An Indelicate Situation (The Weymouth Trilogy) (8 page)

In recalling the incident later Maggie could take just the one crumb of comfort from an otherwise totally calamitous event – th
a
t Mr
Staveley
’s activities in reaching the floor had at least had the effect of totally diverting everyone’s attention away from her crime and onto his instead. Mrs
William
, indeed, had shrieked so loudly at the thought
that her new Axminster
carpet
might
be stained for ever
that her husband had thought it politic to rise from his own seat, traverse the length of the table
at some speed
, and assist her
dextrously
from the r
oom. Mr Buxton and Mr Berkeley,
both of whom were looking considerably more amused than their hosts
,
had risen as one and assisted a struggling Mr
Staveley
to his feet again, while the servants repaired the damage as best they could by adding a further cloth to the table in the vicinity of Maggie and her
unfortunate
victim
, and providing each
of them
with yet another
substantial
glass of wine.

Leaving the gentlemen in the dining room
after their meal
, Mrs
Buxton
led her
fellow
guests back into the drawing room
for some qu
iet conversation until the gent
lemen
should
decide to reappear. Having been instructed to bring the
five Wright children
to meet their guests before being put to bed,
Susan,
th
e nursemaid
,
had just then
delivered them into the
room and was engaged, at that moment, in attempting to maintain th
em in some reasonable sembla
nce of order. Sadly, and despite the recency with which they had appeared
downstairs
, they had already managed to ransack their mama’s writing table by the window, scattering the contents far and wide across the carpet, and were just in the process of attempting to kill one another with the fireside pokers when the ladies
glided
unsuspectingly
into
the room. Maggie was immediately called upon to assist and – with very limited effect – attempted to divert Master William into the marginally less potentially harmful occupation of
playing with some marbles on the floor. His sister Augusta, failing to elicit the same amount of attention through her
saucy
flouncing
about the room, immediately decided to rob her brother of his best marble by the simple expedient of s
lipping it down the dress
of her younger sister Amelia. It took the combined efforts of Maggie, the nursemaid and Mrs Wright herself to quell the furore, introd
uce the children to the ladies
and to Mr Staveley, who mistimed his entrance
into the drawing room
to such an extent that he was obliged to carry young Georgia
, kicking and screaming as if her life depended on it,
directly
up to her cot
,
and finally
restore a veneer of order to
the drawing room by removing the children without delay.

After this it was something of a relief to Maggie to be able to
hide her confusion by
providing a little bac
kground music on the
Zumpe
pianoforte
next door
.
At least this was an activity in
which she could hardly go astray. She was an accomplished pianist and though few, if any, of her audience were able to grant her their full attention at least those who granted her a modicum
of it
were well rewarded by a performance which would not have disgraced a professional. At one stage Mr Berkeley and Mr
Staveley
, who had spent much of the remainder of their dinner in
taking wine together,
felt it incumbent upon themselves to join her with a vocal accompaniment, whi
ch sounded surprisingly decent
-
although this may have had as much to do with the lateness of the hour as the quality of the actual renditions themselves. At another
stage
Mr
Wright
joined her to sing a duet.
His voice was magnificent – powerful and deep.
It complemented her fine soprano exactly.
The sensation of sharing a
n activity, sharing the same
music
,
sharing
the same
area of space
with hi
m
– of finding him so close to her that she could feel the caress of his shirt cuff upon her arm
-
and afterwards, as they all stood on the front steps to watch the celebratory fireworks in the bay, his whispered congratulations on the excellence of her playing – well,
such a sensation could o
nly fill her with the utmost
delight
. It
almost made up for the embarrassment of the meal.

Despite his little disaster at the dining table, Mr
Staveley
appeared to have made a positive impression upon at least one of the guests that evening, for the next
afternoon
Miss Brewer appeared at Grosvenor Place asking for Mrs Wright, but actually
apparently
seeking him out
instead
. Now Miss Brewer already had some history with the family, having at one time been the affianced bride of Mr Berkeley himself and now, six years on, she was a remarkably pretty twenty
-
two year old surprising only in that she was still in her maiden state. Not that she had been without suitors. A fascinating young lady, with an eye for t
he gentlemen as had Miss Brewer
,
would scarcely have hidden herself away all her life. But from her perspective none of her suitors thus far had quite lived up to her exacting standards – and, more precisely, her ex
acting standard
s in terms of income. Indeed, Mr Berkeley himself had only escaped her clutches once her papa had revealed
that gentleman’s immediate financial situation
to her
which, him having invested heavily in the land reclamation at Weymouth several years ago, was only now beginning to take on a particularly healthy hue.

Now, Sophie
Brewer
was a shrewd young lady. She knew full well that the salary of a
junior officer
in His Majesty’s navy
and, in particular,
of
a new lieutenant who was
still
awaiting the availability of a suitable ship on which to start the next phase of his illustrious career
,
was quite insufficient to meet her
pecuniary
requirements, even when added to a small independence inherited from his papa. Nevertheless, it appeared that the bear
-
like form of Mr
Staveley
intrigued her. Perhaps it
was
an
attraction of opposites. Certainly she was fairy
-
like compared to him, with a good deal of social grace, whereas he appeared to be
large and
awkward and ill
-
equipped for the drawing room
, with no apparent social graces whatsoever
. Whatever the reason, Mr and Mrs Wright being already gone out for the
afternoon
– Mr Wright to his favourite haunts in the vicinity of the Royal Hotel, Mrs Wright, together with Maggie, to acquire some new shoes for Master Will, who had unaccountably managed to destroy his previous best pair in some way which no
-
one really cared to question
-
Mr
Staveley
found himself in the not entirely unwelcome position of welcoming the visitor into his
cousin
’s house, and of entertaining her himself
for a while
.

‘I do hope that you have not suffered unduly as a result of your unfortunate accident last evening, Mr
Staveley
,’ were her first words to him
after accepting a glass of
aniseed cordial
.
Miss Brewer spoke with an attractive little lisp. It sounded most engaging.
‘I felt most concerned for you. You appeared to fall
quite
awkwardly.’

Mr
Staveley
gave a somewhat apologetic guffaw.

‘Less than cousin’s
carpet, that’s for sure, M
...
M
iss B
...
B
rewer. I fear that the housemaid is still
scrub
...
.
scrubbing away
as we speak. I only hope that she does not scrub it quite away.’

Miss Brewer gave a silvery tinkle of a laugh. It sounded quite musical.

‘I daresay your cousin
engages staff who know what they are about,’ she assured him.
‘I am persuaded that the carpet will be of no consequence to her what
so
ever. She must have been
delighted that you were able to join us last night. I understand that you
had not been expected for
quite
some time.’

Mr Staveley felt quite unable to share his charming visitor’s confidence in the delight that his
sudden
appearance must have evinced in his cousin but he nodded his head quite sagely and smiled at her instead.

‘And you say that you arrived here wit
h a p
rivateer
?
How e
xciting. I have always thought p
rivateering the most adventurous of professions. It wouldn’t have been on the ‘Splendid Sylph’ by any chance, would it? Only I seem to remember
seeing her
before, moored
on Weymouth quay
.’

Mr Staveley confirmed that he had indeed been given passage on a ship called the ‘Splendid Sylph’ and Miss Brewer bestowed a charming little smile
up
on hi
m
in return.
She
rose from her seat to take a loo
k at the bits of bone
and wood
that he had been busily carving as she had
entered the room
. ‘But what have we here? It appears that you have hidden talents, Mr
Staveley
. I thought you might. You naval gentlemen are always most clever with your hands.’

Mr
Staveley
looked gratified.

‘Yes, I daresay we are. We have
p
...
plenty of time to kill, after all, with p
...
p
recious little to do for m
...
m
ost of the day. A great
m
any of us carve things. I
p
...
p
articularly like to carve little toys and m
...
m
iniatures. They come in
devilish
useful whilst in p
...
p
ort – b
...
b
uilding b
...
b
ridges with the locals, you know – and I like to p
...
p
lease the children. The ones I am
engaged o
n at the
m
oment are for
m
y
little cousins
here. I think they will like them, once they are done.’

‘I’m sure they will. They are very luck
y
children indeed to have you for their
cousin
. Such little darlings, all of them. How I doat on them
all
.’

Sad to say,
Mr
Staveley
found himself quite unable to second his visitor’s sentiment regarding his
cousin’s children
. Despite the
recency of his acquaintance with them
he had already made up his mind as to the absolute necessity of remaining apart from the little darlings as much as he possibly could for the sake not only of his sanity but also the sanctity of his clothing. Nevertheless, he was flattered that his family should evoke the approbation of a young lady as lovely and intelligent as Miss Brewer obviously was, so he exerted himself to ask her about her family instead, and in particular the circumstances which had
led to her
a
ttending his cousin
’s dinner party in the company of her papa.