Sheer Folly (14 page)

“I hear you visited my grotto,” he said. “How did you like it?”

“Sheer folly,” said her ladyship, “but a most amusing folly.”

He laughed. Daisy caught only snatches of their conversation thereafter, because Lucy was intent on describing every photo she had taken that afternoon. She explained which shots she expected to come out best, and wanted Daisy's opinion as to whether she should take any more.

“I was thinking, I might be able to get something worthwhile of the monk. Sort of blurry and atmospheric.”

“Ghostly.”

“Yes. Too silly, do you think? It's just that this is the first folly we've tackled that deserves more than a couple of illustrations, at most.”

“Nothing venture, nothing gain. We don't have to use it if it doesn't work.”

“I'll have to persuade Armitage to pose for me again.”

“Not on the edge!”

“No, by St. Whatsit, I think.” Lucy fell silent, pondering ways and means.

Pritchard was urging Lady Beaufort, “You should really see it by night.”

“Julia tells me it's beautifully illuminated. But I don't know. . . . It's quite a walk up that hill. You should put in some sort of seats for us elderly folk.”

“Elderly? Not you, Lady Beaufort! But that's an excellent notion. I can't imagine why I didn't think of it before. This evening—if you'd like to go up this evening?—I could have chairs carried up.”

“Let's try it,” said Lucy, emerging from her abstraction. “Where's—? Oh, he's talking to Mrs. Howell. Blast.”

“I think it's more a case of Mrs. Howell talking to him, or
at
him. I expect he'd be glad to be rescued. I'll leave you to it. I'm going to ask Mr. Pritchard if he'll give me a tour of the house tomorrow. And then I'd better rescue Julia from Rhino and Lady Ottaline.”

“Right-oh, but for pity's sake don't breathe a word about going back to the grotto. The last thing I need is that blundering jackass ruining any more shots. I should charge him for the wasted plates.”

“Try sending him a bill. You never know.”

Of course, Lucy's hope of returning to the grotto without a flock of companions hadn't a chance. Lady Beaufort expressed a preference for going there after tea rather than waiting until after dinner. Lucy promptly told Armitage that after dinner would suit her best—she had preparations to make, she said vaguely—and he agreed. Then Lady Beaufort said that of course Julia would go with her; she didn't propose to walk that path in the dark without her daughter's support. Armitage promptly changed his mind.

“Lady Beaufort would like to see the hermit, I expect,” he said, while Lucy simmered. “I'll go ahead and light the lamps, sir, shall I?”

“Certainly, my boy. I'm sure Lord Rydal will help to carry your equipment, Lady Gerald.”

“Me? What the deuce d'you think I am, a packhorse?”

“A gentleman?” Pritchard hazarded, a glint in his eye.

Rhino had no answer to that.

“Daisy,” Lucy hissed, “you've got to come, too, and
please
do a better job this time of keeping everyone out of sight.”

In the end everyone went except Mrs. Howell. Daisy was surprised that Lady Ottaline wanted to venture back to the scene of her accident, especially as Rhino was too laden for her to cling to him. He was too laden even to smoke. Somehow Pritchard seemed to have gained the upper hand.

While Lady Beaufort was exclaiming in delight at the illuminated cascade, Lucy chivvied Rhino up the steps. Daisy couldn't decide whether she ought to follow them to keep him out of Lucy's way or stand guard at the bottom to stop Lady Ottaline chasing after him.

Then Lady Beaufort asked Lady Ottaline how she had come to fall. “The path is perfectly adequate,” she said magisterially, “whatever shoes you were so ill-advised as to wear.”

As Lady Ottaline replied, Daisy left them and hurried upwards. The moment Rhino reached the grotto he put down his burdens and lit a cigarette. “Enough is enough,” he snorted. “I can't see why you don't use a Brownie.”

Lucy was speechless with fury. Ruthlessly sacrificing Julia's comfort for the sake of Lucy's blood-pressure, Daisy shooed Rhino back down. “Thank you, we'll manage now. Come on, darling, before they all arrive.”

The hermit came from the rear, robed but uncowled. “Let me give you a hand. You'll have to explain exactly what you want me to do, Lady Gerald.”

“I'm not absolutely certain myself yet. Do call me Lucy, won't you?”

“Sure. I'm Chuck back home, but Julia doesn't like it, so let's stick to Charles.”

“And I'm Daisy, Charles. Lucy, I think I'd better go back and try to fend off the others.”

From the top step, holding tight to the rail, Daisy saw Rhino go straight to Julia. The noise of the waterfall prevented Daisy's hearing what was said, but it looked to her as if he interrupted whatever Julia was saying to her mother. To Daisy's astonishment, Lady Beaufort turned to him and said something sharp enough to make him take a step backwards.

Fortunately he was facing the stream—not that Daisy would have been averse to seeing him topple in again.

Could it be, she wondered, that a few days in the same house as the rich Lord Rydal had made Lady Beaufort reassess his desirability as a son-in-law? For Julia's sake, she hoped so.

Rhino might conceivably be doing some reassessment, too. Lady Beaufort, the widow of a mere knight even if he had been a general, was not the first person at Appsworth to fail to kowtow before his hitherto invincible complacency. Julia persisted in refusing to marry him, yet at her bidding he did such menial tasks as fetching luggage from the station. Lucy ordered him about. Even Pritchard had made him back down.

On the other hand, Rhino was so conceited, he probably managed to convert these incidents in his mind into further proof of his superiority to the rest of mankind.

“Daisy!” Lucy called from the back of the grotto.

Daisy moved away from the waterfall's roar. “Yes?”

“Didn't you hear me? We're ready to shoot, but I don't want to start if everyone's about to barge in. Are you on guard?”

“Horatio on the bridge was nothing to me, darling,” Daisy said resolutely.

“Well, don't go plunging into the Tiber if they do overwhelm you, but do your best.” She disappeared behind Neptune.

To carry out the parallel to Horatio, Daisy ought to stand at the most defensible point, the bottom of the steps. However, she couldn't see herself barring Lady Beaufort and Pritchard from his grotto. She glanced around. A couple of basket chairs had been brought in and placed to one side, with a good view of Neptune
and the spot where the river emerged from the rock through the gaping mouth of a sea serpent. They were reasonable people and, given a place to rest their bones, would certainly comply with a request not to go through to the second cave to disturb Lucy. So would Julia.

Neither Rhino nor Lady Ottaline could by any stretch of the imagination be described as reasonable. But Rhino would stay with Julia and Lady Ottaline would cling to Rhino.

Or so Daisy hoped.

Julia arrived first, looking harried.

“Hold up the monster till I have a chance to hide!” she begged.

“Sorry, no can do. He'd only come looking for you, and Lucy and I are counting on you to keep him out here till she's finished shooting Charles.”

“Shooting—! Oh, shooting. But—”

“A small sacrifice for the sake of Art,” Daisy urged, “with a capital
A
. Not to mention for
my
sake. Lucy will never forgive me if he ruins another picture, and I was counting on you to act as my barricade.”

“Oh, all right. But if it makes him think I'm softening towards him,
I
may never forgive you.”

Lady Beaufort reached the top of the steps, panting a little. Pritchard was close behind her.

“You see, Lady Beaufort,” he said triumphantly, “I had chairs brought up, just as I promised. Do come and sit down.”

“How kind!” Her ladyship beamed. “Julia, my love, you were quite right to insist on my seeing the grotto at night. It's like something out of the
Arabian Nights
. Daisy, I hope you and Lucy will do it justice in your book.”

“We'll do our best, though I doubt that it's possible. People will have to come and see for themselves.”

“The more the merrier,” said Mr. Pritchard.

“Well, I've seen it before.” Lady Ottaline arrived complaining. “I don't know why you made me come, Rhino.”

“Made you come! I tried to persuade you to stay behind. I don't know why you insisted on tagging along.”

“I thought I ought to face it,” she said bravely. “Don't they say one should climb straight back on a horse after falling? But now . . . I'm afraid it's too much for me. . . .” And she fainted gracefully into Rhino's unwelcoming arms.

He didn't exactly drop her, but he deposited her none too gently on the cold stone floor and stepped away. “Mrs. Fletcher, could you—”

“I don't know the first thing about nursing,” Daisy said firmly, giving Julia a nudge. As far as she knew, Julia had no more expertise than she did, but while she was succouring Lady Ottaline, Rhino would be stymied.

Julia moved forwards hesitantly.

“I believe it's a hysterical fit,” Lady Beaufort said in robust tones. “The most efficacious treatment to attempt is a slap on the face.”

Lady Ottaline made a miraculous recovery. She sat up, saying, “Oh, where am I?”

“There, just as I suspected,” said Lady Beaufort. “It's an old-fashioned remedy, but it frequently works even before it's applied.”

The light was far from bright, but Daisy thought she saw Pritchard smother a grin. He came over and helped Lady Ottaline up, saying, “I'm so sorry your accident last night has had such a lasting ill-effect. I can't abandon Lady Beaufort, but I'm sure Lord Rydal will be happy to support you back to the house. Sir Desmond should be back from the works by now. He'll know what to do to make you comfortable.”

Her husband's name brought a sour-lemon look to Lady Ottaline's crimson lips. It was momentary, outweighed by the prospect of getting Rhino to herself.

Rhino had no such counterbalance to his bile. “I don't see why she can't go and lie down for a bit on the hermit's bed till she's recovered,” he said mutinously.

“No one may go through the inner cave till Lucy's finished!” Daisy declared, taking up a militant position in front of Neptune.

“I can't believe my ears!” said Julia in a shocked voice. “Rhino, surely you aren't so ungallant as to make a lady in distress walk alone through the night, especially along that dangerous pathway.”

Rhino was neither capable of looking abashed, nor of giving in graciously, but he did give in.

Just as he and Lady Ottaline departed, Lucy came through from the inner grotto. Looking after them, she asked, “Where are they going?”

“Lord Rydal is escorting Lady Ottaline back to the house,” Pritchard told her.

“Are you finished, darling?” Daisy asked. “That was quick.”

“No, Julia! You can't go through. He'll move if he sees you and he has to stand absolutely still for another minute and a half. You must be mad to let Rhino take her back alone after she fell in last time. Got to go. If this works, it's going to be ripping!” And she whisked back round Neptune.

Pritchard frowned. “What does Lady Gerald mean? Surely she's not suggesting Lord Rydal was responsible for Lady Ottaline's fall? I thought they seemed—quite fond of each other.”

“Say rather, on terms of considerable intimacy!” Lady Beaufort said severely.

“In the recent past, perhaps.” Daisy was hesitant, Alec having frequently reminded her not to mistake speculation for fact. “We've wondered, Lucy and I, whether he hasn't been trying to convince her it's over.”

“Well, I won't have a guest pushed over,” Pritchard declared, “not into my stream. I'm going to keep an eye on them.”

“I hardly think he'd do anything drastic when we all know he's alone with her,” said Daisy, but Pritchard was already on his way to the front of the grotto.

“Perhaps Lady Ottaline will push Rhino in,” Julia said hopefully, and followed Pritchard.

“Oh dear,” said Lady Beaufort, “the earl won't do for Julia, will he? I'm quite disillusioned. He's not at all the sort of gentleman I wish her to marry.”

“Gentleman he's not,” said Daisy, “for all his wealth and rank.”

“Which doesn't mean I shall allow her to marry a penniless colonial nobody! So don't go giving her any ideas, Daisy.”

Daisy was baffled. Why on earth didn't Julia tell her mother that while Armitage was not rich and titled, he was perfectly respectable and able to support her in better style than she had managed to survive these past several years? Surely his ridiculous qualms weren't holding her back. The weather, forsooth!

He must have told her to keep it secret. Could he be afraid Lady Beaufort might write to the University of Toronto and discover he didn't exist—so to speak? Or he did exist, and was peacefully going about his business teaching history to a lot of young Canadians while an impostor paraded under his name in England?

Pure speculation, Daisy reminded herself. All the same, something was rotten in the province of Ontario. She must get Julia alone and ask her what was going on.

“He hasn't done anything terrible.” Pritchard returned from the waterfall lookout looking cheerful. He was talking about Rhino, of course, not Armitage. “They're round the bend,” he went on. “It's much shallower there, so she couldn't come to any harm if she did fall in. And I must be round the bend to let Lady Gerald make me think for a moment that the earl would do anything so wicked.”