Great men, like Devenish, could say what they pleased, Drusilla knew. What she also knew was that she had long considered Leander Harrington to be a fraud, and it was a pleasure to hear him called one so gravely and apparently politely.
Leander, though, was never bested in an argument. He ignored protocol and all the uses of polite society to clap Devenish on the back. ‘Why, Devenish, until the great day comes when we are all equal in every way in the eyes of the law as well as God, I must sacrifice myself and husband what my ancestors have left me so that it may, at the last, be put into the pool for the common good.
‘I bid you do the same, brother Devenish—and cleanse your soul.’
Behind Devenish, Robert made a choking noise. Those before him waited to see what riposte m’lord might make to that. His smile was enigmatic. ‘Since I possess no soul to cleanse, that might be difficult, but I accept your suggestion in the spirit in which it was offered.’
Drusilla heard Miss Faulkner gasp behind her. She found that she had the most overwhelming desire to laugh, but dare not, for the bewildered parson was staring, mumchance, at the patron who had given him his living.
‘You cannot mean that, m’lord,’ he managed at last.
‘At your pleasure, sir, and at both our leisures we must discuss my soul later,’ said Devenish. ‘Here and now is not the time. Mrs Faulkner, I would ask you to be my guide on this fine afternoon.’ He bowed to Leander Harrington and said indifferently, ‘Your servant, sir, and you will excuse us. Later you might care to visit the Hall and we can have a discussion on whatever subject you please.’
‘Oh, very fine,’ said Drusilla softly to Devenish. He had taken her arm and was walking her away. ‘I compliment you, m’lord. Not many men could be as exquisitely rude and as exquisitely polite in two succeeding sentences as you have just been.’
Devenish looked down at her. Demure-looking she might be, but there was much more to her than that. He half thought that she was playing his own game with him by making cutting remarks in a pleasant but indifferent voice.
He briefly considered echoing her comment by saying, Not many women have made half so observant a remark to me, and in such a manner that I am not sure that you actually meant to compliment me.
Instead he merely offered, ‘I trust that your brother has recovered from his fall.’
Drusilla looked up at him. For a moment she had wondered whether he would answer her in his most two-edged fashion. Since he had not, she was as coolly pleasant as he.
‘Oh, very much so. I am fearful of what he might next wish to get up to—and what it might involve me in.’
‘He is present this afternoon, then?’
‘Oh, yes. I had thought that he might have tried to find you before now. He wishes to thank you for coming to his aid so promptly.’
‘But I did very little for him.’
‘Only because there was little to do. The thought was there, m’lord.’
Yes, there was more to her than he might have guessed.
Devenish looked around him at the house standing before them: a handsome, classically styled building in warm stone, a gentleman’s residence, not too large and not too small. Over the front door was a stone shield with a falcon trailing its jesses on it: the Faulkners’, or the Falconers’, punning coat of arms. At the back of the house were three lawns, all at different levels on a slope running down to a wide stream.
Tents and tables had been erected on them. On the top lawn a target had been set up and a group of gaily dressed women were engaged in an archery competition. Their male escorts were standing about, keeping score, and urging them on before they took part themselves later.
‘I must not monopolise you,’ he said, abruptly for him, for his speech was usually measured. ‘You have your duty to do to others.’
‘Oh, m’lord,’ Drusilla spoke softly, but firmly. ‘My biggest duty is to see that you are introduced to most of your neighbours—if you will so allow.’
Oh, yes, he would allow. In the normal course of events he would not have permitted himself to be bored by making the acquaintance of a pack of nobodies, but he had given Sidmouth his word that he would try to discover what was going awry around his home, and he would do his best to be successful. Mrs Faulkner was going to save him the trouble of spending several weeks discovering who was who around Tresham Magna and Minor.
Noblesse oblige then—and perhaps it would do him good not to be selfish for once, and stifle his sharp tongue! As if to aid him in this decision Giles Faulkner hobbled up to him, full of a goodwill which it would be wrong to mock.
‘Dru said that you might honour us with your presence, m’lord, and so you have. Now I may thank you properly for your consideration when I played the fool and received my proper payment by falling off my horse.’
He caught Devenish’s sardonic eye and added ruefully, ‘Oh, I see what you are about to say! That I didn’t receive my proper payment for it because I didn’t break my neck!’
‘Well anticipated,’ offered Devenish, ‘except that I was only thinking it—not about to utter such a home truth aloud.’
This honesty pleased Giles immensely. He smiled and began to pull at Drusilla’s sleeve.
‘I say, Dru,’ he exclaimed, ‘you aren’t going to tire my saviour out by dragging him round to introduce him to all the old bores of the district, are you? Much better if you went in for the archery competition, sir—if you can shoot, that is.’
‘Giles, Giles,’ reproved Drusilla, ‘you mustn’t run on so! Whatever will m’lord make of your manners? And do address him by his proper title. He will think you ignorant of the world’s usages.’ Giles thought this pomposity unworthy of his sister and was about to say so. Devenish forestalled him.
‘Sir will do, my dear Mrs Faulkner. I am m’lorded quite enough as it is. I would be even happier if you were to address me as Devenish. You are my nearest neighbour, after all.’
He had no idea what made him come out with this unheard-of piece of condescension, but was left with no time to theorise as to the origin of it. Drusilla was surprised by it, but had little time to ponder on it because they were rapidly being approached by all those who wished to meet the great man who had avoided meeting them for ten long years.
Devenish knew Parson Williams because he had interviewed him in London when he had granted him his living, but he had never met Williams’s junior fellow at Tresham Minor, George Lawson, having allowed Rob Stammers to make the appointment in his absence.
Lawson was the first to reach Drusilla and he made a low bow to his patron, murmuring, ‘Too great an honour, m’lord, too great,’ when Devenish, remembering his resolution to be pleasant to everyone, said he would be happy to entertain him to dinner in the near future.
He was a handsome young fellow in his mid-twenties, short rather than tall, dark in colouring, with an easy insinuating manner which Devenish instantly, and instinctively, disliked. He disliked most of all the expression on the fellow’s face when he spoke to Drusilla, and the way in which he fawned on her, holding her hand a little too long after she had offered it to him.
He thought the dislike didn’t show, but Drusilla registered it immediately. To her surprise, and much to her shock, she found that she was beginning to read Devenish’s mind.
She smiled a little to herself, when, in swift succession, Devenish made further invitations to dinner to John Squires of Burnside, Peter Clifton of Clifton Manor, and a series of minor gentlemen. When Leander