Lucy clasped her hands, her face alight with pleasure. "Do you mean it? Really? Oh, I should love that!"
Uncle Fly shrugged. "If you will come to the vicarage tomorrow, I will show you what I have in the conservatory just now. We can do better than a bit of holly, I'll warrant."
She was effusive in her thanks, but Uncle Fly merely nodded and applied himself to his fish. He was a great trencherman, and nothing pleased him more than a hearty meal from the Abbey kitchens.
"The pudding!" I said suddenly, and rather more loudly than I had intended. Conversation around the table stuttered to a halt, and everyone's eyes fixed on me curiously. "Yesterday. It was Stir-up Sunday, and Aunt Hermia was not here to make certain the puddings were stirred. And we were not here to make our wishes."
This was a calamity indeed. As long as Christmas had been celebrated at Bellmont Abbey, the family had gathered in the kitchens after church on Stir-up Sunday to give the Christmas puddings a stir and make a wish. Traditionally, there had been one great pudding for the entire household, but with ten children, Father had quickly seen the wisdom in having Cook prepare a small pudding for each of us. We would stand in a row, swathed in aprons, some of us tottering on stools as we dragged the long wooden spoons through the heavy batter, chanting together the traditional rhyme:
Stir up, we beseech thee,
The pudding in the pot;
And when we get home
We'll eat the lot.
As we stirred, Aunt Hermia would peer over our shoulders, reminding us to make our wishes, and to stir from east to west in honour of the Three Kings. Then she would flap her hands, turning us from the room so she might add the charms to the puddings, a thimble for a lucky life, a ring to foretell marriage, a silver sixpence to betoken wealth to come. It was one of my favourite customs of the holiday, and not just for the festivity of the stirring-up. The puddings were heavenly, richly spiced and studded with golden raisins and currants and all manner of good things. But with Aunt Hermia in London, there was little chance the puddings had been made, and the notion of Christmas without our beloved puddings was unthinkable.
"Do not fret," Father said with a benevolent smile. "We have had a saviour in the shape of Mrs. King. She organised the stirring-up yesterday. She even made certain there would be extra puddings for those of you come lately."
I looked at Mrs. King who had coloured delicately, a light stain of rose across her round cheeks.
"You are too generous with your praise, my lord," she said. But for all her modesty, it was apparent she was quite pleased to be singled out for such approbation.
"How very kind of you," I said with deliberate sweetness, "to put yourself to so much trouble for strangers."
If she felt the barb, she did not show it. She merely shook her head emphatically.
"Not at all, my lady. His lordship has been so kind to me, and so very good to Lord Wargrave." She hesitated, darting a bashful gaze at her fiancé. "It was the very least I could do. The very least."
I gave her a bland smile and was greatly relieved when the footmen stepped forward to remove the fish plates. We moved on to the next course, and the conversation turned as well. I never knew who introduced the subject, but after a moment I realised Father and Mr. Snow were engaged in a rather brisk discussion of the Gypsies.
"But surely you must see, my lord, that permitting them to camp on your land only encourages their lifestyle," Lucian Snow was saying to Father.
Father regarded him with something akin to amusement. Father loves nothing better than a spirited debate, and I have often seen him adopt a contrary opinion in the company of like-minded people, simply for the sport of disputing with them. But on this issue, I knew his mind. He was not sporting with Mr. Snow; he was completely in opposition, and it was a position he would defend to the death, regardless of the rules of hospitality.
"Mr. Snow, are we not enjoined by the Holy Scriptures themselves to aid our brethren? Surely providing a bit of ground for their camp and a stick of wood for a fire to warm them is an act of charity."
"A misplaced charity," Snow replied earnestly, "for which the rest of the village will have to pay. Will you be responsible, my lord, when the shops are victims of thievery, when the farmers are victims of pilfering, when women are victims of—"
Emma gave a soft little shriek and raised her napkin to her lips. Father held up a hand. "That is enough, Snow. The Romany have camped on my lands as long as I have been lord of this manor. Never once have they repaid my hospitality with the ingratitude you have suggested."
"Nor would they," I put in swiftly. "To steal from their host would violate the very code by which they live their lives."
Mr. Snow turned to me, his expression sorrowful. "Your womanly compassion does you great credit, my lady, but I am certain you would share my opinion if you understood the depths of degradation to which these poor souls must sink. But I cannot bring myself to speak of such grim particulars to a lady."
Across from me, Brisbane continued to consume his dinner, looking supremely bored with the entire discussion. He seemed to be managing quite nicely in spite of his injury, and I wondered nastily if Mrs. King had cut his meat for him.
"What do you propose, Mr. Snow?" I asked him plainly.
Lucian Snow laid down his fork, clearly more enthused about the topic at hand than his dinner. It was a pity really. Cook had outdone herself with port sauce for the venison.
"There are those who believe that the children may be saved, my lady, if only they are removed from the influence of their parents' savagery at a sufficiently youthful age. I am one of those. I think if the children can be taken into good Christian homes, educated, taught their letters and numbers and basic hygiene, a skill or craft by which they may earn an honest wage, their lives may be immeasurably enriched. The poverty of their vagabond lifestyle is so wrenching, so contrary to morality and civility, that a complete break is the only way to save these poor lost children."
I blinked at him and laid down my own fork. "You advocate taking children away from their natural mothers? Away from the only family they have ever known? Mr. Snow, I cannot think that is the foundation of any useful programme."
I was deeply conscious of the rest of the party listening to our exchange. My family were accustomed to sparring with guests; debate had always been a bit of a blood sport for Marches, and Brisbane had never turned a hair at our escapades. But I noticed out of the tail of my eye the wide-eyed curiosity of Mrs. King, and the slightly shocked expressions of Sir Cedric and his young cousin. Alessandro was diplomatically quiet, doubtless wondering if it was the habit of English ladies to brawl with their guests at table.
"My dear lady," Snow was saying, "how can we possibly persuade them there is a better way unless they are given no opportunity to fall back on their own vile habits? I believe your own aunt, Lady Hermia, embraces a similar philosophy at her refuge in Whitechapel."
Hoist with my own petard. It was true Aunt Hermia kept the prostitutes secluded on the premises of her reformatory until they were well on the path to decency. She feared the lure of easy money would be too strong for them when they were first applying themselves to their new way of life. But I was not about to concede the point to Snow.
"Those women are adults, sir. They choose freely to come to the reformatory. It is only in the difficult first weeks, when they are being weaned off drink and a host of other vices, that she restricts their freedoms. And they are free to leave at any time and never return."
"My lady," Mr. Snow replied, "I can only put to you this question—what sort of monsters must these people be to deny their children a warm and safe home, without security, without education, without Christian principles?"
"In that case, why don't you just have done with it and drown the lot like kittens?" Plum put in. His face had gone a dull, angry red, and a lock of his hair fell over his brow. He was mightily outraged, and rather attractive with it. Mrs. King was staring at him, her expression rapt, her lips sl
ightly parted. I could understand the allure. Plum was a very personable man, and in defence of his views, he could be as deliciously ruthless as any buccaneer. In spite of his waistcoat—turquoise-blue taffeta splashed with pink peonies—he looked rather rakish as he turned the brunt of his wrath on Mr. Snow.
I opened my mouth to intervene with some inane, harmless remark, but Mr. Snow had the situation well in hand. He gave a quick laugh and flashed Plum a charming smile.
"Ah, you have been in Italy, Mr. Eglamour, where I will wager you learned a philosophy or two."
"Indeed not," Plum returned, his handsome mouth twisted with sarcasm. "I think little of a man whose morality may be swayed by his company. A man ought to think for himself and know what is right, and what I know to be right, Mr. Snow," he added with deadly precision, "is that those Roma have as much right as you or I to rear their families as they see fit."
I sighed. I had forgotten how rabid Plum could be on the subject of the Gypsies. He simply adored them. Once, when he was eight or so, and Father had confined him to his room for some transgression, he had packed his most treasured possessions into a tiny bundle and slipped out, scaling the Abbey walls with the aid of some helpful ivy. He had turned up at the Gypsy camp, thoroughly soaked from swimming the moat, and insisting defiantly that he would never go back.
The Gypsies dried his clothes and fed him, and when he was full and content, they brought him home, explaining patiently that if a lord's son was found among them, they would be taken in for kidnapping. Plum was an impetuous boy, but not a vicious one. He saw at once his new friends would suffer if he insisted upon staying. Reluctantly, squelching water out of his sodden shoes with every step, Plum returned. But he never forgot the kindness they had shown him, and whenever a question of Gypsy rights was raised, he was passionate in their defence. He made Father promise always to let them camp in the river meadow, and insisted the rest of us call them by their proper name, Roma. More than once as a lad he had engaged in fisticuffs when one of the village boys had taunted the Gypsies or thrown stones at them. I only prayed he would not brawl with the curate over the dinner table.
But Mr. Snow was determined to avoid a quarrel. He raised a hand, his expression genial. "Peace, Mr. Eglamour! I would no more spar with you than with your lovely sister. And indeed, who could be at odds when we have such good food, such fine company, and such a festive occasion?"
He raised his glass to us then, and we responded in kind, although I noticed Plum still looked faintly murderous.
Father settled back in his chair, clearly enjoying himself. "I propose a visit then. Tomorrow. We shall gather our party together and go to Blessingstoke. Fly can show off his church and his vicarage garden, what's left of it at this time of year at least. And we can call on the Romanies as well. The gentlemen can look over the horses, and what lady does not like to have her fortune told?"
There was a flash of excitement, murmurs from every quarter. Only Aunt Dorcas spoke audibly. "You oughtn't mix with them, Hector," she said to Father. "Some here might be unbelievers, and the presence of sceptics will disrupt the vibrations of their psychic gifts."
"For God's sake," I heard Lysander mutter, "has she been at the whiskey again?"
"Gin," Plum murmured back. "That was always her drink."
Unfortunately, Aunt Dorcas, like most of the aunts, had a tendency to tipple. None of them admitted to it, of course. Most of them sipped whiskey genteelly by the spoonful, claiming it was medicinal. Aunt Dorcas took a more forthright approach. She carried a flask, filled every morning by her devoted maid. For many years, the flask was tucked into her knitting bag, but when Plum was a boy he had poured out her gin and substituted vinegar instead. After that, she took to carrying it in her garters.
Aunt Dorcas opened her mouth again, but Father was too quick for her. "We shall make an outing of it. Any who do not wish to go may stay here, of course, but the rest of us mean to enjoy ourselves, vibrations be damned. Now, let us speak of something else. I am thoroughly bored with this subject. Mrs. King, have you read Lord Dalkeith's paper on the use of classical allusion in the sonnets of Shakespeare? It's rubbish of course, but I wondered what you thought of it."
Aunt Dorcas lapsed into furious silence, or rather into furiously muttering at her vegetables. But as her complaints were not audible to the rest of the company, we ignored her and turned our attention to Mrs. King.
She had ducked her head at Father's question and was blushing furiously, darting little glances from under her lashes. "Oh, your lordship, I hardly think I possess either the education or the natural intelligence to speak on such matters in such company. But I did think Lord Dalkeith's point about the Parthenon to be very well-argued, did you not, my lord?" she asked, turning to Brisbane.
Brisbane, in the middle of a very fine gâteau, paused. "Naturally I would defer to Lord March's opinion. I believe he has already questioned Lord Dalkeith's sources, is that not correct, my lord?" he asked, returning the question neatly to Father. Portia had mentioned his recent attendance at Father's society meetings, but to my knowledge Brisbane had no great love of literature. The only books I had seen in his rooms had been of an eclectic and scholarly bent. There were volumes on the natural sciences, history, warfare, and—oddly enough—lives of the mystic saints, but no plays, no poetry, no novels. Why then this sudden attachment to Shakespeare?
I looked from Brisbane, newly enthusiastic on the scriptures of the Bard, to my father, their greatest prophet. And in between them sat Mrs. King, a picture of pink-and-white innocence, wearing a betrothal ring from Brisbane on her left hand and chattering happily with both of them.
And I wondered precisely what my father had been doing while I was away.
* * *
After the conversation about Shakespeare had wound to a close and the gâteau was thoroughly savoured, Portia rose and gestured for the ladies to follow. At Bellmont Abbey, ladies withdrew, but not in quite the same fashion as in other great houses. Here, ladies were taken to the lesser drawing room to drink their own spirits and smoke a bit of tobacco without the gentlemen present. Hoots always fussed about the smell getting into the draperies, but Aunt Hermia just told him to open the windows and sweep the carpets, that the dogs were worse. Usually, the ladies greatly enjoyed a chance to "let down their back hair", and even the primmest of women was seduced into conviviality by our habits. Confidences were exchanged, little jokes made, and many ladies later claimed that the evenings they spent at Bellmont Abbey were among the most amiable of their lives.
I, however, was in no mood to be amiable. I was tired from the journey, and more than a little eager to gain the privacy of my room and turn over the many questions that had been puzzling me all evening. But I did not have the energy to make my excuses to Portia. She could have taught Torquemada a thing or two about extracting information, and I knew I would not escape her without endless questions. It seemed simpler just to follow along and endure.
As we withdrew, I noticed Violante, lagging behind, her hand pressed to her stomach. I slowed my steps to match hers.
"Violante, are you quite all right?"
She nodded. "The English food. It is not very good. Heavy. Like rocks."
I bristled, but did not mention how perfectly inedible I had found gnocchi. "I am sorry you are unwell. Won't you join us for a little while? I can have Aquinas brew up a tisane for you."
She shook her head. "I have the fennel pastilles in my room. They make me right. Buona notte, Giulia."
I kissed her cheek and sent her on her way, envying her a little. The poor girl looked every bit as exhausted as I felt. But as I entered the lesser drawing room, I noticed an undercurrent that immediately piqued my interest. Lucy and Emma were seated on a sofa, their heads close together as they darted glances about the room and murmured softly. Portia was busy fussing with decanters and glasses, and Aunt Dorcas had entrenched herself firmly in the best armchair. Hortense had taken up a book and was reading placidly. It was left to me to ent
ertain Brisbane's fiancée. I turned to her, fixing what I hoped was a pleasant expression on my face.
"And how are you enjoying your stay at the Abbey, Mrs. King?"
"Oh, it is an extraordinary place, my lady." She spread her hands, gesturing toward the single great column standing stalwartly in the centre of the room and the tapestries, older and smaller than those in the great drawing room, but depicting the same subject, a boar hunt. "This room alone quite takes my breath away."
I shrugged. "I suppose it is impressive enough on first viewing. This room used to be the chapter house, where the monks gathered for the abbot to read the Rule of the Order. The vaulting of the ceiling is quite remarkable, although in the family we think it's frightfully inconvenient. That central column is necessary for support, but it makes it devilishly difficult to arrange the furniture properly. Besides which, the room is draughty and the chimney never draws properly."
As if to prove my point, a gust of wind roared down the chimney, scattering sparks and ash on the hearth and a few bits of soot on Aunt Dorcas. If the night grew any windier, we should have to dust her.
"Well, perhaps it is not the most convenient of rooms," she temporised, "but the history, the very ancientness of the stones. I cannot imagine what they have seen. And the tapestries," she added, nodding toward the stitched panels. "They are enough to rival anything in a museum, I should think."
Portia joined us then, passing tiny glasses of port that shimmered like jewels in the candlelight.
"If you like the tapestries, you must ask Emma to tell you the story behind them. No one can spin a tale like Emma," Portia advised Mrs. King, gesturing with her glass to our cousin. "Emma, pay attention, my dear. I am telling tales out of school about you."
Emma started like a frightened pony, then relaxed, smiling at Portia. "What have you been saying to Mrs. King?"
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