“I ought to have been, of course. I should have walked back to the vicarage with you, and then I would have been there to help. When I think of you struggling back here – and what do you mean by creeping in by stealth?”
“I thought you would still be at the tavern, and the house would be empty.”
“No, I didn’t stay long. I began to feel rather uncomfortable.”
“You mean you felt unwelcome?”
“On the contrary, they welcomed me with open arms. They’ve decided that my arrival means the good times have come again, that I’ll be wanting to restore the house and the gardens and that will provide work for them. I now know the names of every artisan and gardener in the district.
“How could I tell them that I have no money to fulfil their dreams? And my dream too if the truth be told.”
“Is it really your dream too?” she asked excitedly.
“Yes. In the short time I’ve been here I’ve fallen in love with this place. I’d like to do all the things they want, and live in a house that’s as lovely as it ought to be. But not only for my sake. For theirs too.”
He gave an awkward laugh. “I’ve really been thinking only of myself since I inherited the Earldom. I never thought of how it might affect other people, or how they might hope it would affect them. But tonight I was confronted by the reality of other people’s lives, and it made me stop and think.”
He looked at her ruefully. “Thinking isn’t something I’ve done a lot of in my life. I’ve done my duty as a sailor, but for the rest I’ve been heedless, and content to be so. But now – ” he sighed. “Their need is so desperate and frightening. It made me feel I should do something about it. And yet – what can I do? Except pray that we find more coins, and they turn out to be worth a lot.”
“Yes,” she said. “We’ll pray.”
“So, I escaped, because I wouldn’t give them false promises. I came home and started writing letters, until I heard this crash from downstairs.”
“That was the chair.”
“And why were you going to sleep on the sofa? Do we lack spare bedrooms?”
“I thought I’d find one tomorrow, in the light.”
“You can’t stay down here tonight.”
“Yes I can. And I’m going to.”
“Rena, be sensible.”
“I am being sensible. Besides, I want to stay with Clara, and I can’t very easily take her upstairs.”
“Talking of Clara, she’s busily pecking my boots. No doubt she thinks she still has to defend you. Will you kindly call your chicken off?”
She laughed and did so, then drained her tea.
“Now, sir – ”
“John.”
“Now, John, please will you be sensible and go to bed?”
He gave her a naval salute. “Ay, ay, ma’am. I’ll see you at seven bells.”
As she snuggled down on the sofa later Rena remembered how, in her childhood, she’d longed for other siblings, especially a brother. And that was what John was, of course, the brother she had never had; someone she could talk to and laugh with, because they saw the world in the same way; someone who would care for her and let her care for him.
She fell asleep feeling happier than she had for months.
*
She was up at ‘seven bells’ next morning, and immediately went out to buy fresh milk from Ned. She found Jack, the postman, in the shop, and told him about the new arrivals at the vicarage.
“I don’t live there any more. I’m housekeeper at The Grange.”
“Got a letter for you here,” he said, looking in his bag. “And one for The Grange.”
She took them both and set off for The Grange. It was a lovely morning, fresh and spring like, and there was a skip in her step.
She found John in the kitchen, triumphant because Clara had laid two eggs.
“One each,” he said.
“Two for His Lordship,” she replied firmly.
“Fiddlesticks.”
“Here’s a letter for you.” She handed it to him and went in to the dining room to give him privacy while he read it. As she had half expected it was a letter from the bishop, informing her that the Reverend Steven Daykers would soon be arriving to take up his position as vicar at Fardale, and he trusted that she would etc. etc.
“Oh Lord!”
She looked around to see that John had followed her into the dining room, a letter in his hand and a look of dismay on his face.
“What’s the matter?”
“We have visitors coming this afternoon. I hope they will only stay for tea, but they might want to spend the night here.”
Rena gave a cry.
“That’s impossible. You can’t let them come!” she exclaimed. “The bedrooms are terrible! Your room is the best of the bunch, but even that needs a wash and a great deal doing to it.”
“I shut my eyes when I am undressing, and look out of the window when I am dressing,” the Earl said drolly.
“Very ingenious, but we couldn’t count on your visitors to do the same. You really must not let them stay.”
There was silence for a moment, and she wondered if she’d offended him.
Then he said slowly, “I think I should be honest and tell you that the man who is coming here is exceedingly rich. I met him when I was in India and when he heard – I suppose from the newspapers – that I had come into the Earldom, he looked me up and told me that he was very anxious to see my ancestral home.”
“To see your – ancestral – home?” she echoed in a stunned voice.
In silence they both looked around them. They looked up at the grimy ceilings, around at the peeling walls, and down at the shabby furniture.
“He’s going to get a shock, isn’t he?” she said at last.
“A considerable shock,” John said grimly. “I only wish I thought it would scare him off.”
“Why do you want to scare him off?”
“Because I have a horrid feeling I know what he wants of me. We met when I was a penniless sailor and he asked me to a dance he was giving for his daughter, to make up the numbers, I believe. Well, I’m still penniless, but now I have a title.”
“You mean – ?”
“What this man really wants – and I am quite certain it is what he will say when he gets here, is for me to marry his daughter!”
Rena gave a little gasp. “Why should you do that,” she asked, “unless you have fallen in love with her?”
He was silent for a moment, and she felt a strange chill come over her heart.
“No, I’m not in love with her,” he said. “But if her father’s money can restore The Grange and make the people here prosperous again, it couldn’t possibly be my duty, could it? No!”
He checked himself, turned sharply and strode back into the kitchen. Rena stayed where she was for a moment. She was glad that he hadn’t waited for her reply to that question, because she was not sure that she would have known how to answer.
After