The Emperor (24 page)

‘
I only met her once, when I was a little girl. She was an
old lady by then, but she had great presence. I was a little
afraid of her. She made much of me, which was odd,
because I was of no importance at the time. I had two
brothers, you see.’

Héloïse nodded. 'And she had a daughter, no?'

‘
Her daughter — your great-grandmother — was gone by
then, to the convent in France, but her granddaughter lived
with her.' Jemima frowned, remembering. 'She could not
have known what was to happen; and yet, when she spoke
to me, I had the strangest feeling that / was her true heir,
not her granddaughter. I believed she thought so, too.’

They reached the centre of the terrace and began to walk
down the steps. At their foot the lavender bushes were so
thronged with bees that they shook and vibrated, and
descending step by step was like sinking into a pool of
humming, ankle deep, waist deep. The trapped heat rose
about them, too, spicy with box and thyme, rosemary and
lavender.

‘
When she died, she left me her most precious keep
sakes,' Jemima went on, 'and the diamond collar that King
Charles the second had given her.'

‘
King Charles,' Héloïse said, smiling. 'That is something
out of a history lesson. Did she know him well?'

‘
She was his cousin, and very close to him. She knew all
the Stuart family. You, of course, carry on the name.'

‘
Yes. Papa sometimes used to call me the last Stuart
princess,' Héloïse said.

They turned into one of the narrow, box-edged paths,
and the gravel felt hot through the thin soles of their shoes.

‘
One can never be sure how things will turn out' Jemima
said. 'Eventually I did become her heir, not only mistress of
Shawes, but of Morland Place and the whole Morland
fortune, as she had once been. I used to wonder how she
knew, but now I think she just hoped. It is a great responsibility, you know, to be guardian of an old name, and an old
estate, and I understand better now why Annunciata gave
those things into my hands rather than to her own grand
daughter, whom she did not trust.’

She paused at a junction of paths, and looked down at
Héloïse. 'The main estate has never been entailed, you
know.'

‘What is that, please?' Héloïse asked.

‘
It means I may leave it as I please, and do not have to
leave it to the eldest son.'

‘
Ah yes, I remember James told me so once,' Héloïse
said. The sound of James's name on the air surprised her a little, and seemed to hang there, significant, as if it were a
key that would unlock further confidences.

‘
My dear,' said Jemima, 'I was so happy when you and
James fell in love; not only for James, though I rejoiced that
he had found someone good and true to depend upon, but
for myself, because when I first saw you I felt as I believe
Annunciata must have felt about me. I wanted to leave
Morland Place to you, because I knew that you would
not only take care of it during your lifetime, but that you
would understand the necessity of choosing your heir as
carefully. I wanted
you
to have my kingdom. And now —
and now — ‘

 
She broke off and resumed walking, a little more rapidly
than before. Héloïse caught up with her and said tentatively,
‘Maman, though the marriage of James and —' She found it
impossible to say, and made a small gesture of dismissal and
apology with her hand. 'Though it is not all you must have
hoped for, surely the child, surely James's daughter must
make everything all right for you?’

Jemima smiled at her painfully. 'Oh, child, not every
thing.’

They walked on in silence for a while, and then Jemima
said in a different voice, 'Fanny promises well, and James
does love her, so perhaps he won't neglect her. Things may turn out well. I have to hope so, anyway. One must assume
that God knows what He is doing.’

They followed the path round the lake, watching the
waterfowl busy in the reeds with their new families. June is a
hard month to bear, when everything in nature seems to be
pairing and breeding. In every field dams suckled their
young; every hedgerow shook and clamoured with birds
feeding their nestlings.

Everyone has a mate but me, Héloïse thought; even
James, though he does not love his wife, has a child to care for. They paused under a willow tree growing at the water's
edge, and Héloïse watched a moorhen paddle past, followed
by six impossibly small dabs of young, piping shrilly in her
wake. Then she roused herself to a better frame of mind
with a shake of her head, and Jemima glanced at her and
asked, 'What is it, my love?’

Héloïse smiled. 'I was being self-pitying, which is a great
nonsense; especially as my cousin Charles says that his agent
thinks he might have found a house for me.’

Jemima tried not to feel dismayed. 'So soon! But you
must be pleased. Where is it? What is it like?'

‘
Charles has not had time yet to talk to him about it, so I
know nothing except that it is about fifteen miles away, and in very pretty country. Fifteen miles seems a very good sort
of distance, is it not, Maman? Not too far away for you to
visit me?'

‘
If it were twice so far, I should come,' Jemima said. 'But
let me see, two hours and a half in the carriage, or three if
the roads are bad, would do it. Did Charles mention no
name?'

‘
No. He says he will speak to Athersuch today, and tell
me everything this evening. When I go to see the house, will
you come with me? I think I shall need advice.'

‘
Of course I will. If it is a fine day, we might take a picnic
with us, you know, and make an outing of it.’

*

The fine weather continued, and they went to see Héloïse's
new house in the
open barouche Charles had had built for
Flora. Charles and Roberta, Jemima and Héloïse took the
seats, and Marie sat on the box beside the coachman, for
Héloïse insisted that her ,maid should have the opportunity
of seeing the house before any decision was made. There
was an ample basket of provisions stowed behind, and
Charles said that if they had time enough, it would be a
shame not to go on to Sutton Bank, which was quite near to
their destination.

‘It's a notable beauty spot, and the view from the top is breathtaking.'

‘But what is our destination?' Jemima asked.

‘
The village of Coxwold - a very pretty village indeed.
The house we are going to see is on the outskirts, but there is a good road which passes the door, so it is not isolated. I
believe it may suit you very well, Héloïse, but if you have
the slightest doubt, Athersuch shall look again. You must
not be thinking there is the least hurry in the world. I would not have you leave us until you are quite satisfied with your
choice.’

The village was indeed pretty, with a wide main street
lined with respectable-looking houses, and a little church set
up on a knoll above the road. The countryside was lush and
burgeoning, with tidy fields and gently swelling hills, which
rose gradually to the high ground of the North York Moors,
of which Sutton Bank was a scarp. It was sheep country by
long tradition. There were several ruined monasteries
nearby: the monks of old had been great sheep-masters, and
had grown rich by it, and the legacy of their wealth was seen
all around in the continued prosperity of the area.

Héloïse loved the house at first sight. They rounded a
corner to find it sitting there at an angle to the road, a neat,
symmetrical building of rosy red bricks with stone lintels;
two stories high, with white-painted dormer windows in the
steeply-pitched, lichen-gilded roof. A fence of white pickets
enclosed the tiny front lawn, and a pale rose grew up the
side of the house and threw nodding sprays of blooms over
one of the upstairs windows. All houses have a 'face', and
this one was friendly, gentle and retiring.

‘
I believe there is a more extensive garden at the back,'
Charles said as the coachman drew up. ‘Ah, the owner's
agent is here before us - there's his horse. He said he would
meet us here and shew us round.’

The agent opened the door as they walked up the short
front path, and after an exchange of ceremonies, ushered
them in. A stone-flagged passage led from the front door to
the back, and to either side was a good-sized parlour.
Behind the principal rooms were, on one side, the kitchen,
and on the other a small but very pretty parlour with French
windows giving onto the garden. This room, judging by the
shelves which lined the walls, had been used as a book-room
by some previous tenant.

Upstairs were four bedrooms, with two servants' bed
rooms under the roof. The stairs were rather narrow and
precipitous, but the rooms were all pleasantly shaped and
had good-sized windows.

When they had seen the house, they walked out into the
garden, and everyone exclaimed with delight, for though
small, it was cunningly laid out so as to disguise its true size
and shape with walks which wound in and out of flowering
shrubs and screens of climbing plants. It lay humming under
the sunshine with a multitude of bees and butterflies,
attracted by the sweetly scented flowers and old-fashioned
herbs.

The garden was walled ail around with the same red
brick as the house, and beyond it on the side away from the
road there was a small kitchen garden. There were some
useful espaliered fruit trees - apples, damsons, apricots, a
peach - and a gnarled old mulberry tree grew over the wall
from the flower garden. Birds darted and chirped amongst
the leaves and swung daringly from the espaliered branches.

As she went round the house, Héloïse had said little, her mind already fully occupied with visualizing her favourite pieces of furniture disposed about the rooms. From the moment she entered it, she had no doubt that this was her house: it seemed to fold loving arms about her, and a great
feeling of peace emanated from the sun-warmed bricks. The
little parlour with the French windows, she decided, would
be her study, where she would sit to write her History of the
Revolution. She would put her Sevres
bonheur-du-jour
just
here,
she thought, so that when she lifted her head she could
look out into the garden, for inspiration and comfort.

‘Well, my dear,' Charles asked at length, 'what do you think? Do you like it?'

‘I love it!' Héloïse cried. 'It is exactly right for me. How clever of your Mr Athersuch to find it, cousin Charles!’

Charles smiled at her enthusiasm. 'You do not have to make up your mind at once, you know,' he began, but she
interrupted, 'Oh, but I am quite decided! I wish to live here,
and nowhere else. I shall have that little room to work in, and I will plant some white jasmine in a pot outside the window, just like I had at the convent. I shall have a little dog, too, like Bluette, to play with in the garden. I hope the stairs won't be too steep for Madame Chouflon, however. She is not always strong in the legs.'

‘The stairs are very bad,' Charles said gravely. 'Not but
what they mightn't be improved, if you found you had
enough money in hand; but the rooms are good. Four bed
rooms will be sufficient, I suppose? And servants — you will
want another maid and a man, I imagine. Yes, two attics
will suffice for now.'

‘Yellow curtains, for my work-room,' Héloïse mused,
almost as if she had not heard him, 'and then if I recover the
chaise longue in
yellow silk it will look as though the
sunshine is always pouring in to the room. Oh, Maman,
don't you think it the loveliest little house in the world?'

‘It is very pretty indeed, my dear,' Jemima agreed, 'only there is no stable.’