Poverty Castle (7 page)

They often went to watch the making of their road, especially when the tar was being spread. They came home with tar on their hands and even in their hair, and with their vocabulary increased. They talked to the workmen as equals.

They visited Poverty Castle to give Papa and the building contractor advice. They advised Papa to have three bathrooms, one for himself and Mama and two for them. They had seen how he suffered in Bell Heather Cottage having to wait to get into the one bathroom there, because they were washing their own or their dolls' hair or sitting on the loo reading.

They asked to be consulted as to which rooms should be theirs. They caused Papa to sigh and the decorators to curse under their breath by the number of times they changed their minds as to the colour of paint and the kind of wallpaper they wanted.

Sometimes the cost of it all worried them. What was the good of having a grand house and a private road, not to mention a private beach, if it meant that they would be too poor to keep animals or buy books? Mama reassured them, having herself been reassured by Papa. It seemed that, so long as you started off with a large enough fortune, such as Papa's, and provided you invested or spent it wisely, you could not help becoming richer. For example, Poverty Castle would cost about forty thousand pounds but in the end would be worth more than sixty thousand. Papa was of course pleased about this
increase but for some reason he was also a little ashamed. Mama begged the girls not to pester him for explanations.

Effie proposed that they should go and take a close look at the Big House. As far as they knew there was no one there except a caretaker and his wife. Papa was consulted. He saw no objections as long as they didn't peer through windows.

One sunny afternoon they set off, cycling along the main road until they came to their own road that led to Poverty Castle. There was a new gate of wrought iron, to which Papa intended to have fixed a plate with the name of the house. Hiding their bicycles under bracken they took to the wood, stealthy as Red Indians. Coming upon some wood pigeon feathers Effie, Jeanie and Rebecca stuck them in their hair. Diana thought it was too childish for her. Rowena was wearing a white sunhat. It was to keep her face from becoming freckled.

They came to a small green field laid out with red-and-white hurdles for horses to jump over. Whooping, Effie and Jeanie climbed the fence and began jumping. Crows in the tops of trees made a great clamour, alerting any gamekeeper within half a mile. Diana refused to ask her sisters to make less noise. They were doing no harm and were enjoying themselves. Even little Rebecca was pretending she was a pony.

Rowena's hat and dress were still remarkably clean. She perched on a hurdle and imagined she was their mother. She shook her head at the antics of Effie and Jeanie but smiled at Rebecca's dainty and cautious jumps.

Suddenly they heard dogs barking. More interested than alarmed, for they all liked dogs, the girls watched and waited. Down the road raced two big Labradors, one black and the other golden. Foaming at the mouth, they made for the trespassers.

‘Aren't they beautiful?' cried Jeanie, but her voice trembled a little.

‘Keep together,' shouted Diana as she ran in front of her sisters.

Rebecca was frightened. The dogs were so big and strong that they could easily send her sprawling.

Rowena assumed the part of a heroine about to die bravely.

Then they saw the lady. She was running after the dogs and yelling to them to come back. Two boys followed her.

‘Good dogs,' cried Diana, shielding her sisters. ‘Good dogs.'

Puzzled at finding that the insolent intruders were really harmless little girls the dogs snuffled and whimpered. Patted on the head they responded with slobbery kisses.

Being so small Rebecca had to be protected.

The lady arrived, red-faced and panting. She was not pleased to see that the trespassers, to save whom from being torn to pieces she had run harder than she had done for years, were patting and hugging their supposed savagers.

‘Who the hell are you?' she gasped.

They weren't shocked, because Papa sometimes said ‘Hell!' but they did show on their faces amazement that a lady so well dressed and with such a posh accent (though her voice was a bit rough) should use such language. They guessed that she must be the lady from the Big House.

‘Our name is Sempill,' said Diana, with dignity. ‘I'm Diana.'

Her sisters gave their names.

‘I'm Effie.'

‘I'm Jeanie.'

‘I'm Rowena.'

‘I'm Rebecca.'

‘Good God! Where have you come from? What are you doing here? Don't you know this is private property?'

‘We apologise,' said Diana. ‘We did not know you were in residence. Our father has bought Poverty Castle. It's not far from here.' She turned and pointed. ‘He's having it repaired.'

‘So that's who you are!' Lady Campton was not readily embarrassed but she did not find it easy to meet those five frank critical gazes. They were such damnably good-looking children, though four of them were dressed like ragamuffins. The fifth, in a white hat, was a real beauty. She could not help glancing at Edwin, big-nosed like herself, and Nigel, small-eyed like his father.

The girls had already decided they liked the older boy, who was about Diana's age. It wasn't his fault he had such a big nose, but there wasn't any need for him to be so shy. His brother was too sneery.

He spoke sneeringly too. ‘Your father had no right to buy that house. My father wanted to buy it and knock it down. It's on our land so it should belong to us.'

His mother smiled at the rude little beast. ‘What did you call the house?' she asked. ‘I thought it was called Ardmore.'

Diana explained. ‘The people here call it Poverty Castle because it was derelict for so long. Papa likes the name. We're not sure why.'

‘What does your father do?'

‘He used to be an architect.'

‘In Edinburgh,' added Effie.

‘I say,' said Edwin, in a voice so posh that the girls thought it very funny though none of them so much as smiled, ‘were your names taken from books by Sir Walter Scott?'

He must be cleverer than he looked. They nodded.

‘Rowena and Rebecca are from
Ivanhoe
,' he said.

‘Jeanie and I are from
Heart of Midlothian
,' said Effie, and Diana's from
The Fair Maid of Perth
.'

‘Good God!' said the lady again.

‘What are your names?' asked Effie.

‘Sorry. I'm Edwin. This is Nigel.'

‘Papa said if one of us had been a boy he'd have been called Nigel,' said Effie.

‘From
Fortunes of Nigel
,' said Jeanie.

Nigel looked aghast at almost having been a member of such a family. He was also peeved that the dogs, Nelson and Drake, were ignoring him and showering affection on these strangers.

‘Papa said he hoped we would be good neighbours,' said Diana.

The lady snorted.

‘It was jolly brave of you facing up to the dogs,' said Edwin.

Nigel sneered. ‘They've never bitten anyone.'

‘Diana didn't know that.'

‘She's always brave,' said Effie.

‘She's afraid of nothing,' said Jeanie.

Diana blushed.

‘I'm afraid of lots of things,' said Edwin, making them like him all the more. ‘I say, do you play cricket?'

‘Girls are rotten at cricket,' sneered Nigel.

‘We play at everything,' said Effie, grandly. ‘Badminton, rounders, football, marbles, croquet,
and
cricket.'

‘Would you like to come and play cricket with us? That would be all right, wouldn't it, Mother?'

‘I suppose so, Edwin, but perhaps they would have to ask their parents first.'

The girls conferred, not to consider whether Papa and Mama would give permission, they took that for granted, but to decide if they really wanted to go and play cricket at the Big House. It was four to one. Diana was the dissenter.

‘When have we to come?' asked Effie.

‘What about tomorrow at three? Would that suit?' Edwin couldn't keep his eyes off Diana.

‘That would suit fine,' said Jeanie.

‘Where are you living now?' asked Lady Campton.

Diana replied. ‘In Bell Heather Cottage. Poverty Castle won't be ready until September.'

‘Is that really what your father's going to call it?'

‘Yes.'

‘He's going to put it on the gate,' said Rebecca.

‘Good God!'

Courteously they withdrew. The dogs whined with disappointment at not being allowed to go with them.

‘Shall we send a car for you?' cried Edwin.

‘Thank you,' replied Diana. ‘There is no need. We shall come in the Daimler.'

‘I
HOPE
you didn't invite yourselves,' said Mama.

‘Of course we didn't,' said Diana.

‘Sometimes you do, you know.'

‘Well we didn't this time. Did we?'

Her sisters shook their heads.

‘The lady said “Hell!”' said Rebecca.

‘She said “Good God!” three times,' said Rowena, who would remember to say it herself when acting the part of a lady with a title and a Big House.

‘She made noises like this,' said Effie, and she imitated Lady Campton's snorts.

‘Good heavens, girls, I hope you weren't rude to the poor woman.'

‘She's not poor,' said Jeanie. ‘She's got a gold wristwatch with diamonds in it.'

‘Her perfume was lovely,' said Rowena.

‘I don't know how you could smell it,' said Effie. ‘She was sweaty, like us.'

‘The dogs were beautiful,' said Jeanie. ‘When are we going to get dogs, Mama?'

‘When we move into our new home.'

They had noticed how Mama avoided calling it Poverty Castle.

‘We liked Edwin, but we didn't like Nigel,' said Rebecca.

‘All he did was sneer,' said Effie. ‘He said Poverty Castle should belong to them because it's on their land. It isn't on their land, is it?'

‘Well, it's surrounded by their land.'

‘The lady's got a very big nose,' said Rebecca.

‘Rebecca darling, it's not nice to make personal remarks.'

‘So has Edwin,' said Effie, ‘but he's got good manners.' She mimicked Edwin's accent. ‘Shawl we send a caur for you?'

Even Mama laughed. Diana did not, though.

‘He fell in love with Diana,' said Jeanie. ‘He said she was jolly brave facing up to the dogs.'

Diana's lips were tight.

‘Quite a lot seems to have happened in a short time,' said Mama.

‘Can we go and play cricket tomorrow?' asked Effie.

‘I suppose so but you'll have to ask Papa.'

‘He'll say yes,' said Jeanie. ‘He always does.'

‘He's not feeling too well disposed towards Sir Edwin, whose lawyers have been sending letters.'

‘If you say we can go, Mama, Papa will say it too,' said Rowena.

‘Yes, Mama, he always agrees with you,' said Effie.

‘Not quite always, my dear.'

They couldn't remember any such occasion. It must have happened when they weren't there.

Papa had been on a visit to Tarbeg to see about a consignment of timber that was late in arriving. He had called on Mr Patterson who had shown him the most recent letter from London solicitors acting for Sir Edwin Campton. It stated that, according to the agreement drawn up when Ardmore was sold to the Braidlaws sixty years ago, the estate had to be given first option to buy back. It was hinting that Sir Edwin was contemplating taking the matter to court. ‘Mere bluster,' Mr Patterson had said, cheerfully. ‘Pique and bluster. The estate
was
given first option. Their offer was unacceptable. Legally they haven't a leg to stand on. Your right to the house, Mr Sempill, is unassailable. I have replied in those terms. We shall hear no more about it.'

The girls listened while Papa recounted all this to Mama. They had not yet told of their adventure.

‘These bloody English, Meg, they think they have bought us, body and soul.'

‘I hope Mr Patterson is sure of his ground, my dear. It would be a great pity if you were to make this house habitable, at much expense, only to find it taken from you by law.'

‘I would blow it up before I let that happen.'

‘But would that not please Sir Edwin? Doesn't he want to own the house so that he can raze it to the ground, as Mr Patterson said?'

‘How could I be a good neighbour to a man plotting behind my back to undo me?'

‘Perhaps he is not so vindictive. We do not know the gentleman.'

‘He shall find me resolute. I tell you this, I shall never go near that man's place.'

Effie could hold her tongue no longer. ‘You'll have to, Papa, because you wouldn't let Mama drive the car.'

That was unfair, Mama had been given lessons. She had landed the car in a ditch.

Diana then described their encounter with the Camptons.

‘Was
he
there?' cried Papa, purple with anger.

‘No. Just Lady Campton and the two boys.'

‘How dare she accuse you of trespassing.'

‘But we were trespassing, Papa.'

‘Ridiculous. Less than half a mile away from your home. If those dogs had bitten you I would have had him jailed.'

‘They were very friendly dogs,' said Jeanie.

‘Will you drive us there, Papa, or will we go on our bikes?' asked Effie.

‘I'm not sure that you should go at all. How do we know that they haven't invited you just to humiliate you?'

‘Please, Edward, give them credit for more genuine breeding than that.'

‘Meg, tinkers on the shore have more genuine breeding than many so-called aristocrats.'

‘It was Edwin invited us,' said Jeanie. ‘We trust him.'