‘The surprise is mine, Doctor,’ Charles said coldly as he got to his feet. ‘I hadn’t realized you and my cousin were on such terms that you visit her in London.’
‘Well, it is hardly any of your business, is it?’ Nicholas said smoothly. ‘I’m sure Sophie doesn’t need your permission in her choice of friends.’
‘No, indeed,’ agreed Charles. ‘But is it not unusual for a gentleman to call on a single lady alone in her own home, without acquiring the permission of her guardian beforehand?’ His stressing of the word ‘gentleman’ was too marked to be ignored, and Nicholas Bryan’s lips tightened.
‘And you are her guardian?’
‘No, I am not. But her grandfather is, and to my knowledge he has given no such consent.’
‘You, Leroy, are a pompous fool,’ began Nicholas, ‘and I’ll have you know—’
‘Nicholas, please!’ Sophie broke in, jumping to her feet. ‘And you, Charles, that’s enough.’ Sophie glared at them both. ‘I wish you would not discuss me as if I weren’t here.’ She turned to Hannah, who was standing open-mouthed in the doorway. ‘Thank you, Hannah. I think Mr Charles will be leaving directly. Perhaps you could find his hat and coat.’
Hannah went back into the hall and Sophie returned her attention to Charles. How she wished he had left before Nicholas arrived. How she wanted him to leave now, so that she could have her last hour with Nicholas alone before he caught his train. She had stopped Nicholas blurting out about their engagement, but now she would definitely have to commit to Christmas at Trescadinnick. She and Nicholas had discussed the idea the previous evening, but had come to no firm decision. The only way to get rid of Charles now was to agree to visit; then she could break the news that she was going to marry Nicholas when she got there.
‘Thank you for coming, Charles,’ she said. ‘You may tell my grandfather and AliceAnne that I should love to spend Christmas at Trescadinnick and will write of my arrival very soon. And please thank Aunt Matty for her invitation, and say that though I shall stay at Trescadinnick, I’m looking forward to seeing her.’
It was his dismissal and Charles, with a curt nod, took it as such. ‘Then I’ll see you in Cornwall,’ he said, and walked into the hall to where Hannah stood, holding his coat and hat. He thanked her politely as she opened the front door, and went out into the street. As the door was closing behind him he heard the sound of laughter coming from within, turning his heart to ice.
Back in the house Sophie said, ‘Thank you for the tea and cake, Hannah. I’ll call you if we want anything else.’
When Hannah had left the room, Nicholas stepped forward and pulling Sophie into his arms, said, ‘We don’t have to wait to tell them now.’ He ran his hands gently up and down her back and feeling her shudder of pleasure, kissed her hair. ‘That pompous ass, Leroy, will be going hotfoot to tell them.’
‘Oh, Nicholas, don’t speak of my cousin like that,’ begged Sophie.
‘Well, he is one,’ Nicholas said, unrepentant. ‘And he’s jealous.’
‘Jealous?’ echoed Sophie. ‘Of course he’s not jealous. Why would he be?’
‘Because he can see you love me, not him.’
‘But he doesn’t want me,’ protested Sophie. ‘He told me so in no uncertain terms. And anyway, he doesn’t know we’re engaged.’
‘I think he can guess. He may be a pompous ass, but he’s not a fool. I’m sure he’ll be telling them back at Trescadinnick about our meeting here and suggesting your grandfather refuses his permission. They’ve no time for me, you know.’
‘Oh, Nicholas, how can you say so? They hardly know you as I do, but they do know you’re a good doctor and a good man.’
‘You know,’ Nicholas suggested thoughtfully, ‘we could get a special licence, and be married almost at once, before you visit at Christmas. There’d be nothing your grandfather could do about it then.’
‘Oh no, Nicholas,’ cried Sophie. ‘I couldn’t do that. It would be dishonest and they would be extremely hurt. There have been too many rifts in the Penvarrow family. I don’t want to be the cause of another.’
‘You won’t be causing the rift, Sophie. If there is one it will be their fault, not yours.’
‘Even so, you have to remember that when we are married I shall be living just down the road from Trescadinnick and will be seeing them all the time.’
Nicholas smiled, but made no comment about where they would be living once they were married, simply saying, ‘As you wish, Sophie, of course.’
When he had gone, Sophie sat down by the fire and thought about the morning. At least if she spent Christmas at Trescadinnick she would be able to see Nicholas every day. If she stayed up in London, it might be several weeks before he could come and visit her again, and though they could write to each other in the meantime, and had promised to do so, it would not be the same.
Hannah came in to take the tea tray, but before she picked it up Sophie said, ‘Come and sit by the fire, Hannah. I’ve something to tell you.’
Warily, Hannah sat down. ‘Are we going back to Cornwall for Christmas, Miss Sophie? Miss AliceAnne will be pleased.’
‘Yes, we are, but that’s not what I wanted to tell you.’ She looked across at her oldest friend, her eyes bright with joy, and said, ‘Guess what, Hannah? I’m so happy! I’m to be married.’
‘Married?’ It was a question, but Hannah wasn’t really surprised. She had watched with dismay Sophie’s growing attachment to the young doctor over the past few days, and had been afraid she was being wooed for entirely the wrong reasons.
‘Yes, Dr Bryan has asked me to be his wife and I’ve accepted. Isn’t that wonderful? Aren’t you delighted for me?’
‘I’m pleased if it really makes you happy, Miss Sophie,’ replied Hannah. ‘But I have to say that I think it has all been very quick. Are you really sure?’
‘Of course I’m sure,’ said Sophie hotly. ‘I love him and he loves me!’
‘Does he? Or does he just love your inheritance?’
‘How dare you, Hannah?’ rasped Sophie, her face a mask of anger. ‘How dare you suggest such a thing!’
‘I dare, Miss Sophie, because I’m afraid it may be the case.’
‘Well, I’ll thank you to keep such thoughts to yourself. You have no place to tell me what to do.’
‘I’m not telling you what to do, Sophie. But as a friend, I am telling you what I think.’
‘Well, don’t! It has nothing to do with you,’ snapped Sophie. ‘And I can tell you this, Hannah, you are not a friend, you’re a servant, and I’ll thank you to mind your own business.’
‘In that case, Miss Sophie,’ Hannah said, getting to her feet and picking up the tea tray, ‘I’ll take this out to the kitchen. While I’m preparing the lunch, I shall consider my position.’
Sophie stared at her. ‘What do you mean, “consider your position”?’
‘Exactly what I say, Miss Sophie. I have known you from a baby, but I haven’t never been spoken to like that by anyone and I won’t take it now. When you are married you’ll have your own household with your own servants and you may speak to them as you choose, but I shan’t be one of them.’
‘Oh, and where will you be, then?’ demanded Sophie.
‘I shall be living in my own home with my husband.’
‘Your husband!’ exclaimed Sophie. ‘Who’s going to marry you?’
‘The man what’s already asked me and I turned down to stay with you,’ replied Hannah calmly, and with that she went out of the room, leaving Sophie to stare after her in stupefaction.
24
Charles spoke little of his trip to London when he returned, simply telling them Sophie would be coming to visit at Christmas as promised. Thomas and AliceAnne were delighted with the news and began planning her welcome.
Louisa heard the news with a sniff. ‘I hope you know what you’re doing, Charles. As far as I can see, you’ll simply have cemented her in your grandfather’s affections and he’ll never change his
mind.’
‘Mama, he is never going to change his mind,’ Charles replied. ‘And it seems stupid to try and deny him her company over Christmas in the vain hope that he will.’
‘Well, let’s hope she makes it a short visit,’ muttered Louisa.
When Thomas asked for other news of Sophie, Charles replied that he had found her well and happily settled back into her own home. He made no mention of Dr Bryan and this was a conscious decision. Provided he said nothing, Sophie need never admit that Nicholas had visited her in London if she chose not to. Let Sophie tell the family in her own good time, Charles thought. It’s nothing to do with me. Why risk subjecting her to her grandfather’s anger by mentioning something that has no substance at all? And in the silent regions of his mind, a quiet voice murmured, And if I speak it aloud, it may become a truth.
He encountered Nicholas the very next morning. The doctor was driving up to the house, and when he saw Charles he raised his hat with a sardonic smile and said, ‘Good morning, Mr Leroy. I trust you had a pleasant trip to London.’
Charles, determined not to rise to this gambit, simply replied, ‘Good morning, Doctor. This is just a routine visit, I hope.’
Nicholas jumped down from the gig and picking up his bag, said, ‘Oh yes, I need to ensure my patient has come to no harm while I’ve been away.’
Charles gave a shrug of indifference. ‘Have you been away?’ he said. ‘We hadn’t noticed.’ And with that he turned and walked round the house towards the stables.
Nicholas continued on his way to the front door. Edith opened to his knock and he waited in the hall while she fetched Louisa.
‘Good morning, Doctor,’ Louisa said as she appeared from the kitchen passage. ‘This is a surprise. We weren’t expecting you today.’
‘I’ve been away for a few days on family business,’ Nicholas said, treating her to his most winning smile. ‘So I thought I’d look in to see how Mr Penvarrow is doing.’
‘I’m glad to say he’s taken a turn for the better,’ answered Louisa. ‘He has more appetite and has more colour.’
‘Excellent,’ said Nicholas. ‘And I trust you still have enough of the powders I prescribed?’
‘Yes, we have,’ replied Louisa briskly. ‘He’s been taking them very sparingly.’
‘I’m glad to hear it,’ declared Nicholas. ‘But perhaps I should take a look at him now that I’m here.’
‘Paxton’s with him at the minute,’ Louisa said. ‘He’s getting dressed.’
‘So early?’ The doctor’s face was full of concern. ‘I do hope he takes a rest later in the day.’
‘Indeed, he usually does, Doctor. But I’m afraid he will not wish to be interrupted while he is getting up. At present he is quite well, and I’m sure you have other patients who require your attendance, especially as you’ve been away. I do assure you that we’ll call you immediately should my father take a turn for the worse.’
Louisa saw the flash of anger in Nicholas’s eyes before he said, ‘As you wish, Mrs Leroy. Let us hope that nothing untoward happens to him.’ And with that he strode from the house without a backward glance.
‘It was most odd,’ Louisa said to Charles over lunch. ‘We hadn’t called him and yet he took great offence when I sent him away. You should have seen the expression on his face, Charles. He was furious.’
‘I don’t like that young man,’ Thomas said from the head of the table. ‘Too big for his boots by half.’
‘Well, he’s certainly arrogant,’ Charles said. ‘But with luck, sir, you won’t need him again. It seems to me that your health is much improved.’
‘And so I told him,’ said Louisa. ‘But he wasn’t pleased. Anyone would think he didn’t want you to recover, Papa.’
‘No visits, no medicines, no payment!’ said Thomas, and they all laughed at his cynicism.
Sophie arrived at Trescadinnick the day before Christmas Eve and received an ecstatic welcome from AliceAnne, who was waiting for her in the hall.
‘Look, look, Aunt Sophie,’ the little girl cried. ‘Papa found a tree and Paxton set it up. And now you’re here, we’re going to decorate it.’
Hannah, coming in behind Sophie, paused in the doorway and when AliceAnne saw her she was immediately enveloped in a hug. ‘Hannah! You’re here too! Hurrah.’
What a difference in that child, Hannah thought, as she returned the hug. When we came in September, she couldn’t say boo to a goose.
‘Of course I’m here, Miss AliceAnne, and looking forward to Christmas in the country.’
How nearly Hannah had not come. She and Sophie had never quarrelled before in the way they had over Dr Nicholas Bryan on the day he left London. It had taken several days for them to return to any sort of normality. Words had been spoken that could never be unsaid, particularly by Sophie, and with the strong streak of Penvarrow pride running in her veins she had found it difficult to apologize. But the thought of Hannah leaving her, walking out of the house they had shared for so long and never coming back, filled her with such a deep misery that she had swallowed her pride and made the first move to reconciliation.
‘Hannah, will you forgive me for what I said?’ she asked. ‘It was inexcusable to say you were only a servant and not a friend. You’ve been the dearest friend to me all my life and no one should speak to a friend as I did to you.’
‘Don’t worry, Miss Sophie,’ Hannah had replied. ‘I’ve forgotten what you said to me already.’ Sophie, however, hadn’t forgotten what Hannah had suggested; that Dr Bryan was more in love with her inheritance than with her. It was something that still stood between them. Though she could forgive Hannah for saying such a thing if it was said as a friend who truly believed it, she couldn’t even begin to consider that she might be right. Nicholas had no idea that she rather than Charles would inherit Trescadinnick, and she knew he would love her even if she were penniless... wouldn’t he? She longed to see him again, to feel him hold her close, to know the touch of his lips, gentle against her own. She had two precious letters telling her how much he loved her and how he longed for her return to Trescadinnick.
Neither Sophie nor Hannah mentioned again the idea of Hannah’s marriage; Sophie because she assumed it had been said in the heat of the argument and there was nothing in it, and Hannah because it was true and she didn’t want to discuss it. Sophie was not the only one who had received a letter from Cornwall. Will was no natural letter-writer, which made his letter asking how soon she could come home all the more dear to Hannah. Home? It would be coming home to be with Will, and she had written back to say they were coming to Cornwall for Christmas.
Sophie and Hannah joined in the preparations for Christmas. As AliceAnne had promised they decorated the tree with garlands and ribbons, and placed a golden star on the top. Candles, carefully placed and spaced, were attached to some of the outer branches, so that when Charles lit them for the first time on Christmas Eve, the hall became alight with magic.
AliceAnne’s face was glowing with excitement. ‘Isn’t it beautiful?’ she whispered.
‘It is,’ agreed Sophie. ‘It’s going to be a Christmas we’ll always remember.’
She had not yet seen Nicholas, but they’d agreed that they would meet at church on Christmas morning. I shall wait until after Christmas to tell them that we’ve become engaged, Sophie had written. I know Grandfather may not like the idea and I don’t want to spoil Christmas Day for everyone else. If you come on Boxing Day we can tell him together.
Sophie had been pleased that Nicholas had agreed to this, but once she was back at Trescadinnick, she found it difficult not to speak of the secret she was hugging so excitedly to herself.
She had settled back into the room she’d had before and when she went up to bed on her first night back, she felt as comfortable here as she did in her room at home. She had paused on the landing outside Joss’s room, resting her hand for a moment on the door handle of the locked room, and later, as she lay in bed and watched the firelight glimmer on the
old wardrobe, she thought again about what she’d discovered. Should she tell Aunt Matty? Should she be really brave and tell what she knew to her grandfather? Was there any way, she wondered, that she could find out more about what had happened to Cassie and her baby? Would the family want to know?
Sophie was still eager to uncover these secrets, but, immersed in the excitement of her own proposed marriage, she had more important things to think about just now. She had brought all the letters, with some idea of showing them to Matty at least, and being guided by her as to whether she should tell Thomas. But with everything else going on, she decided to wait for the right time, and the letters remained in the drawer of the dressing table.
Christmas Day dawned dank and chilly. Nevertheless, Louisa insisted that they should all go to the church morning service before they sat down to a Christmas dinner of roast goose and plum pudding. ‘But not you, Papa,’ she said. ‘It’s too cold, and we don’t want you to catch a chill now that you’re so much better. It’s going to be a busy day. You should stay in bed until we get back.’
One look at the weather had told Thomas that he didn’t want to brave the elements and go to church simply to hear the rector maunder on in one of his interminable sermons. He accepted Louisa’s decision with little more than a gruff protest at being bossed by his daughter, and stayed where he was.
‘Paxton will come and help you as soon as we all get back from church,’ Louisa said. ‘Edith’s staying in the kitchen, so if you need something, just ring your bell and she’ll bring anything you want.’
‘Tell her to stay downstairs. I shall be perfectly all right without some maid fussing about me,’ grumbled Thomas.
‘Of course you will,’ agreed Louisa, well used to her father’s irritability. ‘Matty’s coming over some time this morning and we’ll be back before you know it.’ And with that, she left him nursing the cup of tea she had brought him, and went downstairs to join the rest of the family getting ready to leave.
Miss Mary’s Daughter Page 24
