Cousin Kate

by Georgette Heyer

  Kate had sunk her head in her hands, and she did not raise it. She said, in a voice of suppressed anguish: ‘But what of him? What of him, ma’am? Haven’t you one thought to spare for him?’

  Lady Broome frowned down at her in utter incomprehension. ‘I don’t understand you,’ she said coldly. ‘I must, surely, have told you enough to make you realize that he is never out of my thoughts? I have watched over him, nursed him through all his illnesses, supplied his every want, cosseted him, borne with his odd humours – and you can ask me that! Do you think it has been an easy task? Let me tell you that it is so long since I enjoyed peace of mind that I have forgotten what it was like to go carefree to bed, and to wake in the morning without feeling that there was a heavy cloud hanging over me! My greatest anxiety now is that I may not be able for much longer to hide the truth about him. It was easy enough when he was a child, but he has grown too strong for Badger to overpower. Delabole can do it, but Torquil has become very cunning, and has several times given them both the slip. Neither of them can control him as I can, with no more than a word! When I set out to master him it was with the future in mind: it was imperative that he should stand in awe of me, acquire the habit of obeying me. Childhood’s habits are not easy to shake off, you know. If I could have induced Delabole to be sterner – but he has always been too easy-going, and Badger, of course, merely dotes on Torquil. He’s not afraid of either of them: indeed, he holds them in contempt!’

  Kate said faintly: ‘Does Sir Timothy know the truth?’

  ‘Good God, no!’ Lady Broome exclaimed. ‘I’ve kept them apart as much as I could, so that he shouldn’t guess. I think the shock would kill him! No one knows, except Sidlaw. It was a fortunate circumstance that until about three years ago Torquil was hardly ever out of flannel. He caused me many anxious moments, but Sir Timothy got into the way of thinking of him as invalidish. So did everyone else, and so they might well! What I went through with him – ! I can’t remember any epidemic that passed him by – he even had typhus, and but for me would have died of it! As for the number of times he was laid up with a putrid sore throat, or a heavy cold in the head, to say nothing of his sick headaches, they are past counting! I think only one person is suspicious, and that, I need hardly say, is Sir Timothy’s dear nephew. But he can’t know that Torquil isn’t sane, and although I don’t doubt he would be happy to make mischief I do him the justice to believe that he wouldn’t run the risk of causing his uncle to suffer what might well be a fatal heart-attack unless there was an end to be served. But there is none! While Torquil lives, sane or mad, Philip cannot become Broome of Staplewood. And if Torquil were to father a son Philip would never succeed Sir Timothy!’

  It was several moments before Kate could trust herself to speak. Hot words rose in her throat, but she choked them back. Digging her nails into the palms of her hands, she at last said, with no more than a tremor of indignation shaking her voice: ‘So it was to entrap me into marrying Torquil, whom you knew to be insane, that you invited me to come to Staplewood! And I thought it was so kind of you, ma’am!’

  Lady Broome lifted her eyebrows quizzically. ‘Well, and have I not been kind to you, Kate? Over and over again you’ve said that you wished there was something you could do to repay me, but when I tell you the only thing I want from you, you give back. I hadn’t thought that you would offer me nothing but lip-service. As for entrapping you – what moonshine! Pray, how did I do so? I had no power to force you to come to Staplewood, and I have no power to keep you here. You are free to go whenever you wish.’

  Kate got up. ‘I will go tomorrow, ma’am,’ she said quietly.

  Lady Broome smiled. ‘Certainly – if you have the money to pay the coach-fare! Or do you expect me to frank you?’

  ‘No, ma’am.’

  ‘No? I hope you don’t mean to sell the pearls I gave you!’

  Kate instantly unclasped the necklet, and held it out. ‘Please to take it, ma’am!’

  Lady Broome laughed indulgently, and went to sit down again on the day-bed. She patted it invitingly, and said: ‘Come, dear child! I was only making game of you! If you still wish to go back to London when you’ve heard what I have to say to you, I’ll send you in my own chaise – only not, I think, tomorrow. Such a sudden departure would present a very odd appearance, and give rise to the sort of gossip neither you nor I should like. What, can’t you bring yourself to sit down beside me?’

  ‘I think it is time I left you, ma’am. Pray don’t say any more! It is quite useless to try to persuade me to do what you wish. Indeed, it is worse than useless, for I might be led into saying what would be grossly uncivil, and that I am determined not to do.’

  ‘Well, if you choose to stand – !’ said Lady Broome, shrugging her shoulders. ‘I am not going to try to persuade you; I am merely going to ask you to look at two pictures. The first is what your life will be if you go back to London. You may find another situation – though you weren’t being very successful when I came to offer you a home, were you? What can you earn, as a governess fit only to teach young children the alphabet? Twenty pounds a year? You won’t be able to save much out of that paltry wage to provide for your old age. And when the children grow old enough to be taught accomplishments you will be dismissed, and it will be all to do again – with the little money in your purse dwindling until you are ready to scrub doorsteps only to earn a few shillings to pay your landlady. Do you hope for marriage? Believe me, my dear, men may make up to you, while you keep your looks, but even a tradesman thinks twice before he offers for a penniless woman no longer in the first blush of youth. Yes, it’s an ugly picture, isn’t it?’

  ‘Very ugly, ma’am.’

  ‘Now contrast it with my second picture!’ invited her aunt. ‘It is what life would be like if you married Torquil. You would be rich enough to be able to indulge your whims; you would become, in due course, Lady Broome –’

  ‘Unless Torquil murdered me in one of his rages!’

  ‘I have no fear of that. I should not permit him to be alone with you during the periods when he is liable to take leave of his senses. At all other times he is perfectly tractable. It may well be that if you make him happy he will grow calmer. If not, and he has to be confined, you will be free to amuse yourself as you please. You won’t find me a strict mother-in-law! I shall present you at the outset, of course –’

  ‘And will you present Torquil too, ma’am? Wouldn’t it be rather too exciting for him?’ Kate interrupted sweetly.

  ‘Much too exciting,’ replied Lady Broome. ‘Torquil will be kept at home by a sudden indisposition. In any event, it would not be for me to present him, but for his father to take him to a levée. While it is safe for him to remain at large, you would have to content yourself with no more than brief visits to London, with a female companion: that can easily be arranged. If he gets beyond control, either the West Wing can be made secure, or – and this is something I have had in mind for some time – it might be preferable to acquire a house in one of the quieter watering-places, and to send him there, in Delabole’s charge. Delabole will know how to set about hiring suitable attendants: men who have had experience of looking after mad persons.’

  ‘Oh, stop, ma’am! for God’s sake, stop!’ begged Kate, pressing her hands over her ears. ‘You are talking about your son!’

  ‘My dear child, do you imagine that I mean to send him to Bedlam? He will be perfectly kindly treated, and no money will be spared to make him comfortable. As for you, once you have given Staplewood an heir – why, provided you are discreet, which I don’t doubt you would be, I shall turn a blind eye on any little affaires which you may have!’

  Feeling that if she did not escape she would become hysterical, Kate went hurriedly to the door. Her aunt’s voice followed her. ‘Think carefully before you give me an answer!’ she said.

  Nineteen

  Kate left the room feeling stunn
ed. Listening to the incredible things her aunt had said, a ghastly suspicion had crossed her mind that Lady Broome was as mad as her son, but although Lady Broome’s eyes had flashed once or twice in anger there had been no such glitter in them as Kate had learnt to recognize in Torquil’s eyes; and when she had spoken of Torquil’s childhood, and of her fantastic scheme for his future, she had done so without a trace of feeling. Only when she described her own emotions had she shown any feeling: she had not uttered a word of pity for her unhappy son; it had not seemed to occur to her that it was far more his tragedy than hers. To Kate, this, if not madness, was an egoism so monstrous as to be unbelievable.

  She caught her breath on a dry sob, and went rather blindly along the gallery to her own room. But just as she opened her door she was arrested by Mr Philip Broome’s voice, reaching her from the Great Hall. It was unusually sharp; he demanded imperatively: ‘What the devil has been happening?’

  ‘Well, sir, that’s more than I can tell you,’ replied a voice Kate knew well. ‘All I know is that this young gentleman seems to have come to grief, jumping over the wall alongside your lodge-gates, but there was no making sense out of what any of the folks dithering round him tried to tell me, for they were all too scared to do more than say that the young gentleman had broken his neck. Which he hasn’t, nor anything else, so far as I can discover. He just stunned himself. So I had them lift him into the chaise, and brought him up to the house.’

  ‘Sarah!’ Kate shrieked, racing to the head of the stairs, and almost tumbling down them in her haste. ‘Oh, Sarah! oh, Sarah!’

  She flung herself into Mrs Nidd’s arms, her overwrought nerves finding relief in a burst of hysterical sobs. Mrs Nidd gave her a hearty kiss, but spoke bracing words. ‘Now, that’s quite enough, Miss Kate! There’s no need for you to fall into the vapours just because I’ve come to see you. You should know better than to create such a humdurgeon!’

  ‘Take me away, Sarah! oh, take me away!’ Kate gasped imploringly.

  ‘Yes, lovey, but all in good time. You sit down there, like a good girl, or I shall have to be cross with you!’

  She thrust Kate into a chair, and turned back to the group gathered about the settle, on which Torquil’s inanimate form had been laid. One of the footmen was standing with a bottle of smelling-salts in his hand, and looking singularly helpless; Pennymore was anxiously watching Mr Philip Broome; and Philip himself was on one knee beside the settle, feeling Torquil’s pulse. ‘Here, you silly creature!’ said Sarah, addressing herself to the footman, and wresting the smelling-bottle away from him. ‘What do you think I gave you that for?’ She pushed him aside, and began to wave the salts under Torquil’s nose. ‘Nothing broken, is there, sir?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Philip answered curtly. ‘His doctor will know. Pennymore, have you sent to fetch Dr Delabole?’

  ‘Yes, sir: James has gone to find him. Mr Philip, it would be as well to move him out of the hall: we don’t want to disturb Sir Timothy!’

  ‘He’s out of earshot: I left him in his bedroom, going to rest before dinner.’ He glanced up at Sarah. ‘The pulse is quite strong: he’ll do! You are Mrs Nidd, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes, sir, I am. Ah, he’s coming round! That makes the second time, and it’s to be hoped he don’t swoon off again, like he did before. Nothing would do for him but to get on his feet, and it’s my belief he was just giddy, and shook up, whatever the lodge-keeper may say to the contrary! Not that I paid the least heed to him, for a bigger jolterhead I never did see! – That’s better, sir! You take it easy over the stones, and you’ll soon be as right as a trivet!’

  Torquil, who had opened his eyes, lay blinking hazily for a few moments, but his clouded gaze gradually cleared, and he said thickly: ‘Oh, it’s you, Philip! I took a toss.’

  ‘So I’ve been informed,’ responded his cousin unemotionally. ‘Keep still!’

  ‘Oh, to hell with you!’ Torquil said angrily, struggling up. ‘I’m in a capital way! Did you think I’d broken my neck? Diddled again, coz!’ He pushed Philip roughly aside, and swung his feet to the floor, and looked round the hall. He stared blankly at Sarah, and demanded: ‘Who the devil are you?’

  ‘I’m Miss Kate’s nurse, Master Torquil, and that’s no way for a young gentleman to talk!’ replied Sarah, apparently regarding him as one of her nurslings.

  ‘Oh!’ said Torquil doubtfully. A sudden smile swept over his face. ‘I know! you are Sarah !’ he said ingenuously. ‘Kate’s Sarah! But how the devil – no, how the deuce ! – do you come to be here?’

  ‘There’s no need for you to worrit yourself over that, sir. I came to Market Harborough on the night-coach, and hired a chaise to drive me here – and just as well for you I did!’ Sarah said severely. ‘Now, you stay quiet, like a good boy, till the doctor comes!’

  ‘I don’t want him!’ Torquil declared, his smile vanishing. ‘Prosy bag-pudding!’ His eyes travelled to his cousin’s face, and gleamed defiance. ‘This will teach them not to keep the gates shut when I tell them to open them!’

  ‘Is there any hope that it may teach you not to overface your horses?’ asked Philip. He added softly, with a smile that took the sting out of his words: ‘Top-lofty young cawker!’

  ‘Oh, damn you, Philip, I’m not !’ protested Torquil. ‘You know I’m not! The clumsy brute must have jumped off his fore! Serve him right if he broke his legs! I hope he did: he’s a commoner! Oh, my God no !’

  This venomous ejaculation was provoked by the sight of Dr Delabole, descending the wide stairway with unusual haste. The doctor said, with fond joviality, as he crossed the hall, ‘Ah, there was no need for me to be alarmed, I see! I haven’t been summoned to attend a corpse! My dear boy, how came you to do anything so imprudent? I thought you were sleeping, when I myself retired to seek repose!’

  ‘Tipped you the double, didn’t I, Matthew?’ mocked Torquil unpleasantly.

  ‘You did indeed!’ acknowledged the doctor, with unabated amiability. ‘And very naughty of you it was! However, I shan’t scold you! I fancy you punished yourself !’ He was flexing one of Torquil’s legs as he spoke, and said laughingly, as he frustrated an attempt to kick him off his balance: ‘Well, that’s not broken, at all events! Let me see if you are able to stand on your feet! – Capital! Unless you have fractured a rib or two, which I can’t tell until I have you stripped, there’s nothing amiss with you but a shaking, and a few bruises. I shall ask our good James to carry you up to your room –’

  ‘The devil fly away with you!’ interrupted Torquil, taking instant umbrage. ‘I’m damned if I’ll be carried! Here, James, give me your arm up the stairs!’ His eyes alighted on Kate, who had recovered her composure but was still sitting, rather limply, on a very uncomfortable chair placed with its high carved back against the wall. ‘Lord, coz, are you here?’ he said. ‘I didn’t see you! You’re looking as blue as megrim! did you think I was dead? No such thing! I’m as right as a ram’s horn!’

  She straightened her sagging shoulders, and got up. ‘Well, I’m glad of that, even if you don’t deserve to be!’ she said.

  At this inopportune moment, a hot and agitated groom burst unceremoniously into the house, pulled up short as soon as he saw Torquil, and uttered devoutly: ‘Thank Gawd!’

  ‘Oh, it’s you, is it?’ said Torquil, his wrath springing up. He shook James off, and advanced, rather shakily, towards the groom. ‘You insolent hound, how dared you get in my way?’

  He found his passage barred by his cousin, and glared up at him, his chest heaving. Philip said sternly: ‘Go upstairs, Torquil! I’ll deal with Scholes.’ He paused, watching Torquil’s long fingers curl, like a hawk’s talons, and dropped his hand on the boy’s shoulder, giving him a friendly shake. ‘Go on, you gudgeon! Making a show of yourself !’

  Torquil’s angry eyes held his for a dangerous moment; then they sank, and he muttered something i
naudible, before flinging round on his heel. He staggered, and would have fallen but for Delabole, who caught him as he lurched, and signed to James to carry him up the stairs. Philip turned towards Pennymore, saying calmly: ‘Well, there doesn’t seem to be much wrong! I fancy the only damage he suffered is to his pride, which is why he’s in such a pelter. You needn’t wait: the doctor will know what to do for him. Or you, William! Scholes, I want a word with you: don’t go!’ He held out his hand to Sarah, saying, with a smile: ‘My uncle having retired to rest, Lady Broome being laid up with influenza, and my young cousin being as graceless as he is foolhardy, it’s left to me to welcome you, Mrs Nidd! Which, believe me, I do! But ought you to have left your excellent father-in-law to the mercies of Old Tom’s Rib?’

  ‘Oh, I never did!’ said Sarah, dropping an instinctive curtsy. ‘If it isn’t like Father to spread it about that I deserted him! I’ll have you know it was his own daughter I went to, sir, and for all he’s a grumble-gizzard he wouldn’t have had me do other!’ She perceived that Philip’s hand was still outstretched, and blushed, saying in a flustered way, as she put her own hand into it: ‘Well, I’m sure, sir – !’

  ‘I’m glad you’ve come,’ he said. ‘Kate – er, Miss Malvern! – has been longing to see you. What did happen this afternoon?’

  ‘It’s just as I told you, sir: I was coming out here in a chaise, when all of a sudden the postboy had to pull up, because there was half-a-dozen people in the way, including a silly widgeon with a baby, who kept on screaming that the horse had come down on top of her, which, of course, it hadn’t. You don’t have to worry about her, sir, because I gave her a good scold, and told her to be off home. Well, as soon as Mr Torquil came round, I had him lifted into the chaise, for I’ve never had a bit of patience with people who can’t think of anything better to do in a situation like that than to stand about gabbing, and wringing their hands, and I never will have! So then the lodge-keeper opened the gates, and we drove up to the house. That’s when this young fellow –’ she nodded at the groom – ‘came galloping up. But there was nothing for him to do for Mr Torquil, so I told him to see what he could do for the horse. It looked to me as if he’d broken one of his forelegs. Had he?’