‘His portrait hangs beside the fireplace in The Long Gal—’ She halted, suddenly, aware of her mistake.
‘Did he look like a Delft jug and an arrangement of fruit? How extraordinary, ma’am.’191
Sir Rowland raised an eyebrow, but admirably controlled his desire to smile.
‘No, he did not.’
‘So, Miss Lound, is there any limit to your criminal activity? So far, you have essayed trespassing, poaching, attempted wounding and now, you admit, housebreaking.’ Getting no response, he went further. ‘I only ask that I may be assured you do not plan to murder me in my bed,’ he added, evenly. ‘My valet, estimable in every way, is upset by the sight of blood. Even a small nick when shaving makes him go pale. I think the sight of blood-soaked sheets and a dagger through my heart might give him severe palpitations.’
‘Do not speak such foolishness. You only wish to mock me, sir.’ Miss Lound looked away and made a dismissive gesture with her hand.
‘You mistake me entirely. I thought that you would understand that I was in jest. Come, do not take umbrage, I beg of you. Perhaps you would show me his portrait, for you are clearly very proud of him.’ The slightly cajoling tone won her over, and she assented, albeit in a mumble. They returned to matters concerning the estate for some time, and it was only when they trotted into the little courtyard by the dower stables that Miss Lound suggested that if Sir Rowland wished to see Sir Robert, and indeed the Lady Elizabeth, then he might do so before returning to his brother.
Sir Rowland declared himself eager to do so, and so, having thanked Silas, and made a fuss of Hector,192she led him into the house and to the book room. The two portraits were a little large for the chamber, but Mary liked the fact that it was a place where she could be undisturbed and ‘with’ them, even if there was no supernatural assistance with adding the columns of figures in the accounting books.
‘Here is Sir Robert. I almost feel I should make a formal introduction.’ Miss Lound smiled and looked at the portrait with affection.
‘He has a look of resolution to him, but a twinkle of humour also,’ remarked Sir Rowland.
‘Well, it was painted after he came home and made good the damage to the house and estate. I have often wondered how, and indeed why, he had a society painter immortalise them both in oils, but perhaps it was with the last of the Lady Elizabeth’s money and it felt like a statement saying, “here we are, back where we belong, and Cromwell and the Risleys could not cast us down”.’
‘They are by Lely, yes?’
‘They are. I know that Sir Robert is bewigged and clean-shaven, but I have often wondered if the wig echoed his real hair colour, and whether he had something of the look of Valentyne Lound in that missing portrait. In his letter to his son, he said – Sir Robert, that is – that there was a resemblance. I think that was what influenced my girlish drawings of Valentyne.’
‘I am heartily glad that the fashion for wigs, of natural colouring or powdered, are consigned to the past. Hair grows naturally upon the head, and it seems193ridiculous to me to have to cut most of it off only to put someone else’s hair on top.’
‘Oh yes, indeed. We have a portrait – yes, also “stolen” – of Grandmama in her panniers and heavy silks and tall powdered wig, and it all looks very constricting. It must have been hateful.’ Miss Lound shuddered. ‘That is the portrait in the drawing room. Here is the Lady Elizabeth. I think it was painted when she was in her thirties, but she is a very good-looking woman, and when you consider she had borne four children, and everything else that happened, she looks remarkably composed.’
The painting showed a lady with a glint in her eye and a proud head carriage, though the face was heart-shaped and the lips soft and with a hint of smile. It was the look of a woman who knew how men looked at her, and was perfectly content that they did so, but was cynical withal. Her hair was a mahogany brown and her skin creamy. Her shoulders were bare, but her voluptuous bosom was, if obvious, decorously covered with silk.
‘We are fortunate that she is one of Lely’s more clothed ladies,’ said Miss Lound, matter-of-factly. ‘Perhaps it was painted in winter.’
Sir Rowland let out a crack of laughter.
‘Very pragmatic, ma’am.’
‘Well, one has to be so.’
‘She was very beautiful.’
‘Yes, she was. I have always thought it was a good194thing that Sir Robert was not a courtier, because Charles II had a terribly roving eye, and one cannot but surmise that Sir Robert would have been put in a very difficult situation,’ mused Miss Lound, without any embarrassment. Having had a sire who ‘strayed’ quite openly and frequently, she was not prudish about such things.
Sir Rowland was a little surprised, but not shocked.
‘Er, yes, that is also a very pragmatic view.’
‘Mmm. The problem with being pragmatic, is, however, that looking at it pragmatically, it is of little advantage to a woman.’ She realised the sentence was convoluted, and added, ‘If you see what I mean.’
‘It is not, I own, likely to be the first term applied to a lady, but then comment is generally made first upon looks, not character, so you cannot have found it a disadvantage.’
Miss Lound coloured, unexpectedly, and murmured gruffly, ‘I was not seeking compliments, Sir Rowland.’ Then, realising that she was letting go an opportunity to cast a lure in his direction, she attempted to turn her embarrassment into a look that was both encouraging of more compliments yet maidenly modest, and lowered her lashes and dimpled. She had spent an hour of practice in front of her mirror the previous evening, but she was still not convinced it worked. To her own mind it was far too much like ‘simpering’, which she despised. It felt all wrong.
‘No, you were not, but it is true, nonetheless. The195Lady Elizabeth handed down more than the ring that you wear.’ Sir Rowland was not giving a compliment but voicing his true belief.
Miss Lound, forgetting all artifice, looked him full in the face, a small frown gathering between her brows.
‘You noticed it?’
