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“Ask your Mama,” Pa said, with a smile.
Rosie was dispatched to the instrument again, while Angie settled down to dance the full extent of the ballroom.
Julia followed her father out of the room. “Shall we have a look at the library?” she said. “That might do for your office.”
The library was depressing. It was overpoweringly large, with massive armchairs, a vast secretary and a highly polished desk that could at a pinch serve a turn as a dining table. Open bookcases filled two walls, while glass-fronted cases occupied a third. Every single shelf was empty.
“Where are all the books?” Julia said.
“Sir Owen told me that they would be taking them back to the Manor. They came from there originally, and belong to the Plummer family, so they were not included in the sale. I’m no reader, so it doesn’t bother me. Johnny is going to buy some when we go to London, but it will take a deal of books to fill these shelves, it seems to me.” He sighed. “I don’t see me ever feeling comfortable in this room, to be honest. Your mama tells me that I should receive gentlemen callers here, but it’s not a place I’d care to spend much time, and we seem to have exhausted the possibilities of this floor.”
They emerged into the passage again. Beyond the library was only the staircase, with a door to either side of it. One door was Aunt Madge’s bedroom, Julia knew, but the other…
“What is in this room?”
“Another bedroom, I think,” Pa said. “So many bedrooms!”
Julia pushed open the door and went in. The bed was the same heavy style as in all the bedrooms, but apart from a wardrobe and a small press, there was no other furniture and only one low cupboard under the curve of the stairs. She went immediately to the windows. One overlooked the front steps and the other the stables, where she could see Will talking to one of the grooms.
“This would suit you,” she said.
“Your mama wants to keep it for a guest.”
“We have more than enough bedrooms to cope with guests. Johnny’s room is empty, and he could share with Will, as he’s used to doing. Rosie and I can share, and Angie too — Rosie’s room is more than big enough for all of us. That would free up three bedrooms for guests.”
Pa laughed. “Don’t you like being gentry, puss?”
“I’m still myself, gentry or not, and I’d still rather sleep with my sisters than alone. I’ve shared with Angie since we left the nursery, and Rosie moved in with us after Allie married. It’s what we’re used to.”
“I don’t like to go against your mama’s wishes, puss.”
“Except for yourself. You refused to lethersleep in a separate room, and she argued for it, I heard her.”
Pa rubbed his nose. “That’s a different matter, but… it’s a good point. Do you girls truly want to share?”
“Oh,yes!Rosie came into my bed last night, you know, so I know she wants to, and it would be much easier for Sarah to dress us. You see, there are so many changes… so much to get used to… it would be the greatest comfort to us all to keep at least that one thing the same.”
“Very well. We’ll talk it over at dinner, and then we’ll see. And perhaps if there are some spare rooms upstairs, Lizzie won’t mind if I have this room for my own. My desk would fit perfectly under that window, and I can put a safe in that cupboard. The backgammon table would go over here, I think. Yes, this would do very well, if Lizzie doesn’t object.”
“Pa, it’s your house.”
“And your mama is mistress of it.”
“But you are the master,” Julia said, smiling. “Mama will tell us all how to behave and when it’s proper to return calls and such like, but we have to be comfortable living here, or it just won’t feel like home. And it is our home, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “It is. It certainly is.”
“Then we have to make it the home we want.”
6: Assessment
James walked down to the Manor for breakfast. He did so more often than not, but today he knew he would be expected. There would be a full report to be made of the evening. Not that anything unexpected would emerge from it. Mother was determined to dislike the Fletchers and Father was determined to do his duty by them, no matter how vulgar.
Not that they were vulgar, not in the slightest. Fletcher himself was a trifle rough around the edges, but he was quick, that much was certain. He had picked up the kernel of one of Father’s points instantly, and long before Charles or even Michael had grasped it. He was sensible on political matters, too. Not comfortable in his rôle as a country gentleman, but that would come. As for the rest of the family, it was hard to fault them, and he could not deny that their manners were the equal of his own family’s. Well, except for Miss Julia, of course. The thought made him smile.
He had timed his arrival to be a little early, but even so, they were all there, apart from Father, who would enter the breakfast parlour just as the clock struck the hour. As all the clocks struck, in fact, for they were required to run precisely to time. Father adjusted them every morning, to be sure of it.
“Well, last night went rather better than we had anticipated,” James said brightly, sitting down in his usual seat. “They are not quite the savages we feared, are they?”
