Amy (The Daughters of Allamont Hall Book 1) (11 page)

She could not miss the contessa’s arrival, however. All heads turned and conversation ceased as the butler made the announcement.

“The Contessa di Varese and Sir Osborne Hardy, Lady Hardy, Mr Merton…”

Amy scarcely heard the rest. She stared and stared, until eventually the crowds shifted enough to allow her to see the contessa, head shyly lowered, while leaning on Sir Osborne’s arm. Beside him, Lady Hardy’s smile was complacent.

“Did you not hear?” Mr Ambleside said quietly. “
La contessa
has become quite a pet of Lady Hardy’s, and is currently staying at the Manor.”

“Oh. I see.” She could not quite account for it, but the news pleased her. She need not worry any more about the meaning of Lady Hardy’s visit, or whether she was entangled in some kind of secret betrothal to Sir Osborne. That could all be forgotten. And what could be more natural than for Sir Osborne to prefer the contessa to Amy herself? The contessa must be such an interesting person, with her Italian blood and the vineyards her family owned and her travels about Europe. It would be a far more suitable match, most appropriate.

So she smiled up at Mr Ambleside, and he patted her hand genially. He was such a kind man, she decided, to break the news to her so gently, in case she was upset. She discovered that she was not in the least upset. She found herself quite content to stand aside with Mr Ambleside, well able to watch the contessa and Sir Osborne without the slightest pain.

Amy could not decide whether she was glad when dinner was announced, or not. She found herself placed between Mr Graham and Mr Merton. Luckily, neither said more than the merest commonplaces throughout the meal, to which she could respond very easily. Mr Ambleside was across the table from her, and every time she dared to look at him, she found he was watching her, a little smile on his lips. He had such shapely lips, she decided. Not all men were so fortunate. Mr Graham, in fact, had rather full lips, and Mr Merton’s were disagreeably thin.

When the ladies withdrew, Amy was interested to observe Lady Hardy take charge of the contessa, finding her a seat neither too close to the fire, nor prone to disturbing draughts, and then sitting down beside her. Amy was too far away to hear what passed between them, but even from the opposite side of the room, she could see that Lady Hardy was doing all the talking, while the contessa kept her head demurely lowered.

“Amy!” hissed a voice.

“Dulcie? What is the matter?”

“I hope you are not going to keep Mr Ambleside all to yourself. He ought to be paying some attention to Connie, you know, not carrying you off to secluded parts of the room, or staring across the table at you
.
”

Amy was all too willing to give Connie her share of Mr Ambleside’s attention, but this puzzled her. “How can I prevent him, though? I did not ask him to look at me.”

Lady Graham came by just then. “Miss Dulcie! I beg you will delight us with a little music.”

“Of course, my lady,” said Dulcie. She cast Amy a dark look before making her way to the instrument.

For a while, Amy sat alone, everyone else gathered around the pianoforte, or deep in conversation. She did not mind being alone. If Mary or one of her sisters had been with her, that would have been pleasant, but with anyone else she would have to exert herself to make conversation and that was so difficult.

When Dulcie and Connie had both done their musical duty, they came and sat one either side of Amy.

“Thank you for bearing me company, sisters,” Amy said.

“We are just making sure that you do not entice Mr Ambleside again,” Dulcie said. “You cannot be trusted to keep away from him.”

Amy could think of no reply to that. How dreadful, that a sister thought her untrustworthy! And it was quite untrue, for she had no intention of enticing Mr Ambleside. Indeed, she had not the least idea how such a thing might be accomplished.

When the gentlemen rejoined them, it seemed at first as if Dulcie’s plan had succeeded, for Mr Ambleside could not have sat beside Amy had he wished it, there being no room. Instead, he stood near the pianoforte as if listening to the music, although his eyes strayed to Amy rather often.

Before long, however, Lady Graham decreed that there should be dancing, and shortly after that, a gaggle of young men surrounded the sisters, begging for partners for the dancing. Dulcie and Connie jumped up with alacrity, and scampered off. One of the young men offered his arm to Amy, to her horror. Impossible to dance, so soon after Papa’s death. Yet how could she refuse? It would be abominably rude.

“Miss Allamont has no wish to dance.”

She looked up in astonishment. Mr Ambleside! She smiled at him in genuine relief. He answered with a smile of his own, so warm, so intimate that she blushed. It was almost as if there were no one else in the room. She felt quite dizzy.

Then he sat down beside her, still smiling. “How lucky that Mr George’s friends should whisk your sisters away to dance, for now I may claim the pleasure of your company.”

If Amy had been more observant, she might have noticed Mr Ambleside whispering to the young men in question moments earlier. Dulcie and Connie soon worked out that they had been tricked. But Amy was quite unsuspicious, and not all Dulcie’s angry looks or Connie’s pouts could mar her enjoyment of the evening.

11: A Posy

The carriage had barely begun to move before Dulcie began.

“I am
ashamed
of you, Amy!” she said. “So selfish, when you know how much he means to Connie. What were you
about
, to be keeping him talking the whole evening in that self-important way, as if you are the only person in the world who matters? I should never have believed it of you if I had not seen it with my own eyes. I thought you were the most generous of all my sisters. I am disabused of
that
notion, and no mistake!”

She went on in this vein for the entire journey home, while Connie wept. Again and again Amy wished she had thought more quickly and gone with Belle, Grace and Hope in the coach. But Dulcie had practically pushed her up the carriage steps, and given the signal to shut the door, so there had been nothing to be done about it. Never had the drive home seemed so long.

“Why do you say nothing?” Dulcie snapped. “You do not even apologise! It is intolerable, Amy.”

“I
am
sorry to disoblige a sister,” she said, her voice choked with tears. “I did not mean to… but I do not see what I could have done. I did not make him sit beside me. It was his own choice.”

“You are not, I hope, about to pretend that he prefers
you
again? Because we have already had enough of such nonsense.”

“But he told me so!” she cried in anguish, her tears flowing.

After that, there was silence in the carriage, apart from the sobs of Amy and Connie.

~~~~~

At Staynlaw House, Ambleside’s reflections on the evening were more pleasurable. He took the stairs two at a time, humming softly. In his dressing room, he struck a pose before the full-length mirror.

“I believe, Herbert, that you may soon congratulate me.”

“Ah, is that so, sir? A successful evening, I take it?”

“Very successful indeed. She was as happy as I’ve ever seen her. I think I may try to see her alone before too long. It is time, I believe. Yes, it is very much time.”

Herbert coughed discreetly.

“You wish to say something, Herbert? You may speak your mind.”

“It is Timms, sir.”

“Oh, I cannot discuss domestic difficulties now. Tomorrow, if you please.”

“Nothing like that, sir, no. Timms was in the village this evening, you being out and all, sir. He happened to be in the Hardy Arms, and who should be there but Mr Wills’ man, Mr Simons, visiting his father, who lives here. Mr Simons told me that Thornside is all upside down at the minute, being as Mr Wills is expected back from London on Friday, and is expected to be paying court to a young lady, with a betrothal to be announced very soon.”

“Is that so? But there are many young ladies in the neighbourhood, Herbert.”

“Exactly what I said myself, sir, but according to Mr Simons, this particular young lady is recently out of full mourning.”

“Hmm, but even so, that description might still apply to more than one young lady.”

“But only one of them is free to marry at once,” Herbert said triumphantly. “Mr Simons says his master is all to pieces, and Miss Allamont’s dowry would be mighty useful just now.”

“Ah! Interesting,” Ambleside said. “If you should hear any more of Mr Wills, I would like to know about it. For myself, I think an early visit to Thornside might be in order.”

~~~~~

It was, in fact, late on Saturday before Mr Wills returned to Thornside, and so the first anyone knew of it was when he was seen in church the following day.

Amy was too sunk in her own thoughts to notice his arrival in the pew behind them. Her misery was absolute. The sisters had always had disagreements, of course, but they were usually minor, and quickly settled by a word from Papa. Now there was no one to keep their feet on the correct path when they strayed, for their mama took no sides.

When appealed to, she had said, “You girls must settle your own squabbles. It is nothing to me which of you marries Mr Ambleside, I am sure. You all plague me equally, with these constant difficulties. I have given you the proper example to follow, and now you must make your own way. As for husbands, I should be very glad to see any of you well established.”

But settling their own squabbles was something they seemed unable to do, to Amy’s distress. Dulcie would no longer speak to her at all, and if communication could not be avoided, would use Belle as intermediary. “Belle, would you be so good as to ask Amy to pass me the scissors, if you please?” When Amy jumped up to oblige before Belle could speak, Dulcie would say, “Thank you, Belle.” It was mortifying. And Connie could barely look at Amy without bursting into tears.

Amy had no idea how to restore either of her sisters to their usual equanimity, or herself, either. She could not be mistaken about Mr Ambleside’s wishes, but she did not feel equal to the task of convincing her sisters of them. Nor could she conceive of accepting an offer from him when it would distress Connie beyond all measure. So she said nothing, and tried not to think about Mr Ambleside at all. In this she was unsuccessful, and even in church her mind churned and misery gnawed at her.

So it was not until the Allamont ladies rose at the end of the service to file slowly out of church that Amy saw Mr Wills. He bowed at her as she passed, creaking slightly, which unusual attention startled her so much that she was quite unable to respond.

Outside, Lady Sara stopped to talk to Mr Endercott, and her daughters stood in their line behind her. Amy kept her head down, remembering to place her feet precisely together while she waited. Behind her, she heard giggles — Hope, probably, making sheep’s eyes at Mr Burford, like a parlour maid.

Still looking down, Amy found a pair of highly polished shoes within her vision.

“Good day to you, Miss Allamont.” Her head shot up. Mr Wills, contorting his rounded features into the semblance of a smile. “I trust you are quite well?”

An easy question! Such a relief. She bobbed a curtsy. “Thank you, sir, I am quite well.”

He thrust something towards her, creaking again. Perhaps he wore corsets. “I saw these in the hedgerow this morning, and… they quite put me in mind of you.”

She stared at him, open-mouthed, then down at his gloved hand, clutching a nosegay of spring flowers. What was she to do? Should she take them? It would be rude to refuse, but… what did he mean by it? It was too confusing.

“I hope you will accept them,” he said, lifting her hand and pressing the beribboned flowers into it. “Perhaps you will think of me when you look at them?”

“Thank you,” she said automatically. Then, thinking that was not quite grateful enough, she added, “You are too kind.”

“I have some better blooms in the hot-house,” he went on. “I shall bring some for you. You are at home on Thursdays, I believe?”

“At home. Thursdays. Yes, sir.”

“Then I shall see you on Thursday, Miss Allamont. Good day to you.”

Amy was speechless. She greeted a few friends, although she hardly knew what she said, and followed her mother to the coach as if in a dream.

“There you are, girls,” her mother said as the coach swayed off down the road. “You see how your papa’s generosity brings you attentions you could not have earned on your own merits? Amy, you will have an offer before the summer, I wager, and be married by Michaelmas. What a pleasant thought, to have one at least of you off my hands.” She turned her head to gaze out of the window.

Amy could not look on the prospect of marriage to Mr Wills with much pleasure, but she had to marry so that her sisters might have their chance, and perhaps, since Mr Ambleside’s suit was fraught with difficulties, Mr Wills would do for the purpose as well as any other. And there was one happy result of Mr Wills’ interest in her — Connie, who was seated across from Amy in the coach, smiled for the first time in days.

~~~~~

“Truly, Belle, it is much better this way.”

Belle made a noise that might have been a sigh, or a huff of exasperation. “Nonsense! What about poor Ambleside? Is he to have no say in his own future? He is in love with
you
, not Connie, whatever Dulcie may say about it.”

She climbed into bed beside Amy, but made no move to snuff the candle.

“If you marry Mr Wills, you make yourself unhappy and Ambleside too. Where is the sense in that?”

“Marriage is not a matter of happiness, sister,” Amy said in subdued tones. “Has not Mama said so a thousand times? It is about making the most advantageous match possible.”

“I am shocked to hear you talk so, sister. I thought you more sensible than that.”

“But I must marry, and without delay, not with five more sisters waiting their turn! I cannot be choosy, Belle.”

“Just so. You are determined to throw away your best chance of a happy match. Amy, I despair of you! Although I am not privy to your heart, you will never convince me of your indifference to Mr Ambleside.”

Amy twisted the blanket between her fingers. It was a point she had wrestled with herself. “I like him, of course,” she said eventually. “He is most amiable, and… and has always been kind to me. But…” She fell silent.

“But?” Belle said gently. “Amy, are you or are you not in love with Ambleside?”

“I do not know!” Amy cried. “How can one tell? I like to be with him but I have known him for ever, and he is merely a friend. A comfortable old friend who makes no demands on one. Like an uncle, perhaps,” she added, although she had never met her own uncles, so had little idea what one might be like.

“An uncle!” Belle exclaimed. “He is not so old as all that. But if that is how you feel, there is no more to be said on the subject.”

She blew out the candle, and the sisters lay silently in the dark, each absorbed in her own thoughts.

~~~~~

Two days later, Amy and Belle were in their father’s book room, practising their Greek recitation. Or at least, Amy was reciting and Belle was listening and correcting, for although she no longer took lessons in the subject, she had a much better grasp of the language than Amy. A knock preceded the entrance of the butler.

“Yes, Young, what is it?” Belle said.

“Beg pardon, Miss Allamont, Miss Belle, but there is a gentleman here to see her ladyship.”

“She cannot be disturbed at this hour, Young. The gentleman will have to leave his card.”

“So I have told him, Miss, but he has already left his card on three previous occasions. He insists that the matter is urgent, and asked if he might speak to one or more of the Miss Allamonts.”

“Is it a business matter?” Belle said.

“I couldn’t say, Miss.”

“What sort of gentleman is he? Might he be a professional man — a lawyer or some such?”

The butler hesitated. “I would say not. He seems gentlemanlike, but perhaps not from the upper levels of society, Miss.”

“Ah, in trade, I daresay,” Belle said. “We will see him, Young.”

When Young had left to fetch the visitor, Amy hissed, “What are you doing? We should leave such matters to Mama.”

“Mama does not wish to be disturbed, but it might be important — about the will, perhaps, or the estate. Imagine if this man has news of Ernest and Frank, and we turned him away!”

Amy could see the sense in that, but it still made her uncomfortable.

The gentleman strode in, beaming from ear to ear as if being received by two of the Miss Allamonts was the greatest joke in the world.

“Mr Eddington, Miss,” Young intoned, with the slightest hint of disapproval in his tone.

“How do you do, Mr Eddington,” Belle said, stepping forward. “This is Miss Allamont, and I am Miss Belle Allamont. I am sorry Mama is not able to receive you today. She keeps to her room most mornings.”

“I am sorry for it, too,” he said, grinning even more widely. “But you two will do splendidly. Yes, splendidly.” And the grin became a chuckle.

Amy could see what Young meant about Mr Eddington not being from the top echelons of society. His coat was expensive, but not as well-cut as, say, Mr Ambleside’s attire, and the style was rather vulgar. His accent, too, was not as clear as one would expect. He was middle-aged, rather handsome, but turning to scrawn rather than fat.

“How may we help you?” Belle said. “Do you have a message for us to pass to Mama?”

“Aye! That would do very well, very well indeed. Yes, a message! The very thing. You have a pen to hand?”

Belle showed him to the big desk, found paper and ink, and trimmed a pen for him. Then he sat in Papa’s chair and scribbled a rather laborious note, taking great care over every letter.

“There! That should do it!” he said, sanding the paper vigorously. He folded it twice and handed it to Amy. “Pray give that to your Mama, Miss Allamont, and my card as well. Good day to you both.”

And, still chuckling at some unknown joke, he left.

Belle unfolded the paper and began to read.

“Belle!” Amy said, scandalised. “That is private!”

“Then he should have sealed it,” Belle snapped. “But there is nothing secret about it. Look.”