What else might a young lady wish to hear about? He had not the least idea.
‘Staineybank is a modern house, built some eighty years ago, with very beautiful interiors. Many of the ceilings are painted, but some are more successful than others. My own room is called the Spider Room because the formation of dark clouds painted on the ceiling looks like a giant spider.’
There! That might amuse her. But he shied away from describing any of the people, for at least two of the ladies were diamonds of the first water, and he had no wish to distress his beloved by odious comparisons. His sprawling hand had left little space on the paper, and so, rather than start a second sheet, he shifted to something more intimate.
‘I wish you could see it, that you were here with me now. I miss you so much, and if we cannot be together until the spring, then I shall just have to count the days until the happy hour arrives when I make you mine. I am, as always, your loving Lance.’
That would do very well for a first letter, he thought with satisfaction. He could express himself in more creative terms in the future, but he would not risk disgusting her with too open a display of affection just yet. She was the perfect wife for him in a myriad ways, but not least in her name, for was not patience his own watchword? The patience to paint for hour after hour, the patience to build his career, the patience to look for the right wife. He had always had an abundance of patience.
Pleased with the day’s work, he rang the bell to summon Denny back to help him into his coat.
5: Of Art
Lance had requested a tour of the house, to determine the most suitable setting for the performance of his art. He always regarded it as a performance, for it was inevitable that the various members of the household would want to watch him at work and observe his progress, or lack of it. It took a long time to create his masterpieces.
Since there was no housekeeper, he approached Miss Hester Merrington, almost universally addressed by the family as Cousin Hester, who had charge of the management of the house, in place of a housekeeper. She never seemed to be about, so he ventured below stairs, to find her rushing about the kitchen, spoon and mixing bowl in her hands, looking harassed.
“Oh no, no, no! I cannot spare you the time just now,” she said, waving the spoon about so that batter dripped on the kitchen floor. “We are so behindhand today…”
“Perhaps tomorrow?” he said, with his most charming smile.
“I dare not. There is such a glut from the garden to be stored safely or bottled or potted or pickled or turned into jam, thatI spend every spare moment in the still room. One of the girls might do it… yes, that might answer. If you will wait in the Marble Hall, sir, I shall send one of the girls to you.”
It was some half an hour before anyone came, and then it was not, as he had half expected, a junior housemaid dragged away from her feather duster, but one of the heir’s sisters, although which one, he could not be sure. She was a pleasant girl, however, still attractive and shapely despite being on the wrong side of thirty, who smiled sweetly at him with a certain eagerness in her eye that he had long since grown to recognise.
“Mr Chamberlain? Cousin Hester has asked me to show you around the house.”
He bowed politely. “Miss Merrington? Do I have that right?”
She smiled more broadly. “Yes, but there is an abundance of Miss Merringtons at Staineybank. I am Charlotte, the eldest of Richard’s sisters. You may recognise me by the blue ribbons.” She indicated two small bows in her hair. “We found that strangers could not tell us apart, so we each chose a different colour.”
“How very ingenious,” he said. “Are you so very alike? I confess, I have been introduced to so many people in such a short space of time that I am completely muddled.”
“Oh yes, it is dreadful entering a new house for the first time, is it not? So many things to remember, and the duke is most particular about how things must be done — dinner precisely on time, for instance, and the gentlemen in knee breeches. Are you looking for anything in particular, Mr Chamberlain, or should we make a complete tour of the principal rooms?”
“I should prefer a room facing north, but I should like to see everything.”
“North… hmm.” She turned this way and that helplessly, then said, “I think the entrance faces east, so north will be…?”
“That way, I believe,” Lance said smoothly. “Lead on, Miss Charlotte.”
The house was old enough to be built on the traditional plan, with one room leading directly into another. The most formal rooms were in the centre of the house, while the two wings housed the private family quarters, and all in perfect symmetry. From the Marble Hall, they traversed several imposing apartments before his guide stopped.
“Through this door is the Chinese Room, with the library and the duke’s study beyond it.” She led the way into a room made crowded by cabinets and display tables. The faded wallpaper might, perhaps, hint at a Chinese influence. “Through that window you may see the new orangery under construction. There is to be a bridge over the river which will house a gallery where we will be able to hold balls. Is that not a wonderful idea? It is all because of Sophia, for she loves to dance, and there is nowhere suitable here, not for aproperball, that is.”
“What is a proper ball?” he said, amused.
“Oh, twenty couples, at least,” she said, her face lighting up and turning a merely pleasant face into rather a pretty one. “Real musicians, not just the parson’s wife on the pianoforte, and a hot supper in the middle. Sheer bliss!”
“I think Sophia is not the only one who loves to dance,” he murmured.
She laughed, a throaty sound that he found unexpectedly attractive. Here was a girl with whom he could have some real fun, not just a boredom-inspired flirtation.
“We all love to dance, but with Sophia, it is an obsession. You have not met her yet. She married the architect who designed that bridge with its gallery. That is Rowena’s orangery beyond it on that little hill across the river.”
“How fascinating, and this room faces north, too. However, it is rather cluttered with… what are all these bizarre objects?”
“A collection made by one of the duke’s ancestors on a visit to China. Through here is the library.”
