berkeley
for tea
in the Royal Hotel after his Corporation meeting later this afternoon, and we have a number of calls to make first. We are visiting some old people today, you understand – the parents of one of our maids. Kate has helped me to do some sewing for them and we are just on our way to deliver it.’

‘Oh,’ was all Mrs William could say. ‘Oh. But are you not at
all
concerned that
poor
little Kate might catch something
quite horrid
from all their dirt and grime?’

The ladies exchanged polite, if somewhat cool, curtseys, Mrs William most obviously quite bewildered by the need for Mrs Berkeley to take any interest
whatsoever
, let alone any interest of a practical nature, in the elder
ly relatives of one of her household staff
. Mrs Berkeley and Maggie shared a quick glance and smile. Augusta stuck out a pink tongue at her newly discovered cousin, causing that young lady to stare at her, wide eyed, in incredulous disbelief. Then Mrs Berkeley was gone, accompanied by little Kate’s high
-
pitched questions as to ‘who was that very rude girl who had been standing next to her new aunt?’ and Maggie was able to resume her repairs to Mrs William’s outerwear, her endeavours succeeding in at least making its wearer look presentable once more, if doing nothing very much
at all
for that good lady’s badly injured pride.

‘Pardon me, Mr Staveley, but – may I ask? – are you worried about something? Only you have been sitting in that same spot for quite some time without saying a word.’

Maggie had been practising on the pianoforte in the little music room off the drawing room, but she could clearly see Mr Staveley, who often sat in the drawing room when there was any music on offer, through the
open
double doors.

Freddy looked up at her, frowning a little.

‘Yes,’ he admitted, after a moment’s hesitation. ‘Yes, m
..
.maybe I am a little concerned about something.’

‘Is it anything that I could help you with, perhaps?’

Maggie stopped playing and joined him
on the sofa
.

Freddy looked thoughtful.

‘It’s m
.
.
.my
mother, M
..
.Miss Owens. I am concerned about m
...my
mother.’

‘
Your mother?
In what way are you concerned? Is she not well?’

‘No, it is not that exactly. She is well enough, I daresay, though she does app
...app
ear easily co
nfused. No. She is well enough
but she keeps saying
that she is worried about her kelter
. I am not quite sure why this should be. She is not wealthy, to b
..
.be sure, but she should have
had
sufficient to m
..
.meet all of her needs, and it appears that she
is quite out at heels
.’

Maggie was a little taken aback.

‘But whatever do you mean?’

‘Well, I saw that she had need of some new
caps
only the other day. The
ones she
i
s
wearing
are getting
devilish
disrep
...
.disreputable
. It is not like her at all. A
nd yet she said that she had not
got
the
money to
buy any.’

‘And she was not merely confused?’

‘No. I looked in her p
..
.purs
e. There was scarcely a croker
in it, and I understand that there is
nothing
at the b
..
.bank
as well
. And then, she was saying that her jewellery was going m
...
missing
. It is not
so
very valuable but worth an amount, to
be sure
, and she was m
...
most fond of it. M
..
.much of it
belonged to her
m
..
mama’s fa
mily, you see.
She
mentioned a couple of items. We looked everywhere in her room. They were not to b
..
.
be found
at all
.’

‘Perhaps she had put it somewhere safe and forgotten about it?’

‘It i
s p
..
.possible, of course, b
...
.but we looked everywhere
we could think of
. It is certainly
devilish
strange. She does not like to accuse b
..
.but she seems to think that
my cousins are taking everything from her.’

Maggie blanched a little. She was starting to recall some of the seemingly random things that Mrs Staveley, in her occasional forays into the society of the
household
, had apparently been trying to say to her.
She was starting to feel a little guilty.

‘Do you know, Mr Staveley, now that you mention it, your mam
a has said something of that sort
to me before now. I must admit that I was not quite sure what she was trying to say. I regret that I dismissed it at the time. But I do remember her telling me
that they were bleeding her dry.’

Mr Staveley nodded sag
ely.

‘Yes, I can understand why you m
..
.might not have taken her very seriously. She is
...
.her
mind is certainly less strong tha
n
I rem
..
.remember
it to have b
..
.been only a very few years ago, and you are still a relative stranger in the household after
all. I can understand why you
might not have wanted to get involved. B
..
.but I wonder,
Miss Owens – we are good friends together now, are we not? Would you m
...
mind if I asked a very great favour of you in relation to m
...
.my mother? Would you
be so very, very kind as – well – just to look out for her a little? I am quite concerned for her,
to tell you the truth
, b
..
.
but
I fear that
she
is not quite able
to
open up to m
...
me.
I am a m...man, after all, and ladies can sometimes feel a little uneasy about op..opening up to a man.
I am hop
...
.hoping that, as a sym
...
.
sympathetic
lad
y,
you may
be able to get her to open up to
you
instead
?’

Maggie felt quite touched by Mr Staveley’s tender thoughtfulness on the part of his mama. She looked at him
musing
ly for a moment. She had not come across any other gentleman in her life before – with the possible exception of Mr Berkeley, whom she suspected might have a similar trait – who was capable of d
emonstrating quite such a sensitiv
e understanding
of
another person
’s needs
. And as she looked at him she became aware of a most unexpected
feeling
of tenderness towards him. Large, clumsy, uncomfortable as he was, Mr Staveley was yet a gentleman who was obviously quite capable of showing a good deal of affection towards another person. And unlike the affection that
Mr Wright
had tried to demonstrate towards her, the affection that Mr Staveley was showing was based entirely on the needs of that other person, and not at all on his own.

‘Of course I will, if you wish me to, Mr Staveley,’ she said at last
. ‘In fact, to be quite honest
, I am feeling quite ashamed that you have even had to ask for such a thing. I suppose I have been so wrapped up in the little trivialities of my own life – in my dislike of my employment here, in – well –
the situation in which I find myself in more ways than one
– that I have completely forgotten that there are other people around me who may be in need of some help of their own. Thank you for reminding me of my obligations
to
wards them
. Of course I will look out for your mama, as much as I am able. And if I discover anything that causes me the slightest bit of concern I shall mention it to you as soon as I
possibly
can.’

It looked as though Freddy was about to follow up his request with some further communication of quite some import to him, but just as he was apparently debating within himself exactly what
to say and how to say it,
the butler knocked quietly on the door and announced that Miss Brewer had called to visit Mrs Wright. Th
is
announcement instantly robbed him of any ability to say anything of import
ance
whatsoever and created, instead, a most hopeful glow on his cheek
.
Maggie realised that
whatever it was that he had wanted to say would now have to wait
for another,
more auspicious
,
afternoon.

Whereas the music room stood at the rear of the drawing room at Grosvenor Place, a further room which
Mr Wright
laugh
ingly referred to as his study,
but which served as a general area for any activity which could not reasonably be accommodated
anywhere
else within the house
hold
,
was similarly to be found at the rear of the dining room across the hall. The study was a little larger than the music room by dint of extending s
lightly
over the outbuildings in the rear yard and
it
was of an ideal shape to house the somewhat limited selection of books which constituted the Wright family library. Mr Wright had kindly offered Maggie free access to this library
whenever she liked
and she had contributed her own small but interesting collection to its shelves
there
in return.