I wanted to ask about Lady Geraldine, but I felt this was not the moment to do so. Lavinia, by no means clever academically, would be an adept at discovering one's feelings towards the opposite sex.
So I just said, "Oh ... was it like that?"
"Coming from Mama it is like the passing of an Act of Parliament, and the approval of Fabian is like the signature of the Monarch. So, you see, it becomes law."
"You don't always take their advice, I'm sure."
"That is why sin is so enticing to me. If I hadn't such a forceful family it wouldn't be half as much fun. My dear, virtuous Drusilla, so different from your erring friend, I can't tell you what joy it is to have you here. It was delightful that the command from Framling should coincide exactly with my wishes. I'm going to have lots of fun."
"I hope there are not going to be more predicaments like ..."
She put her finger to her lips. "The subject is closed. I'm out of that one. Seriously, Drusilla, I'll never forget the part you played in it. Then I snatched Dougal from right under your nose."
"He was never mine to snatch."
"He could easily have been. I reckon if he hadn't suddenly become important in Mama's eyes he might still be delving in his books and paying his snail-like courtship to you. He might not have arrived at proposing yet. Speed is not Dougal's greatest strength. But the progress would have been steady ... and so right for him, really, and it might have been a solution for you. Better than that priggish old Colin Brady, whom you had the good sense to refuse. But then you would always have good sense. At the same time, Dougal would have been happier without his grand title. Poor Dougal! I could feel almost sorry for him. Swept off his snail's path to marry the woman who was the most unsuitable in the world for him. Still, it was Mama's decree and that is like the laws of Medes and the Persians, which you would know of."
I was suddenly very happy to be here. I felt life had been dull too long. I was alive again. Everything was strange, a little mysterious—and Fabian had suggested that I should come.
I wondered why. For the convenience of the Framlings, of course. Lavinia needed a companion, perhaps someone to rescue her from the result of possible peccadilloes, of which there would certainly be many here, where there were more opportunities than there had been in a French finishing school. And I had proved myself very useful once. Fabian would remember that.
Therefore, one of the decrees, which had ordered the marriage of Dougal and Lavinia, was now extending to me. I was to leave everything and report for duty—so here I was.
I was afraid she would see my elation and connect it with Fabian, so I said, "I should like to see the children."
"Drusilla has spoken. I shall indulge her whim, just to show how pleased I am to have her here. I will take you to the nursery."
She led the way from the room up a staircase and we were at the top of the house, where the nurseries were ... two huge rooms with smallish, shrouded windows set in embrasures. There were heavy drapes, which gave a darkness to the room.
I heard voices and I guessed Alice was already there, making the acquaintance of her charges-to-be.
Lavinia took me to a room where there were two small beds, mosquito-netted, and there was the inevitable punkah on the wall.
The door to the communicating room was opened and a small, dark woman in a sari emerged. With her was Alice.
"This," I said, "is Miss Alice Philwright. Alice, this is the Countess."
"Hello," said Lavinia in a friendly fashion. "I am glad you are here. Are you introducing yourself to the children already?"
"It is the first thing I always do," said Alice.
They went into the room. The slight, dark woman stepped aside to let us pass. She looked apprehensive and I believed that she feared our arrival meant her departure. I smiled at her and she returned my smile. She seemed to read my thoughts and to thank me for them.
Louise was enchanting. She reminded me a little of Fleur, which was not surprising, as they were half sisters. She had fair, curly hair and delightful blue eyes; her nose was small and pretty, but she lacked the tigerish look which I had noticed when I first saw Lavinia, who at that time would have been very little older than Louise. She was a pretty child, but she had missed her mother's great beauty. She was a little shy and stayed close to the Indian woman, to whom she was clearly attached. The boy was not quite two years old. He was taking his first steps and was a little uncertain of his balance.
When Alice picked him up he studied her intently and seemed to find her not unpleasing.
"Louise will be your pupil, Drusilla," said Lavinia.
"Hello, Louise," I said. "We are going to learn some wonderful things together."
She regarded me solemnly and when I smiled she returned my smile. I thought we should get on well together. I had always been attracted by children and although I had had little contact with them I seemed to have a natural empathy with them.
Lavinia watched us a little impatiently. I felt sad for her children. Their affection for the ayah was obvious, but Lavinia appeared to be almost a stranger to them. I wondered how Dougal was with them.
Lavinia did not want to linger in the nursery. She insisted on taking me away.
"There is so much to arrange," she said. She turned a dazzling smile on Alice. "I can see you are going to manage everything perfectly."
Alice looked gratified and I guessed she was assuming— correctly—that there would be no—or very little—interference in the nursery.
I went to my room to unpack and I was aware of a feeling of exhilaration such as I had not felt for a long time.
Each day was a new adventure. I had decided that at first two hours' tuition for Louise would be enough, and Lavinia was ready to agree with anything I suggested. I went riding with her in a carriage through the town, past the burial place of the Parsees, where their bodies were left in the dry, hot air that the vultures might leave nothing but their bones. I was fascinated by so much that I saw and I wanted to savour it to the full. Everything was so new and exotic.
Occasionally Alice and I ventured out together. We liked to walk through the streets, which were a continual fascination to us. We were assailed on all sides by the beggars, whose conditions appalled and distressed us. The deformed children worried me more even than the emaciated-looking men and women who exposed their infirmities to win one's sympathy and cash. Alice and I used to take a certain amount of money out with us, which we would give to what we considered to be the worst cases, but we had been warned many times that when we were seen to give we should be pestered unmercifully. We accepted this and eased our consciences.
There seemed to be a plague of flies which ascended on the goods for display, on the white garments of the veiled women, on the pink and yellow turbans of the dignified gentlemen and, most disconcertingly, on the faces of the people, who apparently were so accustomed to them that they ignored them.
We watched the snake charmer piping his rather dismal tunes; we strolled through street after narrow street, past coolies, past water carriers with their brass pots on their shoulders, past donkeys laden with goods. Sometimes we heard the strains of unfamiliar music mingling with the shouts of the people. Most of the shops were frontless and we could see the wares spread out before us, presided over by their owners, who would do their best to lure us to pause and examine. There were foodstuffs, copper ware, silks and jewellry. Presiding over these last was a plump man in a glorious pink turban smoking a hookah. Cattle often lumbered through the streets. Small boys ran among us, often naked except for a grubby loincloth, like mischievous gnats darting around seeking the right moment to rob the vulnerable.