A Most Unusual Lady

by Janet Grace

  Later they left John, busily vowing no one could rest in such a madhouse, to a little peace. The older brother and sister escorted their guest around the long gallery, home of the family portraits, before dinner. It was an oak-panelled room the length of the first floor, with wide oak floorboards polished to a rich glow. Sparsely furnished, the length of the room was broken only by a great square of rich Persian carpet set before the stone fireplace. On the carpet stood a huge circular table of gleaming mahogany, topped by a grotesquely over-ornate silver vase laden with flowers from the Alnstrop hothouses. For the rest, some occasional groups of chairs with fat, velvet, padded seats in deep maroon, and long, matching maroon curtains, looped back with silken tassels, gave some colour to the room—but there was nothing really to distract the eye from the Ferdinand features, hung in every minor variation from one end of the gallery to the other.

  They moved down the great room, his lordship with a girl on either arm. Their mood of high good humour unimpaired, Lord Alnstrop’s attempts to explain something of the family history were undermined at every other painting by Hetta’s irreverent gems of information about her forebears, which Robert could not resist capping with tales of his own. Louisa, chuckling helplessly at these interchanges, felt an absurd sense of belonging, having come home, which filled her with feelings she dared not acknowledge. With the intimacy of sisters, the two girls retired to change for dinner.

  The dining-room now used was in the new wing, a high room with fine white panelling and an ornately plastered ceiling, lit by innumerable wall-brackets of candles and a small central chandelier. A merry fire fluttered and glowed in the gleaming marble fireplace, and the table, all central leaves removed, was a comfortable size for four of them.

  ‘When Papa was alive, he would never remove a single leaf from the table,’ Hetta said, attacking a generous portion of goose with a good appetite. ‘He said the room was designed for it to be used full size, and so it would stay. Everyone had to sit in splendid isolation around this prairie of polished wood, and conversation was shouted or nonexistent. Robert once suggested we should all have coloured flags to wave messages to each other. Papa was not at all amused. I don’t know what Mama would say if she were ever able to come down and see that Robert has actually shortened Papa’s dining-table!’

  ‘Mama?’ The question was forming in Louisa’s mind as she looked up from her plate, but Robert was already speaking.

  ‘Oh, I have told her. She thought it an excellent idea, and wishes she could come down and actually converse over dinner! She did not necessarily share Papa’s ideas, even though she always supported them.’ He turned to Louisa. ‘Miss Stapely, I wondered if you would care to come and meet the Dowager Lady Alnstrop. Perhaps after dinner before she retires for the night?’

  ‘Why, yes, I should be honoured.’

  ‘Our mother was taken seriously ill shortly after our father’s death. She has been unable to leave her room since that time, and her understanding is a little confused on occasion. I know she would appreciate a visit from you. We do our best, but I fear it is a lonely life for her.’

  ‘It will be a pleasure to talk to her,’ Louisa responded warmly.

  After dinner John was finally persuaded by his solicitous family to retire to his bed. Alnstrop waved aside the port, announcing he had no wish to sit and drink alone, but would escort Miss Stapely to his mother immediately. They would join Hetta in the drawing-room later.

  Taking Louisa’s arm, Lord Alnstrop led her up the main stairs and along a network of corridors to a wing on the far side of the old house.

  ‘My mother needs peace and privacy, and has no wish to disturb the normal running of the household. She chose a suite of rooms here and had them decorated to her choice. Unfortunately, she can now only be carried to her sitting-room on better days. We are lucky to have Mrs. Goodling, who has looked after Mama for many years, and they deal very well together. She can be a dragon in defence of her patient, so beware! I would be grateful if you could not mention John’s accident. There is no need for her to know, and it would only distress her.’

  They had now arrived at a door where his lordship knocked quietly. After a few moments, footsteps could be heard approaching, and the door was opened by a sturdy, broad-shouldered woman in a drab grey dress and crisp white apron. Her face was broad and kindly, but with a determined chin, and her neat white cap sat atop grey hair dragged back into a bun. She dropped a curtsy as she recognised the visitor, but shot an enquiring glance at Louisa. ‘I hope Mama has had a good day?’ queried her son. ‘Why, yes, my lord, better than some. She sat for a while by the window to enjoy a bit of sun. She likes to see the daffodils. I know she will be pleased to see you.’

  Mrs. Goodling ushered them into a pleasantly furnished sitting-room, where an open sewing-box and a few articles of clothing lay on the chair by the fire.

  ‘Perhaps you could tell Mama I would like her to meet a friend, Miss Stapely, if she feels strong enough?’

  ‘Yes, my lord. I shan’t be a moment.’

  She bobbed again, and shot a sharply speculative glance at Louisa before vanishing through another door to a room beyond.

  Lord Alnstrop and his guest waited, standing on either side of the fire, suddenly unsure of why they were both there and at an awkward loss for words. It was a relief when Mrs. Goodling returned.

  ‘She’s ready to see you now, my lord, and happy to meet Miss Stapely.’

  The room was shadowy, the few candles casting little light upon the bed—indeed, it was the blazing fire which cast a flickering glow of movement over the flowered wallpaper and gathered chintz bed-hangings. The bed, a slender, carved four-poster, was prettily feminine. It had loops of lace-edged, flowered covers, a mound of crisp white laced pillows, and an intricately worked lace bedspread. Such a froth of white gave an oddly bridal look to the chamber, until the dowager’s face was suddenly distinguished. Tiny amid the splendour, she looked very far from bridal, lined and sunken from years of pain and suffering. Only the bright eyes gave some hint of the lively, intelligent person who had dwelt in that shrunken body. It was hard to remember that she was the mother of three such vital children.

  Impulsively, Louisa stepped forward, holding out her hands to clasp the wizened claw reaching out to greet her.

  ‘How do you do, ma’am? I am so glad you felt well enough to see me.’

  The dowager patted her hand weakly and smiled.

  ‘It is a great pleasure, my dear, to see a new, bright young face. Come forward, Alnstrop, let me see you.’

  Lord Alnstrop moved forward and bent to kiss his mother with affection. She held his hand for a moment and studied him, then nodded decisively.

  ‘Run along, Robert. I shall talk with Miss Stapely. Goodling can bring her down later.’

  Startled, Alnstrop bowed and left.

  ‘Now, my dear, pull up that chair and tell me all about yourself. You are a Stapely. One of Luddenay’s boys?’

  ‘The youngest son, ma’am, Charles, was my father.’

  ‘H’mph! I can’t say I took to the Luddenay brood. A mean-tempered lot, bar your father. He was no saint, but he was a charming young man, which was more than could be said for his brother. You have something of his looks. I never understood his father’s reaction to that marriage. She was a beautiful little thing, your mama. No brains and no family, but devoted to Charles. The family would have done much better to make the best of it. Heal the breach. But he always was an obstinate old fool, Luddenay, and he’d set his heart on Charles marrying Vichester’s eldest, a pudding-faced creature, but quite an heiress.

  ‘Ah, well, it’s a long time ago, and I am being abominably rude about your family. I apologise, my dear.’ The twinkle of wickedness in her eye was very reminiscent of Henrietta. ‘It comes of being so out of the world. So where did Charles settle with his lovely bride? And what family did he have besides you?’

  So, with gentle promptings from the Dowager Lady Alnstrop, propped in her avalanche
of pillows, Louisa again spoke of her early life. Surprised at herself, she reflected how very easy she found this family to talk to, how at home with them she seemed to feel. With a mental shake she stiffened her resolve, and went on to outline her plans for the future, the employment as governess, and the eccentric old age with Aunt Honoria’s pugs! She was aware that in doing so she was putting herself firmly beyond the social pale.

  The dowager, however, showed none of the expected signs of shock and horror. She nodded, head on one side, with a look of bird-like intelligence.

  ‘Lady Honoria found this family for you?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’

  ‘Well, she’s no fool. You are a brave girl, my dear, a brave girl.’

  She rested her head back into the pillows and the voice seemed weaker.

  ‘You must go now, I am tired. Send Goodling, please.’

  ‘Tired herself out, I suppose. She will do it!’

  Nurse Goodling stumped anxiously to her feet and surged towards the bedroom, pausing in the doorway with scant ceremony. ‘Polly’s next door ironing. She’ll show you down.’ She closed the door behind her.

  Louisa smiled appreciatively, thinking how lucky the dowager was to have the unswerving care of this brusquely devoted woman. She then unearthed the surprised but willing Polly, who escorted her back to the drawing-room.

  Robert and Hetta had been sitting by the fire with a small, baize-topped card-table between them, idly gambling vast imaginary fortunes in mother-of-pearl fish. They were in high good humour.

  ‘I am utterly ruined!’ Lady Cairshaw announced dramatically to Louisa as she entered the room. ‘Destitute and desolate! Pillaged and plundered! Racked and ruined! I swear he uses wizardry, I cannot be that stupid.’

  She turned on her brother in mock accusation. He stretched back in his chair, hands folded behind his head, and beamed at her complacently from under his lashes.

  ‘My only wizardry is to read it all in your face; you reveal your every hope!’

  He blazed a smile at Louisa.

  ‘See how badly she accepts her debts? A mere forty-five thousand pounds!’ He cowered, grinning, behind his hands as she threatened to hurl the card-box at him, and added hastily, ‘But I shall generously set it all aside if she will but order the tea-tray immediately!’

  Hetta laughed and jumped up to comply.

  ‘How was Mama?’ his lordship asked.

  Louisa’s face lit up with pleasure as she described her conversation with the dowager.

  ‘Although she is so ill, she is so like you all,’ she concluded. ‘She has those same laughing eyes.’

  Looking up she met Alnstrop’s gaze, watching her with disconcerting directness and that lurking devil of amusement, seeming to understand so much more than she had said. Horrified, but unable to tear her eyes away, she felt a hot blush creeping up her face. Furious with herself at this ridiculously inexplicable embarrassment, she was saved by the arrival of the tea-tray and more general conversation.

  It was as they finished their tea and the tiny sugared biscuits that were laid out that Lord Alnstrop returned to Louisa’s problem.

  ‘It is time we discussed further your plans to cover this appalling escapade of John’s. I appreciate that his confederates are in no position to speak of it, or they risk the attentions of the Excise men or worse, and John will certainly not be sailing with them again.’ Here he looked grim, but then his face lightened and he spoke to Louisa with a smile. ‘I thought it might be best if you stayed with us for a few weeks before returning home, so the exact time of your arrival may be quietly disguised.’

  It was with sinking dismay that Louisa realised that Robert must still be unaware of where she was going, of her choice for the future. She glanced helplessly at Hetta, who spoke for her with common sense and decision.

  ‘Naturally I offered that, Robert, but Miss Stapely is determined to travel on to Upper Stoneham, where she was expected yesterday, and I admire her decision to do so. I will write a letter to the family claiming we are old school-friends, and that I was responsible for the delay, and the family will never have the slightest reason to suspect further. She cannot delay longer, her boxes have already been sent on ahead. I sent to enquire in the village, and they were dispatched safely,’ she put in aside to Louisa. ‘Miss Stapely is to take up a position as companion and governess to the children there, so her punctuality cannot be too far adrift—it will be a bad example to her charges!’

  She was smiling, but Louisa, in alarm, was watching the shock that spread over Lord Alnstrop’s features as what his sister was saying sunk in.

  He stared at Louisa with eyes narrowed, face flushing red, except for the white muscle about his mouth where it seemed he held back words by physical force. He swung abruptly away to face the fire. There was a tense pause, then words seemed to burst from him unbidden.

  ‘Governess?’ It seemed to Louisa he spat the word, and she flinched as if struck, Mr. Sowthorpe’s rage and disgust leaping to her mind.

  ‘You? A common governess to some pack of tiresome, disobedient children? No! It is unthinkable. It must not happen. It is quite unthinkable!’

  ‘Robert!’ Hetta breathed, aghast at her brother’s outburst. ‘Robert!’

  But he turned on Louisa as if Hetta had not existed, and to his own horror his rage and helplessness mastered him.

  ‘What did you do?’ he asked, his voice shaking. ‘Advertise your services in some newspaper for anyone to see?’ He snatched his own paper from the side-table and scanned the front page. ‘Is this you? “Lady wishes to engage either as companion or governess to respectable family. Respectable references will be given.” Is it? Or this one? “Will undertake to teach the English and French languages grammatically and fluently, history, geography and the use of globes, the rudiments of music, writing and arithmetic.”’

  He flung the paper down and shook his head angrily.

  ‘It is unthinkable for you to be one of them!’

  Fury and despair mingled in Louisa’s breast as she realised with what utter disgust Lord Alnstrop must now regard her. Of course, she had known that she had never really moved in his circles. Now his knowledge of her future had obviously doomed her forever in his eyes.

  Standing shaking before his confusedly furious glare, Louisa lost her temper.

  ‘Maybe to you it is unthinkable. Maybe a lot of things that the rest of the world have to come to terms with are unthinkable to you, cosseted, pampered, surrounded by riches all your life. When have you ever had to make a real choice of evils, or a sacrifice? What do you know of hardship and debts? You just raise a finger and anything you want is done. I have to offend people’s sensibilities and work if I want anything done, or sell myself in a marriage that disgusts me. Well, you may order the lives of your brother and sister like a despot, but you have no control over my life, and no right to set yourself up as judge and jury over it, either. I value finding my independence, and have no intention of giving up all I have planned for now. You may despise me for the choice I have made, but I would have thought you too much of a gentleman to insult me to my face. Obviously I was wrong!’

  Alnstrop, his face pale with horror at the result of his own foolish outburst, endeavoured to speak, but she swept past him to Hetta.

  ‘I shall retire now.’ Her voice was shaking with suppressed tears. ‘Thank you for your many kindnesses.’

  ‘I shall escort you upstairs,’ said Hetta firmly, with an outraged glare at her brother.

  ‘Miss Stapely...’ he began in desperation, but both women ignored him and hurried from the room.

  Robert, fourth Lord Alnstrop, stood in astounded self-disgust. Never before had his emotions led him to such an uncontrolled outburst. His own actions seemed incredible to him. He was aware of his shock that such a girl, of such quality, who had seemed so right in his own family ... his thoughts shied nervously from this idea ... should be forced to such straits. It was unthinkable. He tried to imagine Hetta genuinely desola
te and destitute, and left to fend for herself in such a way, and his fists clenched themselves.

  But his outburst had been ill-mannered and insulting. He flushed at the memory of his gaucherie. Now she would leave with an utter disgust of him. He found he was jerkily pacing the room. With an effort he walked over to the bell-pull and tugged it abruptly, tapping his foot angrily until his call was answered. In arctic tones he ordered a bottle of brandy, and remained until the small hours, drinking before a dwindling fire.

  Louisa clung to her self-control up the stairs and bid Hetta goodnight at the bedroom door.

  ‘My dear, I am so sorry. I could not believe what I heard; it was so unlike him.’

  ‘Please,’ Louisa replied tautly, ‘please, don’t mention it again. It was not important. I will take the morning stage, it leaves at ten. Goodnight.’

  She took her friend’s hand for a brief moment, then retired to her room. Meggie’s help made a speedy business of preparing for bed, but, in spite of her utter exhaustion, it was a long time before the storm of tears subsided and Miss Stapely, the determined governess, drifted into a despairing and nightmare-ridden sleep.

  CHAPTER NINE

  In the morning, Louisa awoke drearily early. She dressed neatly in a simple grey dress with a fine white trim at neck, hem and cuff, pressed on her the previous evening by Henrietta. Hetta had claimed to be only too pleased to dispose of this, and several other garments from her period of mourning, her ‘relict’s relics’ as she called them, prior to her grand London clothes-buying expedition.

  ‘Now don’t protest,’ she had insisted. ‘You will be doing me a great favour by taking them away. If you really feel you must wear such tedious colours, you are welcome to them, though why governesses should have to combine drabness with discipline I can’t imagine. Besides, your story will appear more believable if you have some luggage with you—indeed, it would be disastrous to travel without. I have a band-box you can use, and Meggie shall pack it up.’