The Reckoning (14 page)

‘
Your mother is very affable and condescending,' Rosa
mund remarked to Mr Farraline, with whom she was idling a little behind the nodding turban – the dowager's taste having
been fixed about the year '98, when things 'Eastern' had been
the rage. Not many ladies of her rank would seek out the
company of a governess like that.'

‘
You are being entirely mischievous, Lady Rosamund,'
Farraline said, surprising her. 'Mama is not in the least
condescending, and hardly ever affable, as you very well
know. What she does, she does for her own advantage.'

‘What can you mean?'

‘
Mama likes to be beforehand with the world. She knows
quite well that Miss Rosedale is both knowledgeable, and has
excellent taste, and will provide her with just the right things
to say about the paintings when next she is in company.’

Rosamund suppressed a smile. 'You really shouldn't speak
of your mother like that to me, Mr Farraline.'

‘Why not? Don't you like frankness?’

Not when it embarrasses. How shall I keep my counten
ance in company with Lady Batchworth if you expose her to
me so shamefully?’

He laughed. 'Ah, it was not the impropriety that troubled
you, then, but the inconvenience? I think I begin to under
stand you a little better, ma'am.'

‘
Good God! I hope not! But since we are being frank, you
may answer some questions, if you will.'

‘
You alarm me. I'm afraid you are going to ask me things I
won't care to answer.'

‘
I am going to ask you about yourself, which I imagine will
please you. I never met the man who didn't like talking about
himself.'

‘Cruel, Lady Rosamund. Isn't everyone – male or female –self-absorbed?'

‘
Yes, it's true,' she smiled. 'Tell me, then – how was it that
you fought at Paris? Or was that a hum? For you were not in
Brussels, or we should have met. You did not fight at
Waterloo.'

‘
My regiment was in America, and we didn't arrive until
several days after Waterloo. We were in time to join the
pursuit, but we missed the battle – to my great regret.’

She raised an eyebrow. 'How could you regret it, an experi
enced soldier? In Brussels it was only the Hyde Park officers
who spoke like that.' Her eyes clouded. 'I danced with them
only a few days before, and all their talk was of glory and the
magnificent feats of arms they were going to perform. They
were so excited when they marched away, poor fellows, but so
few of them came marching back.'

‘
Ah, but the heart of my regret, ma'am, is not the battle
itself, but the opportunity of dancing with you beforehand.’

‘
Pho! Absurd!' Rosamund said, not entirely pleased.

‘
But I mean it. Long before I met you, I knew of you by
repute – not only that you were the loveliest and gayest of the
débutantes, but that you had not flinched from tending the
wounded after the battle. Your courage and compassion were
not forgotten, I assure you. Your health was drunk in the
mess on many occasions, and with a serious gratitude that I
think would not have displeased you.'

‘
If you want to praise anyone on that account, praise my
mother. It was she who did the things that required courage,'
Rosamund said shortly. When he did not reply, she looked up
at him, suspecting him of a gross and purely social flattery;
but his expression was one of intensity, and that strange
directness which made her feel rather giddy. It was as if there
were no barriers between them; she felt undefended against
him, almost naked.

‘
I wish you won't flatter me,' she said abruptly. 'I don't like
i
t.'

‘
You prefer frankness? Then let me tell you I was not flat
tering you. I do most sincerely admire you for what you did.'
She looked at him askance. 'It was unfeminine,' she said
neutrally.

He smiled. 'Yes, that's been said too. But not by one whose judgement may be relied upon for impartiality.’

Who is that?'

‘
I had heard you variously described as beautiful, viva
cious, and a ministering angel; also as a right 'un, and a devil
to go on horseback. Those were the majority opinions. But
one particular person spoke of you as – let me see if I have the
words right – a red-headed minx, a hoyden, and an unscru
pulous schemer.' He enjoyed the shocked anger in Rosa
mund's face. 'Can't you guess? Dear ma'am – and you who stole Bel de Ladon's lover from her!’

Rosamund's eyes opened wide. 'Good God! You don't
mean — can you be acquainted with Lady Annabel Robb?'

‘
Oh, of course, she was Bel Robb then, wasn't she? She
married de Ladon in a fit of pique to shew she didn't care
about young Chelmsford's defection to your camp.'

‘
No, sir, you are quite wrong,' Rosamund said stiffly. 'Lady
Annabel had already tired of Marcus Morland before he
inherited the title. It was
she
who dropped
him.
I
had nothing
to do with it.’

He was clearly enjoying himself. 'But after he inherited the
title, she tried to get him back. Did you not know that? No,
evidently not. Her engagement to de Ladon was never meant,
I fancy, to be more than an annoyance to everyone. But when
Chelmsford refused her, she went through with it and
married him — and has lived to regret it, I'm sure.’

Rosamund's cheeks were warm. 'Why are you telling me
this?'

‘
I thought you might enjoy it. Few women have ever got
the better of Bel. It's something of a triumph.'

‘Not the kind of triumph that interests me.'

‘Then I honour you the more, ma'am.'

‘
And you haven't told me yet how you heard it. Are you
acquainted with Lady Annabel?'

‘
Only at arm's length, I assure you! Solely by virtue of
being Fitz's best friend. We were all together in Paris, you see.
De Ladon brought his lady there for the celebrations and
sightseeing, as soon as Boney was safely taken; and of course
Fitz came with the politicians.’

Rosamund looked up at him, and then looked at Hawker,
strolling with Sophie on his arm a little in front of them.
‘Do you mean that — Mr Hawker and Lady Annabel —?’

‘
Fitz is very popular with the ladies,' Farraline said lightly.

‘I'm told he makes love very prettily.’

Rosamund was silent for a moment, and then said bluntly,
‘Why do you talk to me like this?'

‘Don't you like it?'

‘
It's the oddest conversation I ever had in my life. It isn't
the way gentlemen talk to ladies. What do you mean by it?'

‘
To tell you the truth, I hardly know myself,' he said,
looking down at her with an air of puzzlement she almost
believed in. 'I just felt, suddenly, that I couldn't bear to go
through the usual tedious minuet of small-talk with you. I
thought you might be bored with it, too. Don't you ever long
to say exactly what comes into your head, and to hell with the conventions?’

She only just managed not to laugh. 'I've been told I do that already, rather too often. But, really, Mr Farraline, it
won't do! What would become of us all, if we all did and said
exactly what we liked?'

‘
You can't be too free and frank for my liking — and I don't
care much about the rest of Society. Shall we make a pact,
Lady Rosamund? Shall we swear that we will never say
anything to each other but the honest truth? That we shall
never pretend to be shocked or offended by anything the
other says?’

She shook her head, in wonder rather than refusal. 'Why
me? Why should you suppose I was less well brought up than
any other young female?'

‘
I thought you looked bored,' he said. 'At Mama's card-
party, I thought you looked in need of rescue. Was I right?
Shall we make a pact?'

‘
You may yet regret it. I may still ask you things you don't
care to answer.’

He met her eyes. 'And I may you.'

‘
You're a strange one, Mr Farraline,' she said, laughing.
‘But you're right — I do find myself growing bored sometimes
with drawing-room chit-chat. I agree to your pact — on condi
tion that it's purely between ourselves. No-one else must ever
know how shamefully we flout the conventions.'

‘
Your reputation is safe in my hands, ma'am,' he said.
‘And to prove it, I shall now suggest we look at one or two of
the pictures, so that we are not found shamefully at a loss
when asked for our opinions.'

‘
I can't imagine your ever being at a loss,' Rosamund said,
and it was not entirely a compliment.

 
Edward came looking for Héloïse, and ran her to earth at last,
unexpectedly, in the steward's room. With the cuffs of her
sleeves turned back, and a harrassed expression creasing her
face, she was struggling with the household accounts.

‘
You seem to be having difficulties,' he said. Tiger padded
past him to push his grizzled head into her lap, and she pulled
his soft ears absently.

‘
It is a poor thing that I make such heavy weather of it,' she
sighed, 'but though I was taught to reckon at school, it was a
very long time ago. And I do not entirely understand Father
Aislaby's method of book keeping.'

‘
He was a law to himself. But why don't you leave it for
James to do?'

‘James has enough to do already.'

‘
So have you.'

‘
Yes, it's true, but when James has a spare moment, he
plays with Benedict, and I do so like to see him taking an
interest in his son. I don't want to interrupt them. I must
struggle on as best I can. But what did you want me for?'

‘
Ah yes,' Edward said, looking conscious. 'I have some
news for you.'

‘
Good news, I hope?'

‘
I don't know whether you'll consider it good or bad. I've
just had word from Colonel Rolleston – he's one of the
Nottingham magistrates. Friend Batty has been taken up.'