‘Good evening, Admiral, Miss Elinor, Miss Taylor,’ I said, trying to sound self-assured. ‘No, there’s no problem. It’s just my bootlace. My cousin and my aunt will be back in a moment.’ I prayed that he couldn’t see Jane and Harry romantically silhouetted against the shining colourful waterfall.
He hesitated for a minute, glancing at the crowds milling around and at a group of young officers laughing loudly. ‘Well, perhaps Miss Taylor will wait with you,’ he said, beckoning to the governess without even glancing in her direction. I thought him very rude to the poor lady, I must say. I could see why Thomas disliked him.
‘Sir Walter, could I ask a great favour of you? Would you be kind enough to escort my niece into that labyrinth? She has a fancy to go, and I can’t abide these places. In any case, I have just seen an old acquaintance in the distance and he will be quite offended if I don’t greet him. Go along, my dear,’ he said to Elinor, who turned even paler. ‘Sir Walter will take good care of you.’
I didn’t think that Elinor looked happy about this arrangement. She did murmur, ‘Uncle,’ but he shooed her along as if she was a chicken in his way. She looked very young, very small and fragile beside the tall, god-like figure of her escort, who gave me a cool up-and-down look.
‘I’ll take good care of her, sir.’ Sir Walter smiled down at Elinor as he tucked her arm under his and assured the admiral that he would make sure that no rough men would come near Miss Williams. I watched them go towards the labyrinth. Groups of girls with male escorts were giggling as they streamed into the maze of secret passages. I could imagine what fun it would have been if only Thomas were still here and perhaps Jane and Harry could join us. But Elinor didn’t look as though she was having fun. She seemed to shrink away from Sir Walter. Her head was bent and her bonnet hid her features. I watched her go with concern and she looked up and caught my eye. Abruptly she rearranged her expression to one of haughty arrogance. Somehow or other, I thought that it was as though she were acting a part. There was no doubt that she was jealous of me and Thomas, but was he right? Was she just a child – a child who needed protecting? Or did she just dislike me intensely for no reason other than jealousy? However, it was the one thing that Thomas had asked of me and I couldn’t fail him. I stood up and looked after them, feeling rather worried. There wasn’t much that I could do, I told myself.
And yet I had promised Thomas. I remembered what he said about Sir Walter being involved in a scandal. He was no person to trust a young girl to.
‘Miss Taylor,’ I said rapidly. ‘Would you mind waiting here for a moment? I must see my cousin. She is expecting me.’
I had a quick glance over my shoulder as I went towards the waterfall. Miss Taylor had retreated to one of the rustic benches set into little arbours. Couples occupied every one of the others, and for a moment I almost felt that she looked slightly comic, seated there, so stiffly, all by herself. But then, as one of the links-men passed, bearing a flaming torch, I saw her face. It was drawn into tight lines of anxiety and I realized that she was deeply worried about Elinor.
Harry and Jane were laughing together about one of their childhood games when I approached – something about building a house in the woods when Jane was eight years old. They didn’t look particularly romantic so I didn’t mind interrupting them. I told Jane about Elinor and Sir Walter Montmorency going into the labyrinth alone and how I had promised Thomas to keep an eye on her. Jane was immediately intrigued.
‘How did she seem?’ she asked.
I hesitated and then said that I thought she looked pale and worried. And that the governess looked worried also. I told them what Thomas had said.
‘Let’s follow them,’ said Harry. I could see that the words ‘dastardly baronet’ were trembling on Jane’s lips, and I agreed immediately with Harry. The sooner we followed them the better. I wondered whether I should tell Miss Taylor, but then I thought that the admiral, if he heard, would think that officious of me. After all, he was the one who suggested Sir Walter should accompany his niece to the labyrinth.
The labyrinth would have been such fun if I hadn’t been worried about Elinor. Even though we could see the centre of it, with the famous Merlin swing, like a gorgeously decorated boat, up high above us, the passages, with their ten-foot hedges, continually ended with only a choice of going left or right, but never went straight ahead in the direction needed. Groups of couples wandered up and down, laughing and calling out to each other, most people seeming quite happy to be lost.
I began to despair of finding them – there were so many people and so many voices from unseen people – lots of shrieks from girls and laughs from men – but no trace of Elinor and Sir Walter.
After about ten minutes I said to Jane that I was perhaps making a fuss about nothing and that I didn’t want to spoil their enjoyment. Perhaps we should just concentrate on searching for the Merlin swing in the centre of the labyrinth.
‘No, we should go on looking for her, because once we get to Merlin’s swing we’ll have to go out,’ said Jane, but the way her face lit up and then fell when I mentioned Merlin’s swing was enough. I knew that she was dying to try it out. Harry looked from one to the other of us.
‘No, let’s go,’ I insisted. ‘Can you see it, Harry?’
‘I can see it,’ he said. ‘This way.’
Even from inside the hedged paths, Merlin’s swing was easily visible to everyone who was not as small as I was. To make it even easier to find, a man stood on it when it was not occupied and shouted encouragement to couples who looked as though they were getting desperate – though many, snuggled into benches in leafy alcoves, seemed happy to be lost forever!!!
It wasn’t easy to find though as the paths threaded in and out and turned direction in a most confusing way. Harry, however, was a man who was used to finding his way through dense woodland. At every corner where men and girls were debating which way to turn, he made an instant and decisive choice, and within a few minutes we were at the centre of the labyrinth, being congratulated by the attendant.
‘Don’t look so worried, Miss Jenny,’ whispered Harry as the attendant assisted Jane to climb into the boat-like swing. ‘I’ve just thought that we might be able to see your friend from the swing. You’re very high up in that. We should be able to see the whole of the maze from up there.’
I thanked him. Harry is becoming more and more impressive, I think.
‘In you go, young lady,’ said the attendant. ‘Don’t worry – it’s as safe as houses.’
The Merlin swing was more like a boat than a swing. It hung from a bar between two twenty-foot-tall posts. By pulling the ropes alternately the boat goes higher and higher. It was so exciting that I screamed at one stage, but Jane only laughed and pulled her rope harder. Then she stood up, and Harry stood up and the boat really flew through the air. We could see everything – all over the gardens!
And then I remembered Elinor. I stood up too, pulling hard on the rope. I should have been scared, but I was concentrating too hard to be frightened.
There was a small grotto – very romantic-looking, filled with moss and tiny white flowers – at the end of one of those passages in the maze that led to nowhere. There were two figures in it – very closely entwined. The lights were bright though and I could see the purple gown and the pale blue coat. It was definitely Elinor and Sir Walter.
‘Harry, there she is,’ I said, and I pointed. He nodded grimly and at once began to slow the swing. Jane did not protest. This was a situation after her own heart: the dastardly baronet and the innocent young girl. It could have come straight out of Clarissa!
‘Thank you, sir,’ said the attendant. He was probably used to groups swinging for as long as they possibly could and was grateful we had stopped so quickly of our own accord. ‘This is the way out, sir; you’ll get straight back to the main pathway if you go through that gate just there.’
I wondered what Harry would do. Obviously the man wouldn’t allow people to go back into the labyri
nth from here. I could see him looking puzzled, running his hand over his blond hair, his blue eyes unsure and anxious. It was left to Jane, of course, to deal with the situation.
‘Oh no!’ She gave an artistic little scream as she felt at her neck. ‘Oh, Jenny, I’ve lost the miniature of my great-uncle! Do you remember that I was showing it to you when we were sitting in that grotto? I wonder whether I left it there. Oh, what will I do?’
She gazed at the attendant with the distraught expression of a devoted great-niece who has lost what she values the most.
‘Don’t you worry, miss,’ he said reassuringly. ‘I’ll just slip you out here. I’ll show the gentleman where to go too. It’s just next to the entrance. You’ll go back out that way when you find it though, won’t you? I’d get into trouble if you came to have a second chance of Merlin’s swing.’
‘We’ll certainly do that; it’s really very kind of you,’ said Jane with one of her most charming smiles, and Harry and I murmured our thanks.
Once out, Harry was back in control again and he strode along the pathways looking determined.
‘Shame I don’t have my gun,’ he said to Jane with his attractive lopsided grin.
‘Duelling pistols would be more appropriate to a hero,’ said Jane primly, and Harry laughed.
‘In here,’ he said after a few minutes and we turned down a short avenue between two hedges. At the top of it was the grotto that I had seen from high on Merlin’s swing.
There were still two figures there. But they were entwined. The blue coat enclosed the purple gown; the baronet was kissing the lady!
And the lady was not struggling.
Not pulling back.
Not trying to scream.
Just there, in his arms.
Perhaps Elinor does love this Sir Walter????
After all, I suppose brothers aren’t always aware what is in their sisters’ heads – I should know!
I’ve just stopped writing to ask Jane how she felt at the moment when we realized that Elinor was kissing Sir Walter.
Jane has been thinking about this question and this is her answer. She counted her feelings out on her fingers:
‘Firstly, I felt embarrassed.
‘Secondly, I felt that it wasn’t a real love scene.
‘And then,‘ she went on, ‘I began to look at her carefully when they stopped kissing, and this is what I thought . . .
‘I thought she looked frightened.
‘I thought that, although she looked excited and sort of thrilled, she looked ashamed at the same time.
‘I thought she didn’t look happy.’
We went on discussing love for quite a while.
‘You should know all about this, Jenny,’ said Jane, in the severe tones of a schoolmistress. ‘You are the one in love. Pray tell me, dear girl, what does being in love make you feel like?’
‘I’m not sure . . .’ I hesitated and Jane cut in immediately.
‘Come, come, my dear, you can do better than that. Think hard!’
‘It’s a bit like sitting in front of a blazing fire, drinking hot spiced wine and knowing that something very exciting is going to happen,’ I said eventually.
‘Excellent!’ said Jane in a mock-patronizing tone. ‘You are doing well, Jenny dear. Now tell me – do you ever feel sad about loving Thomas?’
‘Never!’ I exclaimed.
‘And how do you know that he is the right man for you?’
‘Because I never have any doubts.’
‘You answered that nice and quickly,’ said Jane approvingly. Excited, happy and certain. I must remember that for my novels. And, of course, for that wonderful moment when I too meet my hero.’
I smiled. ‘Do you know who I think acted like a hero in Sydney Gardens?’
‘Dear Harry,’ mused Jane. ‘Yes, he was rather splendid, wasn’t he?’
Here are some of our comments about Harry.
‘I liked the way he said so calmly, “Miss Williams, your governess sent us to find you.” This was mine.
‘I liked the way that he casually slipped his hand into his pocket as if he had one of a pair of pistols there.’ This was Jane’s.
‘And the way that he looked at Sir Walter and didn’t look at Elinor.’ I had thought that very sensitive of him because once Elinor had seen us she burst into tears.
‘The best bit was where he said, “Please take my arm, Miss Williams,” and he just waited even though she was in tears. I couldn’t believe it, with Sir Walter blustering and shouting, “I’m having a private conversation with this lady, young man. You are an ill-mannered puppy, sir!” but Harry just took no notice, held out his arm to Elinor with a lovely smile and acted as though Sir Walter wasn’t even there. And Elinor clung to his arm as though he were her brother.’ Jane keeps laughing so much that she is jogging my elbow. That’s why this handwriting is so bad!
‘And then when Sir Walter shouted after us, “You’ll hear from my friends, sir!” and Harry just said, “That’ll be good. I miss my daily session of shooting rats and such-like vermin in Hampshire.” And he said it without even turning his head. That was the best bit, I think.’ I laughed when I said this, but Jane just looked thoughtful.
‘Dear, dear Harry! I never saw him stand up to someone before now. He was always such a gentle boy. All his brothers bullied him, and so did my brothers – all except Frank.’ Jane looked so serious when she said these words that I decided not to discuss Elinor any more. Jane needs time to think about the men in her life to sort out what she really feels for Harry. Elinor is my responsibility, not hers.
I feel worried about Elinor. Jane is right. She didn’t look like a girl in love.
So why was she allowing Sir Walter to kiss her?
Did she feel that she had to obey her uncle? Obviously he wants Sir Walter to marry her and perhaps Elinor thought that was the right way to engage his affections.
Or was it that no one gives her much love and affection? That governess looks dreary and worn out. And Thomas is away so much that she can see very little of him. Perhaps she found it comforting to be shown affection by Sir Walter because she receives very little from anyone else.
And the admiral is rather terrifying.
This morning, Jane and I shall call on her.
We called in at the lodgings in York Street, down near the Pump Room, just after lunch but we couldn’t persuade Elinor to be friends. We couldn’t even get her to speak to us.
It’s difficult to talk to someone who makes it plain that they dislike you – I realize that Thomas is her hero and she can’t forgive me for taking him away from her but, to be honest, I don’t think that she likes Jane either. It was like talking to a ghost or someone who was scared stiff. Unfortunately the admiral was there. Every time that either Jane or I asked Elinor a question, she hesitated and then the admiral jumped in and answered it for her – just putting in, ‘Is that not so, Elinor?’ at the end of each reply.
And Elinor would say, ‘Yes, Uncle,’ in a very small, quiet voice.
Sometimes the governess spoke for her and then she would say, ‘Yes, Miss Taylor,’ in the same tone.
An invitation to walk up Milsom Street and look into the shop windows was firmly refused by the admiral on the grounds that it might rain.
Elinor didn’t look disappointed. Or even interested. Just went on staring at the floor.
She was dressed in yet another purple gown – it was silk, but a harsh colour, more like something that an elderly lady would wear than a proper gown for a girl of our age.
‘What does Sir Walter Montmorency see in her?’ asked Jane in a puzzled voice when we were walking away from the house. ‘I would have thought he would look for something more sophisticated. She’s not really even pretty. She’s too washed-out looking.’
I told Jane that I thought it was the purple gown that made Elinor look so pale.
‘Why does she wear that awful colour? It looks dreadful on her.’
‘It’s a pity she wouldn
’t come out with us,’ I said. ‘We could have taken her to that lovely shop and shown her some muslins; the admiral is very, very rich, you know, and Thomas told me that he is giving Elinor a large dowry. He wants her to make an excellent match.’
And then Jane stopped, dead in the middle of the pavement, earning herself an annoyed glance from an elderly gentleman with a stick who had almost bumped into her.
‘I know what it is,’ she said in a loud, clear voice. ‘I know what the dastardly baronet is up to.’
‘Shh,’ I whispered. ‘Everyone will hear you. Quick, come in here, into the abbey. We can talk quietly there.’
Giggling together we ran along York Street and rushed into the abbey.
Many of the people examining the wonderful carvings and admiring the stained-glass windows turned round when we came rushing in. We crept to the back of the church, to a dark corner where there didn’t seem to be anything of interest, and we fell on our knees with our bonnets touching.
‘What?’ I hissed.
‘He’s after her fortune, that’s it,’ said Jane. Her dark hazel eyes were sparkling with excitement. ‘Do you remember we saw him gambling – in the card room? He may have lost all his own money – just like that Duchess of Devonshire. What sort of fortune will the admiral give Elinor?’
I told her I wasn’t sure but thought it would be quite large eventually, and even now he had settled fifty thousand pounds on her.
‘Well, that would be two thousand, five hundred pounds a year for a start,’ whispered Jane, who was good at arithmetic. ‘Imagine! My father only has five hundred pounds a year.’
‘And my fortune is fifty pounds a year!’ I felt a bit sorry that I was not worth more to Thomas, but then I didn’t think he was the sort of man to want to marry a girl for her fortune. He was too independent. He was certain that he would make his own fortune in the navy.
‘But, Jane,’ I said after a minute, ‘I suppose even if that is true, if Elinor likes him, then there is no reason why we should interfere. Let him ask for her hand from the admiral, like an honourable man.’ And then I giggled a little because that did sound like something out of one of Mrs Radcliffe’s novels.
Jane Austen Stole My Boyfriend Page 11