When I arrived my parents said that now I was there with their grandson, their pleasure was complete. I was to stay for two weeks.
It was wonderful to be with my family. Dick, Angie and Fenn had grown up quite a bit. They remembered Congrève, though, and I think, in spite of everything, they looked back on those days with affection and perhaps a certain nostalgia.
They chattered a great deal about the play we had performed and they often mentioned Harriet, of course. Where was Harriet? they wanted to know. She had gone away, I told them. And did she take her baby with her? No, her baby had stayed behind with Edwin. Fenn informed the company that he was an uncle, which brought in a light note. I knew my parents did not want to talk about Harriet.
But my mother brought up the subject when we were alone.
“I am glad she has gone,” she said. “I did not like her being there. She is an adventuress. She imposed on your kindness of heart.”
“Perhaps,” I said, “but we had such fun, Mother. The children loved her. There is something lovable about her. I hope she will be happy.”
My mother shrugged her shoulders. “Gilley is notorious for his mistresses, apparently. She’ll be passed on to someone else, I daresay. Of course she is outstandingly handsome and will not lack lovers now. But when she gets older …”
I felt depressed thinking of an ageing Harriet, poor, lonely, no longer able to appeal to men.
My mother touched my hand lightly. “Don’t worry about her. You have done everything for her. You have even taken on the care of her son.”
“He’s an engaging little fellow.”
“Most babies are,” said my mother indulgently. “Arabella, perhaps before long you will marry again.”
I stared at her in horror.
“My dear child, it would be natural. You are young. You should have someone to care for you.”
“No one could care for me more than the Eversleighs. They are so good to me.”
“I knew they would be and I rejoice. But if you should fall in love again?”
“I couldn’t. You did not know Edwin, Mother. Nobody could be like him. If he had been less perfect … perhaps it would have been easy. But I should compare everyone with him …”
“Later on, perhaps?”
“Never,” I said vehemently.
I rode with my father around the estate. He delighted in showing me his new lands and what he was doing to restore the old ones. On the ruins of the old castle folly my mother was making a beautiful garden. She spent a great deal of time there.
“It is a busy life,” she told me. “I am in London with your father, and when I am weary of that we can come back here. I am hoping Lucas will have a place at Court. The King highly favours your father, although he is not one of his cronies. That could not be. Charles respects him as one of his great generals, but the men who surround him are more like Carleton Eversleigh. Amusing, witty, rather lax in morals … all that the King is himself. I believe Carleton Eversleigh is often in his company.”
“He is frequently at the Court,” I said. “He is very good at managing the estate, I hear, but I believe he is restless and likes variety.”
“Like many men, I daresay. I thank God your father was never like that. That’s the reason why he goes to Court only on business. The King is clever … cleverer than sometimes appears, and while he can be excessively lighthearted with some, your father is very impressed with his seriousness in other matters.”
“Mother, I believe you are a very happy woman.”
“You are right. I have suffered a great deal in my life, as you know. And even when your father and I were married, we were in exile and often separated. Now it seems we have come home to happiness.”
“Is it all as you would want it to be, Mother?”
“Except one thing. I should like to see you happy.”
“l am … as far as I can ever be without Edwin.”
“One day,” she said.
I smiled at her. I wanted to tell her that having known the perfect relationship I could not bring myself to accept something less.
Returning to Eversleigh Court I was given a welcome as warm as that I had had at Flamstead. I certainly had no reason to doubt that I was greatly loved.
Edwin was pounced upon by his grandmother, closely examined and declared more beautiful, more intelligent, than he had been when he went away and, of course, quite perfect.
Sally Nullens told me that Master Leigh had enjoyed having the nursery to himself. He did not regard Edwin’s return with a great deal of enthusiasm, so perhaps that was the explanation. Chastity came with a daisy chain she had made and insisted on putting it round my neck. Ellen had made a tansy cake which she knew I liked, and Charlotte came to my room and told me how relieved she was that I was back safely. Then she gave me an account of Leigh’s doings during my absence and I was happy to think that she was beginning to love the child. Jasper examined the coach to see if any damage had been done to it, and muttered to himself so that I was not sure whether any had been. Poor Jasper, he was an uneasy man, as was to be expected. There were many like him in the neighbourhood, staunch supporters of the Roundheads who were not quite capable of making the easy turnabout as so many were.
It had been a happy visit and it was a gratifying homecoming.
Carleton joined us for dinner—a very happy occasion said my father-in-law because I was back with precious Edwin.
Carleton was fresh from Court with the news from there. We had always heard most of the Court news from him. We knew that the body of Oliver Cromwell and some of his supporters had been dug up and publicly hanged at Tyburn; that some people who had been buried in Henry VII’s chapel and at Westminster were dug up and buried in an ordinary churchyard. We knew that there were many who sought revenge on those who had turned them out of their country and put them in exile.
But, said Carleton, the King is weary of these recriminations. He says, “Enough. What he wants to do is to be left in easy peace with his subjects. He’ll love them if they love him; and if they will take him with all his faults, he’ll take them. He is an easygoing man who finds quarrelling dull and witless, for it brings no good to any.”
I said: “He sounds pleasant but perhaps a little weak.”
“Treason,” cried Carleton. “What if I report you to His Majesty?”
“As he wants me to accept his faults, he must accept mine,” I retorted.
Carleton laughed and said: “How is my little cousin, the all important one?”
“You mean my son?”
“Who else?”
“He fares very well, thank you.”
“Quite a man now. What is he? Two years old?”
“Yes, he is two.”
“Old enough to show his character. I wonder if he will be like his father.”
“I hope and pray so,” I said fervently.
Carleton nodded. “Easygoing,” he murmured. “Wanting all to love him and being ready to love everybody.”
“That’s what you said of the King.”
“Some of us share these characteristics.”
“And you?”
“Ah, I am an unknown quantity. There is only one thing you know of me and that is that you know nothing about me.”
“That,” said Matilda, “is a little example of Carleton’s Court talk.”
“Very subtle,” I said.
“Ah, now you mock me. Let me say how glad I am that you are safely back. I trust you will go to Town for the wedding.”
“Wedding?”
“That of our Sovereign Lord and the Infanta of Portugal. I heard she is a pretty little thing but homely, and she is to bring us Bombay and Tangiers with her dowry. Barbara Castlemaine is fuming. She’ll brook no rival. What airs these women give themselves!”