Margaret reappeared wearing grubby trainers with the laces undone. She said, loudly, ‘I don’t want to go to school.’
Thomas put his mug down with decision. He said to her, firmly, ‘It’s the law.’
‘Thank you,’ Elinor said.
Belle looked at Marianne. She said, with forced gaiety, ‘It looks like we’re outnumbered, darling!’
‘If you mean’, Elinor said with sudden exasperation, ‘that you think you don’t have to make an effort to contribute, then you’re quite right. You’re outnumbered. Everyone has to do their bit.’
There was a brief pause, and then Marianne, apparently examining the ends of a handful of her hair for split ends, said to Elinor, ‘And what bit are you going to do?’
For a moment Elinor thought she might lose all control. But then she caught Thomas’s eye and registered a quick glance of sympathy, if not understanding. She swallowed, and let her hand drop from her cardigan buttons. ‘Actually,’ she said, ‘I was going to ask Sir John about work of some kind anyway. So I can do it, can’t I, this morning.’
‘Oh, good,’ Marianne said. There was the faintest edge of sarcasm to her voice. She let her hair fall again and smiled at Thomas. ‘Let’s get it over with, then, shall we?’
‘It was my dream, of course,’ Sir John said, ‘to keep everything being manufactured in Devon. I started off that way, you know, got all the machines moved from Honiton, stayed up half the night mugging up labour laws, but I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t get the margins. Labour costs in the UK are just too high. So the machines – completely outdated now, of course – moulder in the old stables, and we outsource everything to North Portugal. Modern factory on an industrial estate. Not an oil painting as a place, but they do the business. Excellent quality—’ He broke off and looked at Margaret. He said abruptly, ‘You bored?’
Margaret nodded energetically. Sir John beamed at her. He seemed entirely unoffended. ‘You’re a baggage, Miss Margaret Dashwood.’
‘Perhaps,’ Belle said hastily, ‘these aren’t quite the clothes that someone of Margaret’s age—’
Sir John put an arm round Belle’s shoulders. He said, interrupting, ‘We’re coming to something that’s for every age. You’ll be bowled over by my design studio. Computerised drawing boards, technology to ascertain every average body shape and size …’
He began to guide her towards a doorway through which a high-ceilinged, brilliantly lit room was visible, talking all the time. Margaret trailed in his wake, sighing and scuffing her shoes, and Marianne followed, equally slowly and at an eloquently disdainful distance. Elinor watched them disappear into the studio ahead of her and felt, with mounting alarm, that it was going to be extremely hard, if not impossible, to persuade Sir John to give her any time or attention. He had already jovially dismissed their anxiety about getting Margaret to school by declaring that Thomas would drive her as far as the bus that would take her into Exeter, and, having done that, clearly felt he had more than done his duty by his new tenants for the moment. How could she, Elinor, buttonhole him further and explain to him in a way that neither dented their dignity nor diminished their plight that they were sorely in need of opportunities to make some money? How did you manage to make it look as if you weren’t, somehow, just begging?
There were steps behind her. Elinor turned to see Colonel Brandon approaching from the stairwell that led up to the studio level. The night before, he had been dressed in an unexceptionable tidy country uniform of dark trousers and formal sweater. This morning, he was in a daytime, olive-green version of the same and his shoes, Elinor could not help noticing, were properly polished.
He smiled at her. He said, ‘Had enough of thornproof waistcoats and poachers’ pockets?’
She smiled back, gratefully. ‘It’s very impressive. I’m – I’m just a bit preoccupied this morning. I’m sure it’s just moving – the change and everything.’
Bill Brandon put his hands in his trouser pockets. ‘Especially if you’re the practical one.’
‘Well – yes.’
‘Which you are.’
Elinor flushed slightly. She looked at the toe of her Converse boot and kicked it against the floor. She said, reluctantly, ‘A bit.’
‘We’re so useful, we practical people. We hold it altogether. But we’re seen as killjoys, somehow. Most unfair.’
She glanced at him. He looked so together and trim, the open collar of his checked shirt well ironed, his hands relaxedly in the pockets of his trousers. She indicated her jeans, and the cardigan that had once been her father’s. ‘Sorry to be so scruffy.’
‘You girls’, Bill Brandon said gallantly, ‘could wear absolutely anything to great effect. Your sister …’
‘Oh, I know.’
‘Is she in there?’
‘Yes. With the others.’
‘And why aren’t you?’
Elinor sighed. She slid her own hands into the pockets of her cardigan and hunched her shoulders. ‘I rather – wanted to see Sir John.’
‘Jonno?’
‘Yes. By – by himself.’
Bill Brandon looked carefully at her. He said, ‘Is everything all right?’
Elinor said nothing. She pushed the knitted pockets as far down as they would go and stared at her feet.
‘Elinor. What is it?’
‘It’s – nothing.’
‘Look,’ he said. ‘Look, we don’t know each other very well yet, but I’m sure we will because I’m here all the time – it’s such a contrast to Delaford.’
‘Delaford?’
‘Yes. It’s – where I live. Or, rather, where I have a flat. It’s a – well, it’s a place I started when I came out of the Army. I wanted to help some of my soldiers who’d got into a bit of trouble with drink and drugs and what have you. The result of what they’d been through, you know, coping mechanisms and all that, never mind not being able to adjust to life outside the Army. And I wanted – well, it’s another story, but I wanted to help addicts in general, really, I wanted—’
‘Addicts?’ Elinor said, startled.
He nodded. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Mostly drugs, but some alcoholics.’
‘So that’s what Sir John meant about your good works!’
‘Jonno’s been wonderful. So supportive, so generous. Our best patron.’
‘That’s wonderful,’ Elinor said seriously. ‘Really wonderful. What you do.’
‘Not really.’
‘We should have asked you, last night, we should have—’
‘No,’ Bill Brandon said, ‘you shouldn’t. I don’t talk about it much. It’s better to do something rather than talk about it. Don’t you think?’
Elinor relaxed her shoulders a little. ‘If you know what to do, it is.’
He moved slightly closer to her. ‘Which is where I came in, I think. What is the matter?’
She looked up at him. He was wearing an expression of the greatest kindness. She said, ‘I’m – just a bit worried. That’s all.’
‘About moving here?’
‘Not – in itself …’
‘Money?’ he said.
She