Lady Catherine's Necklace (20 page)

He beamed at Anne triumphantly.

She had not the heart to point out that his successful scheme had resulted in considerable harm to other people. Besides, she was thinking of herself.

She said, ‘Yes, you were hardly treated, Uncle. As Mamma treats most people. But at least you were allowed an education. But I – I have had nothing at all. Nothing! My mother considered that I was not worth the trouble and expense. All I acquired were polite manners and a straight back.'

‘Education?' he said wonderingly. ‘You want an education?'

‘Even Maria Lucas knows more than I do. She can speak French and play the piano. But the whole world of books and learning is closed to me.'

‘Take care, my dear! Nobody loves a
femme savante.
But I dare say once you are married, supposing that you have an accommodating husband, you may perhaps be able to explore that world to some degree; learn French perhaps, read a few books. (It is true, there are not many books at Rosings.) Your father, dear fellow, was more of an outdoor man, as I recall, fond of birds and flowers and horses.'

‘Oh, what was he like?' she cried inquisitively.

‘Sweet-natured. Not as clever or strong-minded as your mother. He was ductile – easily led. She married him when he was very young – hooked him,' said Lord Luke with the ghost of a chuckle. ‘He was very rich, of course. Old Sir Laurence de Bourgh had made a fortune from the manufacture of some garment. It was not referred to.' Another chuckle. ‘No, my dear, 'tis true: if you want an education, you will certainly not find it at Rosings.'

He wandered over to the fountain, declaiming:

‘It was upon a starlit, witching land

Far, far beyond the creamy ocean's rim…'

At this moment a blood-flecked, muddy, dishevelled dog cantered, limping, into the walled enclosure. Unhesitatingly, though with a visible effort, it jumped up into the lowest basin of the fountain, and proceeded to roll and splash and lave itself, gulping thirstily at the same time from the descending spouts of water.

‘Good heavens!' exclaimed Lord Luke starting backwards, decidedly put out, as he had been vigorously splashed. ‘Where in heaven's name did that beast come from? Be off, sir! I do not care for dogs – never have done so.'

But Anne cried, ‘Pluto! Dear Pluto! It is
Pluto!
'

She ran forward and flung her arms round the soaking, flithy animal. ‘Oh, I am so happy to see you! Oh, just wait till I tell Joss!'

Lord Luke wandered away, shaking his head, murmuring: ‘She wants an education. Now, why? What good has all that education ever done me?'

*   *   *

Priscilla Delaval said to her brother: ‘We had best be away from here before Lady Catherine comes home. She seems, oddly enough, to have established the most cordial and favourable relations with our Uncle Ben – by who knows what singular process! But it seems inevitable that the whole silly scheme has been disclosed to her, and our part in it; we cannot expect to be
persona grata
at Rosings.'

Miss Delaval looked unwontedly low-spirited, almost haggard. Her mouth, normally curved into a half-smile, was turned down at the corners; a frown creased her brow, and her bright dark eyes held a hard expression. No dimples were to be seen.

Ralph said: ‘Have the carriage by all means, my dear. It has been mended these three weeks and more. But I remain here. I must chance Lady Catherine's wrath.'

‘You remain?' She was astonished. ‘At Rosings? But why? What can be your object? There can be no chance of the diamonds
now.
Uncle Ben more or less intimated that Lady Catherine had suspicions of us – that was why she took them with her. What can you possibly mean to do?'

‘I do not remain at Rosings. I plan to remove to Wormwood End.'

‘Wormwood End?'

‘Ambrose Mynges has invited me to take up residence with him in the cottage.' Priscilla was speechless for many minutes, and could only stare at her brother in utter dismay and chagrin. Then she said:

‘You must be mad. What will people say?'

‘What they say will not affect me in the least,' he answered calmly.

‘But – do you
like
Mynges?'

‘Yes,' he replied shortly.

‘What will you do with yourself?'

‘Persuade him to start painting again. Take over the cooking. Advise a few of the local gentry about their parks.'

‘But what about
me?
What shall
I
do?'

‘Whatever you please.' He was not very interested. ‘Marry FitzWilliam, if you have any sense.'

‘But we know he is in Dun territory. And, even if he were not, he makes it plain—'

She stopped and bit her lip.

Ralph said, ‘That is not so. Sneyd writes to me that FitzWilliam's aunt, the duchess, has just died leaving Fitz a fortune which will make him as rich as Croesus. Sneyd always knows this kind of thing before the rest of the world. Fitz may not even know this himself yet; but, take my word, it is so. You have only to put out your hand and draw him in.'

She said, ‘That is by no means so easy as you seem to think.'

But a look of determination began to grow in her dark eyes.

XII

Anne and Maria were taking the children, Lucy and Sam, for a walk by the rushing stream where once Anne had seen the cat Alice apparently marooned on a rock.

‘If they fall in you must promise to rescue them,' said Anne, ‘for I can't swim.'

‘Luckily,' said Maria, ‘having four brothers, I swim like a fish. We used to go off on secret bathing expeditions in the Mimram River. My mother never knew!' She laughed, remembering. ‘I used to swim in my shift. And once I was caught in reeds and nearly drowned. My brother Henry rescued me just in time, and they had to beat the water out of me.'

‘How lucky you are, to have brothers. Darcy and FitzWilliam did not visit often enough for us to do things like that.'

‘Tell a story, Miss Anne!' beseeched the children, when they had been inducted through the cave under the waterfall with many shrieks and giggles. ‘Tell one of your stories! Tell about the cat Alice, and how she flew across the water on a magic carpet.'

‘No, I will tell an even more exciting story about the dog Pluto. Once, the Wicked Queen said he must be drowned.'

‘Why? Why? Why must he be drowned?'

‘Because the Queen said he left messes on the clean grass. But that was not true.'

‘Who had left the messes?'

‘A badger, who came at night.'

‘We know about badgers,' said Sam. ‘We hear them grunting at night outside our window.'

‘So poor Pluto was to be drowned. The Wicked Queen told two men called Muddle and Verity to tie a stone round his neck and throw him in the lake.'

‘We know Muddle and Verity! They bring baskets of turnips and parsnips to the back door, and Mrs Denny gives them a glass of beer.'

‘Muddle and Verity took the dog Pluto. But they were kind men and so they did not drown him. They knew he was a very clever dog.'

‘Why? Why was he clever?'

‘Before he belonged to Joss, he belonged to a pickpocket.'

‘What is a pickpocket?'

‘A wicked person who steals money out of other people's pockets. There are no pickpockets in Hunsford. But this was in London, where there are many people and many pickpockets. The one who owned Pluto was a boy called Prigfambles. He was very clever at slipping things out of pockets, and his dog Pluto was clever too. If there was a watch, or a gold guinea in a man's pocket, Pluto would sniff it out, and he would point with his nose to that pocket, and then Prigfambles would snatch it out, quick as lightning.'

‘What happened to Prigfambles? Did he go to prison?'

‘No, he got taken up by the Press Gang.'

‘What's the Press Gang?'

‘They take boys and men who are walking near the sea, and make them go on board ships to become sailors in the navy and fight for their country. So Prigfambles was taken for a sailor. And poor Pluto was very sad.'

‘What happened then?'

‘Joss found him and looked after him. So he loved Joss very much.'

‘Did Joss ever pick any pockets?'

‘Certainly not! All Joss wanted was to be a gardener.'

‘What happened when Muddle and Verity took Pluto?'

‘They had to go to Rochester to get some plants for the Wicked Queen that had been sent over from Holland. So they reckoned that, as Rochester was a long way off, if they took Pluto there in the gig, he would never find his way home but would probably look after himself well enough.'

‘By picking pockets?'

‘Perhaps! Or just by picking up scraps of food. So they took him to Rochester and left him there.'

‘What did Pluto do?'

‘He didn't stop one minute in Rochester, but looked about him and started on the long walk home.'

‘How long?'

‘Thirty miles. And he had to swim across rivers and climb hills and go across turnpike roads and – and fields with bulls in them, and go by farms where there might be farmers with guns and guard dogs who would try to fight him. So it took poor Pluto a long, long time to get back to Hunsford. Days and days and days.'

‘What did he do when he got back?'

‘You tell me!'

‘He jumped right in the fountain and had a good wash!' chorused the children.

‘Right! And then Joss came and gave Pluto a big dinner of rabbit stew and he slept for eight hours.'

‘That is a good story. Now tell one of your Uncle Luke's stories about the Duke of Lassarto.'

‘Once upon a time,' Anne began, ‘the duke was riding on a horse all made of cloud.'

‘Black cloud or white?'

‘Black cloud, all black. It had eyes that were stars and reins made of rainbow. And its tail stretched right across the sky…'

‘Go on, go on!'

*   *   *

It rained as hard on the day of Lady Catherine's return as it had on the day of her departure for Great Morran.

When the coach drew up on the gravel sweep, Frinton was waiting to throw open the house doors, while Muddle and Verity, Smirke and the boy Joss were assembled on the steps with umbrellas, to shield their mistress and Pronkum from the rain and to carry in the baggage. The dog Pluto, who, since his return, refused to be parted from Joss by more than ten yards, concealed himself under the coach as soon as it rolled to a halt.

‘Welcome, welcome, your ladyship!' said Frinton. ‘You are looking very well, if I may say so!'

Ignoring this, Lady Catherine glanced about her with a touch of her old discontent.

‘Where is everybody?' she demanded. ‘Oh, I suppose they are inside,' and she ascended the steps. Pronkum followed her closely, carrying a dressing-bag and a small bundle wrapped in striped satin.

Once inside the main entrance hall, Lady Catherine gazed about her a second time in dignified surprise.

‘Where is everybody?' she asked again.

The Collinses were there, with Maria. And Lord Luke was there, wearing an anxious expression.

‘Where is my nephew FitzWilliam? Where is Anne? Where is Mrs Jenkinson? Where are the Delavals?'

‘We are so
rejoiced
to see you back, dear Lady Catherine,' hastily began Mr Collins with a whole series of bows, and Lord Luke said:

‘I have to tell you, Catherine—' when suddenly the maid Pronkum let out a piercing shriek.

‘My lady's diamonds! Where are they? They've gone!'

‘Nonsense, Pronkum! What can you mean?'

‘They were just here! I laid 'em on this marble table – and I went out to the carriage to get my lady's cloak-bag – and when I come back, they was gone! Gone! Just clean gone!' And she burst into hysterical laughter.

‘No, really, this is too much!' exclaimed Lord Luke angrily. ‘Those wretched diamonds are nothing but trouble. I wish to heaven, Catherine, that you had never acquired them! Let a search be made. They have probably been knocked to the floor by one of the fellows bringing in the bags.'

A diligent search was conducted, in and around the coach, up the front steps, throughout the entrance hall, in and behind the marble furnishings and statuary. No diamonds were forthcoming.

Then Joss said:

‘Look at the dog.'

For Pluto, contravening all prohibition, had followed Joss in and glided like a black-and-white fish among the legs and skirts of searchers.

Pluto was standing beside Smirke and had his nose raised, like a pointer, towards the tails of Smirke's rusty black jacket.

‘We'll just take a look in those tail pockets, Smirke,' said Lord Luke with unusual sharpness and decision.

‘Oh,
sir!
You can't mean—'

‘Take a look, Muddle and Verity.'

Briskly, despite Smirke's protests, the two men did so, and drew forth the striped satin bundle.

Pronkum had hysterics all over again.

‘Oh, the
wretch!
Oh, how could you, you monster!'

‘You had best call the constables, Frinton,' said Lord Luke wearily.

‘Yes, my lord,' agreed Frinton, deeply shocked. But Smirke made a sudden dash and ran out through the open doors into the driving rain.

Joss said, ‘I'm wholly sorry the dog came in, your ladyship; but anyhow, seems he made hisself useful to ye at the last. I'm here to give in my notice, my lady, and say goodbye, for I'm off to – to stay with relatives in Wales.'

He ducked his curly head and nipped out between the double front doors almost as fast as Smirke had done.

‘Dear me!' said Lady Catherine. ‘Garden-boys giving notice? What next? What are things coming to? This is most singular – most irregular!'

‘Best come into the saloon and sit down, Catherine,' said Lord Luke. ‘For there is much to tell you.'