“You could call it that,” said Sally Nullens. “Master Carleton’s right though. She’s not strong and ought to take more care of herself. A silly girl … the life she leads. Like a moth fluttering round the candle.”
“You seem to have candles on your mind, Sally. I hope you keep them away from the children.”
“Now, Mistress Arabella, do you think I’d be so foolish as not to?”
“I know you are wonderful with the children, Sally. I’m grateful.”
“Oh, you’re nothing but a girl yourself. As for the boys, I couldn’t get them in to their dinner today. They didn’t want to leave the kites you brought them. Master Leigh’s must go higher than Master Edwin’s and then Master Edwin’s higher than Master Leigh’s. Always got to go one better. I don’t know.”
She was good, Sally was, and devoted to the children. At that moment I thought: I wish they needn’t grow up. I wish Carleton would go to London and stay there. I didn’t want to think of him or what might be in his devious mind.
But my encounter with Barbary had started up uneasy trains of thought in my mind because of the dreams I was having.
Silly dreams about kites and popguns. I remember one in which Edwin was flying his kite, and as it went up into the sky, I could see that painted on it was a picture of Eversleigh Court. As I watched, it grew bigger and bigger and there were people on the lawns so that it was no longer a picture. Then I saw Carleton running towards Edwin and trying to snatch the kite away from him. Edwin would not release it and started to shout: “Be careful, Mama. Be careful!” Then I saw the clay pellets from the popgun scattered everywhere … and I was frightened.
Silly, stupid dreams but an indication of an uneasy mind. I wished Barbary had not put such thoughts into my head, but if they were in hers it was as well for me to know.
It was round about Christmas time of that year 1664. The boys were thinking of their fifth birthdays which closely followed Christmas. It was a cold snowy afternoon, with the flakes fluttering down and great fires roaring in every room.
The boys were kneeling on the schoolroom window seat, looking out at the snow, when Leigh shouted: “Someone’s coming.”
Edwin cried: “I can see a man. He’s riding into the courtyard.”
“Some travellers,” I said to Sally. “Someone who finds the weather too bad to go on. We shall doubtless have a visitor today. I will go down and see who it is.”
The children came with me.
Charlotte was already in the hall. When the bell started to clang, she opened the door and a man stepped in.
“Good day!” he cried. “A merry good day. What weather. Still I’m glad to be home!”
He looked at me with astonishment and then grinned at Charlotte.
“Now which one of you would be my niece, Charlotte?” he asked.
Charlotte stepped forward.
He seized her and kissed her.
“Is your father at home?”
Charlotte said: “Yes. I’ll send for him. You must be …”
“Your Uncle Tobias, Niece. Uncle Toby that is. Home from Virginia. Looking for a welcome warmer than the weather.”
Matilda Eversleigh was standing at the top of the staircase. He went towards her. “Matilda, my dear sister. Where’s John?”
“Why,” cried Matilda. “You must be …”
“Don’t you know me? Well, it’s been some years. A lot has happened since I went away, eh?” Lord Eversleigh had appeared behind his wife.
“Why—Tobias!” he cried. “Welcome home, Toby. I thought you were dead these many years.”
“Not me, brother. Alive and kicking as they say. Well, I thought I’d give you all a surprise. I want to hear all the news and I want to give you mine.”
“First,” said Matilda, “you must eat and drink and we’ll have a room made ready. Charlotte …”
“I’ll see to that, Mama.”
“My dear Toby … After all these years. We thought …”
“That I was dead. Yes, I know, John has just told me. No, there’s life in the old dog yet, Sister. Well, it’s good to be home. Eversleigh has not changed much. Been through hard times, I hear. But all’s well with the world now, I believe. The King’s come back, so I thought it was time Toby Eversleigh did the same.”
“It’s a wonderful surprise,” said Lord Eversleigh. “We have new additions to the family. This is Edwin’s wife.”
“What, young Edwin with a wife! And where is he …?”
There was a short silence and then Lord Eversleigh said: “I should have said Edwin’s widow.”
“Oh!”
The children had run down into the hall and were gazing with bewilderment at the newcomer.
“My grandson,” said Lord Eversleigh proudly. “Come Edwin and say good day to your Great-Uncle Toby.”
“Great-uncle,” said Edwin, looking upwards with awe.
“Yes, boy, I’m your great-uncle. I hope you’re going to be my friend.”
“I will,” said Edwin.
“So will I,” cried Leigh pushing forward.
“Another nephew for me?” asked Tobias.
“No … Leigh is an adopted child.”
“There’s much I have to hear, I doubt not,” said Tobias.
“First something to eat and drink,” said Matilda.
“It’s good to be home,” replied Tobias warmly.
So that was Edwin’s Uncle Toby. The family had been so convinced that he was dead that they had never mentioned him to me. I gathered that he came between Edwin’s and Carleton’s fathers and could only have been Lord Eversleigh’s junior by about two years, but his bronzed complexion and his rather plentiful hair made him look much the younger.
He was a colourful addition to the household, and it was soon clear that he intended to settle there. Being very convivial he was extremely popular. His weakness was a love of wine and he would sit at the table after dinner and consume quantities of it while his mood grew more and more mellow and he more and more talkative.
He was rich and had made a fortune in Virginia from tobacco. He had wanted to come home for years but feeling no affinity with the Puritan state, had waited until he heard the King was back.
“Mind you,” he said, wagging a finger at me as though I was about to contradict him, “there was much to be done. I couldn’t just up and off … not with my business activities … oh, dear me, no. I had to find managers … people I could trust. I didn’t want to give up my interest out there. Why, if the Roundheads came back, I’d be off again. Wouldn’t live under them, I promise you that.”
“They will never come back,” Lord Eversleigh assured him. “The people have had their fill of them.”
“Then I’ll rest me here … as long as you’ll have me.”
“My dear Toby,” said his brother, “this is your home as much as mine.”
Toby nodded, his eyes slightly misty. “What is it about old places like this?” he asked. “They get under your skin … they get in your blood. You never forget them, however far you roam. And if you’re in line for them … well, then, there’s something special.” He looked at me steadily. “Why, do you know if it wasn’t for young Master Edwin I’d be the heir to this place, that’s so, eh, Brother?”
Lord Eversleigh said it was indeed the case.
“Mind you,” replied Toby with his booming laugh, “you’re going to outlive me by the look of it. I’m more fond of the bottle, brother, than you, and they say that while a little of it is good, for your stomach’s sake, too much is likely to rot the gut. There, I’m shocking the ladies. Forgive. I’ve got a bit rough on my travels. And what about Harry’s boy?”
“Carleton,” said Matilda. “Oh, he is still here. I daresay he will be coming back soon. He moves between here and London.”