Sprig Muslin Read online

  The tone was as gentle as ever, but Miss Povey, permitting herself only the indulgence of a sniff, lost no time in altering her phraseology. ‘For the young lady, I should say, my lady.’

  ‘Oh, yes! The Blue bedchamber will be just the one. Thank you: I shan’t need you any longer.’

  This dismissal by no means pleased the handmaiden. On the one hand, she was extremely reluctant to wait upon Amanda, and would, indeed, have bitterly resented a command to do so; but, on the other, she was agog with curiosity. After a brief struggle with her feelings, she said: ‘I thought, my lady, being as how Miss hasn’t brought her own abigail, she would like me to dress her hair, and that.’

  ‘Yes, presently,’ said Hester. ‘And perhaps, since Miss Smith’s trunk has gone to Oundle, you could bring that pink gown of mine to her room.’ She smiled diffidently at Amanda, adding: ‘Should you object to wearing one of my dresses? I think it would become you, for it is too young for me, and I have not worn it more than once.’

  ‘No, not at all. In fact, I shall be excessively obliged to you,’ replied Amanda warmly. ‘For the only other gown I have with me is another morning one, and I daresay it will be odiously crumpled. And this one is very dirty, through my having walked a great distance in it, besides being in the carrier’s cart, though I took the greatest care to wrap my cloak round me.’

  ‘Muslin seems to pick up the dirt so easily!’ agreed Hester, accepting the carrier’s cart as the merest commonplace. ‘But Povey will wash and iron it for you to wear again in the morning.’

  With these calmly uttered words, she led Amanda into her allotted bedchamber, firmly closing the door on her scandalized abigail.

  The bandboxes had been unpacked, and Amanda’s few possessions disposed in the appropriate places. That damsel, after a comprehensive survey of the apartment, awarded it her approval, adding candidly: ‘And Sir Gareth was quite right: I do like you very much, ma’am, though I quite thought I should not!’

  ‘I am so glad,’ murmured Hester. ‘Do let me untie the strings of your hat!’

  ‘Yes,’ said Amanda, submitting to this, ‘but I must warn you, because I never tell lies to people I like, that I do not at all wish to visit an Earl!’

  ‘I expect you have been brought up on revolutionary principles,’ said Hester wisely. ‘I do not, myself, know very much about it, but I believe that many people nowadays –’

  ‘Oh, no! But the thing is that I particularly wish to establish myself in the sort of situation from which one’s relations are bound to rescue one. And if it had not been for Sir Gareth I daresay I might have done it. I was never so taken-in! He said he would take me to Huntingdon, where I had every expectation of being hired as a chambermaid at the George, – at least, that is what I thought he said he would do, only I soon discovered that it was all a hoax – and then, when he had lured me into his curricle, he brought me here instead!’

  Lady Hester, quite bewildered by this recital, sat down a little weakly, and said: ‘I don’t think I perfectly understand, Amanda. I expect it is because I am being stupid, but if you could tell it all to me from the start I am persuaded I shall. But not, of course, if you don’t wish! I don’t care to ask you questions, for there is nothing more disagreeable than to be obliged to listen to questions, and scoldings, and good advice.’ Her sudden smile, which betrayed a gleam of shy mischief in her eyes, swept across her face. ‘You see, I have suffered from that all my life.’

  ‘Have you?’ said Amanda, surprised. ‘But you are quite old! I mean,’ she corrected herself hastily, ‘you – you are not under age! I wonder you should not tell people who scold you to go about their business.’

  ‘I am afraid I have not enough courage,’ said Hester ruefully.

  ‘Like my aunt,’ nodded Amanda. ‘She has no courage, either, and she lets Grandpapa bully her, which puts me out of all patience, because one can always get one’s own way, if only one has resolution.’

  ‘Can one?’ said Hester doubtfully.

  ‘Yes, though sometimes, I own, one is forced to take desperate measures. And it is of no use to tease oneself about propriety,’ she added, with a touch of defiance, ‘because it seems to me that if you never do anything that is not quite proper and decorous you will have the wretchedest life, without any adventures, or romance, or anything!’

  ‘It is very true, alas!’ Hester smiled at her again. ‘But not for you, I think.’

  ‘No, because I have a great deal of resolution. Also I have made a very good plan of campaign, and if you will faithfully promise not to try to overset it, I will tell you what it is.’

  ‘I shouldn’t think I could overset anyone’s plans,’ said Hester reflectively. ‘Indeed, I promise I won’t try!’

  ‘Or tell those other people?’ Amanda said anxiously.

  ‘My family? Oh, no!’

  Reassured, Amanda sat down beside her, and for the second time that day recounted the tale of her adventures. Lady Hester sat with her hands lightly clasped in her lap, and her eyes fixed wonderingly on the animated little face beside her. Several times she blinked, and once a little trill of laughter was surprised out of her; but she did not make any comment until Amanda reached the end of her recital, and then she only said: ‘How very brave you are! I hope you will be able to marry your Brigade-Major, for I am sure you must have been made to be a soldier’s wife. I should think, you know, that your grandfather would give his consent if only you could be content to wait for a little while longer.’

  ‘I have waited a very long time already, and now I am determined to be married, so that I can accompany Neil to Spain,’ stated Amanda, looking mulish. ‘I daresay you think it is very wrong of me, and that I ought to obey Grandpapa, and so it may be – only I don’t care for anything except Neil, and I won’t go meekly home, whatever anyone says!’

  This was uttered very challengingly, but all Hester said was: ‘It is very difficult to know what would be the best thing to do. Do you think, perhaps, you should send for Neil?’

  Amanda shook her head. ‘No, because he would take me back to Grandpapa, and there’s no depending on Grandpapa’s being grateful enough to give his consent to our marriage. In fact, he would very likely think I had plotted it all with Neil, which would be fatal! That is what he is bound to think, at the outset, but when he discovers that Neil knows no more than he does where I am, he will see that it is not so. And besides that he will be in a much worse pucker about me, which would be a good thing.’

  This ruthless speech moved Hester to make a faint protest, but it was cut short by a tap on the door. Povey came in, with a dress of pink silk over her arm, and an expression of long-suffering on her face; and Hester got up, saying: ‘We are very much of a height, I believe, and I am quite sure that that gown will become you very much better than it becomes me. Will you put it on, and then, if it needs some little adjustment, Povey will arrange it for you?’

  Amanda, whose eyes had sparkled at sight of the dress, said impulsively: ‘Thank you! It is most obliging of you, and exactly the sort of gown I wish for! I have never worn a silk one, because my aunt has the stuffiest notions, and she will not buy anything but muslin for me, even when she took me to the Bath Assemblies.’

  ‘Oh, dear!’ said Hester, looking conscience-stricken. ‘She is perfectly right! How shatterbrained of me! Never mind! The dress is not cut very low, and I will lend you a lace shawl to put round your shoulders.’

  She then drifted away to find the shawl, but before she had reached her own room she heard her name spoken, and turned to see that Sir Gareth had come out of his bedchamber.

  He had changed his driving-dress for knee-breeches and silk stockings, an elegant waistcoat of watered silk, and a swallowtailed coat of black cloth; and no one, observing the exquisite set of that coat across his shoulders, and the nicety with which his starched neckcloth was arranged, could have suppose
d that he had effected this transformation with extreme rapidity, and without the assistance of his valet.

  He came across the hall, saying, with his delightful smile: ‘I have been lying in wait for you, hoping to exchange a word with you before we go downstairs again. Has that absurd child told you the truth about herself? I warned her that I should! How good it was of you to accept her without a murmur! But I knew you would. Thank you!’

  She returned his smile, but nervously. ‘Oh, no! Pray do not! There is not the least need – I am only too happy – ! She has told me how she came to meet you. You did very right to bring her here.’

  ‘Were you able to discover her name?’ he demanded.

  ‘No – but, then, I did not ask her to tell me. I expect she would rather not disclose it.’

  ‘I am well aware of that, but this grandfather of hers must be found. Good God, she cannot be permitted to carry out her outrageous scheme!’

  ‘It does seem very hazardous,’ she agreed.

  ‘Hazardous! Quite foolhardy! With that face, and no more worldly wisdom than a baby, how can she escape running into danger? She is as confiding as a kitten, too. Did she tell you I had abducted her? Well, I might have done so, you know! She hopped up into my curricle in the most trusting way imaginable.’

  ‘I expect she knew she could trust you,’ she replied. ‘She is quite innocent, of course, but not, I think, stupid. And so courageous!’

  He said, after a tiny pause: ‘Yes – a headstrong courage, and enchanting waywardness which could so easily be her undoing. When I first saw her, I was reminded – I hardly know by what! – the tilt of her chin, perhaps, and a certain look in her eyes –’ He broke off, as though he regretted his words.

  ‘I, too,’ she said, in her quiet voice. ‘I expect it was that resemblance which drew you to her.’

  ‘Perhaps. No, I don’t think it was. She was plainly a gently-bred child in difficulties: I could do no less than go to the rescue.’

  ‘I am afraid she is not very grateful to you,’ she said, with a glimmer of a smile.

  ‘Not a bit!’ he said, laughing. ‘She has promised to make me very sorry, and I daresay she’ll do it, for she is the naughtiest little wretch I ever encountered. My dependence is on you! If you can prevail upon her to disclose her grandfather’s name –’

  ‘Oh, but I can’t!’ she interrupted apologetically. ‘You see, I promised I wouldn’t try to overset her plan of campaign. So even if she were to tell me who she is I couldn’t betray her confidence, could I?’

  He said, between amusement and exasperation: ‘In such a case as this? I hope you could, for most certainly you should!’

  ‘I think she ought to be allowed to marry her soldier,’ she said thoughtfully.

  ‘What, at her age to be allowed to throw herself away on a needy young officer, and to undergo all the hardships of a life spent following the drum? My dear Lady Hester, you can have no notion of what it would be like! I am entirely at one with the unknown grandfather on that head.’

  ‘Are you?’ She looked at him in her shortsighted way, and sighed. ‘Yes, perhaps. I don’t know. What shall you do?’

  ‘If she can’t be persuaded to let me escort her to her home, I must find out this Brigade-Major of hers. That should not prove to be a difficult task, but it will mean my posting back to London tomorrow. I see nothing for it but to take her with me, and to place her in my sister’s charge. It is really the most abominable coil!’

  ‘Would you like to leave her in my charge?’ she asked doubtfully.

  ‘Of all things!’ he replied. ‘But I am reasonably certain that she would run away as soon as my back was turned! Nor do I think that your brother and his wife would welcome her as a guest here.’

  ‘No,’ she admitted. She raised her eyes to his face, and said, with an unhappy little smile: ‘I beg your pardon: I am being so very unhelpful! But I could not compel Amanda to remain here, or, I am afraid, prevent Almeria’s saying cutting things to her. Excuse me! I have to fetch a shawl for her to wear!’

  ‘Must you do so immediately?’ he asked, putting out his hand. ‘We have spoken of nothing but Amanda, and it was not, I assure you, to talk about a troublesome schoolgirl that I came to Brancaster.’

  She seemed to shrink into herself, and said quickly: ‘It is almost time for dinner! I would so much rather – indeed I must not stay!’

  She was gone on the words, leaving him to look after her in some little surprise. He knew her to be very shy, but it was not like her to betray agitation; and he had believed himself to be on such easy terms with her as must preclude her receiving his proposal with embarrassment. But embarrassed she undoubtedly was; and she had certainly shrunk from him. A suspicion that she was being coerced into accepting his offer crossed his mind, and brought a frown into his eyes; but that she meant to refuse it he could not believe, not deeming it possible that Lord Brancaster would have permitted him to come to Brancaster only to be rebuffed.

  It was a reasonable belief, and one shared by Mr Theale; but no sooner had Sir Gareth left the saloon to change his dress than his lordship had exclaimed: ‘That’s knocked everything into horse-nails! What the devil made him bring that chit here? Just when I was in hope Hester meant to have him after all! Depend upon it, she’ll shy off!’

  ‘Eh?’ said Mr Theale. ‘Pooh! Nonsense! She wouldn’t be such a fool!’

  ‘You know nothing of the matter!’ snapped the Earl. ‘She never had a grain of commonsense!’

  ‘Lord, Giles, she’d enough to jump at the chance of making such a match! She won’t cry off just because Ludlow has a nonpareil in his charge: not the sort of girl to take a pet, though I own I wouldn’t have thought Ludlow was the man to do such a daffish thing.’

  ‘Well, she didn’t jump at the chance!’ said the Earl angrily. ‘Said she didn’t wish for the marriage! Almeria thought she would come round to it, but I’ll go bail she wasn’t bargaining for this mischance!’

  ‘Well, by God!’ ejaculated Mr Theale. ‘Do you mean to tell me you let the poor fellow come all this way when you ain’t sure Hester means to have him? Well, damme, what a backhanded turn to serve him!’

  ‘Oh, stuff!’ said Lady Widmore, in her strident voice. ‘Let him go the right way to work with her, and she’ll have him! But I’ll see to it that that little baggage is sent packing in the morning! Daughter of some old friends, indeed! Fine friends, to be sending their daughter about the country with no respectable female to look after her! Coming it very much too strong, I make bold to say!’

  ‘I should not have thought it of Ludlow,’ said her husband. ‘Who that young female is, or what she is, I do not pretend to know, but I am very much shocked by the whole affair.’

  ‘Don’t talk like a fool!’ said his father irritably. ‘For anything I know, Ludlow may have half a dozen mistresses in keeping, but if you imagine he would bring some fancy-piece here you must be a bigger bottlehead than ever I guessed! That ain’t what’s worrying me!’

  ‘Well, it ought to worry you,’ observed his brother. ‘I’m not a worrying man myself, but if I’d sired such a pea-goose as Widmore it would keep me awake at night, I can tell you that.’

  This ill-timed facetiousness enraged the Earl so much that he looked to be in danger of bursting several blood-vessels. Before he could command his voice sufficiently to deal with Mr Theale as he deserved, his daughter-in-law, who had accorded the pleasantry a hearty laugh, intervened, saying: ‘Now, you hold your tongue, Fabian, do! I know what’s worrying you, sir, and small blame to you! If Hetty don’t snap Ludlow up while she has the chance to do it, he’ll be head over ears in love with that girl, and you may kiss your fingers to him. I don’t say she’s his mistress, but I’d lay you odds she’s up to no good. What’s more, she’s a beauty – if you like those bold eyes, which, for my part, I don’t, though it’s easy to see t
hey’re exactly to Sir Gareth’s taste! Well, what I say is that to set poor Hetty beside that bird of paradise is to ruin any chance she might have had!’

  The truth underlying these blunt words was forcibly brought home to the company, when, just before dinner was announced, Hester led Amanda into the room.

  Had Lady Widmore given way to impulse at that moment, she would have boxed her sister-in-law’s ears. One glance at the radiant vision on the threshold was enough to inform her that Hester, like the hen-witted female Lady Widmore had for long considered her to be, had lent one of her own gowns to the interloper. Its rose-pink sheen had never become Hester, but it was fair to say that it might have been created especially to show Amanda off to the best advantage. The chit looked dazzlingly lovely, her great eyes sparkling with pleasure in her first silk gown, her cheeks a little flushed, and her lips just parted in a smile at once shy and triumphant. Small wonder that all the gentlemen were staring at her, like dogs at a marrow-bone! thought her ladyship bitterly.

  Amanda was in fine fettle, and had been peacocking in front of the mirror for several minutes, admiring herself, and playing at being a grand lady. She expected to stun all beholders by so much magnificence, and she was pleased to perceive that she had done it. A month at Bath had by no means inured her to admiration, but it had taught her a good deal about the ways of fashionable beauties. To Sir Gareth’s appreciative amusement, she began to play off all the tricks she had observed, flirting with the fan Hester had given her, and making shameless use of her brilliant eyes. Nothing, he thought, could more surely have betrayed her extreme youthfulness. She was like a child, allowed to dress-up in her elder sister’s clothes, and doing her best to ape the ways of her seniors. He could picture his niece, who always became alarmingly grown-up if ever he took her for a drive round the Park, play-acting in just such a style; and he knew exactly how to apply a damper to spirits mounting too high. Well, if she became too outrageous he would apply that damper; but if she kept within bounds he would let her enjoy herself: it might keep her from hatching plans of escape from him.