“There,” she said. “Now we can talk without servants hovering.”
I said that nothing much had changed here. Old Joe was still being commanded by his tyrant missus, and Jamie McGill was the same with his bees. “It all feels as though I’ve never been away.”
“Oh, there have been vast changes. You’ll discover.”
I didn’t want to broach the subject of the Landowers. I thought I might betray too much eagerness for information which would not escape the discerning eyes of Cousin Mary.
“So the estate is flourishing?”
“Oh yes, that’s one of the things I want to talk to you about… but perhaps not tonight.”
“But you’ve whetted my curiosity. What about the estate?”
“It’s just that I thought you might learn a little about it. You might help me.”
“Do you need help then?”
“Could do with it. I just thought you might find it interesting.”
“I’m sure I should.”
“It’s too involved for tonight. We’ll talk about a lot of things tomorrow.”
“When you said there were vast changes …” “I wasn’t thinking of Tressidor so much as Landower.” “Yes, Joe said something. How is … er … Jago?” “Oh Jago. He was a special friends of yours, wasn’t he? He’s become the Lothario of the neighborhood. There are tales about Jago.” “He must be twenty-one … or two. Is he married?” “Oh no. But some say he ought to be. They say he’ll go the way of his father. I don’t know about the gambling, but he’s certainly fond of the ladies. One hears these things and I’m not averse to a bit of gossip, particularly when it’s about my neighbours and old rivals.” “Does the feud still exist then?”
“Oh no, no. It’s not a feud. It hasn’t been for years. We’re very good friends on the surface. But the rivalry exists. In the old days when Jonas Landower was gambling away the estate we were far in advance and the winners. It’s different now. Jago would never have done it. The new affluence would soon have disappeared under him, I’m sure. They say he has a mistress in Plymouth to whom he is quite devoted, but he doesn’t marry her and he’s not averse to sporting with the village girls.” “I remember him well. He was an amusing companion.” “He’s all of that still. He goes around with a song on his lips distributing that indestructible charm to all beholders particularly if they are young and personable. You won’t want to get caught up with him. You won’t. You’re far too sensible.” “I’ve learned a lesson, Cousin Mary.” “Lessons are a blessing, providing one profits from them.” “I don’t think that indestructible charm would touch me.” “No … perhaps not. Jenny Granger, one of the fanner’s daughters, is making him pay for her baby … and it is said that it is possible he is not the father. Apparently there was a choice and she settled on him because she thought that would be more rewarding.” “A risk a gentleman of his kind must take.” “Now Paul, he’s of quite a different genre.” “I suppose it would be too much of a drain on the family fortunes to have two like Jago in it,” I said, trying to speak lightly.
“Paul is a very serious man. I have become rather specially friendly with him. There are visits … occasional ones … but neighbourly visits nevertheless.”
“That’s interesting,” I said, hoping my voice did not sound too unnatural.
“I have a confession to make,” she went on.
“Really?”
“Yes. He was going to the South of France … Paul Landower, I mean. And I asked him to look you up.”
“Oh!”
“I was worried about your mother and wondering what the position really was. I felt sure she wasn’t really ill but was determined to keep you there looking after her. I wanted to know because a selfish woman can chain a daughter to her side so that she has no life of her own. I talked to Paul about you and he saw the point. I said to him, ‘Could you call there? Go as if by chance … and spy out the land and then come back and let me know what’s going on.’ “
“Oh,” I said again. “I thought it was a chance meeting.”
“I hoped you would. I didn’t want you to think I was fussing or prying. But I did want to know.”
“And what did he report?”
“Just what I thought. So you can imagine how delighted I was to hear of this Alphonse carrying off your mother to romance among the perfume bottles. You understand my feelings. Of course you do. Monsieur Alphonse is the fairy godfather to us all.”
I felt deflated. He had come because she had asked him. He had stayed so briefly. Then I thought of him, standing on the balcony outside my bedroom … hesitating.
“Paul Landower is very shrewd,” said Cousin Mary, “but for him there would not now be Landowers at Landower Hall. He has set everything to rights, which I am sure was always his intention.”
“He must be very gratified.”
“I gathered that you spent a little time with him.”
“Yes. We went riding in the mountains. Unfortunately I fell off my horse and we had to spend a night at the auberge in the mountains.”
“He didn’t tell me that! A night in the auberge … with him!”
“Well, you see I was a bit bruised and shocked and they called in a doctor. He said I shouldn’t make the journey back that evening.”
“I see.”
“Tell me about Landower. How did he manage to get it back in such a short time?”
“Didn’t he tell you?”
“He didn’t speak much about Landower.”
“Oh well, the Arkwrights bought the place. You knew that.”
“Oh yes. You must have told me at the time. There was a question of it before I went away.”
“There was an accident and the daughter hurt her back.”
“Not seriously, I believe.”
“Well, it hasn’t prevented her having a child. There’s a dear little boy, Julian.”
“Oh, she married, then?”
“But of course she married. That’s how it all came about. It was the best solution. Old Arkwright would never have made a squire. There’s more to it than brass, as he would put it. He had the money to restore the house, to repair the tenants’ cottages … but he was no squire. They wouldn’t accept him with his northern accent and his northern ways, and he was shrewd enough to realize that. They preferred gambling old Landower any day … or Paul, who can strike fear into them, or Jago, who goes round seducing their daughters. They’re squiral qualities. They wouldn’t stand for the stern, down-to-earth, common sense of the northerner.”
“I should have thought they would have been glad if he repaired their cottages.”
” ‘He bain’t no squire’ … that was the tale wherever you went. They were against me for being a woman. ‘ ‘Tain’t natural,’ they used to say. But I soon showed them it was. Whether Arkwright would have managed to convince them in time, I don’t know, but the opportunity came and he was too hard-headed a man to refuse it.”
“What of the daughter, Miss Arkwright? I’m glad she wasn’t crippled.”
“Oh no, they thought the injuries would be worse than they were. She said she had seen a vision up there … ghosts. She was nervous and I don’t know how she felt about living in the house. But her father managed to convince her that she’d imagined the whole thing. Trick of light and all that. She stuck out that she’d seen something and the place has an even greater reputation now for being haunted than it had before.”
“Still, the Arkwrights bought the house. And the Landowers went into the farmhouse, I suppose?”
“For a while, yes. I didn’t think they’d stay there long. And they didn’t. It seemed the best solution. It might have been Jago, but that wouldn’t have done so well, and I doubt Mr. Arkwright would have accepted that. He wanted the elder … the serious one, for his son-in-law.”