The Emperor (85 page)

‘
Well, I'm glad to be out of it, at all events,' Lucy concluded her own thoughts. ‘Morland Place must be
extremely uncomfortable, for everyone but Edward.’

They were interrupted at that moment by the return of
Bobbie and Mr Firth, and Lucy was interested to see how
gladly Roberta's eyes lifted to the tutor's, and how openly
he returned her smile. It was easy to account, she thought,
for Roberta's increased prettiness and her new interest in
clothes. And why not, Lucy's mind jumped on agilely.
Roberta's portion was generous, and had no conditions
attached to it, and Charles had trusted her sufficiently to make her sole guardian of the young Earl, so she had no
trustees to appease or offend. She had been two years a
widow, and was not above four-and-twenty, too young to
wear weeds all her life. It would be a very good thing, Lucy
thought, if she and Mr Firth were to come to an under
standing.

But for the moment, the seventh earl was claiming her
attention. 'Oh ma'am,' he said rapturously, ‘your horses are
first-rate! Prime blood and bone! Parslow took us around
the square, and he let me take 'em for a bit, on the straight,
and he says I've got light hands, and would make a driver if
I was taught!' It was evident that Parslow's praise was the
highest he could attain to.

‘
I can guess what comes next,' Roberta smiled, ‘and the
answer is, not until you are older.'

‘But Mama — !'

‘
Your mama's quite right,' Lucy said, feeling she should
extricate them from the tangle her groom had got them into.
‘Parslow didn't mean that you should learn now, Bobbie.
You aren't strong enough yet to hold a horse in harness, but
when you are, if your mama permits, I will teach you
myself.'

‘
Thank you, ma'am,' Bobbie said doubtfully, ‘but if you
don't mind very much, I should prefer to have Parslow
teach me.'

‘
Bobbie!' Roberta exclaimed. ‘And after Lady Aylesbury
taught you to ride, you ungrateful child.'

‘
Holed and sunk,' Lucy grinned ruefully. ‘I hope the
Thames
comes in soon, or I shall have no
self-esteem left.’

*

Lucy was right in thinking that Mary Ann would object to
having Mrs Smith and her child to live at Morland Place. She objected seriously and strenuously, tackling first her
husband, and then Edward on the subject, with a notable
lack of success. James merely smiled cynically, and said that
it was nothing to do with him.

‘
I am merely in lodgings here, as you know very well. I
have no say in the running of the house or the estate. You'll
have to speak to Edward about it.'

‘
But don't you care that Henry and Fanny are to be
exposed to the evil influence of
that woman?
To say
nothing of being brought up with — with — '

‘
A bastard?' James supplied the word helpfully. ‘Well, I
don't see much harm in Mrs Smith, or in young master
Smith. They seem very quiet, well-behaved folk. In any
case, I'm not Fanny's trustee. Your Papa didn't think me a
fit person, you know, so my opinion must be worthless.’

Mary Ann glared at him, but she knew there was no
purpose in pursuing the discussion further. James was in
what she considered one of his worst moods, flippant,
caustic, and care-for-nothing, and the gleam of amusement
in his eye at her discomfiture made her want to hit him.
Ever since that ill-fated visit to Paris, the little kindness that had been painstakingly built up between them had vanished,
and he had treated her instead with a rigidly correct polite
ness which frustrated her, because she knew he meant it for an insult. He absented himself from home more frequently,
and was more often drunk, besides going away for several
days every month on the sort of trips she had hoped he had
given up for ever.

Occasionally she had seen glimpses of the torment
underneath which provoked this behaviour, and if he had
borne his grief in some other way, she might even have
found it in her to pity him, and be kind. But he did not want
her kindness, of course.

She wished she had not seen them together. The image of
her husband and Héloïse as she had seen them, standing
close together on the deck of the
Magpie,
and the way they
had looked at each other, was branded on her memory. No,
he did not want her kindness. He hated her, because she
kept him from the woman he loved.

All the same, she was his wife, and mistress of Morland
Place, and she was not prepared to accept her brother-in-
law's whore under her roof. She went to Edward to demand
her removal.

Edward listened to her with a frown, and then said,
‘Well, I know it isn't the usual thing, but William would
marry her if he could, you know. It isn't as if he was bring
ing lightskirts here. As for harming Fanny, why, Mrs Smith
behaves with the greatest propriety. You couldn't want a
higher stickler, as far as manners are concerned.'

‘
That isn't the point,' Mary Ann began, and Edward
interrupted her.

‘
Isn't it? Then I don't quite see what is. William's my
brother, and this is his home, and Mrs Smith's his wife, in
everything but a small point of law, which neither of them
can help. And Frederick's a perfectly well-behaved child,
and William's as strict as can be with him, and makes sure
he never strays out of line, so I don't really see what you've
got to object to.'

‘The small point of law, as you call it, is what I object to.
Whatever you say, they are not married to each other, and
that makes Mrs Smith - makes her an undesirable companion,' she concluded a little feebly, seeing Edward's frown
deepen.

‘
I find her a very pleasant companion,' he said firmly.
‘And as far as I'm concerned, William and his wife and child
- for so I regard them - are welcome to stay here as long as
they like.’

He indicated politely that the argument was terminated,
but Mary Ann was not willing to let things rest there. The
next day she ordered the horses put-to in her vis-a-vis, and
drove into York to visit the offices of Messrs Pobgee and
Micklethwaite in Davygate. Mr Pobgee received her kindly,
but could offer no help.

Morland Place is Captain William Morland's home while
he chooses so to regard it,' he told her. 'Under the terms of
Lady Morland's Will, any of her children has the right to
reside at Morland Place while unmarried.'

‘
But that's a direct inducement to immorality,' Mary Ann
said angrily.

‘
I assure you, ma'am, it was not meant thus,' Pobgee said.
‘It's a curious clause, but then the circumstances were not
usual. In leaving the estate to the offspring of her third son,
she had no wish to render the elder two homeless.'

‘
But what about this Mrs Smith?' Mary Ann asked.
‘Surely she has no rights under the terms of the Will?'

‘
Naturally not,' Pobgee said. 'That is a matter which you
must take up with Mr Edward Morland. As sole Trustee,
such decisions are his. He is quite within his rights to invite
Mrs Smith to remain at Morland Place.'

‘
Until Fanny reaches her majority,' Mary Ann said
grimly. Pobgee bowed. 'So what you are saying is that as
long as Edward agrees, William may live at Morland Place
with fifty women if he wishes?'

‘
I think it highly unlikely that he would want to do any
such thing,' Pobgee said with a faint smile. 'But in essence,
that is correct.’

Since she could not send Mrs Smith and her brat away
from Morland Place, Mary Ann decided that the best thing
she could do was to remove herself and her son, at least
temporarily. Her father had for a long time been pressing
her to come and stay, and to bring his grandson, so as to
acquaint the neighbourhood with the heir to Hobsbawn
Mills. That evening, Mary Ann announced her decision to
accept the invitation.

It aroused only the mildest of interest. Edward nodded
over his beef and said, 'Quite right, the lad ought to see his
grandpapa. How long will you stay?'

‘
I am not sure,' Mary Ann said. 'For a month, at least.
Perhaps more.'

‘
And will you take Fanny, too?' William asked, more out
of politeness than because he really wanted to know.

‘
I think not,' Mary Ann said with dignity, avoiding
James's eye. Fanny was so much her father's child, that it
would have been difficult to detach her, even had she
wanted, and she didn't really want to. She didn't much like
Fanny, especially now she had a son. It seemed wrong to her
that Fanny should inherit Morland Place over little Henry's
head.

‘
I hope you will have an enjoyable stay,' James said with
belated cordiality as Mary Ann set off on her journey,
accompanied by Dakers, Birkin, and baby Henry in the care of Jenny, the senior nursery-maid. 'Give my respects to your
father.'

‘Thank you,' Mary Ann said stiffly.

‘
Bring me back a present,' said Fanny, holding her
father's hand and fidgeting, wishing her mother would hurry
up and go, so that she and Papa could go out riding.

The two carriages jerked into motion, and as they drew
away from Morland Place, Mary Ann looked back with a
sense of escape and relief. It would be delightful to be at
home again, at Hobsbawn House. She would take charge of
the household for Papa, in whose eyes she could do no
wrong, and make him comfortable again, and bask in his
approval. She would help him to entertain, and would visit
the leading ladies of the neighbourhood and display her
pretty son and her expensive, fashionable clothes. How
delightful it would be, she thought, as the carriage turned a
bend and the house disappeared from view, if she never had
to return!

*

The
Thames
came in to Plymouth at the end of April, and a
week later sailed up to Portsmouth to be paid off and laid
up. Captain Weston was given two months' leave, after
which he would go onto half pay. The navy was shrinking
daily, though a few ships would be kept in commission for
messenger and diplomatic duties, to transport army pay to
the overseas garrisons, and to support the Revenue Service
in its losing battle against the smugglers.

‘
I don't intend to seek an appointment immediately,' he
said to Lucy. 'After three years at sea, I mean to have the
whole of the summer to myself. What would you like to do?
Do you want to go to London? I suppose the Season's in full
swing at the moment. Or would you like to go to Brighton,
or into the country? I'll do anything you like. I'm in a very
pliant mood, you see. Peace must have gone to my head.'

‘
Are you really glad about the peace?' asked Lucy curi
ously. 'I thought perhaps you wouldn't be.'

‘
Oh, the war was enjoyable in some ways, but it's good to
feel that we have time before us to be together, that I won't
suddenly be called away. It's good to be able to make plans,
for a change. Now, what would you like to do?'

‘
There is something I've been thinking about for a long
time,' Lucy said cautiously. Weston grinned.

‘
Out with it! It's something outrageous, by your expres
sion.'

‘
I want to dress as a boy again. I enjoyed the freedom so much, when I ran away to join the
Diamond.
You can have
no idea, Weston, what it's like to put on breeches after a
lifetime in petticoats.'

‘
Well, I must have done it once, but I was only four years
old at the time, and can't remember,' he laughed. 'By God, I remember you in breeches, though! It was how I first set
eyes on you, and a most captivating youth you made, too. I
wouldn't mind the chance to meet Mr Proom again — but,
my love, you are older now, and I think you will be hard put
to it to convince anyone that you are a boy.'