‘Quite so, my boy.’ The slurping continued. ‘Why d’you marry that little girl anyway?’ asked Sir Martin, suddenly looking up from his food.
‘She’s Old Tom’s granddaughter, remember? She was part of the bargain for the cove.’
‘Was she indeed! You’ve got the better part of the bargain there, Oliver, I should say,’ bellowed the fat old baronet, spitting food in all directions.
He smiled sardonically. ‘Mmmm… One of my more astute moves, I admit, particularly if she’s a good childbearer.’
‘Ah, so that’s it, is it? It’s sons that you want, eh? A man needs a son to carry on his name. S’pose it is high time you settled down. You’re the same age my Arthur would have been, aren’t you?’ Sir Martin’s flabby face contorted in his effort to think. ‘Yes, that’s right. Arthur would have been thirty-five next Michaelmas and you’re a small bit younger. Arthur would have liked her, your little wife. As I remember, the two of you were always fighting over women… or sharing them. With the wedding night over he might well have been planning how to seduce your little wife, were he here to!’ Sir Martin bellowed again.
‘Yes, and I his, no doubt. I often wish Arthur was still alive, Martin. These past ten years have been lonely without his companionship.’ They were serious for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts of the past.
‘Anyway, my boy, you have someone to keep you company now. I don’t see much of my brood these days, sons or daughters. They seem to want to spend all their time in London, with the exception of William. He and Rachael have taken up permanent residence at Tolwithrick and are happy and comfortable there. It will be his one day soon, when I’m dead and laid to rest in the family chapel.’
‘Huh, you fat old coot, you’ll live to be one hundred and ten. I’d bet my wine cellar on it.’
Sir Martin roared with laughter and choked on a huge mouthful of best gammon. Hastily he reached for a glass of water to wash it down as Oliver sprang up to pound on his back. The elderly gentleman’s nightcap slipped off, while more water soaked the bedcovers than ended up down his throat.
‘You young swine, Pengarron,’ he gasped, ‘nearly responsible for my early demise there. You! Risk the contents of your overflowing cellar on a losing bet? Huh! That’ll be the day young Preacher Renfree takes up drinking and turns atheist. Now, be so kind as to pour me another cup of tea.’
‘Matthias Renfree would certainly like to see me drink less,’ returned Oliver as he refilled the other man’s cup.
Sir Martin resumed his breakfast.
‘Your little wife, Oliver. She involved in this Methodist business?’
‘Yes, but she’ll be attending St Piran’s with me now.’
‘Quite right too. Been confirmed?’
‘Yes, apparently, but for the life of me I can’t remember her taking Communion.’
‘Overlooked that one, eh? Mind you, she is a discreet little thing. Probably sat at the back of the church hiding away from the wicked Lord of the Manor, along with all the other local virgins.’ Sir Martin tore off a chunk of bread and stuffed it into his mouth with a teasing glint in his eyes. Oliver met it with a wry smile.
‘S’pose you’ll be hurrying home to the nest again tonight, eh, my boy?’
Oliver drained his teacup and wiped his mouth, tossing the napkin on the bed.
‘Perhaps,’ he said, studying his fingernails.
Sir Martin eyed him for a moment, then they both laughed loudly.
Getting rapidly to his feet, Oliver retrieved the riding crop he’d tossed on the bed as he entered the room.
‘Oliver?’
‘Yes, Martin?’
‘What’s your little wife called?’
‘Kerensa.’
‘A pretty name. Bring her over to my next supper party. She’ll be fine with Rachael to look after her. Now, my boy, before you go, kindly fill my cup again.’
* * *
Alice was uncertain what she ought to do at first that morning. With the King sisters she had risen early, envying them as they’d started work in the kitchen. She went reluctantly upstairs and hovered outside the master bedroom, wondering if she should go in to help Kerensa dress for breakfast. She was about to knock tentatively on the door when it was suddenly opened and Sir Oliver appeared before her. Jumping back in fright, Alice clapped a hand to her thumping heart. Recovering quickly, she dropped a curtsey.
‘Good morning, m’lord.’
He raised an enquiring eyebrow.
‘Good morning to you…?’
‘It’s Alice, Sir. Alice Ford.’
‘Alice.’ He inclined his head to her. ‘You may go in to her ladyship now.’
Alice returned his direct look without a trace of servility.
‘Thank you, sir.’
Sir Oliver held the door open for her, forcing her to lower her head as she passed under his outstretched arm. Running energetically down the stairs, he left Alice to close the door herself. She found Kerensa facing her, her face half smiling, half frowning, as she struggled to close the hooks on the back of one of her new dresses.
‘I didn’t expect him to hold on to that door like that,’ Alice complained loudly. ‘It made me feel proper silly.’ She dashed a hand to her mouth, ‘Oh, I’m that sorry, I’m forgetting myself. Good morning, m’lady.’
‘Don’t call me that please, Alice… not when we’re alone. You’re my friend, after all,’ Kerensa said, breathless from her efforts to reach the hooks.
‘Well, if you think it proper. Better not let his lordship hear me calling you Kerensa, though. I doubt he would approve.’ Alice moved behind her, nimbly fastening the stiff hooks. ‘Don’t know why you’re trying to do this yourself, you have me to do it for you, remember?’
‘Don’t nag me, Alice Ford,’ Kerensa chided her friend good-humouredly, ‘I’m not ready to change my whole way of life in one day. I’ll brush my own hair too.’
As Kerensa moved to her dressing-table, Alice went in the opposite direction and stood at the head of the bed. She stared down at the indentation left in one of the plump pillows. Picking up a solitary strand of long black hair, she wound it tightly around a finger.
‘He’ll take some satisfying,’ she murmured to herself.
‘What was that you said?’ Kerensa asked, looking at Alice’s reflection in the mirror.
Coming straight to the point but feeling embarrassed so turning her back, she said, ‘What was it like last night? Did he hurt you? Was he cruel? I couldn’t sleep a wink all night worrying about it.’
Kerensa couldn’t bring herself to look at Alice and instead gazed down at the brush in her hand. Her body was still feeling the effects of Oliver’s lovemaking. There was a constant tingle on her lips, and where he had so delicately touched her. He had been patient and thoughtful of her youth and inexperience, and after he had withdrawn from her had immediately taken her back into his arms and held her close against him all through the night. There she had lain, feeling warmed through and somehow comforted, breathing in his masculine smell and feeling small and young and yet having taken on a new maturity. In the early hours of the morning he had teased her out of her nightgown and she had felt a fresh vulnerability as he had made love to her again, and it had been like a continuation of what had happened between them earlier in the night.
How her responses to him had been and how she had made him feel, she did not know, and did not want to think because it only accentuated her feeling of betraying Clem’s love. It was his lovemaking she should have received last night; he loved her and she loved him, and it should only have been with Clem that she shared this most intimate of all things.
‘No, Alice,’ she said, after a long silence. ‘He wasn’t cruel to me, but I’d rather not talk about it… or think about it. You see, when I think of Clem, it hurts so much that it wasn’t him.’
‘Yes, of course, I suppose I shouldn’t have mentioned it. But I wanted to be sure you were all right.’
Kerensa went to Alice and t
ook her hands. They faced each other with their faces burning. ‘It’s so good having you around, Alice.’
‘Whatever happens, Kerensa, I’ll help you through,’ Alice promised.
Kerensa went back to brushing her hair and Alice pointed reprovingly at the clothing strewn about on the floor.
‘He’s an untidy beggar, isn’t he?’
‘Never mind that now. Sir Oliver wants to hold family prayers in the great hall in ten minutes. Will you tell Ruth and Esther now, please?’
‘Prayers!’ Alice’s face showed utter disbelief. ‘Who’d have thought it?’
* * *
The prayers were performed with enough reverence to grace even the most renowned of clergymen, and Sir Oliver left the Manor house soon after breakfast. Alice was smoothing out the muddied, silk skirts of the wedding dress when Kerensa sought her out in her dressing room, flopped down on a chair and crossly folded her arms.
‘What’s the matter? Has something upset you?’ Alice had been ready to rush to the defence of the other girl if need be.
‘Ruth and Esther won’t let me do any work. Not even lift a plate off the breakfast table. They’re insisting I’m not to do anything they’re supposed to… it wouldn’t be in keeping now I’m mistress of a grand house.’ Kerensa waved her hands in irritation. ‘When I tried to explain that I’m used to hard work, that I like to be busy, to be useful, they suggested I go to my sitting room, make myself comfortable, and sew!’
Alice looked sympathetically at the girl who at that moment looked like a petulant child.
‘I see… they’re right in a way, Ruth and Esther, you’ll have to get used to a lot of changes.’
Kerensa looked even more cross. ‘But I can’t spend the rest of my life embroidering ‘O’s’ on silk shirts, Alice!’
‘Now, let me think,’ she said soothingly, ‘what sort of things do ladies do?’
She chewed on her lip as she concentrated. Kerensa leaned forward hopefully.
‘I know, they spend a lot of time in their gardens, don’t they?’
‘Talking like this makes it sound like a game,’ Kerensa said dolefully. ‘But it isn’t, Alice! My whole life has been turned upside down and I still can’t get Clem out of my mind. I feel like a traitor. I let all this happen, and if I’m unhappy it’s no more than I deserve. I’ll just have to make the best of it.’
She got up and looked gloomily out of the window to where Jake Angove, the Manor’s head gardener, was attending to a square of earth where straight rows of rose trees grew. She pictured herself asking him for advice on what to grow and where to grow it, and wearing dainty gloves, cutting blooms and laying them in a long wicker garden basket. Alice stood at her side and put an arm around her shoulders.
‘It wasn’t your fault, Kerensa. You had no choice. If my father says I’m to marry someone for the good of the family, I’ll go ahead and do it. Us women don’t have much say in the matter.’
‘Maybe not, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.’ Kerensa lifted the skirt of her powder blue, floral-patterned gown and shot a reproachful look at her satin slippers. ‘But I’m not going to turn into a lady overnight,’ she murmured.
‘Eh?’
‘You haven’t thrown my old things away, have you, Alice?’
‘No, of course not. I thought if you don’t want them no more, as they wouldn’t fit me, I was going to ask you if I could pass them on to Rosina Pearce. Here, what are you up to?’
‘I’m going to wear one of my old dresses and shoes to go out in the garden and Rosina can have the rest, and I’ll have something made up for her. At least now maybe I can do something useful for someone else. Perhaps I could ask her to come over here to the Manor and we could all have tea together. I want to keep in touch with her.’
‘Oh, don’t ask her to come over here, Kerensa,’ Alice advised. ‘That brute of a brother of hers wouldn’t like it and he’d only make her suffer for it. Benefit Cap’n Solomon put a ruddy hole in his head instead of his hand backalong!’
‘Yes, it was, and it’s a pity I can’t invite Rosina. But at least you can keep an eye on her when you visit your family and we’ll do whatever we can for her.’
Feeling much more comfortable in her own familiar things, but thinking it strange to be wearing what once had been her Sunday best for gardening in, Kerensa hurried outside. On the way she was waylaid by Esther who informed her that there was hardly any food left in the larders. Suddenly feeling like giving orders, Kerensa said loftily, ‘Sir Oliver’s told me the Manor has an account at Araminta Bray’s grocery shop. Ask Alice if she would take Meryn and the small trap into Marazion and order enough food to restock the larders. They can bring back what we require immediately and the rest can be sent over… oh, and while she’s there she can call at Mistress Gluyas’ to see if any more of my things are ready.’
* * *
Alice had listened open-mouthed as Esther had recounted this to her later. It seemed Kerensa was not by any means going to be a meek mistress to them. She smiled to herself as she visualised Kerensa delivering her orders, her small chin forward, her grey-green eyes sparkling with determination. Perhaps Sir Oliver too would have a surprise or two ahead of him, she thought, as she struggled with a wide cumbersome package tied up with red ribbon, on her way back to the trap having completed her morning’s errands in Marazion.
‘Hey, Alice!’ came a shout behind her. ‘Wait there, I’ll give you a hand.’
Alice turned, and waited with interest for Clem Trenchard to catch up with her. Gratefully she handed over the heavy package into his outstretched hands.
‘You’re a welcome sight, Clem,’ she told him. ‘I’ve got a trap outside Araminta Bray’s being loaded up with provisions for the Manor’s kitchens. In town shopping yourself, are you?’ She was dying to find out what he was doing and how he was feeling.
‘No, just hanging about, don’t feel much like working,’ he replied in a dry flat voice.
They waited at the trap as Araminta Bray’s errand boy put the last basket of foodstuffs in, then Clem put the package down beside them.
‘What’s all this for?’ he asked moodily, inclining his head at the overflowing baskets.
‘There’s hardly any food left in the Manor. You wouldn’t believe how much the wedding guests ate yesterday,’ she answered him, watching his face closely for any reaction. ‘Nothing but greedy pigs, the lot of them. When I think of how long it took us to prepare it all.’
‘Huh,’ he murmured, moving aside foodstuffs in one of the baskets to see what it contained, ‘there’s enough in here to feed my family for a month.’
‘And there’s more to be sent over later on. I came over with an order Ruth and Esther had made up but this lot was already being prepared.’
Clem fingered the sumptuous ribbon and bows on the package.
‘It’s a dress,’ Alice explained.
‘For Kerensa?’ He looked sharply at her.
‘Yes. I just collected it from Mistress Gluyas’ establishment.’
‘Mistress Gluyas? He’s not mean with his money then. Are you going back to the Manor now?’
Alice hesitated before she admitted she was; Clem’s voice seemed normal enough but his face was gaunt, his eyes unnaturally cold.
‘I’ve nothing to do for an hour or so, can I keep you company part of the way?’ He was already holding out his hand to help her up on the trap.
‘Well… I… all right, Clem,’ she ended brightly, hoping to lift his solemn mood.
He took the reins and held Meryn at a steady trot as they left the town behind them. After a while Alice leaned forward and looked up under Clem’s bowed head. His eyes were fixed on the road ahead. He looked in need of friendly conversation.
‘Fancy me driving a pony and trap,’ Alice said chirpily, ‘Jack reckoned I’d have no trouble. Meryn there is a quiet pony. Jack said Meryn’s been to Marazion and back so many times he’d find his way in the dark.’
‘Aye, this pony won
’t give you any trouble.’
‘Haven’t seen you at the meetings lately,’ she said.
‘Haven’t been anywhere much lately.’
Alice let her shawl slip back from her shoulders. After the persistent rain of the day before the sun was pleasingly hot, the air fresh, the atmosphere clean, as though spring had decided to declare an early appearance.
Still watching the road, Clem said, in a voice that did not match the fine weather, ‘Do you like your new job, Alice?’
‘Oh, yes,’ she replied enthusiastically. ‘It’s much better than dressing tin ore for a living.’
‘I used to watch Kerensa walking to and from the Manor with those two tall King women. I prayed that for just one day she’d be alone. I wanted to talk to her so much. I even thought of kidnapping her to get her away from—’
‘Oh, Clem,’ Alice put a comforting hand on his arm.
Clem had had a lot of comforting hands reaching out to him, but none of them helped to ease his heartbreak.
He pulled Meryn to a halt and faced the girl beside him. He had lost weight, and the eyes in his pale face seemed to have lost their deep colour. Where men were concerned Alice had never been forward in her life, but she reached out and clasped his hand tightly in both of hers.
‘I’m sorry for you, Clem,’ she said softly, ‘I wish there was something I could do to help.’
‘How is she, Alice?’ he returned earnestly. ‘You can tell me how she really is.’
‘Kerensa is well, Clem. Honestly. At this moment she’ll be out in the gardens with Jake Angove.’
‘I didn’t believe she’d go through with it,’ he said, shaking his head slowly. ‘My family convinced me to keep out of the way and do nothing, but I should have spoken to her again! Made her see reason!’ His voice had steadily risen with emotion, then he seemed to choke. ‘She might even believe I don’t really care… that I don’t love her after all.’
‘Kerensa doesn’t believe that, Clem, I’m sure she doesn’t.’
He grasped her by the shoulders. ‘Alice, will you promise me something?’
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