A Cotillion Country Christmas

by Carolynn Carey

  * * * * *

  To keep the holiday greenery fresh, the servants never gathered it until the day before Christmas and Diana always went with them. To her surprise Richard rode out with her behind the wagon from the home farm along with Colin. They went to the old stone wall around the sheep field for the baskets of ivy and to the oak grove for the trimmings from the holly bushes. Colin volunteered to climb one of the oaks for some mistletoe, making him the hero of the kitchen maids. Diana held her breath, hoping the boy would not die in the attempt to impress her.

  “I wonder what he plans to do with that,” Richard said.

  “You’d better watch out for it as well.”

  “Now for the Yule log,” Richard shouted. “Does anyone know if we have one?”

  “Yes,” Tom the home farm manager spoke up. “A windfall oak. Let me lead the way.”

  Deeper into the oak grove they came on the remains of the fallen giant.

  “Yer father let the tenants have the trimmings for firewood but we cut a length off the base for the Yule log and we shall have enough trunk for at least six more years.”

  “As I recall it’s quite a production to get it on the wagon.”

  “But with the snow we can just drag it behind the wagon. We’ll run a rope under the wagon between the wheels and hook it to the double tree. It won’t be too much weight for the team.”

  Once they had driven spikes into the log to hold the ropes and the servants had climbed back into the wagon, the procession headed downhill with young Colin leading the way. Diana and Richard rode behind watching to warn if the log meant to roll off the farm track but it behaved and they pulled up at the back steps, cold and happy.

  “Do we need a ramp to get it up into the house?” Richard asked.

  “We’ve found the steps broad enough to just roll it up if we have enough help.” Tom handed Richard a sapling to lever with and Richard laughed and took it.

  Diana held Timber as they rolled the log up the six steps to the terrace. Richard grinned at her, sweating but happy. She thought she could detect some of the excitement that used to shine in his face when he was a boy.

  “I remember now. We roll it through the house with a sound like cannon lumbering down a road.”

  The grooms came to take the horses and the maids unloaded the baskets of greenery. “With your mother throwing rugs in front of it to keep it from scratching the floor,” Diana added.

  Except that this year it was Diana who had to throw the rugs since Lady Halford was upstairs with Lucy and Ellen. Her sister had to be all right. She just had to be. But it wasn’t something Diana could control. She was always reminding herself what she could fix and what she couldn’t. Lucy’s babe would have to come in its own good time.

  * * * * *

  By noon Richard could see the ivy festooning the banister and mantels and the holly limbs arranged around candles on each table. The mistletoe had been hung some secret place to be let down on a string when young couples least expected it. For some reason the kitchen maids were in charge of this bit.

  After the Yule log had made its sonorous way down the hall and the length of the ballroom it had been rolled on top of the remains of last year’s log ready for lighting the following morning. Of course last year they had lifted out a bit of the old log and kept it in a sack for now since they sometimes had need of the ballroom for other entertainments.

  Lunch was a hurried affair, everyone too focused on the next day’s meal to bother much with this one. Olivia appeared and agreed for Diana to begin her portrait directly after. Richard wondered what on earth the two girls would find to talk about considering they were not much alike and Olivia offended Diana with every other word. He also wondered what he would do with himself for so many hours without Diana to talk to. Lord, if she had not come home these would have been disastrous days and now he found that he was enjoying himself.

  Lady Hull had the inspiration that Richard should read to the girls, so rather than say something rude, he went off with them. Diana made a foray into the library and joined them, handing him a copy of Scott’s Ivanhoe.

  “I’m quite sure Lady Hull had some improving volume in mind such as the Bible.”

  “She wants Olivia not to be bored. So this will do. Besides I cannot paint to the Bible.”

  Richard began to read a work he’d never had time for. A prodigal son tale. It might not be the Bible but he was quite sure Diana intended him to take a lesson from it all the same.

  * * * * *

  Lucy was in labor again and Diana wondered if this time it was the real thing. She confessed to some worry about Lucy. Every time she visited nothing she said improved the wan face and lank blonde hair. And she wasn’t eating much of anything which put Diana off the supper of boiled beef tongue and leek soup. It really was as though the staff were punishing them with an awful dinner so they appreciated the feast tomorrow.

  Olivia turned up her nose at the meal without an attempt to eat it. She was busy debating with her mother whether it was proper for her to attend the fête the next day. In the end Lady Hull decided that the two of them would have trays in their rooms, probably more to shut Olivia up than because of a fear of rubbing shoulders with working folk.

  Diana had occupied herself sending speaking looks at Richard who smiled tolerantly until the ladies left the gentlemen to their port. Diana used the next hour to make some progress on Olivia’s portrait and joined them all later in the drawing room. Since Vicar Dean was with them tonight, and since he abjured any but the most religious music, Lord Hull suggested they tell Christmas stories.

  Richard told of a Christmas spent in winter quarters and the drunken hunt the next day. That displeased the vicar so much Diana was desperate to draw the anger away from him, so she told the tale of Harry shooting Richard during one holiday, not the day of Christmas but that hardly mattered since Lord Halford had never heard about it. Vicar Dean was aghast, but it was time for him to leave and begin preparations for the midnight service. He reminded them all that they should attend.

  Richard laughed. “So you see why I had to go to the Peninsula, Father, so my war wounds could cover the scars of the bird shot.”

  His father laughed as well and Diana realized some ice jam had broken between them. They could speak of the war or anything now without the past differences getting in the way. She did not know how that had happened but she was glad for it. And she would not mind riding to the church in the cold carriage for now her heart felt warm.

  Chapter Four

  On Christmas Day the excitement had been mounting all morning as the families arrived on foot, in pony carts or wagons. All were welcomed and Diana organized games for the children in the small dining room. As soon as all the families were present Lord Halford lit the Yule log with ceremony. The sawhorses and plank tables had been set up in the ballroom in a U shape to make serving easier for the staff. When all the food had been presented and a quiet hum died down Vicar Dean gave the blessing. It was as long as it was dry to those who could peek at steaming goose and savory pork, just within reach. Diana disliked him even further for wielding this kind of cruel power over these people who worked so hard and asked so little. Her mother would be sorry she had married him. And if he left her a widow again she would be displaced anyway.

  Finally the man sat down and Lord Halford said, “Please help yourselves.” There was a happy buzz then as plates clattered and dishes were passed. All the tankards had been filled with ale for the adults and cider for the children but casks of both were set up in one corner for refills. A large urn of tea had been prepared in another corner. In no more than an hour the feast had been reduced to bones, scraps and broken crusts. The children were beginning to run around the tables and someone called for a toast.

  “Richard, will you?” his father asked.

  “Happily.” Richard rose and held up his tankard. “To our faithful friends. We have seen hard years together and by our own faith and hard work survived them. The blessed t
hing is that we all are still together. We hope that we shall ever be so and happy.”

  “Hear, hear!” was heard throughout the hall and all drank. In so few words Richard had encapsulated, as Vicar Dean never could, the meaning of the day.

  Richard still on his feet said, “And now we mean to slide the remains of the meal to the sides of the room and have some music and dancing.” This was accomplished by the two dozen strong men in the room. To Diana’s delight, not only was John Fiddler there but his son had learned from him and they had two to play for them, plus someone on a tambour drum. She formed up the line of ladies ready to dance on one side as the men formed up on the other.

  She looked once at her mother’s disapproving face but Ellen was looking up and Diana realized the fateful bundle of mistletoe was being lowered over her. She laughed and scooted sideways, fearing Colin would beat out Richard but for a veteran he could move fast when he had incentive. Richard skidded into place across from her.

  “May I?”

  “Certainly.”

  There was no time or breath to speak after that, only to laugh. If she thought at all of Lucy it was to hope that she did not regret missing such a jolly time.

  Harry was with the dancers later and whispered to her. “She is asleep.”

  “How,” she shouted at him, “with all this racket.”

  “I don’t know,” he said with a laugh, then was parted from her.

  After several hours of romping, the benches were lined with people sitting while they enjoyed the puddings and cakes. Tea was in the mind of the ladies but the men had stuck with the ale. Children were starting to fall asleep in odd corners. For them to be worn out was a mark of the day’s success.

  Lord Halford encouraged the crowd to carry away whatever they liked of the sweetmeats as he bade them good evening with a handshake and a laugh. In the hand of the head of each household an envelope went and Diana was sure this was money to tide them over the winter. Was there ever a better man than Lord Halford? She looked at Richard and realized that there was.

  “I should say that was a success.” Harry waved as the last of the pony carts made off.

  “I’m so glad we did not cancel it,” Richard said with satisfaction.

  “You never considered it did you?”

  Lord Halford came back from the door and the servants barred it against the night. “We did wonder if it would bother Lucy.”

  “I doubt she heard it. She is always fretful the last two weeks.”

  “I cannot blame her,” Richard said. “It is the hardest task a woman has to do.”

  “The hardest?” Diana asked.

  “The most dangerous at any rate.”

  “This is our third child, Richard. I think she will be fine.”

  “Still I don’t envy you the waiting.”

  “Then it’s a good thing you went into the army instead of me, for we will be waiting another week in my estimation.”

  It suddenly occurred to Diana that it might not have been a woman who had beseeched Richard to go to Spain in Harry’s stead but Harry himself. He had been keen on the army when they had first spoken of a commission for him but as the reports of defeats and deaths had started to filter back in the newspapers and by personal account Harry had looked half sick. And the voice she heard had whispered. Would Harry, jovial Harry, ask such a thing of his dear brother?

  But then the morning after Richard had left Harry had been angry, desperate to convince his father he should go as well. She did not know Harry as well as Richard but he was no coward. Just the opposite. He was foolishly careless with his life.

  Perhaps Lord Halford himself had second thoughts about sending his luckless younger son. He and Richard had just clashed about the tenant cottages or something. Maybe he had sent Richard away. It suddenly occurred to her that she could just ask Richard. But she did not think he would tell her who had held his life so cheaply.

  * * * * *

  It was always the tradition to sleep late the next day with no more for breakfast than tea and toast. A cold meal was set up in the breakfast parlor for the family, then at eleven o’clock all the servants lined up in the hall and were presented with envelopes and a packet of either new clothes or cloth. After that they were released from duty until the next day. The family was careful not to invade the merrymaking going on below stairs or intrude on the servant’s hall in any way.

  It was a good day to work on the paintings. Richard’s was very nearly finished, so Diana had arranged to meet Olivia in the orangery after they had eaten breakfast. She was there before her looking at Richard’s portrait. Why this annoyed Diana she could not say, for she could stand to see the girl ogling Richard in person. It was just that the painting was defenseless and when she thought about it, Richard sometimes seemed so himself. As though he had accomplished all he could do and now he was going to let life happen to him rather than take a hand in it. Under those conditions he just might offer for this girl who was so wrong for him. That is if Diana did not intervene.

  “He is still handsome,” Olivia said.

  “I had hoped I’d captured the inner man as well.”

  Olivia stared at her. “He is a soldier. I’m not sure I want to know the inner Richard.”

  “But you… I mean—”

  “But I want to marry him. I suppose I do. It’s a large house, prosperous from what I gather. I could probably convince him to take a house in London.”

  “But you don’t love him.”

  “Love? You are still young enough to believe in such fairy tales.”

  “Come, let us get started.”

  Olivia seated herself on a throne-like chair dragged in from the dining room.

  “You have known him all your life, haven’t you?” She arranged her hands in her lap.

  “Yes, when my father died they took us in. If I’d had an older brother he would have had a living at the parsonage.”

  “So you grew up here like a sister?”

  “But I was much younger.”

  “Will Lord Halford make Richard wait before giving him this place to run?”

  “They never tell me anything but I rather imagined they would all do so together—Lord Halford, Richard and Harry.”

  “They spend far too lavishly on servants and those peasants. Was there ever anything like it?”

  “Perhaps there should be more parties like that one.”

  “But they are so— Of course you enjoyed rubbing shoulders with them.”

  “Recall I grew up with them as well. Made hay beside them when the rains threatened, helped chase the cows when they escaped, or hunt for lost lambs in the spring. I have a great liking for all those tenants. They are what make the estate prosperous. Lord Halford realizes that and so does Richard. To say aught against those people will alienate you.” Perhaps she should not be helping Olivia but she did not want the girl’s words to hurt Richard.

  “Is that a word of advice?”

  “It’s a warning. It’s up to you if you care to heed it. Why marry him if you don’t like him or respect him?”

  “I must marry someone.”

  “I do not intend to marry anyone.”

  “That’s right. You’re an artist but do you think you can make your way with that?”

  “So long as I am paid.”

  Olivia shut up then but the hard look on her face translated itself to the canvas so Diana was revenged. She had not been thinking so ill of the girl before but now she could not like her. If Richard succumbed to this witch Diana could certainly never live here again.

  The pained look on the portrait came partly from their conversation but also from Diana’s continued ruminations about who had sent Richard away. The only other people in the house had been Lucy and her mother but since they both wanted Richard to marry Lucy there could be no motive, unless her mother had changed her mind. She had said she was glad Lucy had married Harry rather than the cold-hearted Richard.

  After an approving nod at the proud image in t
he portrait, Olivia left before Richard appeared. In fact, Diana was quite sure he had been waiting out of sight for the girl to leave, fearful of having to broach Ivanhoe again.

  He came in and glanced at the canvas with the deep rose gown that overwhelmed the ivory complexion of the girl above. He gave a shudder. “What on earth did she say to you?”

  “A lot of nonsense about how soft you and your father are on the servants and tenants.”

  Richard laughed. “I intend to keep my mouth shut. It does not do to offend you.”

  “I could never paint you other than what you are.”

  “What am I other than a hunted hare in my own house? I would really like to know.”

  “A hero.”

  “Hero? If you knew how often I rode for my life you would not say so.”

  “You were never captured.”

  “As luck would have it, no, though I did get shot up once or twice.”

  “Once or twice. That is what I mean. You minimize everything that hurts you as though it does not matter.”

  “Well it does not anymore. It went well yesterday and today, didn’t it?”

  “Yes, it makes me so happy that they are all content.”

  “I agree. I have something for you as well.”

  “A present?”

  “Yes, these pearls were my grandmother’s. They come to me as part of the family jewels and Mother maintains they should be worn.”

  She stood stock-still as he reached to clasp the string behind her neck. Her hand went to her throat and she almost went cross-eyed trying to see them.