“I say, he is rather a nice little fellow, isn’t he? I wish I could show him to Father and Mother and dear old Grandmother Bel. And I wager Ruth would be wanting to play with him straightaway.”
“Well, you must write and tell them and Deb too I suppose. She and her little paramour might be in Florence by now.” “Nay, he is not that. She couldn’t fancy him that way.”
“But she could fancy his wealth and title. Gracious me, at her age she would jump at any man. The problem for her is that he could never tolerate feeling so small beside her. Poor old Deb. She’ll never get to have one of these.” She looked down at the baby who had gone to sleep. “Put him in the cradle. I must sleep too. Let Maria come in now. You can go and write your letters before dinner.”
John inserted the bundle between the lace curtains and watched the cheek settle on the silk pillow. “He’s ours. What a funny tiny little thing!”
He made to kiss Jeanetta again but her head had drooped back and she frowned him away.
He crept out disappointed but that was soon forgotten in the hours of celebration that followed. He found himself gloriously fêted and Jean Nathaniel toasted so often that he had no recollection of Matt getting him to bed that night. It was some days before he could face the exertion of writing letters.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The March day was bitingly cold but Deborah minded it very little. They had been in Florence for a week and she was utterly absorbed by it. She and Frederick Branford were sitting at breakfast in the window of their hotel. They had been silent, enjoying the veal cutlets and eggs in clean dishes on a linen cloth.
As she set down her knife and fork she burst out with all that had been in her mind. “Oh Frederick, I feel I haven’t lived till now. I knew so much but I hadn’t feltit. I hadn’t drowned in frescos and sculptures and buildings and music as I have here. Yesterday the Medici chapel with the Magi coming to Jesus! The colour, the wonder of it! I will never hear that story read without seeing it in my mind’s eye. And then that concert last night in the hall of the Palazzo Medici! The sweet sounds cascading over me, the paintings on walls and ceiling blazing their colour and brilliance into my very brain, the thousand lights! It was almost too much. Can we perhaps just walk this morning by the Arno? I am drunk with so much man-made beauty.”
“By all means. At my Cambridge home I loved winter walks.” “Will I ever see Cambridge I wonder? I mustn’t forget England has her own splendours.” She said it without thinking but his reply brought her up short.
“I would be honoured if you would allow me to show you Cambridge when we return to England.”
She looked hard at him across the table, forced to think of him rather than her own ecstasy. He still bore a scar on one cheek but he was wearing a new neat wig covering his ears. He was a being in his own right, much more than a pleasant companion who acquiesced with all her suggestions and smiled at her enthusiasms. What was behind that ‘we return to England’? She hadn’t been thinking of anything but the teeming, exciting present. Would she ever be back in the old life at Horden Hall? Why did he speak of them returning together? What was he presuming from their shared experiences?
A serving-man hovered by their table. “Post, my lord and lady.”
They each received letters which put an instant stop to Deborah’s musings on how she should answer him. She looked at hers. “From home, not from John. And yours?”
“Two from Mother and one from Grandfather.”
They had hardly begun reading when they looked up and both cried, “They know about San Remo.”
Deborah saw Frederick’s expression of alarm change to laughter at their simultaneous exclamation, mirroring her own laughter.
“But it isserious,” she chuckled. “How did it get into the newspapers?”
They returned by unspoken agreement to their letters to read more.
‘Imagine your mother’s horror’ Deborah read in her father’s hand, ‘on learning you had barelyescaped froma fire. She wants you and Johnboth home atonce so shecan cease from suffering this endless anxiety. She is quite angrythat youwrotenothingof it yourself in your latest letters which speak only of minor inconveniences as you travelled from Genoa through Italy. I tell her I can wellunderstandyour silence onsuch a fearful adventure and that you would neversuspect we would hear ofit.Hoping you will have settled in Florence by the time this reaches you I am addressingthisthere.IhavetopresumeLordBranfordisstillwith you and Iwould wish you to conveyto him ourthankfulness for the courage heshowed. As you will see in the newspaper article I enclose, your own bravery isrecordedwith astonishment. I may say your father isnot astonished. It is how I would have known my Deborah would behave.’ Tears blinded her as she read this. She longed for her father’s arms about her but, quickly brushing her hand over her eyes, she unfolded the crumpled paper and saw the heading ‘English travellers’ narrow escape from Italian inferno.’ She looked up at Frederick.
“Father has sent me the paper. It is all here, our names and everything.”
“How could it possibly have reached a London journalist?”
She shook her head. “Someone in the crowds watching? They must have inquired who we were.” She looked back at her letter and discovered a welcome piece of news. “Ah they have heard from John of the safe arrival of a baby boy. Theyhave heard and we have not or maybe his letter has not traced us to here. Well, God be praised for that.”
“Is the child in line to be Comte Rombeau as well as Baronet Horden?”
“No, Jeanetta’s brothers come before him at Rombeau. He is all Horden and she will have to get used to that. Ah I see Mother has added sentences too. She will not be happy till I am safe at Horden and she goes on –” but looking ahead at what she said she refrained from reading it out. ‘Your travelling alone with an unattachedgentleman cannot be right. Of course he mustsee you safelyback toRombeau now when I trust you and John and his little family will join you and return with you, weather permitting. All the world knows now that you and Lord Branford have been together for weeks and weeks. There are not lacking those who will believe the worst. I fear you have put yourself in a very compromising position, yet without sin, I hasten to believe. Dear Deborah, you are innocent of the world and believe good of everyone. Wedo not knowLord Branford ourselves but what are your feelings towards him and his toyou? It cannot be that you have spent somuch time together without arriving atan answerto that question.’
She looked across at him, the difference in their height not being so conspicuous when they were seated. Havewe resolved such a question, she wondered. He is a true friend but I cannot ever see myself in bed with him. Will that do for an answer, Mother?
He met her eyes. Oh how could she get rid of that look of admiration in his? You sweet man, she thought, I am tall enough without you setting me on a pedestal.
“All is well – with your family?” he asked.
She had to be honest. “My father thanks you for your brave conduct in our little adventure and my mother thinks we should not be travelling together.”
“Oh.” He was startled.
She thought, I had forgotten how easy his face is to read. But of course I knew from our first talk in the garden that he is as transparent as the day. I must continue to be direct with him. “Does that concern you, Frederick?”
He frowned and bit his lower lip. “Maybe it should.” Then to her surprise his face broke into a smile. “But no, it does not.” Was it a brave smile, against his heart’s wishes? She was quite pleased to find that she wasn’t sure after all. He went on quickly, “I know you could never look on me as anything but your loyal friend and admirer. Forgive me for smiling but my mother says the same as yours.” He looked back at her letter. “She says I am to blame for jeopardising your good name. If I thought I had I wouldbe grieved but anyone who meets you would not dare to impugn your character. You are so far above the run of humankind –”
Deborah held up her hand. “No, pray stop there. At home I am an object of r
idicule, ‘that tall thing at the Hall with too much learning for her own good.’ Now can we just go back to being Frederick and Deborah and forget all this nonsensical anxiety from our mothers?”
Again she watched his face. The eyes showed wistful sadness as he appeared to agree heartily. So what werehis true feelings?
She pushed back her chair and stood up. Suzette immediately appeared at her elbow. “My lady dress to go out?” Suzette was very proud of using English now.
“Yes.” She looked at Frederick who had risen too. “Ten minutes?”
“Certainly. Perhaps I could also read the newspaper article later?”
She nodded and smiled. So far she had barely skimmed her eyes over it.
Frederick found Will Smyth waiting for him in the anteroom to his bedroom where Will himself slept.
“Plans for today my lord?”
Frederick was astonished to see in his hand what looked like the same sheet of newspaper Deborah had been sent. Will was making no effort to hide it.
“Yes, my lord, the earl inserted it in a letter to me and has left it to my discretion whether I show it to you or not. I believe he wanted to spare your feelings but I observed in the dining-room that Mistress Horden has been sent a copy too.”
Frederick thought, Grandfather with the best of motives appointed Will to be both my guardian and my servantcompanion but I am tired of being constantly spied upon. He held out his hand for the paper and took it to the window while Will laid out his cloak with the fur collar.
Had the writer of the article seen their passports and travel permits? There were their names as Deborah had said. ‘We have learnt of the narrow escape from death of Frederick, Lord Branford from Hertfordshire travelling with Mistress Deborah Wilson Horden from Northumberland. It seems that a fire broke out in their hotel in the Italian town of San Remo and they had to scramble over roof tops to escape. A number of their men-servants sleeping in a room below got out without difficulty but Lord Branford had to break open a hole in the attic wall and carry to safety Mistress Horden’s terrified maid. Mistress Horden herself climbed out and walked alone along a narrow ledge before Lord Branford could go back to help her. Both the lady and gentleman behaved with the extraordinary courage and cool-headedness one would expect from the English travelling abroad. Whether the couple are related is not known but the crowds in the streets observed that they enjoyed a moonlight walk together afterwards as if nothing calamitous had befallen them.
‘Later inquiries showed that the fire must have been started by a vagrant who had crept into a storeroom and left a smoking pipe behind. The patron, Pedro Donelli, was from home at the time and was horrified to learn of the danger to his honoured guests. His hotel was destroyed but by the providence of God no lives were lost.’
Will Smyth remarked when he saw Frederick had finished reading, “It is not very accurate of course, my lord.”
“No indeed, Will, it leaves out your own splendid part in the escape But how did it get into a London paper?”
“That I think I can guess, my lord. We were returning to our feluccain the morning when I observed that Luigi fellow speaking with a seedy-looking individual on the deck of a vessel sailing for England that day. I thought he must be trading goods of some kind. I am certain the fellow handed over money.”
“But Luigi was not at the fire.”
“Ah, my lord, when you were out walking with Mistress Deborah in the night he questioned Peter and Joseph. He spoke pretty good English and must have spotted a way of making even more money out of the episode. He charged us heavily for the supper he gave us and for sleeping us – if you could call it that – on floor and table for an hour or two. I assumed he was just curious about how we came to be in such straights. I was busy myself calming down that silly girl, Suzette.”
“Well, you are probably right, Will.” He was thinking, Will is always finding fault with Peter and Joseph so they took their revenge in the way they told the story. He put the paper in his inner pocket and added, “I must go down now and join Mistress Horden.”
“Yes, my lord, but while we are on that subject I wonder if you realise how oursituation has changed. Formerly we ate our meals together and discussed our plans. Now I eat at a table alone or with Peter and Joseph and Suzette in a corner reserved for servants.”
“Oh dear.” Frederick was genuinely embarrassed. He had been enjoying Deborah’s company too much to appreciate the consequences for Will.
“I don’t see how that can change much at present.”
“Well, my lord, all I can say is, I don’t know how the fashionable world will react to this story but it is what I warned you. Gentlemen and ladies do not travel about unless they are married or brother and sister or have proper chaperones.”
“Thank you for your advice, Will. We are going for a walk now. You and Suzette may follow a few paces behind us.”
Will’s heavy-jowled face contorted so much with suppressed words that, sorry as he was for him, Frederick wanted to laugh. He managed to reduce it to a placatory smile, took his cloak, hat and cane and descended to meet Deborah who was already waiting near the pillared entrance. It was pleasing to look down on her from the stairs but he knew he would soon be gazing up at her and cursing his missing inches.
If I were but six foot and one inch, he moaned to himself, or if she were an average height for a woman but with the same amazing qualities that she has I believe I could be in love with her as I was with my Mary. But I fear I am too much in awe of her. She is far cleverer than I though she does not flaunt it and she has a very direct way with people. Yet I know if she met my mother and grandfather she would show them only her grace and charm. She has a ready humour and I could imagine a smaller version of her seated in my mother’s parlour in our Hertfordshire home enjoying a laugh with her. They have the same bright outlook on life.
But all that, he thought, presupposes a situation that can never happen. She will always look down on me. How can she help it? And even if, as Will Smyth suspected, she had ambitions to join the aristocracy, how could I, who already have so little presence among my new circle, make myself more of a laughing stock by introducing such a towering figure as my countess? So what is to be the outcome? I do love her company and she seems happy enough with mine. But how are we to fade again into polite acquaintanceship now that we have gone so far with our intimate ‘Frederick and Deborah’. I would truly delight in showing her round my old haunts in Cambridge but I cannot foresee her coming to Hertfordshire as my wife. It is a dilemma and Mother is right I suppose. I should not have let it happen.
“Ah to sniff that chill air from the mountains,” she said as she linked arms with him and they set out for their walk.
For Deborah the walk was not as comfortable as she had hoped. The letters and the newspaper article would not stay at the back of her mind where she had dismissed them. Questions had to be answered. How long could she stay exploring Italy with Lord Branford? The separation from John had been made without much thought to their itinerary but it was plain that the family at home expected the young heir to Horden to be brought there this summer. She then should be back at Rombeau to accompany them home to England. Lord Branford would certainly not let her travel back there alone but he had not yet seen all the places he was supposed to see. She had been so overwhelmed with the wonders of Florence that she had thought they would stay longer and then go on to Rome. But now – that article and those letters! Had she really lost her good name? Would no other man ever look at her after this horrid publicity? And they had forgotten about the war. Where would it break out again when the armies emerged from winter quarters? It was said that Marshal Vendôme was wintering a substantial French army near Mantua. That was less than a hundred miles away. Father would be keeping a close eye on the news and would be worried about them.
She stood still as they reached one of the four bridges over the river.
“There are too many imponderables, my lord.”
“My lord!” h
e repeated. “Do you mean, Mistress Horden, which path should we take now?”
She laughed, shaking her head. “I meant, Frederick, how can we escape from this dilemma we find ourselves in?”
Will Smyth and Suzette had stopped too at a discreet distance. He never talks to the poor girl, she thought, and she is too shy of him to venture a word. Now they are simply standing staring across the river.
She made Frederick look up at her. “I should go back to Rombeau and then home to England with John. Can I travel only with Suzette?” She had no sooner said it than she realised how little she wanted to part from Frederick. I think I love him, though never as I loved Ranald. I loved Ranald for his size and because he was the only man who had ever loved me for mine. Oh that dance we did together! It was the first time in my life that I loved my long stick of a body. He wanted me so much. Frederick likesme and is less in awe of me than he was at first. We get on well, mostly because he accedes to everything I want to do. But I should not allow our friendship to continue without telling him of Ranald and that I am not ready to do. This dilemma is much bigger than I thought.
Frederick said, “You are worried about that unfortunate newspaper article? I assure you I will go with you wherever you wish to go. I long to see my mother again and it is no hardship to curtail my travels.”
“But you should not. I can hire a carriage and a vetturino.We have spoken with several travellers who highly recommended them.”
“I have never heard of two women alone being entrusted to their care. No, I beg you, let me accompany you back to Rombeau. If it makes you happy we will set off tomorrow.” He turned and called Will to him. “Could we be ready for a journey back to France tomorrow? Mistress Horden would like to return to Rombeau.”
Will looked from him to Deborah and curled his lip. “You are in a hurry, Mistress? You want the shortest route via Turin to Grenoble by Mount Cenis? In winter? I did the Alpine crossing with the earl when I was Peter’s age. There was plenty of snow and ice though the month was May. You are carried by porters on a kind of litter –”
Prue Phillipson - Hordens of Horden Hall Page 14
