Paying Guests (21 page)

‘Am I so farmyardish, Ma?’ Duff said and grinned. ‘Well, as I say, it is not surprising. So, how are things here at home?’

‘Oh, very well,’ she said. ‘We have had some changes you know. The Lampeters and McCools have gone and we have a Monsieur and Madame Salinas with us together with their daughter Blanche. She is shy but – well, she is teaching another of our guests French. A charming girl.’

‘Who is? The French teacher or her pupil?’ Duff said it almost abstractedly as he collected his sponge bag and soap and other impedimenta ready to go to the bathroom.

‘As to that, you must wait and see,’ Tilly said with a sudden moment of inspiration. ‘I think you may be surprised. You may also be pleased.’

‘Oh?’ He lifted his head. ‘Why?’

‘Wait and see!’ she said almost coquettishly. ‘And now do go and make yourself civilized again. We have had quite enough from you of country air, if I may call it that. I shall be in the drawing room when you are ready. We will wait to sound the dinner gong till you come, but make haste. We must not keep the guests – or the kitchen – waiting too long, must we?’ And he laughed, and went, leaving her thinking how clever she had been. Surely once he saw Sophie again, he would finally forget any attachment to Patrick Paton?

They were almost all waiting in the drawing room by the time Duff joined them. Only Silas Geddes and Sophie were still absent when he presented himself, looking resplendent in his velvet-collared dress coat in the deepest black superfine over a white ruffled shirt with a fashionably high collar supporting his elegant whiskers. He had the freshly scrubbed look that Tilly had always found so adorable in him when he was small, and looking at him now she had her usual difficulty in seeing him as a man almost full grown. To her he would always be her darling little Duff. But she was alone in such a view, for she saw Mademoiselle Blanche Salinas’s eyes widen perceptibly as he came in and went to kiss his mother’s cheek before turning to greet the rest of the company, and to be introduced to the Salinas family.

The Misses K and F and even Miss Barnetsen positively cooed over him – if one with a voice as commanding and contralto as Miss Fleetwood’s could be said to coo – and demanded all sorts of details about his stay in Leicestershire, and even the young men clustered round him to hear how the shooting had been, and whether he had achieved a reasonable bag. He dealt with all their questions with relaxed charm, admitting with disarming honesty to being a very bad shot indeed (to which Miss Barnetsen said in her high twitter, ‘Oh, what a good man you are, to be sure! To kill those dear little birds, our feathered friends, so cruel!’ which gained her a disdainful glare from Mr Cumming), and giving Mrs Grayling lots of very satisfying detail about such matters as ducal drawing-room curtains and carpets and ducal dining arrangements and – daringly – ducal
sanitary accommodation, a question delivered gruffly by an earnest Mr Grayling.

Altogether, he was enthralling and was himself so absorbed in talking to the people clustered around him that he did not notice when the door opened again and Silas and Sophie came in. Silas held the door for her and she smiled up at him with a little flick of her eyes in a way that made Tilly suddenly irritated, and came in quietly to stand for a while, watching what was going on.

Had she known Duff was to come home this evening? Tilly wondered. I cannot recall if I told her. If I did, is that why she has dressed herself so very charmingly? But then she sighed softly and admitted inside her head that Sophie always looked delectable, whatever she wore.

Tonight she had chosen a gown in very simple cream lace which probably cost a good deal; certainly the lace looked good and was shown to great advantage by the simplicity of its presentation, for there were few frills or trimmings; just a little cream braid around the low neck which showed off the delicate colouring of her shoulders to perfection, and a deep frill of darker lace around the hem. Her hair tumbled in artless curls about her ears and on her shoulders, as well as being piled in its usual way on her crown. Clearly she had very thick and long hair that she could deal with most skilfully. Tilly could hardly take her eyes from her and nor, she noticed with a little stab of annoyance, could Silas.

But all Sophie’s attention was on the group in the middle of the room and after a few moments it was Mademoiselle Blanche Salinas who looked across and broke away to come running prettily on her tiptoes and with her hands outstretched towards her. She was wearing a sadly over-fussy confection in no fewer than three colours – green and blue and yellow – with a large number of rainbow beads sewn on to the bodice, all of which accentuated her plainness. When she was standing beside Sophie the comparison was almost pathetic, and Tilly forbore to look at Mademoiselle Salinas’s parents, who were the only people not standing beside Duff, but sitting together on the far side of the room.

‘Ma chère amie!’ Mademoiselle Salinas cried. ‘Je suis enchantée – I
am ‘appy zat you are ‘ere. It ‘as been so exciting, I cannot say ‘ow much. ‘Ere is Monsieur qui est – ‘oo ‘as returned from a visit to Monsieur le Duc and it ‘as been of ze most exciting to ‘ear –’

Duff had turned at the sound of Blanche Salinas’s high little voice, and the unusual sound of her accent, and the sentence he had been halfway through died on his lips. He stood and stared, and then slowly moved away from the group with a murmured apology and came across the room towards Sophie.

‘I don’t think –’ he began and then stopped. He looked at Sophie closely, and then glanced over his shoulder at Tilly who got to her feet and came to help him.

‘Well, now,’ she said wanting to sound as light as possible. ‘I did say you might be surprised. You recall who this is, Duff?’

‘Unless I am quite mad, I do indeed,’ Duff said and held out both hands. ‘Is it you? I mean are you the person I suspect you are?’

Sophie laughed, and her eyes crinkled and her short upper lip lifted to display her perfect teeth. The effect was almost overwhelming and, Tilly thought with a moment’s acuity, she is well aware of it. I pray I have done the right thing, bringing this girl back into Duff’s life. I am sure he needs a nice girl to help him find his way as a man, but is this the right girl? Watching her now sparkle up at Duff, her eyes wide and amused and her smile confiding and sweet, Tilly had, again, a moment’s qualm.

‘Indeed I am,’ Sophie was saying. ‘I am precisely who you think I might be, I hope. I will be most put out if you imagine I am anyone but myself, for that would mean you had quite forgotten me! You look very fine and exactly as I remember you. So eager and excited – just like a dear little puppy. Only not so little now. Rather large in fact!’ And she let her eyes slide across the width of his shoulders in their approval and then looked up at him again.

‘Sophie,’ said Duff and took a deep breath and exhaled noisily. ‘Sophie! I can’t believe it. When I remember how –’ He caught his breath again, becoming suddenly aware of the people in the room who were silently watching him. Sophie had clearly been aware of them all the time, and paid them no attention, but Duff now looked over his shoulder and blushed and returned his attention to Sophie.

‘Well, we have much to talk about,’ he said to the room at large, sounding more than a little stilted and uncomfortable. ‘Old recollections, you know and so forth.’

‘Indeed we have.’ She turned on her heel, and sweeping her skirt aside with a little kick that displayed embroidered cream silk evening shoes and clocked stockings in cream and gold, tucked one gloved hand into his elbow. ‘Do take me in to dinner, dear boy, and we shall gossip to our hearts’ content. I am sure we will be forgiven by everyone if we don’t join in general conversation tonight. After all we haven’t seen each other for so many years and we were babies together!’

She looked over her shoulder at the rest of the company, who were now surging to their feet as the gong in the hall below began its loud call to the table. ‘You won’t mind, will you?’ she called and then turned her radiant face up to Duff and led the way out of the room.

‘I RIDE WITH you?’ Tilly said blankly. ‘But why? Don’t you usually ride with Miss Oliver?’

‘Hardly usually,’ Silas said. ‘We have ridden on a few mornings, but only a few. She has hardly been in the house long enough for any of us to use the term “usually” about any of her activities.’

‘Every day since she arrived is sufficiently usual for me,’ Tilly said in as neutral a tone as she could conjure up. ‘And anyway, I had particular cause to assume you were riding with her this morning, for I passed her on the stairs in riding habit on her way out.’

‘Oh,’ he said easily, ‘she has gone with Duff,’ and turned away to the window to look out into the street. The weather had changed, with the late summer they had enjoyed for the past weeks being replaced by a cooler, cloud-blowing windiness. The first of the autumn leaves were skittering along the gutters and he watched them as Tilly sat back in her chair and looked at him.

‘Ah,’ she said, amused. ‘So you are feeling spurned by the charming Sophie?’

He looked at her now and laughed, a comfortable easy sound. ‘Spurned? Not in the least. She has the company of someone far more to her taste – her young playmate. They are of an age and have so much to share, of course she prefers him to someone who is twice her age, as I am! I suggested we ride together when she first came here to provide a charming child with the opportunity to take some healthy exercise under a safe and watchful eye. She told me she intended to ride, and I could not in all conscience,
imagine allowing her to go alone. It would not have been right.’

‘I think Sophie Oliver would be able to take care of herself in most circumstances,’ Tilly said dryly. ‘She has contrived very well so far, living without a parent’s watchful eye as she does.’

‘I think, having talked with her in these last few mornings, that I have discovered as much for myself,’ he said and smiled. ‘She made me feel positively antique in my notions of protection. She lectured me on the way the modern young woman is her own person and far less in need of chaperonage than stuffy elders think, and quoted John Stuart Mill at me on the rights of women! I found that most disconcerting, considering the radical nature of my own views and the way I have been reprimanded for them in the past. To be regarded as a stuffy elder by a miss of just eighteen was the outside of enough! I told her so, too, but she merely laughed indulgently at me and begged me not to worry myself on such matters. I must say it was a most humbling experience.’

She looked at him, her lower lip caught between her teeth, thinking hard. Had he really only taken Sophie under his wing out of some sort of avuncular concern for her well-being? Or had he done so because she was so charming and alluring and had aroused in him feelings that were far from those he professed? She could not be sure; even though he stood there smiling at her in his usual easy fashion. And, she thought, I want to be sure, for he really is a most interesting man.

‘Well,’ she said briskly now, to cover her thoughts from herself as much as from him. ‘Whatever the reason for your invitation this morning, I really feel I cannot –’

‘Oh, please, don’t be put out!’ He came to lean on her desk so that he could look down on her from close quarters. ‘I am not, I do assure you, treating you as an alternative to Miss Oliver’s company. Far from it. I have been chafing a little at the way she has – well – not precisely clung to me, but obviously regarded me as the person she would most like to be with here, which is a dubious compliment, I fear, when I look at Mr Gee and Mr Grayling. Mr Cumming and Mr Hancock who would, I know, give their eye teeth for the opportunity to dance attendance on her, are occupied with their
work during the day, so the duty fell to me. But now Duff is here, and able to take over the burden, why, I can relinquish that burden and be free to do as I wish. And I wish to spend time with you. You’re a most interesting person, one with a mind to which I can respond, and with a response to the matters which fill my mind that is most refreshing. So, please, will you ride with me? I think it will be healthy for you too, for you’re looking a little peaky, you know, and I feel sure you are overworked. Eliza can deal with your affairs well enough during any short absence in the park.’

She blinked at the length and intensity of his speech and held up one hand to stop the tide of words.

‘Dear Mr Geddes, you really must –’

‘Oh, I beg you not to be so formal! We are friends, you and I, surely? Please to call me by my given name. I insist on the right to address you as Tilly, after all!’ He smiled at her and his face was now so close to hers that it made her absurdly breathless.

‘Oh, names –’ she said. ‘That is a matter of small importance.’

‘I agree. But your health is not. So let me beguile you out into the air. Riding will be very good for you.’

‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘I have no riding habit, and anyway have not ridden for years. I did when I was a girl, a little, but I am far from being a horsewoman. I am a town person in every way, Mr – oh, very well, Silas – and one who works for her living, to boot. You really cannot drag me away from work at a whim like this. I must beg you to leave me to get on with my bookkeeping now.’