Prue Phillipson - Hordens of Horden Hall (11 page)

“Then it is settled. We will enjoy this, won’t we, Dan?”

Daniel could see his mother’s face where she and his father sat on the settle at a distance from the fire as the evening was warm. She doesn’t look pleased, he thought. She would have liked to ride behind me herself but I’m not so certain that hours of riding with mother would be wise. She would want to be at my secret thoughts all the time. He realised he hadn’t answered Diana who was peering up into his face with those black brows more arched than ever.

He laughed. “Oh yes, we’ll be all right. You don’t mind getting wet if it rains, I suppose?”

As it happened the rest of their journey north was dry and fine. The little party proceeded at a brisker pace than the four miles an hour of the heavy coach and though the servants’ cart kept getting left behind it soon caught up at the next stopping place.

By the time they were within sight of Newcastle, Daniel was excited at the prospect of showing Diana all the haunts of his youth. If a thought about Eunice entered his head it passed out again as quickly as it had come. She has food and a roof over her head and the Bible to read. That may be all she wants in life. She is such a pale little mouse. Diana now is alive to everything.

Riding down through Gateshead to the bridge over the Tyne, Diana exclaimed at the sight of Newcastle on the opposite bank.

“Oh what a beautiful city! Look at that magnificent cathedral – I had no notion – what a tease you were to call it a small town!”

Daniel turned his head to grin at her. “It
is
small compared to London or Paris and that is not a cathedral. It’s the church of St Nicholas, but you are right, it’s a fine building and an impressive town.”

Crossing the bridge just ahead of the coach he could hear his mother’s animated voice as she told Lady Horden and his Aunt Henrietta, “Now look to the left just after we leave the bridge. You’ll see a bench against the wall. That’s where I was asleep when Nat rode up. That’s when we first met. That’s when we fell in love. Look, look, there it is – an old tramp is sitting on it. I can never pass it without thanking God for that bench.”

Diana’s voice at his ear, murmured, “Oh how delightful! Aunt Arabella is a true romantic, is she not? My poor mother was taken to France to marry my father whom she scarcely knew. There should be true love, don’t you think?”

This is dangerous ground, Daniel warned himself. I mustn’t be bounced into anything by this girl, good fun as she is. He had already confided in her his ambition to serve in the navy and she had said it was so brave and noble and much more romantic than studying at Cambridge.

When he told her she would meet his Nana Sula and must not be upset by her deformed face she had exclaimed, “Oh Dan, I am much too kind-hearted. If she has loved you from babyhood I shall love her devotedly. What do outward looks matter?”

This seemed to him singularly at odds with the hours she and Madeline had spent on their appearance before evening parties in London. They even wore patches on their faces, a new-fangled fashion which Daniel thought ridiculous, but which was supposed to enhance the beauty of the wearer.

As they rode through the streets of Newcastle, heading for the Pilgrim Gate he managed to avoid answering her question by pointing out the major buildings and the way to his grammar school. After they passed through the Gate into the Liberties and out into the open country his own excitement at nearing home after what seemed an age made him fall silent.

“Not far now,” was all he could say, turning his head to meet Diana’s eager look and when at last the gates of Horden Hall came in sight he was speechless with emotion but Diana’s enthusiasm bubbled over.

“Oh what a grand place!
Ma foi
, is that what you called an ordinary house, you mischievous boy. Look at that sweeping drive and the way the mansion sits against the woodland and whose is that splendid equestrian statue in front?”

“My great-great-grandfather’s, Sir Ralph Horden, of King James’s time. It’s considered rather a clumsy sculpture. Ah!” he exclaimed, “here is Nana Sula running to meet us. She is quite ancient now but still runs everywhere.”

His heart lifted at the sight of the scurrying figure, holding up her arms with joy towards him. She had put on the starched white bonnet she wore when strangers were about so that her face was partly shaded. She wore a plain grey dress and pinafore and Diana, dismounting first with the help of the groom, whispered to Daniel.

“Is she a nun?”

“No, but like you she is Catholic.”

Diana made a face as if to say, “That matters little to me,” but she went forward before Daniel’s feet had touched the ground and held out both her hands to the surprised little woman.

“You are Ursula,
Saint
Ursula, Dan tells me, his very special Nana Sula. I am so happy to meet you. I am Diana Rombeau.”

Ursula was curtseying low but Diana lifted her up. “No no, please, call me Diana. Dan and I are great friends.”

The rest were now gathering and Dan saw his mother hasten to clasp Ursula in her arms.

“Oh Urs, I’ve missed you so but you would have hated London. It was so hot and we rushed about so every day. Is all well here?”

His father had now joined them escorting the other ladies.

Ursula told him, “Oh sir, the dear Reverend, your father, is not so well or they would have been here to welcome you.” She again curtseyed low, concealing her face, before Lady Horden, Henrietta and Madeline. Daniel intercepted the look Madeline gave her sister for paying attention to a servant.

His father said, “I will ride over to the vicarage as soon as our guests are settled in.”

Ursula looked up at him then and her poor twisted face was plain to see.

Daniel saw Madeline recoil and take her mother’s arm and hurry past her.

“Come, Maman, you are to show me this place you grew up in and I long to take off these travelling clothes.”

Bel resumed with an effort, Daniel thought, her office of hostess as they went inside.

“Mother, I have given you your old room and Hen, you have yours where I trespassed and chopped up your linen and lace in my wicked years.”

Daniel was tickled that she could bring it up now and that she had fallen into calling her sister Hen. On the journey they seemed to have reached an intimacy they had never had in their younger days.

Diana stood gazing about at the foot of the stairs. “The hall is so big and grand. Oh the magnificent plaster work!”

“You girls have your Uncle Robert’s old room.”

Bel was leading them up the stairs as she spoke.

“
Sacre Dieu
!” cried Madeline, “I trust he was not laid out there after his fall from his horse? I wouldn’t sleep a wink.”

Daniel, following, called out, “It is also my room you have been given and I assure you I sleep there like a log.”

Diana turned round to him with her eyes wide with concern. “Oh but where are
you
to go, Dan? We are turning you out!”

“I have the little room that was once the chapel and then was Mother’s from which she invaded yours, Aunt Henrietta, but I promise you I will do no such evil deeds. The door between has been boarded up long since.”

There was some laughter at this but Daniel was aware that his grandmother had been silent from the moment of their arrival. He remembered how she had looked when Madeline and Diana had asked about her memories of Horden Hall. She had gazed into the past and it was steeped in sadness. Now she was moving slowly with a set face towards the room she had shared with Sir John twenty years ago. She had left him then to accompany her daughter to France and never seen him alive again.

Bel had told Daniel often that the departure of her mother and sister had been welcome because they had rarely shown her any affection. In the face of her own overflowing love to him he had found that shocking. Now he watched with some curiosity as his grandmother, very straight-backed, was ushered into the bedchamber where her years of marriage had been spent. Her maid came scampering up the stairs followed by their man, limping badly but with her ladyship’s trunk on his back. He set it in the room and retreated for the next load. The maid scuttled in and Daniel heard his grandmother’s voice,
“Fermez la porte, Maria.
”

The door was shut firmly and Bel looked at Daniel. “My ice mother is a little overcome.”

Henrietta’s maid, whom she was sharing with her daughters, was bustling about on the landing, making sure the bags went to the right rooms.

Madeline put her head out of their door and said, “Where are your servants, Aunt Arabella, to help our man?”

Bel smiled. “Our groom will be watering the horses so that the hired men can start back this evening. Ursula will be in the kitchen feeding the men and one of the maids will be setting a tray of wine and refreshments for you as soon as you are all ready to partake. The other has been borrowed from the vicarage and is preparing for your supper later. They have made up the beds and carried water to all the rooms so I trust you will find nothing lacking.”

Madeline’s mouth hung open. “But your own maid, Aunt, to unpack for you and lay out your things?”

Bel held out her hands. “What are these for?”

Diana’s head appeared and seeing Daniel pulling their boxes along while the French man-servant took Henrietta’s trunk to her room she loudly reprimanded her sister.

“You know well enough that they have the servants they can afford here and we are very grateful to be invited. Thank you, Dan. That is my box and I will have it this side. I see there is not a thing of yours left in here but I shall love to think I am sleeping where you usually sleep.” She cast down her eyes and raised them again with her most alluring smile.

“Good,” he said. “There will be beer and wine downstairs. I’m thirsty.” And he hurried away.

When his mother joined him below in the great hall she was bursting with unspoken words. “That Diana! Why are you letting her flirt with you like this? She is the same silly girl you first thought her when you wanted nothing to do with her or her sister.”

“Oh come, Mother. Look at the way she behaved to Ursula.”

“Only to please you. You had told her Ursula was your beloved nurse.”

“No, I can’t believe she was dissembling. She showed her true kindliness.”

Bel stamped her foot. “So you are going to fall headlong into her trap, are you?”

“Indeed I won’t for there
is
no trap. I’ve learnt she is very different from her sister, that is all.”

“They are two of a kind. They are both in love with you and I can’t blame them for that. If I were their age
I
would be in love with you.” She was looking him up and down. “Your beautiful flaxen hair, your bright eyes – the blue green of a smiling sea, your height, your long limbs –”

“Mother, stop it! You are making yourself ridiculous. Madeline loathes me and if Diana loves me,” he shrugged his shoulders, “well, it can’t be helped.”

“Madeline is only cross because you started to take notice of Diana. I told you on our first day in London that they would both be after you.”

Their maid brought the tray of drinks from the kitchen.

“Set it in the parlour, Jane.”

The parlour, like the small dining-room had been partitioned off from the great hall when the custom of the master and mistress dining at a high table with all the retainers below had finally gone out of fashion. There was also an office to the right of the stairs where the estate records were kept and beyond it Nathaniel’s study. The alterations meant that the stairs, the great fireplace and the main doorway were no longer symmetrically placed but the dimensions of the hall were still impressive and the heraldic shield of the Hordens had been moved to a point above the archway that led to the steps to the kitchen, midway between the new parlour and the dining-room.

Daniel felt sure that Diana’s admiration on her first entrance had not been feigned and he was now highly irritated with his mother.

No more was said then. The guests came down presently for the refreshments and Nathaniel returned from the village with news of his father. To them he said little but afterwards to Bel and Daniel he confided, “I like not the colour of his skin. It is yellowy and he seems very tired. My mother is fearful since he has rarely suffered any illness. She told me privately that she has no desire to outlive him for she cannot conceive of life without him. If he is not better soon I think we should call a physician to him. He would like to see you, Bel, when you can spare the time but this evening I think
you
should ride over, Daniel, before supper. They long to set eyes on you again, they both said.”

Daniel went alone, much to Diana’s disappointment.

“I would love to meet your grandparents,” she said, “but if your grandfather is ill perhaps –”

“Quite so,” was all he said.

CHAPTER 10

Riding the familiar track to the village Daniel thought he had been a little abrupt with Diana. I mustn’t listen to my mother. I’m afraid she’s jealous. This is the first young lady with whom I have spent much time and she finds she doesn’t like it.