Ashton Park (42 page)

“But let me turn now to the rest of us. We are all here tonight to say farewell to Robbie and Shannon. I, along with Robbie’s mother, and everyone else, am sorry to see them posted out of the country. But we can also take heart that this is not a permanent assignment and that we shall see them back here again at Ashton Park before too long. Do you all have your glasses of hot cider?” Sir William picked his up from a table where Lady Elizabeth was sitting. “To Robbie and Shannon. Cheers and Godspeed!”

Everyone stood and lifted their glasses. “Cheers!” Some called out, “God bless you!”

Robbie and Shannon walked up to Sir William. Robbie shook his father’s hand while Shannon gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Shannon wore a silvery white dress that held to her slender figure, a long string of pearls, and a hat with white feathers. Her hair covered her ears and was a lighter blond than it had been before it had been cut. Standing next to her in his uniform Robbie looked at those gathered around him: his mother, Sir Arthur, Lady Grace, Aunt Holly, Kipp and Christelle, Victoria and Ben, Libby and Michael, Albert and Catherine, Jeremiah and Emma and their three young boys.

“Thank you,” he said. “We’ll miss you all very much. My rank permits me to bring Shannon along and share lodgings with her and that is an incredible blessing. I must tell you how grateful I am, how grateful we both are, that you accepted her so readily here at Ashton Park. Especially since you had absolutely no idea I’d been married or who I’d gotten married to. She honestly feels like she is one of us now, that she’s family, and believe me, that has done her a world of good.”

“She’s another great Irish asset.” Albert bowed toward her. “Shannon and I are the ones God uses to stir the blood of the body Danforth.”

Catherine laughed. Everyone but Albert and Shannon were startled at the warmth of the laugh and the sudden gleam of the dark eyes.

“Albert.” Catherine grabbed hold of his hand. “Don’t carry a good joke too far.”

“Who’s joking?”

“Well, then it must be the cider.”

“Only apples and nutmeg in the cider,” said Sir William with a smile. “But an Irishman doesn’t need much to wind himself up. Here or in the House of Commons.”

Victoria patted her father’s shoulder. “You men want your time in the Nelson Room—Lady Grace insisted we open it up for the first time since at least 1805. It still smells of pipe tobacco even though Norah was after the maids to keep the windows open all last night, regardless of the rain and sleet. The tobacco will not bother any of you, though it would nauseate me now that I’m carrying Ben’s son.”

Lady Grace crinkled her face in a smile. “You’re certain now it’s a son, are you?”

“The way it lies, the way it kicks.”

Lady Elizabeth sat back in her chair. “You kicked more than the boys.”

Victoria shrugged. “Well—”

“August will settle the matter. Now you shouldn’t stay up too late, my dear.”

“No. And I do want my time in the White Room with the ladies.” She clapped her hands. “If you would all sit down I have a song in honor of Robbie’s posting. May God be with you and your bride in the Holy City, dear brother.”

People took their chairs again and Victoria stood with her back to the storm and her face to her family and the fire roaring at the far end of the library. Ben had lit several lamps while the chatter had gone on, knowing how his wife loved atmosphere, and when she composed herself to sing he turned off the electric lights so that the room settled down into black and gold. Victoria did not look at him, but she smiled and let the music come out of her throat and chest. And up out of her stomach and womb where she rested a hand on her dark dress and on her child.

Last night I lay a-sleeping,

There came a dream so fair,

I stood in old Jerusalem

Beside the temple there.

I heard the children singing,

And ever as they sang,

Methought the voice of angels

From Heav’n in answer rang:

“Jerusalem! Jerusalem!

Lift up your gates and sing,

Hosanna in the highest!

Hosanna to your King!”

And once again the scene was changed,

New earth there seem’d to be

I saw the Holy City

Beside the tideless sea;

The light of God was on its streets,

The gates were open wide,

And all who would might enter,

And no one was denied.

No need of moon or stars by night,

Or sun to shine by day,

It was the new Jerusalem,

That would not pass away.

“Jerusalem! Jerusalem!

Sing, for the night is o’er!

Hosanna in the highest!

Hosanna for evermore!”

Sir William rose to his feet and began to sing the chorus a second time with his daughter. One by one the whole family got to their feet and joined in so that the entire room was filled with the song and the servants heard it thundering through the library door and down the hallway.

“Jerusalem! Jerusalem!

Sing, for the night is o’er!

Hosanna in the highest!

Hosanna for evermore!”

“They did the room over, you see, in about 1799. So that it would resemble an officer’s quarters on one of his majesty’s ships.” Sir William opened the door with a key and flicked a switch for the recently installed lights. The brass and oak jumped into life. Large framed oil paintings of Horatio Nelson in his admiral’s uniform and of his famous sea battles hung on the walls. One end of the room had a fireplace and the other a large sheet of wood painted in long black and yellow bands. Large square holes were cut into the yellow wood at regular intervals. Sir William put a hand on Michael’s shoulder as the young American gaped. “The paint scheme Nelson favored for his ships. Sir Robert Danforth got that off a real ship of the line that had seen its final battle about 1804. Had it packed up and shipped to Ashton Park. All it’s missing are the cannon they used to run through those gun ports, eh?”

Robbie ran his thumb over the brass plaque on the door. “Someone’s given this a wipe-down too. It was so tarnished when we were boys no one could read it. Not even Edward the great scholar.”

Michael glanced back. “
October 21, 1805.
What’s that?”

Kipp shoved him with a grin. “Ignorant Yank. The greatest naval victory of all time. Nelson defeats the combined fleets of the Spanish and French off Cape Trafalgar and stops Napoleon from invading England. Someone always wants to do it, you know.”

“Huh. So is this his ship?”

A wooden model with sails and rigging and cannon sat under a dome of well-dusted bright glass on a table in the middle of the room. It had the same paint scheme as the wood at the far end of the room. Sir William bent over the model with Michael and Ben.

“Real sail canvas. Actual iron for the cannons. A figure of Nelson on the quarterdeck. Thomas Danforth did this with one of his sons in the 1850s. Remarkable.”

“I’ve never been in this room,” said Ben.

“Neither had we until a few years ago,” said Kipp, flopping into a large leather armchair. “I can just imagine what would have happened if we’d managed to jimmy the lock and get our hands on that model of the
Victory.
Penal servitude on some distant island overrun with snakes and spiders and scorpions.”

“I think Dad would have had us sent to the Tower of London to rot.” Robbie rubbed his hands together. “It’s a bit chilly in here. Tavy’s had fresh peat placed, so I’ll see what I can do.” He squatted in front of the fireplace.

“I should like that.” Sir Arthur sat down slowly in a chair like Kipp’s. “It’s the cold and the damp that does you in when you’re an elderly Englishman. A sunbaked isle would likely give me another ten years of life.”

Kipp laughed. “Oh, you’ll get that anyways, Sir Arthur. Keep up your quarreling with Aunt Holly and you’ll never die.”

“She doesn’t fight like she used to. Not since her illness.”

“You look very well,” Jeremiah chimed in. He was examining an old Bible that lay open on a table in the corner. “This was a naval chaplain’s Bible from 1809. Where do people find such things?”

“I bear up well in public,” grunted Sir Arthur. “But once I close my bedroom door I sag.”

“They said they’d bring along coffee and tea presently.” Jeremiah flipped through several pages of the Bible, looking for verses the chaplain had underlined or where he’d put notes in quill-pen handwriting. “And desserts.”

“That will help.” Albert patted Sir Arthur on the arm. “I need it more than you do.”

Sir Arthur slid his eyes over to Albert. “Do you think so?”

“It’s a dreek day. A dreek day needs help.”

Kipp looked at his father. “So now, what is happening with the other noble families, Father?”

Sir William was bent down next to Robbie. Both were trying to light up the peat.

“What do you mean?” Sir William was pulling the handle that controlled the draft in and out.

“How do the English nobility feel—about the Danforth marriages?”

Robbie was blowing a blue flame to life and Sir William stood up to watch.

“A number of them are fine with the matches. Various lords and ladies congratulate me when I run into them in London.” He turned around to look at Kipp and his sons-in-law and Sir Arthur. “There are others, of course. Whenever I cross paths with Lord Scarborough it’s only natural there’s going to be a confrontation no matter what I do to avoid it. I think they had pretty much forgiven your breaking off the engagement, Kipp, but Edward doing the same thing to Caroline was too much. I’m surprised no blows were landed when he showed up at their estate to inform Lady Caroline and the family in person. But for an act of God they will never relinquish their rage over the double insult of two sons of William Danforth rejecting their only daughter—indeed, their only child. There are those who side with the Scarboroughs against us.”

“What are the consequences?” asked Michael. “I mean, what can they do to you realistically?”

Sir William glanced down at the model ship. “They will try to cut us out of noble society altogether. We have not been invited to important balls and receptions. If a family invites us to their home, do you see, they are perceived as siding with us and they risk incurring the wrath and censure of Lord and Lady Scarborough. We are excluded from various weddings and funerals and baptisms.” He lifted his head. “We shall weather it, Michael. But that is why it was best to have Edward and Charlotte well clear of England.”

“And where is Lady Caroline?” asked Kipp. “Do you know?”

“Spain or Portugal. I’m not positive which. The Scarboroughs have villas in both countries.”

Robbie got to his feet and dusted off his uniform, a small fire burning in the grate. “And I’ve married an Irishwoman from a republican family. That can’t help matters.”

Sir William looked at his youngest son and put his hands in his pockets. “People will make a noise over anything, Robbie. Shannon is a fine woman. We are not ashamed to bring her in under the Danforth roof.” He glanced at the others. “You’ve all married fine women. Especially my sons-in-law.” They laughed. “It has not been an easy go for my wife and me. We were raised in the old-fashioned way, where parents had as much say or more than their children in who the children married. But God has changed our hearts and inclinations. He is no respecter of persons and shows no favoritism. He would have those who worship Him be as He is. Elizabeth and I have arrived at a place where all our children have married the men and women they loved, and we can only say that it is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. We shall stand by each of you and your children and grandchildren. You need never fear of being without our support.”

Ben began to clap. “Hear, hear.” The others joined him.