Master of Melincourt (10 page)

CHAPTER
VII
I

SHE dressed Tina in embroidered Swiss muslin and herself in the rather old-fashioned black lace that had already come in for adverse criticism from
Tina
, and the two of them went downstairs to join the others in the drawing-room about ten minutes before the dinner-gong sounded in the hal
l.

Jeremy Errol gave her a welcome that was unfeigned and very near to being quite rapturous, and although he deplored the fact that she had to be accompanied by the member of the family whom he referred to as ‘the brat’ he seemed to take it for granted that her standing in the household was more or less on a par with the standing of Miss Shaw, at least; and he insisted on sitting near to her at dinner because, as he said, he could keep an eye on Tina for her at the same time that he made sure
she
wasn’t being neglected.

“I don’t understand why you don’t have all your meals down here with the rest of us,” he observed, as he put a glass of she
rry
into her hand and advised her to drink it up quickly because the gong would sound at any moment. He looked round at his half
-
brother, who was standing on the rug in front of the flower-filled fireplace and looking extremely thoughtful although his unacknowledged
fiancée
and Miss Shaw were both very close to his elbow, and demanded in a loud voice to know why it was that Miss Sands had to remain incarcerated in the nursery
quarters for
the
better
part of each day, when by rights she should have the freedom of the house.

Errol’s eyebrows went up, but he merely smiled faintly. Miss Shaw said sarcastically, “To protect her from people like you, Jeremy,” and it was obvious to Edwina that she resented the particular attention the host’s relative was paying her. It was an age when class distinctions were supposed to have been banished, but Miss Shaw, obviously, was not entirely up-to-date in some matters ... and most certainly not when they involved her men friends.

Marsha, on the other hand, smiled also, and added her warning to the statement made by Miss Shaw just in case Edwina was easily taken in by flatteries.

“Yes, do be warned about Jeremy, Miss Sands,” she begged. “He really finds it quite impossible to resist a pretty face.”

Which was an admission, on her part, that Edwina had something to recommend her apart from her ability to cope with children.

Throughout the meal Edwina had the impression that her employer was not entirely happy about her presence at the dinner-table. She was right at the bottom of the table, and well away from him, while his niece sat on the other side of Jeremy, who was next to Edwina, but from the occasional thoughtful looks he directed at the governess it was not, in his opinion, a satisfactory seating arrangement.

Edwina wished that she had elected to remain upstairs where she normally had her evening meal, and as Tina always behaved impeccably at mealtimes
—
save on the occasion when she outraged her uncle by upsetting her lemonade and lowering a mess of rice
pudding into her lap—there was no real need for her to be present to keep an eye on her.

Tina was not, after all, a very small child. Her attitude to life was in advance of her years, and as she liked social occasions she did her
best to shine at them and was as clever as a monkey at imitating her elders. On the present occasion she even asked to be allowed a small glass of the champagne that was served with the main course, but Edwina intervened firmly to
prevent this,
and she was supported by Jervis Errol himself.

He frowned quite blackly at the child. “Champagne is not for infants,” he told her. “Don’t be precocious, child.” He actually sounded seriously irritated. “Drink your fruit juice, and
don’t let’s have any more nonsense
!
”

“Jervis!”

Marsha reproved him from her seat on his right hand.

"“Don’t be a spoilsport when the child is enjoying herself! I was permitted a sip or two of champagne when I was her
age ...
And, in any case, you don’t need to bark at her! Tina, poppet,” smiling engagingly at her future niece, “your un
cl
e didn’t mean to snap your head off.”

“Allow me to make it clear that that was precisely what I did mean to do,” Jervis said coldly, with cutting emphasis, as
Ti
na gazed big-eyed at him. “I don’t approve of exhibitionism, as Tina knows very w
el
l, and asking for champagne at her age is one way of drawing attention to herself.”

Even Edwina looked considerably taken aback by this.

“I’m sure she didn’t mean—”
sh
e was beginning,
when Jeremy spoke up in his niece’s defence, and she was unable to proceed.

Jeremy encircled Tina’s slight shoulders with a protective arm, and tweaked the ear nearest to him. He advised:

“Don’t listen to Uncle Jervis to-night, sweetheart. He’s not in a very good mood, obviously. Something must have disagreed with him at lunch.”

“Nothing disagreed with me at lunch,” Jervis snapped.

“Then Marsha can’t have been very kind to him.” He grinned across the table at Marsha. “Have you two had another quarrel
?
Or is this the aftermath of the one you had the day before yesterday? I must say, for two people who see such a lot of one another and plainly desire: to go on seeing even more of one another you do both seem to have an extraordinary capacity for ruffling each other’s feathers. One moment I’m absolutely certain you’re about to announce your engagement, and then I’m not so sure.”

Marsha smiled mysteriously.

“The course of true love never yet ran smoothly,” she observed. “And in any case, the onlooker never sees most of the game, you know.”

“Apparently not.”

But for one moment, as he gazed at his half-brother, Jeremy looked and also sounded dubious.

“I’m fortunate, because I’ve taken a vow never to fall in love... not seriously.” This time he turned sideways and smiled at Edwina. “What’s your opinion on the subject, Miss Sands? Or haven’t you had enough experience yet to be able
to
offer one? You look to me as if you
ought to have had a
great deal
of experience
... but perhaps looking after a kid like Tina rather put you off marriage, and the serious side of life.” Once again he tweaked his niece’s ear, but apologetically this time. “No offence, infant, but if I had to trail around after you all day I’d think twice about acquiring something like you one of these days. However, Miss Sands strikes me as very, very feminine, perhaps she isn’t so easily put off.” And his light blue eyes sparkled at her provoca
tively
.

Her employer looked as if the savoury, which had just been brought to table, revolted him. He declined to touch it himself.

“If you must talk nonsense,” he said sharply to Jeremy, “please have the goodness to spare Miss Sands. She is not in a position to tell you to mind your own business, so kindly refrain from enquiring into her personal concerns.”

At this Marsha, who had been smiling thoughtfully at the champagne bubbles at the bottom of her glass, lifted her slender eyebrows in real astonishment. She turned her extraordinarily light blue eyes full on the man in the well-cut dinner-jacket who occupied the seat at the head of the table.

“
A
re
you feeling quite well, darling?” she enquired, a note of concern in her voice. “Perhaps something you ate at lunch did upset
you—”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

The delicate eyebrows remained poised.

“I’m not in the habit of talking nonsense.”

“Every woman talks nonsense at times, and some women more often than others.” He reached for the cheese that had been placed close to his elbow, and hacked away at a piece of Cheddar. “It’s because
I’ve remained a bachelor so long and become fully conversant with the defects of women that I want my niece to grow up with a little more reserve than most of them seem to have. She’s unlikely to do so, however, if she listens to the kind of dinner-table conversation that’s taking place to-night, and in future, Miss Sands—” looking at her as if he was unwilling to exclude her from his condemnation of her sex—“I’ll be glad if you’ll consult me first before bringing Tina down here at this time of night. Instead of guzzling champagne and making herself ill with rich foodstuffs she ought to be in bed.”

“
We
ll
!”
Marsha exclaimed, and then decided to leave it at that.

Edwina also decided that it was not the moment to explain to him that she had received her instructions from Miss Fleming, who was apparently soon to become his wife; and instead she asked in a subdued voice whether he would prefer it if she and Tina returned to their quarters without waiting for the meal to finish.

He growled something in answer
... and then looked full at her and apologised wryly.

“It would appear I am not in the best of humours,” he admitted. “And no, I don’t think it would be a good idea if you left the room before the rest of us. I think you’d better join us for coffee in the
drawing room
, and then Tina can recite
The Owl and the Pussy-cat
or
Goblin Market
for our entertainment. I’m sure she’d enjoy the opportunity to air her lungs.” It was plain he was not yet in completely restored good humour, and for some reason he seemed to have a desire to make acid observations and rather cutting rejoinders. But on Tina he gradually began to smile with greater indulgence, and Edwina, too, was addressed quite normally by him, and he appeared to be harbouring nothing in the nature of a grudge against her.

Marsha regarded him occasionally and very thoughtfully out of otherwise inscrutable blue eyes, and Candy Shaw challenged him to a game of two
-
handed rummy, which took them off to the library where a card table was set up. Before they left the drawing-room he looked significantly at Tina and jerked his head towards the door, and Edwina understood that they were being dismissed. But Jeremy Errol protested determinedly:

“It’s early yet! I was going to ask you whether you’d seen the rose-garden by moonlight, Miss Sands. If you haven’t, I was going to suggest that I show it to you,” and there was a spark of clear, cold defiance in his eyes as he met his brother’s look.

Jervis crushed the idea almost mercilessly.

“Miss Sands has a job to do upstairs,” he said. “She is not here to provide distractions for visitors to the house.”

When they reached the schoolroom Tina exclaimed a little solemnly:

“Uncle Jervis
was
cross to-night, wasn’t he? Do you think he was really cross with us, or do you think he was cross about something else?”

Which proved to Edwina that she was shrewd enough in her way. And it was a question she found impossible to answer, for she was by no means certain herself what had caused the master of the house’s peevish mood. For a secretly engaged man he had been very peevish.

In the morning the housemaid who looked after
their rooms brought her a note from him, which ran:

Come down to the library as soon as you’ve finished your breakfast. Don’t bring Tina. Set her a task that will keep her occupied. J. E.

Setting Tina a task that would keep her occupied while no one else was in the room to supervise her was not the simplest thing in the world, particularly when Tina herself was curious because she had seen the note handed over. But she stood in sufficient awe of her uncle to understand perfectly that if he did not wish to see her, too, in the library it actually meant that he did not wish to see her. Edwina managed to make it clear to her that the best thing she could do was apply herself diligently to one of her exercise books, and she went off hurriedly at last to ascertain what it was that was required of her ... or to receive some indication that she was guilty of a minor—she hoped it couldn’t possibly be major—transgression.

It was a beautiful morning, and out of doors the gardens were a blaze of colour under a hot June sky, and she wished very much that instead of making her way to the library she was merely sauntering out for a breath of morning air after her well-served breakfast of grapefruit, toast and marmalade. But since she might be on the mat in a matter of minutes now she slightly squared her shoulders and set her jaw and hoped her eyes looked straightforward and innocent as she knocked on the solid oak library door.

She was wearing a well-washed linen dress of palest yellow, and she hoped her employer wouldn’t consider her appearance too casual. If she had had a lengthier warning and more time she would have changed into one of her semi-uniform type dresses in restrained navy-blue, with touches of white at the neck and cuffs
... but she simply hadn’t had time. The note had said:

“as soon as you’ve finished your breakfast
...
”

She felt her heart hammering as she tapped on the library door. Errol’s voice from within called out to her to “Come in.” Greatly to her relief—but considerably to her surprise—he was smiling at her from behind his roll-topped desk when she entered.

He stood up at once and came round the desk to greet her.

“Good morning, Miss Sands ... Edwina! You really do look like the spirit of the morning in that dress!” He crinkled his eyes at her. “Haven’t I said something like that to you before
?
”

She shook her head.

“Then I must have let the opportunity slip past me. Or maybe you haven’t worn yellow before. You really ought to wear it all the time, it becomes you so admirably. But that’s because of your hair and your eyes, of course.”

She flushed in a wildly becoming way.

“Th-thank you, Mr. Errol,” she stammered. “I was afraid you would think I ought to be wearing something rather different, something to indicate that I’m a governess.”

He looked completely astounded.

“Good heavens, no! Why should you
?
You’re an employee here, not a slave
... and I also hope you’re becoming a fast, firm friend of Tina’s. It has pleased me very much to observe, since I returned from London and she went out of her way to make your life a misery, that there appears to be a bond developing between you. She’s more eager to stay with you than she is to go off with anyone else
... even me,” grinning with assumed ruefulness. “And that in itself pleases me enormously! I’ve always thought that Tina needed to be closely attached to a member of her own sex ... and you, apparently, are that member
!
”

The wild rose colour remained high on Edwina’s cheekbones, but although she acknowledged the compliment she couldn’t help feeling that something was wrong somewhere ... or, at any rate, it was not quite right. If Tina needed a woman in her life to whom she could become closely attached surely it ought to be her future stepmother
... and as, not so long ago, it had been the future stepmother, and was now apparently the governess, why was Mr. Errol so delighted and able to be so enthusiastic when it meant that his prospective bride was being unfairly treated and, at the very least, he should object?

She felt certain that Miss Fleming herself would object very strongly
...
and not without reason.

She murmured something that sounded like, “You’re very kind, Mr. Errol, but it’s simply because I’m with her so much that Tina has decided it’s in her own best interests to be on good terms with me,” and then was further surprised because he smiled broadly and declared with unmistakable conviction:

“Nonsense! You undervalue yourself, Edwina ... or else you’re simply deceiving yourself. But as Tina is really a very normal little girl, with entirely normal reactions, it’s not in the least strange that she’s taken to you in a big way at last. It’s perfectly understandable!”

He went back to his desk, opened a drawer and removed a bunch of keys, and then nodded in the direction of the door.

“Come along,” he said. “I’ve something to show you.”

“To show me?”

“Yes. But I’m now allowing you three guesses beforehand, because I don’t think you’d ever guess.”

“Is it something to do with Tina?”

“It concerns Tina, and it also concerns you.” Feeling completely mystified, she followed him out of the library, and along the thickly carpeted corridor which led to the library, and thence to a side entrance.

As they stepped out into the sunshine the sheer beauty of Melincourt and its setting caught at Edwina ... the shaven lawns, the piled-up woods beyond the lawns, the brilliant flower borders, the lake. And the house itself, with its timeworn terrace steps, and its mellowed greyness, was most pleasing as she turned to look back at it.