And in the past few weeks, life at Polzion had become increasingly difficult. Probate for Martin Pentreath’s will had been applied for, but Mr Trevick had warned dourly that there would be little money left when outstanding debts were settled, though there were a couple of small insurance policies from which Elizabeth would benefit. Martin had made no large-scale provision for his widow and daughter, but then, as Morgana was forced to admit, he had always seemed so indestructible, like the Cornish granite his house was built on. Remembering her father, she thought it likely he had meant to leave them provided for—one day, when it could no longer be avoided, in much the same spirit as he’d stuffed unpaid bills in the bureau.
Morgana groaned inwardly as she thought of them, and she suspected her mother’s reception at the coal-merchant’s could well be the first in a long line of similar refusals. No coke meant that the ancient boiler would eventually go out altogether, and she doubted that even a further reduction in their ‘competitive terms’ would reconcile their guests to cold water, so she and her mother stood to lose their small remaining amount of direct income.
But that, she reminded herself, would be lost anyway as soon as the unknown Lyall Pentreath arrived. She imagined he would have already learned that his inheritance was being run as a small country hotel, and she found herself wondering what his reaction had been. Contempt? Probably. Anger? Almost certainly. Perhaps Miss Meakins and the Major would also find themselves dumped bag and baggage into the damp chill of an October evening.
Except, as her mother said, that the new owner would hardly be coming now. He would be here in the morning to look over his new possession in daylight. Until now, they had counted each day at Polzion as a reprieve. Now, it seemed, they were reduced to hours.
Suddenly restless, she rose to her feet. ‘I’d better go and see about tea. It’s past the time already.’
‘I expect Elsa has been waiting, dear, for your cousin to arrive.’
‘My cousin.’ Morgana repeated the words almost incredulously. It was the first time her mother or anyone else for that matter had used them in relation to Lyall Pentreath. It seemed alien and uncomfortable to think that this stranger was actually of her blood, even though the relationship between them was a remote one. Because of the quarrels and the separation between the two sides of the family, the other Pentreaths might as well not have existed as far as she was concerned.
‘I wish they hadn’t,’ she thought fiercely, digging her nails into the palms of her hands as she left the room. ‘I wish none of them had ever been born.’
The passage leading to what in happier days had been known as the servants’ quarters was draughty, and Morgana shivered a little as she made her way down it. But the kitchen was warm, thanks to the big old-fashioned range—which also burned coke, she remembered dismally—on which Elsa produced delectable meals when she was in the mood.
What her mood was like today was anybody’s guess. Breakfast and lunch had been passable, but there were no noticeable preparations for dinner, Morgana noted sinkingly. Instead, Elsa was sitting at the kitchen table staring down at a worn pack of cards spread there.
‘Come in, maid, and shut the door,’ she said absently without looking up.
‘We were wondering about tea,’ said Morgana, unable to resist a curious glance down at the cards as she passed the table.
‘’Tes all ready, and the kettle’s on the boil.’ Elsa was built on generous lines, and her dark hair, liberally streaked with grey, was pinned back from her face with an incongruous selection of plastic hairslides in various colours and designs. Green butterflies and pink poodles were in favour that particular day, forming an unusual contrast to her bright blue overall, safety-pinned across her massive bosom. ‘And I’ve made a batch of scones along with the cake,’ she added sombrely.
‘They look lovely.’
Elsa snorted. ‘Can’t go by looks. They’m sad, same as this ‘ouse is sad. Same as these cards.’ She gestured at them. ‘Grief and misery, pain and woe, my lover—that’s what’s in store. And a fair man,’ she added as something of an afterthought.
‘Well, that’s something,’ said Morgana. ‘At least it won’t be Cousin Lyall. Pentreath men are always dark.’
‘That’s as mebbe,’ Elsa said with dignity. ‘But there b’ain’t no dark man coming into your life, maid, not so far as I can see.’
‘Then perhaps he really has driven over the cliff,’ Morgana said cheerfully. ‘Make the tea, Elsa darling, while I put the food on the tray.’
Whatever secret sorrow the scones might be nursing, they looked almost sprightly to her, she thought, as she picked up the plate, and the saffron cake which was one of Elsa’s specialities was golden-brown and mouthwatering.
‘About dinner—–’ she began tentatively.
‘Funny ol’ bit of meat the butcher sent.’ Elsa was at the range, busy with teapot and kettle. ‘Calls it beef, but I dunno. Looks tough as ol’ boots to me.’
‘Oh dear!’ Morgana wondered privately whether the butcher was taking some kind of subtle revenge for an unpaid bill she hadn’t discovered yet. ‘Do you suppose pot-roasting would make it more tender?’
‘I daresay.’ Elsa set the teapot on the tray with an uncompromising thud. ‘But I don’t need any young maid to teach me my business in my own kitchen.’
‘Of course not, Elsa darling.’ Morgana’s smile held its first real hint of mischief for some time.
‘That’s better,’ Elsa said with rare approval. ‘Now go and change out of that damned ol’ frock before that young man gets here.’
‘I’ll do nothing of the sort.’ Morgana lifted her chin and her green eyes flashed. ‘It’s perfectly suitable. This is the dress I got for Daddy’s funeral.’
‘Looks like the next funeral it goes to should be its own,’ Elsa sniffed. ‘But please yourself, though I can’t see no sense going round looking like something the cat dragged in. You’m not a bad-looking maid when you try.’
‘I’d better go before you turn my head completely,’ Morgana said lightly as she picked up the tray.
‘No danger of that, I reckon.’ Elsa’s fierce gaze softened as they swept over the girl’s slim figure. ‘You don’t fancy yourself like some I could mention.’
Morgana hid a smile as she carried the tray out of the kitchen. Elsa was not usually so forbearing, and Morgana could only attribute her unusual delicacy this time to the fact that up to the time of the funeral she herself had been seeing a great deal of Robert Donleven, and might react with hostility to any overt criticism of his sister—because she was well aware that Elaine Donleven was the subject of Elsa’s veiled remark.
Yet if she was honest, she had to admit that Elaine wasn’t one of her favourite people either, though she would have been hard put to it to say why. Ever since Elaine had come to live at Home Farm and help Robert run the riding stables there, relations between the two girls had been perfectly civil, but no more.
Perhaps it was inevitable it should be so, she thought as she went along the passage. After all, the Donlevens had bought the Home Farm, as Robert’s mother had made smilingly clear on more than one occasion, as an interest for her husband when he retired from being ‘something’ in the City of London. In the meantime it was run by an efficient manager, and Robert and his sister had started the riding stables there, again as a hobby rather than a living. Morgana felt sometimes that Elaine mentioned this rather more than was strictly necessary, as if to emphasise the gulf between those who had to