They timed their arrival perfectly, being among some of the very last to put in an appearance before the royal party themselves arrived in procession from Windsor Castle. As they waited for the Queen’s equipage to make its slow progress towards the Royal Enclosure May met many of her new friends, including Portia Tradescant with whom she had struck up an acquaintance since the time they had both been chosen by the Salisburys to lead the first ball of the Season. Portia was again dressed in white, which Aunt Tattie considered most becoming to her colouring, although in truth the beautiful dress which had been made from a silk woven in Lyons was shot through with threads of the palest blue which gave the dress a shimmering appearance without the onlookers knowing quite why. Portia’s hat too was white, simple and set straight on her head with a large plain white bow on the front. The effect was altogether successful, particularly given the colour and size of Portia’s large grey eyes. Portia was with Willoughby de Childhays’ party. On being introduced to May Lord Childhays complimented her on her wonderful appearance which was, as May was quick to notice, about the only time he managed to take his eyes off Portia.
Soon after the royal party had arrived and made their way to their private box, May saw the Eveshams coming across the lawns towards them, although for once it was not Daisy herself who was attracting all the attention but her by now famously popular protégée Emily Persse. Emily had been in two minds when her patron had decreed the outfit she was to wear since she did not for one moment think that pink and the palest pink at that would at all suit her own rather strong colouring of auburn hair and bright green eyes. She need not have worried because Daisy’s taste was absolutely correct and the colour she had chosen for her charge rather than paling into insignificance seemed to draw warmth and life from the wearer’s natural cast. Like May’s dress and as was the fashion the bodice of the dress was tight, pink muslin sewn over pink silk, high necked and with two rows of pale pink artificial roses sewn in lines down to her beribboned waist. The skirt too was muslin over silk to match the bodice and her shoes were pink with some very pretty cloqués on the heels. Finally for a hat they had both agreed upon a small straw to be worn perched on the side of the head and decorated with a mass of tiny flowers on one side balanced on the other by an eyecatching display of emerald green feathers. Emily was attended by the now truly besotted Captain Peter Pilkington.
And a couple of steps behind her and her patron, the barely sober Lord Lanford.
‘Mrs Danby, Miss Danby, how do you do?’ Daisy Evesham said as she came up to them. ‘What a charming occasion Gold Cup Day is, as always, and how very charming everyone is looking. Might I present Captain Peter Pilkington to you bofe? Alvough I believe Miss Danby has of course already made his acquaintance on the dance floor. And my son Lord Lanford.’
Lord Lanford, who was renowned for the scant interest he took in the opposite sex unless they were married, was busy talking to one of the many hangers-on who had attached himself to his mother’s party. But when the introduction to May was finally effected he then performed a perfect example of a reaction which was later to become famously known as a double-take. First he glanced at Emily as he half proffered a limp hand while uttering a vaguely audible how-d’you-do, then he returned his attention to the slack-jawed fop by his side, and then – then he swung back to take a second speechless look at the young woman who had just been presented to him. For one long moment he stared at her in utter silence, what could be seen of his somewhat shallow forehead under his fringe of dark oiled hair deeply creased in a frown and his mouth half open as if he was unconscious, before swallowing hard and asking if he could be reminded of the young lady’s name.
‘Miss May Danby, Harry darling,’ Daisy replied with no hint of criticism. ‘She has been making something of a name for herself throughout the Season.’
‘Yes,’ Lord Lanford gulped, swallowing hard once again while continuing to stare transfixed at May. ‘Look,’ he suddenly said. ‘Would you excuse me? I’m most frightfully sorry. Please excuse me.’ And then turning about he disappeared as fast as he could towards the bottom of the stand.
‘Typical.’ Daisy smiled with the forbearance of a parent who has long ago lost any control. ‘Dear Harry. He probably has a good fing for ve first race and has forgotten to back it.’
‘With a modicum of luck, Mamma, he might have gone to wash his hair in a horse bucket,’ May whispered after they had begun to go their separate ways to the paddock.
Alice concealed her laugh behind her hand before replying. ‘It would do him no end of good to put his head in some cold water. He certainly is nowhere near sober.’
Miraculously the next time they all met up Harry Lanford was all but unrecognizable. He was by no means completely sober but something had brought him somewhere near to his senses and Alice Danby hoped she knew exactly what. As did Daisy Evesham. Not only was he no longer so obviously tipsy but he had clearly gone to some length to smarten up his appearance, granted not altogether successfully for whenever he removed his top hat his long black hair revealed it still had an untidy life of its own, flopping down one of his eyes so that he had to flick it away again with a nervous toss of his head, like one of the more fretful thoroughbreds now parading before them for the Gold Cup itself. Even so, he was now so almost presentable that he was by contrast almost unrecognizable. Even Daisy’s famous sangfroid evaporated momentarily as confronted by a son in a state she had not seen for ages she almost failed to identify him.
But her son had little interest in either his mother’s quite visible surprise or anything she might have to say. It seemed all he wanted was to be by May Danby’s side, and once back in their group he made his way straight to her, and doffing his top hat and flicking his hair out of his eyes asked her forgiveness for his sad lack of manners earlier.
‘I recollect no such thing,’ May assured him with a smile for which men would have gladly gone to war. ‘I understood you had some pressing business with a wager, and it must be faced, Lord Lanford, the serious racegoer attends the races for that purpose alone, not to socialize. So even if you did need a pardon, you would be immediately and quite unconditionally granted it.’
‘You are more than kind, Miss Danby,’ Harry Lanford muttered, once more flicking the errant lock of hair away from his eyes before replacing his hat. ‘As a token of my gratitude for your kindness let me tell you what will win this race, and then if you will permit me I shall go and place a sizeable wager on the animal for you with money from my own pocket.’
‘That is most gallant, Lord Lanford,’ May returned. ‘But I have already chosen the winner.’
Harry Lanford looked at her for a moment, chewing at the inside of one corner of his mouth quickly and nervously with unseen teeth. ‘There is only one likely winner, Miss Danby. Forgive me, but this wretched sport is one of my major preoccupations.’
‘How very jolly,’ May returned. ‘I do so like sporting men.’
‘You do, Miss Danby?’ Lord Lanford looked at May with even greater astonishment, if such a thing were possible. ‘Good gracious. I was of the opinion that most women publicly and privately considered men who gambled to be no-goods.’
‘Not if they’re not no-good at it,’ May said, delivering her small but nicely timed joke with a perfectly straight face. The effect was traumatic. In fact so much so that seeing the contortion of Lord Lanford’s face at first May thought he was going to burst into tears. Instead he burst into a roar of laughter, a great deal more to May’s way of thinking than her tiny blague merited.
‘Oh I say,’ Lord Lanford spluttered. ‘Oh I do say! That is most frightfully rich! Is it not indeed, gentlemen?’ He turned round to his cronies, all of whom were now barking obediently with laughter. ‘That is most frightfully rich, Miss Danby. But I have to tell you that good as I may be at this devilish pastime, I am not good all of the time.’
‘Hardly, Lord Lanford,’ May replied. ‘But then winning is only given its point by losing.’
‘I
say,’ Lord Lanford whispered, as if he had stumbled on the oracle at Delphi. ‘I say. Yes. Now tell me which particular horse you think is going to win the Cup, and even should it not be the horse I have already chosen, which I have been most reliably informed cannot be beaten, none the less, Miss Danby, I will change my wager and plunge it all on yours.’
‘That one,’ May said, pointing to a horse she had not even considered. ‘Number five.’
‘Number five, Miss Danby?’ Lord Lanford repeated. ‘But that horse has neither breeding nor known form.’
‘Possibly,’ May agreed. ‘But it is blessed with wonderful looks, Lord Lanford, and with exceptional grace. For this particular contest I think you may throw the form book away.’
Harry Lanford looked at May who smiled back at him as if the result was a foregone conclusion, which of course it had been from the moment the wretched young man had stumbled across the Queen’s Lawn.
‘Good,’ he announced, tapping his top hat on the brim. ‘Then if you will excuse me once again, I shall go and ensure us a healthy wager.’
To judge from its odds the horse which May had so casually selected seemed to carry no money other than that placed on its nose by Lord Lanford on behalf of himself and May. Even his sycophantic following for once refused to be swayed by their mentor’s choice and remained loyal to the favourite, plunging heavily, only to watch disbelievingly as May’s selection led the Gold Cup field from pillar to post to win by a rather easy-looking two lengths.
‘My hat,’ Harry Lanford said in awe more than astonishment. ‘My absolute hat, Miss Danby, you have just won us a small fortune.’
‘Good,’ May replied, reacting with no more excitement than if she had just won a rubber of whist. ‘I told you it would win.’
‘You are now a rich young woman, Miss Danby.’
‘Richer, Lord Lanford.’
‘I really think that this calls for a drink. Boy!’ As Lord Lanford called over a young servant from the back of their box, May turned to talk to Emily who had been watching the sequence of events quietly enthralled. Of all the triumvirate the two of them knew each other the least, despite May’s rescue of Emily on the occasion of the Duke of Salisbury’s ball, so May was very happy to renew their acquaintance as indeed was Emily.
‘I have seen you at every ball and practically every occasion I have attended,’ Emily said. ‘And I have been meaning to catch you and talk to you, but you have always either been dancing or surrounded by men.’
‘I haven’t exactly noticed you sitting many dances out of late, Lady Emily,’ May replied. ‘Although I too have been meaning to find the time to get to know you better. How are you enjoying the Season?’
‘It is a positive gas, Miss Danby, at least now so it is. Earlier it was a totally different kind of gas altogether.’
‘I am so sorry, I do not quite understand what you mean by gas, Lady Emily. How can something be described as a gas?’
‘No, that’s my fault entirely, Miss Danby, and something for which I’m always running aground over here. Well, and at home, to be perfectly truthful, for using so much idiom. Particularly my own. My maid told me that one of her friends once got a great whiff of gas, do you see? And passed out. And when she came to she said it beat gin any time. Hence gas, meaning a knockout really.’
‘And that’s how you’re finding the Season? A knockout?’
‘Now that I have the hang of it,’ Emily said confidentially, with a smile, ‘I see the secret is to take none of this nonsense seriously.’
‘You seem to have someone taking you very seriously,’ May said in a stage whisper, having recently witnessed Captain Pilkington’s public devotion to Emily.
‘I do, so I do,’ Emily laughed behind her card. ‘And so do you, do you not?’
Emily eyed Harry Lanford who was now making his way back to sit down with the two young women, having stopped to talk horses en route with another member of the party.
‘I do,’ May whispered back before he reached them. ‘But if I were you, I wouldn’t waste any money trying to predict the result.’
‘Are you talking form again, Miss Danby?’ Harry Lanford said, sitting himself back down. ‘Because if you are, I need to hear your advice.’
The waiter then arrived with a tray of champagne from which the party helped themselves.
‘I shall not back again this afternoon, Lord Lanford,’ May replied. ‘I think I would prefer to stop when I am ahead, which is probably not a bad principle generally.’
‘Then if you will not wager any more, neither shall I, Miss Danby,’ Harry Lanford replied. ‘I am fast getting the impression in fact that whatever you might say, I might do.’
‘That is quite a dangerous impression to be under, Lord Lanford. Why, I might suggest that you jump off the edge of this box. Or that you run out onto the racecourse and throw yourself under the field of horses.’
‘You might indeed, Miss Danby. And I have given such a thing my careful consideration, and do you know what finding I reach? Why, that if that was what you ordained, then that is what I should do. So what shall it be? What would you like me to do, although I would far prefer it were something which should please you.’
‘Throwing yourself under a field of galloping horses might be the answer,’ Emily said helpfully, smiling over-sweetly at a man she had already grown to hate.
‘Thank you, Lady Emily, but I do not recall asking you,’ Harry Lanford replied, the feeling of total antipathy being mutual. ‘Miss Danby?’
‘All I should really like, Lord Lanford, is for you to excuse me, for I must now return to London,’ May replied.
‘But such a thing just cannot be allowed!’ Harry Lanford spluttered, managing to spill champagne down his frock coat in his agitation. ‘What of the Gold Cup ball at my stepfather’s house? You are surely going to attend that, yes?’
‘Sadly no, Lord Lanford,’ May replied, catching her mother’s eye as prearranged. ‘It is a private family matter, but my mother and I have to return to London this evening and sadly have had to refuse your stepfather’s kind invitation.’
‘But this is terrible! Simply terrible! Is there nothing that can be done to circumvent this? If it is a matter of transport I can arrange to have you collected by a team of the fastest horses in the country driven by the very finest of drivers? Would this not be possible?’
‘I am very much afraid not, Lord Lanford, but I thank you all the same. Now you really must excuse me, because my mother and I must not be late.’
‘Might I perhaps call on you tomorrow?’
‘Perhaps you might. You may call on me tomorrow morning to see if you may call on me later in the day.’
‘Tomorrow morning, Miss Danby?’
‘Yes, but it will have to be early, let us say before half past ten.’
‘Half past ten?’
May found she could hardly keep a straight face seeing the panic such a directive had induced in someone who probably never saw daylight until well after midday.
‘You will not catch me at home otherwise, Lord Lanford. Now please excuse me.’
May rose, and having made her farewells departed with her mother well before the last race, leaving a completely desolated Lord Lanford to stare hopelessly and helplessly after her.
‘Ah well,’ Emily sighed. ‘It looks as though it might well have to be throwing yourself under the auld horses after all, your lordship.’
* * *
Portia and Lord Childhays both attended the splendid ball held at Sunning Lodge that evening, as of course did the whole of the Evesham faction. Captain Pilkington, who had been waiting with as much patience as he could muster for Emily to give him an answer to his proposal, when asked by Daisy how much longer he was expected to wait informed her that Lady Emily had promised him an answer that very night and that he expected to elicit her response before the last dance which he had already made sure of reserving. Meanwhile Emily, who herself had been considering Captain Pilkington’s proposal most c
arefully, having finally finished weighing all the pros against all the cons found out that the ayes, as it were, had it. Naturally the fate of her family and the family home was foremost in her mind, as indeed was the possibility that Rory O’Connor might have forgiven her intransigence and might still be enamoured of her, but the likelihood of that being the case seemed so faint that she discounted it, which was why she finally decided in favour of saying yes to Captain Pilkington, since she felt any sacrifice she would be required to make by marrying him would be mitigated by the fact that she knew the handsome captain at least to be a half decent horseman. Even so, the thought of giving up the rest of her life to be married to the man, even though he was considered to be one of the most eligible of all the men on offer, brought little joy to her heart.
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