The Secrets of Armstrong House

by A. O'Connor

  “And if the people who rent those offices can’t pay their rent, then of course they must go! You don’t stay in a place that you can’t afford and expect the landlord to subsidise you!”

  “Thank you, Victoria!” said Charles, smiling appreciatively at her.

  “It’s basic common sense and good business,” added Victoria.

  “Victoria, there’s a huge difference between the corporations your father rents to and these poor unfortunate families that are trying to get by,” said Harrison angrily.

  “I don’t see it that way,” said Victoria. “Business is business, and everyone has to turn a profit.”

  “Spoken like a true American!” said Arabella as she sipped her wine.

  Victoria glanced at Arabella before continuing. “Charles is making a very tough but obviously from his financial viewpoint necessary decision.”

  “The Armstrong estate is not an American corporation, Victoria!” snapped Harrison angrily.

  Victoria looked at Harrison evenly and spoke coolly. “I’m aware of that, Harrison. Please don’t speak to me as if I were a fool.”

  “Trouble in paradise!” said Arabella under her breath.

  “You know, Victoria, you’re a very informed woman, but as has become painfully clear since we moved here, you’re completely ignorant of the way things are done here in Ireland,” said Harrison.

  “Oh, I’m aware how they’re done all right! I just don’t like the way they are done sometimes, that’s all I’m saying,” said Victoria.

  “Well, nobody is forcing you to stay!” said Arabella.

  “And I am entitled to my opinion,” said Victoria.

  Harrison turned to Margaret. “Mother, have you nothing to say about all this?”

  Margaret shrugged. “Charles is Lord Armstrong, and he must run things here as he sees fit. That’s the way it’s always been, and I’ll not undermine my son in his position in life, whatever my personal thoughts on the subject are.”

  Harrison became even more angry. “You know, Mother, you’re always so by-the-book with doing things the right way. You always put family and tradition first. And you’re deciding to sit on the fence with this because you think that, as Lord Armstrong, Charles cannot be undermined. But, ask yourself, is that the moral way? Would Father approve of what’s going on?”

  “Your father is no longer Lord Armstrong, Harrison, your brother is. We’ve no right to intervene or interfere.”

  “Charles! Who’d ever have thought? You’ve nearly got a full room of approval for once in your life!” said Arabella.

  Harrison turned to Arabella. “And as Lady Armstrong, have you not an opinion on what your husband is doing?”

  “Oh, I’ve plenty of opinions about it, Harrison, but I won’t waste my breath expressing them – because it will do no good!”

  Harrison looked around at them all. “You know something – you all make me sick!”

  He stood up and stormed out.

  “Harrison! Harrison!” Victoria called after him, getting up quickly.

  “Oh let him go, Victoria!” urged Charles. “Harrison always likes to take the moral high ground with everything. Can be so boring actually!”

  “I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” said Victoria. “He doesn’t have any right to dictate to you how you run your business, Charles, in the same way as you have no right to dictate to him.”

  “And Charles does so love to dictate!” said Arabella.

  “Arabella! If you’ve nothing constructive to say why don’t you keep your mouth shut for once?” snapped Victoria. “All you do is sit on your pedestal dishing out derogatory remarks all the time.”

  “Excuse me, Victoria! But I will not be spoken to like that in my house!” said Arabella.

  “Why not? Somebody needs to knock some sense into you!” said Victoria.

  Arabella saw red. “You sit there and –”

  “Arabella!” snapped Charles. “Victoria is our guest, please remember that, and we will be courteous to her at all times.”

  Arabella stared at him. “Oh, damn you, Charles!”

  Arabella stood up and marched out of the room.

  “Well, we’re doing well tonight!” said Margaret. “Two people storming out before I’ve even finished my pudding wine and we haven’t even evicted a tenant yet!”

  “I’m so sorry, Charles,” said Victoria. “I shouldn’t have spoken to Arabella like that. I was just upset over arguing with Harrison and took it out on her. I’ll apologise tomorrow to her.”

  “I shouldn’t bother, dear,” said Margaret looking at the empty bottle of wine by Arabella’s now empty chair. “I don’t think she’ll remember it anyway.” She stood up. “Well, after that eventful evening, I’ll be off home to Hunter’s Farm.” She bent forward and kissed Victoria. “Goodnight, my dear.”

  “Goodnight, Margaret,” smiled Victoria.

  “Goodnight, Charles,” Margaret bent forward and kissed him and then looked at him sternly. “I do hope you know what you’re doing, Charles.”

  “Of course I do, Mother,” confirmed Charles.

  Margaret nodded and left the room.

  Fennell came in with tea.

  “Fennell, where’s Harrison?” asked Victoria.

  “He left already in your motor car.”

  “Oh dear! He must be really furious! I’ve a lot of grovelling to do!”

  “He’ll be fine in the morning. If you want you can stay the night here?” offered Charles.

  “No, I’d better get home at some stage tonight and try to build bridges with him,” she smiled and pulled a face.

  “I’ll give you a lift home later,” Charles offered.

  “Thanks, Charles,” she said.

  Arabella was up in their bedroom that night when she heard laughter outside. She went to the window and saw Charles and Victoria walk across the forecourt. Victoria sat into Charles’ motor car. She listened, concerned, to Charles and Victoria dissolving in laughter over some shared joke as he started the motor car. She watched in dismay as they drove off together out of the forecourt and down the driveway.

  Harrison came into the breakfast room at Ocean’s End, looking sheepish. He sat down and the maid poured him coffee and left the room.

  Victoria looked at him curiously and coolly. “You left in an awful hurry last night.”

  “I know. I was very angry.”

  “Obviously, to leave me abandoned like that. Very ungallant of you!”

  “Come on, Victoria. You hate if you’re not treated as independent all the time.”

  “I know, but you took the bloody motor car with you! You didn’t leave me with much independence without transport!”

  “I knew one of the stable boys would drive you back,” said Harrison.

  “Charles was kind enough to drive me actually.”

  “I’m sorry! But if I didn’t leave at that moment I would have said something I would regret.”

  “To me?”

  “Yes, and to Charles. What’s he doing, evicting tenants? It’s terrible!”

  “I don’t want to go into all that again, Harrison. You made yourself perfectly clear how you felt last night.”

  “As did you!”

  Victoria was bemused. “I’m sorry, Harrison, but I’m not going to be one of these little wives who sits there nodding approvingly when her husband speaks, just because he’s her husband! You knew that when you married me. And I’m really annoyed you spoke to me like that in front of your family.”

  “You’re annoyed! Imagine how I feel? Being contradicted so openly by you in front of them, in front of Charles!”

  “Oh, I see!” Victoria sat back, nodding. “And now we get to the bottom of the matter. It’s because I sided with Charles you were so angry!”

  “It really upset me, Victoria. You know what’s gone on between me and Charles in the past –”

  “But I thought that was in the past! You two have been getting on so much better now.”

  �
�We are . . . but last night it just all came flooding back. The way he can be. That ruthless streak where he doesn’t care about anybody else but himself and what he wants.” Harrison looked disgusted.

  “Well, I’m sorry, Harrison, but I like Charles, and I’m not going to side against him just because you’re feeling insecure. And you really did have no right to challenge him about something that has nothing to do with you.”

  Harrison sighed. “I don’t want us to fight over this. I don’t want it to be an issue between us.”

  She got up and walked over to him and put her arms around him. “Then don’t make it one.”

  He nodded, his face still troubled.

  Charles parked his motor car outside Ocean’s End. He took the jewellery box on the seat beside him and went up the steps and rang the doorbell. A minute later the butler opened the door.

  “Is Mrs Armstrong home?” he asked.

  “Yes, your lordship. I’ll see if she’s available.”

  “Is that Charles?” Victoria called from the parlour. “Come in, Charles!”

  Charles walked into the parlour.

  “Hello, my dear,” he said, bending down and kissing her.

  “Tea?” she asked.

  He nodded and sat down beside her as she took the teapot and poured him a cup.

  She made a face at him as she handed over the teacup. “How’s everything at Armstrong House after the dinner party? Did things calm down between you and Arabella.”

  “Things never calm down between me and Arabella. I was going to ask you how’s everything between you and Harrison?”

  “Oh, we ironed it all out. We both overreacted. We row so seldom it took us by surprise.”

  “Unlike me and Arabella – our arguments never take us by surprise,” he lamented.

  Victoria smiled with sympathy as she stirred her tea with a silver spoon.

  “I’ve just felt so bad since that night,” he said, looking concerned. “I’d hate to think I caused trouble between you and Harrison.”

  “Oh Charles, don’t be silly! You didn’t come between me and Harrison. We just had a difference of opinion. If we differed over anything it was politics and our view of the world. Nothing to do with you.”

  “Still, I was feeling guilty. And I’d like to thank you for sticking up for me when it seemed everyone was against me.”

  “Oh, I always stick up for the underdog,” she smiled.

  “I got you this just as a token of gratitude,” he said, reaching into his pocket and taking out the jewellery box.

  “What’s this?” she asked, taking the box and opening it. She looked at the necklace inside. “Charles! This is completely unnecessary!”

  “Do you like it?”

  “I love it!” She took out the necklace and marvelled at it. There was a note in the jewellery box and she opened it. It read: All my love, Charles. “That’s so sweet!” she said and leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “There was really no need.”

  “There’s every need. You have brought happiness back into this family. You’ve given me my brother back. I never thought Harrison and I would ever meet again, let alone rebuild our friendship.”

  “I did nothing really, but if I did bring some peace I did it for Harrison as much as anyone. He’s much more at peace now.”

  chapter 65

  Mr Brompton was very busy over the next couple of months arranging eviction orders through the courts for the five farmers at the Armstrong estate. Once the eviction orders were secured Charles gave permission for them to be enacted.

  News of the pending evictions had spread through the estate, Castlewest and the county. People could not believe it and at first there was disbelief as opposed to anger.

  The day was fixed for the evictions. The task of being present at them was imposed on James.

  “You’ll be hated after this,” stated James.

  “Just as well I never lived my life worried about being popular with them like you and Father did.”

  James rode his horse into the yard of the Mulrooney farm. He was accompanied by four men from the estate and a number of policemen from Castlewest. Maureen Mulrooney was out in the yard feeding chickens when she saw them.

  “Jack! Jack!” she started shouting.

  Jack came to the door of the cottage.

  “Quick, Maureen! Get into the house!”

  Maureen rushed into the house and they slammed the door and bolted it.

  James got down from his horse and exchanged a worried look with the policemen.

  He went up to the door, knocked loudly and shouted, “Come on, Jack, don’t make this any harder than it already is.”

  “Fuck off! Get off my farm!”

  “Jack, I appeal to you. Don’t let this happen in front of your children.”

  “It’s you that’s letting it happen in front of them!” shouted Jack as he turned and viewed Maureen who was sitting on the bed beside the fireplace holding their four children.

  Outside a policeman stepped forward to the door. “Come on now, Mulrooney, I’ve a notice of eviction here. Let’s not have any trouble.”

  “Fuck off!”

  News of the police travelling through the estate to the Mulrooney farm had spread quickly and a large number of neighbouring farmers and their womenfolk came rushing down the laneway and gathered around the house.

  “Get on home!” shouted the policeman. “This has nothing to do with you.”

  “It’s everything to do with us! You can’t throw them out!” shouted a man and the crowd started shouting angrily.

  The policeman went up to James. “Let’s get this done as quickly as possible. The longer it goes on, the more chance there is of trouble.”

  James nodded.

  The policeman went and talked to his men. The men got to work and hoisted three poles into a pyramid in front of the front door. They then hung a battering ram from the apex of the pyramid by rope. This allowed them to swing the battering ram right back and let it go with its full force to slam into the wooden front door.

  “Don’t let them do it, James!” screamed a woman and the whole crowd started shouting and whistling loudly.

  “On the count of three,” said the policeman as his men pulled the battering ram as far back as they could.

  “One, two and three!” shouted the policeman.

  The battering ram was let go and it slammed into the door of the cottage.

  “And again!” shouted the policeman and his men swung the ram back into the door. They kept doing it until the door burst open.

  The policemen stormed into the cottage. James walked in after them.

  James had tears in his eyes as the policemen confronted Jack.

  “You’ve two minutes to leave this house,” said the policeman.

  “I’ll not leave!” he responded.

  The policeman grabbed the man and started marching him to the door.

  Mulrooney fought back and suddenly a fight started.

  “Jack!” screamed Maureen as she rushed to her husband’s assistance and started attacking a policeman.

  The children started screaming and crying as both their parents were overpowered and dragged from their home.

  As Jack and Maureen were pulled out into the yard the crowd erupted in screaming and shouting and piercing whistles. The Mulrooney children came rushing out after their parents.

  Jack Mulrooney made a valiant attempt to re-enter the property but was quickly overpowered.

  “Bastards!” shouted a woman from the crowd.

  The policemen quickly went into the house and started removing all the furniture and loading it up on the Mulrooneys’ cart outside. Maureen sat on the ground outside crying loudly as she was comforted by her neighbours. Once the cottage was emptied, the police used the battering ram to knock down the gables of the cottage, and the thatched roof fell in.

  In the distance, Charles sat on his horse looking at the spectacle. He saw the angry crowd and the cottage being destroyed. He wa
tched as the Mulrooney family were then led away from the property with their horse and cart which contained everything they possessed in the world to the edge of the estate and were left there on the side of the road. Charles turned and set off back to Armstrong House, not waiting to see the episode repeated at the other four farms being evicted that day.

  chapter 66

  Arabella sat at the table having breakfast, looking at the front page of the county newspaper which had a headline ‘Five Families Evicted from the Armstrong Estate Last Week’.

  She looked at the black-and-white photograph accompanying the article of the Mulrooney cottage after it had been destroyed and policemen standing around it.

  As she read the article she was alarmed. She had never paid any attention to what happened on the estate. She could barely keep on top of the running of the house, let alone what happened outside its walls. Being from Dublin, she never really understood a country estate’s running. But as she looked at the photograph and read the article she became anxious.

  Charles came into the dining room in cheery form.

  “I see you’ve made the front page,” she said, tossing the paper over to him.

  He took the paper as he sat down and quickly scanned it before folding it over and starting his breakfast.

  “What is going on, Charles?” she demanded.

  “You know what’s going on. We evicted some tenants in serious arrears.”

  “But I didn’t realise it would be like this!”

  He looked at her in a bored fashion.

  “Charles! Only you could be responsible for kicking off the next phase of the Land War!”

  “Well, something has to be run around here efficiently, Arabella. Let’s face it, if it wasn’t for Fennell and his wife, this house would be in chaos by now left to you.”

  “Charles, that has nothing to do with these evictions!”

  “It’s everything to do with them, Arabella. Because you could never understand the workings of an estate like this – you’re hopelessly inadequate to do so. You’re hopelessly inadequate for the role of Lady Armstrong, full stop. Because of a twist of fate, you ended up as Lady Armstrong, a role that you’re not able or suitable for.”