“Well, he seems happy enough, so I expect that happened a long time ago.”
“There with all them bees … and the animals too. He’s always got some creature there … something that’s got hurt and he’s putting to rights.”
“I like Jamie.”
“They all like Jamie, but my missus says ‘tain’t natural for a man. He ought to have a wife and children.”
“Your wife is a firm believer in marriage and all it entails,” I said. “Oh … and there’s the house … just as I remember it.”
I felt overcome by emotion as we passed under the gatehouse and rattled into the courtyard.
The door was opened almost immediately by one of the maids. Betsy, I remembered.
“Oh, Miss Caroline, there you be. We’ve been waiting for ‘ee. Miss Tressidor do say you’m to be took right up to her room, soon as you come. Bring Miss Caroline’s bag to her room, Joe, and I’ll take you to Miss Tressidor, Miss Caroline.”
I went into the hall. Cousin Mary was at the top of the stairs.
“Caroline, my dear,” she cried, rushing down.
I ran to her and we met at the bottom of the staircase and hugged each other.
“Well, well,” she said, “at last. I thought you’d never come to see me. How are you? Well, I see. My word you’ve grown. Had a good journey? Are you hungry? Of course you must be. You’re here, at last!”
“Oh, Cousin Mary, it’s good to be here.”
“Come along. What’s it to be first? Refreshment, eh? What do you feel like? There’s a good hour to dinner. They could put it forward. Perhaps just a snack to be getting on with.”
“No, thanks very much, Cousin Mary. I’ll wait till dinner. I’m too excited to think about eating, anyway.”
“Then come and sit down just for a minute. Then I’ll take you up and you can wash before supper. I expect that’s what you’d like, eh? My word, you have shot up. Still, I’d have known you anywhere.”
“It’s five years, Cousin Mary.”
“Too long. Too long. Come and sit down. Your room’s the same one. Thought you’d like that. How did you come … all the way from France, eh?”
“It was a long journey. Fortunately I was in Paris, which is not so bad as being right down in the south. The journey from the south to Paris took almost the whole of a day.”
“And your mother married again! A kind of fairy prince, I gather.”
“A rather elderly one, but very nice.”
“Lucky for us all! If she hadn’t I expect you’d still be there.”
“I had made up my mind that I was coming, but it wasn’t going to be easy unless …”
“I know. The last time she was ill.”
“She really was.”
“H’m. Convenient sort of illness, perhaps. Never mind. She’s happy with her prince.”
“Honeymooning in Italy, and then they will return to his mansion in Paris and his chateau in the country. It is exactly what she needed.”
“She has become a lady of the French nobility.”
“Not exactly the nobility. He is a prince of industry.”
“Which probably means that his fortune is more sound. Well, let’s leave your mother to her good fortune and think about us.”
“I’m longing to hear everything.”
“All is well here. The estate is flourishing. I see to that.” She glanced at the watch pinned on her blouse. “I think, my dear, that you should wash and change now and then we can talk to our hearts’ content this evening. Betsy will be there to help you unpack. How’s that? I just wanted a brief word and a look at you. We’ve got lots of time ahead of us.”
I followed her up the stairs, through the gallery. No longer my ancestors, I thought, and felt a faint regret.
There was my familiar room. I went to the window and looked out across the parkland to the hills in the distance. I could not see Landower, but it was close and the thought of that sent my heart racing with excitement.
“Betsy,” called Cousin Mary, and Betsy came in.
“Help Miss Caroline unpack,” she went on. “She will tell you where everything has to go. Will you come down when you are ready, Caroline?”
I was very happy. This was a wonderful welcome. Cousin Mary was just as I remembered her and my affection for her was growing with every minute.
I was happy to be back.
Betsy was hanging up my things. “Where do ‘ee want this, Miss Caroline? Shall I be filling these drawers with your linen? Here. Let me hang that up. Miss Tressidor says if you haven’t enough space you could use the next room. There be a big court cupboard there.”
“I have heaps of room, thanks, Betsy.”
“Everybody be very glad you’m back, Miss Caroline. They do all remember ‘ee as a little ‘un.”
“I was fourteen when I came here. I don’t think I was all that little.”
“You be a grown-up young lady now.”
I thanked her when she had finished and she reminded me that dinner would be served in about half an hour. “Do you remember the dining room, Miss Caroline?”
“I do, Betsy. As soon as I entered the house I felt as though I had not been away.”
Cousin Mary was waiting for me in the dining room. The table was elaborately laid. I glanced at the tapestries on the walls and through the window to the courtyard.
“Come and sit down, my dear,” said Cousin Mary. “We’ll have a long chat this evening. Though I expect you’ll want to retire early tonight. You must say when you want to go to bed. We’ve lots of time in front of us.”
I told her how happy I was to be here and while we were eating we talked of France and the events which had led up to my going there. I found I could talk of Jeremy Brandon without too much emotion.
“I suppose I should have gone to Olivia’s wedding,” I said. “It was cowardly not to.”
“There are times when it is better to be a little cowardly. I don’t suppose the bridegroom would have been too happy to see you there— nor, I imagine, would Olivia.”
“You don’t know Olivia. She is guileless. It comes of being so sweet-natured herself that she thinks everyone else is the same. She really believes that Jeremy was not influenced by the money—simply because he tells her he wasn’t.”
“Sometimes people who don’t ask too many questions are happier than those who do.”
“In any case, she is married now.”
“He is no longer of importance to you?”
I hesitated. It was impossible to be anything but frank with Cousin Mary.
“I was so eager to escape from the bondage of Miss Bell and the strict rules of the household. I was hurt because I sensed the hostility of the man I thought was my father. Jeremy was romantic and handsome and charming … and it was easy to believe he loved me. So I felt the same about him. Why I felt the same I am not quite sure. I think I was ready and eager to fall in love.”
“What they call being ‘in love with love.’ “
“Something like that.”
“And now …” I could not say, When I met Paul Landower again I was glad I was not married to Jeremy. Did I really feel so strongly about Paul, did I want to escape from the humiliation Jeremy had imposed upon me, was I still “in love with love”? I supposed all people’s feelings should be subject to analysis. Mine more than most.
I told her about the meeting with Alphonse and how he had immediately fallen under my mother’s spell. There would be no questioning in that case. As long as he could keep her in luxury she would admire him. Contrary to the rules of morality, my mother was going to be the one who lived happily ever after.
The meal was over. I said I did not want to go to bed just yet.
“Let’s go into the winter parlour. We’ll have a little port wine. Yes, Caroline, I insist. It will make you sleep.”
We left the dining room and went into the little room nearby. It was cosy and I remembered sitting there with Cousin Mary in the past. She took the port wine from the cupboard there and poured some into two glasses.