The Shadowcutter

by Harriet Smart

  They began their walk in silence. Felix knew that Lord Rothborough was disquieted, and he had a fair idea of the reason for it. It was a subject that he had scarcely dared think much about. He had allowed more pressing events: Mrs Vernon’s death, the Major’s illness and Sukey, to push it to a dusty corner of the mind. Yet, Sukey had gently reminded him of it only the night before, when they had snatched twenty minutes together in the garden after dinner.

  “When I was sitting with your mother this afternoon,” she had said, “she was telling me what a wicked little boy you were and all the time I was thinking of that poor Irish lady, and all she had been through, and how she must be feeling now having caught sight of you. Oh, don’t frown now, Felix. I didn’t mean to sting your conscience. I just thought she might want to write to you.”

  “Or that I should write to her?” he had said. His conscience was stung, but she had done it so sweetly, he had felt he could bear any amount of such guidance from her.

  “It couldn’t hurt. Since you didn’t take leave of her properly.”

  “No. And I have Lord Rothborough to thank for that.” He gave a slight shudder, recalling how they had fallen into each others arms.

  “Don’t blame him for that,” she said.

  Her words now made him tender and careful towards Lord Rothborough. After a few minutes silence he ventured to say,

  “I suppose that the Santa Magdalena party are still at Stangate.”

  “Yes. They are.”

  “And did you see Dona Blanca?”

  “Yes. It was a little hard to judge. I did not see her alone, and she’s not herself in that company. But we had decided that day, the day we heard about Mrs Vernon, when you left us, that we would not see each other alone again. For your sake, as much as anything. A scandal is the last thing you want, I think.”

  “And there would be one if you were alone with her?” Felix could not help saying.

  Lord Rothborough considered for a moment and then said,

  “An old love is a powerful thing. You know I have always been generous with my heart. She is still compelling, perhaps more so than before. She has gravitas and wisdom now. I can’t deny she still has a grip on me. To see her among those people was a torture. But she is devoted to the memory of her late husband and to the welfare of his countrymen, who by all accounts, love her like a queen. Which does not surprise me the least. She had that quality of inspiring loyalty and love, even at seventeen. She is also pious and fears for my soul, as well as her own. She will not stray from her resolve, and so I am to feed only on the crumbs of her society while she remains here. I am not even allowed the luxury of a letter.” He sighed.

  “Do you think she might let me write?” Felix said after a pause.

  “I think so, yes. Or you might visit – discreetly, of course. She asked after you of course, as much as could be permitted in company without arousing any suspicion. Not that it would have been noticed by Dona Clara whose grasp of English is most imperfect, but Don Luiz has a better command of the language. What a pair!”

  “Was she still wearing that bracelet?”

  “Yes, indeed, and it is the one from the parure, I am certain of it. How we approach the recovery of that is a difficult matter. I don’t want to offend him unduly, as he may be the next President and it would cause a great deal of diplomatic embarrassment to accuse him of buying stolen goods. I have no idea if he does or does not know if it has a dubious provenance. If he does not, he is dangerously naive for a man in high office, and that is a worry for our Government. If, however, he is aware that valuable trinkets acquired at illegal dog fights are likely to have been purloined, and he thinks that is an acceptable way of doing business, that is entirely another sort of worry for the gentlemen in the Foreign Office. Our interests there are of some significance and I don’t want them spoiled with for the sake of a bracelet, no matter how valuable. A delicate business.”

  “Perhaps Dona Blanca might persuade them to return it quietly, for the sake of her adopted country’s prestige,” Felix said.

  “Indeed,” said Lord Rothborough, smiling. “I think she, of all people might manage that. An excellent suggestion. You are getting shrewd, Felix!”

  Felix was quite unused to this level of approbation. Indeed Lord Rothborough’s entire manner was confusing.

  They were within sight of the house now, in the rose garden that garnished the south front. A turn of the path found them facing Mrs Carswell and Lady Maria.

  “Maria, are you here alone?” Lord Rothborough said. “Does your mother know that –?”

  “No, Papa, she does not,” Lady Maria said, flushing. “I am sorry. I came with Chartie. We thought – we wanted, since we are going away – oh dear, I am so sorry. And now she has vanished. Have you seen her?”

  “She will not have gone far,” said Mrs Carswell.

  “She was with Major Vernon,” Lady Maria said quietly.

  “Oh,” said Lord Rothborough, heavily. “Oh. This is great mischief, Maria. I told you that Chartie was not to –”

  “I know, I know, Papa,” said Lady Maria. “I am sorry.”

  “You should not have allowed this!” he exclaimed.

  She cringed a little at his vehemence.

  “I know, but you know what Chartie is like, Papa,” she struggled to say, “when she has set her heart on something!”

  Lord Rothborough exhaled loudly and glanced around him as if he might catch sight of the errant Charlotte.

  “I am sure she will be found soon enough, Lord Rothborough,” said Mrs Carswell. “Meanwhile, perhaps we might yield the search to the gentlemen, Lady Maria, as I must admit the sun is a little strong for me. This weather is delightful, but I am not used to it. I would like to sit down again.”

  “Yes, mother, you should go in,” Felix said, taking her arm and guiding her back into the small parlour. Lady Maria, almost in tears now, followed them and sat down, timidly glancing at her father as he came in.

  “It is not your fault,” Lord Rothborough said, giving her a brief caress. “You are right, Chartie knows no law except her own. We will find her soon enough. Come, Felix.”

  They set out on their search on the ground floor of the house.

  “At least we can be certain that Major Vernon will not have indulged her,” Lord Rothborough said. “But she has allowed her heart too much licence in that direction and it will be painful for her. I already have poor sweet Gusta howling daily at my feet, and now we shall have to deal with Chartie, who will be far more wounded, because she feels everything so deeply. It has always been the way with her. Ah, if only Vernon were ten years younger and with better quarterings, it might have been possible, in time, to entertain it, though Lady Rothborough would never be content with it.” He gave a bitter laugh. “And for once, Felix you are behaving yourself in these matters. There’s a novelty! At least I trust you are?”

  Felix felt his throat dry. He could not answer, for at the end of the passageway stood Sukey.

  “Aha,” said Lord Rothborough seeing her, and striding forward. “Mrs Connolly, perhaps you can help us?”

  “My lord?” Sukey said, making her curtsey.

  “Have you seen Lady Charlotte?”

  “Yes, my Lord. She is –” She indicated a closed door. Lord Rothborough’s hand was at once on the latch, but Sukey went on, “She is very distressed, my Lord. I have done all I could, but – I hope you don’t think I am speaking out of turn, but, she needs kindness now.”

  Lord Rothborough looked Sukey over carefully.

  “She has mentioned the trouble to you?” he said.

  “Yes,” said Sukey. “I found her crying. She said she wanted to take my place. That she would happily be his servant.”

  “Oh dear,” said Lord Rothborough. “We have quite a case, do we not!” He opened the latch and slipped into the room. He shut the door gently behind him.

  “I don’t suppose he will be so kind to you,” Sukey said. “Nor me.”

  Felix too
k her hand to kiss it, but she pulled it away.

  “I don’t care what he thinks,” Felix said, snatching back her hand. “His opinion is irrelevant.”

  “I might believe that if you didn’t care for him. But you do. He’s your father, for heaven’s sake, Felix. You can’t disregard him. We can’t!”

  “He will have to live with our decision and he will soon see the rightness of it.”

  Sukey once again pulled her hand from his.

  “If he does not think a great gentleman like Major Vernon is good enough for his daughter, then how can I ever be good enough for you?”

  “I’m his bastard! That’s all.” Felix said. “I am a speck of dirt compared to you, Sukey. You are my superior in everything – character, birth, everything.” He tried again to embrace her. “Don’t be afraid, please, it will all be all right. We decided this morning it would be.”

  She yielded at last but she was stiff and awkward in his arms. Her pulse was thudding with fear.

  “Perhaps this morning was a silly dream,” she said. “And we ought to –”

  “It was not,” he said.

  “Yes, yes, I know, but –”

  She broke away quickly from him, alerted by a creak on the floor boards. But it was too late, they had been observed, by none other by Holt, coming along from the servants’ hall with a tray.

  Sukey half walked, half ran away in the other direction, leaving Holt to give Felix a most contemptuous look. He might as well have spat on the floor in front of him with disgust.

  “I’m just taking this up to the Major, sir,” Holt said. “He seems a little wan. You might want to take a look at him.”

  “Yes, of course,” said Felix, and followed Holt upstairs, feeling like a man mounting the scaffold.

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  “Mr Holt, is there something wrong?” Giles asked.

  Holt stood fingering Giles’ cravat as it lay over his arm with a clean shirt.

  “Are you sure you are well enough to dine downstairs, sir?” he said.

  “Yes, I’ve rested all afternoon. It will not be too great a trial. Is that all?”

  He watched Holt lay the shirt and cravat on a chair, rather slowly and deliberately. It was not his usual way. He was usually swift and precise.

  With his back to Giles, Holt said, “There was another matter, sir, which I don’t like to raise with you, but I feel I should. About Mr Carswell.”

  “Yes?” Giles said.

  Now Holt turned and faced him.

  “Mr Carswell and Mrs Connolly. I saw him –” He hesitated. “At her.”

  “By which you mean?”

  “You know sir, what I mean! At her. Pawing her. His hands all over her. Lover-like. I thought you should know,” he added. “I didn’t think you would care for such liberties being taken. And she didn’t look very happy about it, I must say.”

  “When was this?” Giles said.

  “This afternoon. Just before he came up with me.”

  “I see. You were a little short with him then, I did notice that.”

  “He was lucky he didn’t get a bloody nose,” said Holt. “But I reckon I should leave that to you, given you are the master.”

  Giles found himself frowning as he got up from the couch. Suddenly the thought of going down to dinner felt a great deal less attractive.

  “I thought of mentioning it to his Lordship when he was here,” Holt went on, taking up the clothes brush and attacking Giles’ evening coat over-vigorously with it. “But I thought, like father, like son –”

  “That’s quite enough Holt,” said Giles. “Don’t worry, I will speak to Mr Carswell about it. And please, would you treat my coat with a little more kindness. It is too old to bear your ill-humour!”

  Holt stopped brushing and scowled.

  “Don’t spare him your tongue, sir,” he said. “Mrs Connolly deserves better than that sort of mucky behaviour. She’s too fine by half for the likes of him!”

  Holt left, banging the door rather peevishly behind him. Giles finished dressing and went into the library. There he discovered Carswell pacing the room in his shirt sleeves, not yet dressed for dinner and in a state of some agitation. There was a cheroot stuck in his mouth while there was a dish of stubs and a half-drunk decanter of claret on the table.

  He threw the cheroot into the empty fireplace at the sight of Giles.

  “This is your house,” Giles said, though the smell of smoke was not pleasant.

  Carswell went to the window and pushed it open.

  “I ought to give them up. You are right – they are an abomination,” he said. “And this is not my house. I am master of nothing here, not even myself!” He pushed his hands through his hair and threw himself into a chair. “And I suppose Holt has said something to you. I can’t believe that he would keep that from you for long.”

  “Yes, he has.”

  “What did he say?”

  “That he saw you – and I am using his word here, pawing Mrs Connolly. Lover-like, was the other expression he used.”

  Carswell groaned and dragged the wine tray towards him.

  “Will you?” he said as he filled his glass.

  “Yes, just a little,” Giles said, sitting down opposite Carswell at the table. Carswell passed him a glass of wine. “So, will you explain it?” Giles went on. Carswell sipped his wine and glanced away. “She is my employee, and under my protection. I must ask what is going on.” Still Carswell did not answer. “What disturbs me most about this report is that Holt suggested that the attentions were unwelcome to her.”

  Now Carswell drained his glass and set it down carefully on the table, as he considered what to say.

  “I wish I knew. I know she loves me, as I love her, but she is so afraid! It is all suddenly so unwelcome to her. Perhaps it is all poisoned and impossible. She is right about everything, always, and no doubt she is right about this. But I cannot give it up! I cannot give her up.”

  “How serious are things between you?” Giles said. “You intend to marry?

  “Yes!” Carswell exclaimed. “And this morning we finally agreed on it. I thought I had her – at last! But then Lord Rothborough arrived, and –”

  “Does he know of this?”

  “No! But she saw Lady Charlotte and all that business, and it made her take fright again. That was what Holt saw. I was attempting to reassure her, but –” He reached for the decanter again. “How can I give her up? How? She is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have told her a hundred times that I will smooth the way and she will not suffer for it. I will make sure of it. I will take all the blows. I will not have her suffer.”

  “But she will,” Giles said, “if you marry, no matter what you do. Her family, for a start –”

  “Yes, yes, I know! Do you think I do not? I have known all along that it is utterly impossible!”

  “Then you ought never to have declared yourself.” Giles said, without, he hoped, too much reproach in his manner. Yet still Carswell looked across at him contemptuously. “If you truly cared for her.”

  “And now, of course, you will accuse me of self-indulgence!” exclaimed Carswell, jumping up from the table.

  “Have you not just done that yourself?” Giles said.

  “To grab at happiness, at peace, at love?” said Carswell. “Is that self-indulgence? Sukey and I – it is a miracle! The finest thing I have ever known is to be in her company. I am a better man for her – you have seen that yourself – she has improved me in every way. One might walk a thousand miles and then another and not find another woman so perfectly formed to be my wife!”

  “Except that none of your family or friends will agree with you.”

  “Not even you?” said Carswell, leaning across the table towards him.

  “I’m sorry, but I cannot approve it. It would offend too many people I care for. Mr and Mrs O’Brien, whom I regard as my friends, did not put her in my care to find her such an unsuitable match.”

  �
�And they did such a fine job with her first husband! Who was by all accounts approved by them all – he was a wastrel, drunkard who left her starving. She will want for nothing with me. This house – can you think of a better mistress for the place? It is everything she deserves.” Giles was about to reply, but Carswell, went on, “You have seen her with my parents? I think my mother loves her already. Sukey is exactly the daughter that she has always wanted. It is only a matter of overturning these ridiculous prejudices. She is not my equal, she is my superior!”

  Giles sighed.

  “I have also heard your father lamenting that the Irish will not turn away from the Papacy. Have you given any thought to religion? She may not wish to give that up. Have you spoken to her about that?”

  “That is of no consequence to me,” said Carswell, airily. “I will turn Papist if that is what it takes. I will do anything necessary.”

  “That would be a drastic step,” Giles said. “Given all this, and from whom it came.”

  “He cannot take this away from me now,” said Carswell. “It is mine.”

  “True enough. You can take your prize and live your life in blissful solitude. You will have made your point. But to make your wife’s position untenable with her neighbours is quite another thing. If Holbroke slams its door in your face – and it will, undoubtedly, if you turn to Rome – then all the other houses, great and small, will follow. Then Ardenthwaite is nothing but a miserable prison for her. No wonder she is afraid of what you suggest. She is no fool. And what of your children? Are you really prepared to have doors closed in their faces as they grow up? Given what you have suffered yourself –?”

  “I am not intending to father a race of bastards!” Carswell said. “How can you make such a comparison?”

  “Because unfortunately many people will see it like that. An unequal marriage is not easily forgiven, nor would you leaving your religion. You will be judged harshly.”

  “Only by narrow-minded bigots whom I have no time for!” Carswell said slamming his palm on the table and making the glasses dance. “I don’t care about such people, and neither does Sukey. We will make our own society. We do not need such neighbours!”