Chapter 2 The Widow #2
“Will Mr Hammond Senior be joining us today?” Georgie asked, for although Jamie had entirely taken over the position, his father had been the duke’s secretary before his son, and still liked to help out from time to time.
He no longer dealt with the duke’s letters, but he was fascinated by the project of transferring the details of the duke’s long and many-faceted life into a memoir.
“He sent word that there are branches down and a few roofs damaged in the village, so he is going there to assist with the repairs,” Jamie said.
After that, silence fell as their pens scratched across the paper. Apart from the footman coming in to attend to the fire, nothing disturbed the tranquillity until Mrs Hastings laid down her pen with a heavy sigh.
“Mr Hammond, I wonder if I might summon your more experienced eyes to my assistance. There is a word here I cannot make out at all, no matter how long I stare at it.”
Willingly, he crossed from his desk to the large table where she worked, and peered at the offending text. “I am not sure… it is an odd sort of word. Is it— oh! Oh, my goodness! Heavens, where did this come from? I thought this section was nothing but dull Parliamentary business.”
“So it was, but after a particularly late session one evening, the duke went off with Lord P, Lord C and D of D, whoever they might be, to a house of recreation.”
“A house of recreation,” Jamie said, uncertainly. “Does the text describe the… er type of recreation on offer?”
“No. Gambling, perhaps? There seems to be a great deal of that. All that is said is that they went to the house with the blue door.”
“Oh dear! I am so sorry, Mrs Hastings. I seem to have exposed you to some rather unsavoury events.”
“Unsavoury? The house with the blue door sounds rather charming, I thought.”
Jamie was silent, quite at a loss how to deal with this odd twist in the duke’s notes. He was perfectly aware, having been working on them for some years now, that the duke was a man who had enjoyed life to the full, but such matters were not suitable for a lady’s eyes.
“I beg your pardon, Mr Hammond,” she went on, eyes twinkling. “I seem to have discomfited you. You don’t wish to explain it, and clearly you don’t wish me to work on this section any further, so—”
“The duke was a man of loose morals, Mrs Hastings,” Jamie said, polishing his spectacles furiously. “There is no need for you to know of it, however.”
“If you mean his liking for women, I have already discovered that. During one particularly dull speech in the Lords, his grace enlivened proceedings by discussing the attributes of several ladies with a fellow peer. I believe it was a certain Lady D who took the palm, being described as having a perfect pair of apple dumplings.”
“Oh!” Jamie felt himself blushing. “I am so sorry!”
“Do not apologise, sir. I assure you such passages — and that wasn’t the only one — enliven my transcribing proceedings also. And after all, I’m not an innocent maiden, to be scandalised by such things. Henry and his friends used to discuss women over their ale.”
“He told you that?” Jamie said, rather shocked.
“Oh yes, for he liked me to know that he thought me the best of all of them. He was biased, of course, but what wife wouldn’t want to hear that she boasted the finest…
um, apple dumplings? Oh, Mr Hammond, please don’t go any redder, or you will quite explode.
I thought men were unshockable on that subject. ”
“I… well, I… it is only that I have never had such a conversation before.”
“With a lady, you mean?”
“With anyone!”
“Good heavens! I understood that men seldom thought of anything else, but perhaps that was only Henry and his friends. Henry certainly thought about it constantly. Our marriage may have been short, but it was very… it was very…”
Abruptly, her lively mood evaporated, her voice wobbled and was that a tear lurking on her lashes?
That was easier to deal with, he thought with relief.
A woman talking about intimate matters in her marriage tied him in a thousand knots, and turned him instantly into the awkward boy who had wriggled and blushed his way through any talk of such topics from his father.
But a woman in tears he could cope with, for it made him feel manly and protective.
“You miss him,” he said gently.
She nodded, pulling out a delicately embroidered handkerchief and dabbing at her eyes. “I do beg your pardon, sir. I am not normally a watering pot, but lately… and such a subject brings back so many memories.”
“I did not mean to remind you of such sad times.”
“Not sad — my time with Henry was very happy, so the memories are all good. Oh, we had our differences, naturally, but not for long,” she added brightly.
Her tone was so false to his ears that he wondered just what those differences had been. “But you must miss him enormously, and you are distressed, which is entirely my fault.”
“No, no. I do miss him, of course I do, and particularly the closeness that exists between husband and wife. Have you ever been married, Mr Hammond?” He shook his head.
“Then perhaps you can’t imagine the bond that exists between two people who share everything together.
When Henry died, it was as if a limb had been cut from me…
I felt incomplete, somehow. And now, I see something of that closeness between Rowena and Richard, and now that Sophia Merrington has married Mr Payne… ”
They were veering back towards the danger area again. He cleared his throat nervously. “Ah, yes. I see what you mean. You are forced to observe every day the same closeness that you have yourself lost.”
“And the baby,” she said, her voice so low it was barely audible.
Babies… that was safer ground. “You have no child to bring joy to your life.”
“Exactly! I was increasing… but I was so distraught when Henry died…” She buried her face in the tiny handkerchief.
“My dear Mrs Hastings, I am so sorry. I did not know. So you are doubly bereaved.”
And that brought on the tears in earnest. How inept of him, but how could he have known? He could not remember ever exchanging more than commonplaces with her before.
He crossed the room to the sideboard where the decanters stood and poured them both a large brandy.
“Try a little of this,” he said, pressing a glass into her hand. “It is my infallible remedy for all ailments, and it is especially efficacious for depression of the spirits.”
She sipped, then coughed heavily. “Oh, my goodness! What is that? It’s like nothing I have ever had before.”
“Brandy. Sip it very slowly. It will make you feel better, I am sure. Not that any drink, no matter how potent, can take away the grief you feel for your loss, but it will restore your usual equanimity.”
“Thank you, sir. You’re very good.”
“Does Mrs Richard know how the baby upsets you?”
“No, oh no, and I would not for the world let her know. It’s my cross to bear, and bear it I must, with such fortitude as I can command.
Mr Hammond, I wouldn’t want you to suppose that I bear any grudge against Rowena, or Sophia, either.
I’m thrilled that they have both been so fortunate as to find husbands who love them well, and I dote on that baby almost as much as her parents do.
I can even hold her when asked to do so, but…
it does remind me of all that I’ve lost and will never find again. ”
“Now that I will not have, Mrs Hastings,” he said in his lightest tone. “You are far too young to turn your face against marriage altogether. Who knows what your future may hold?”
“Not another Henry, that is certain.”
And Jamie could think of no argument against that.
He was not required to, for one of the footmen came in just then in a state of some excitement.
“There’s a Mr Chamberlain arrived, sir.”
“Are we expecting a Mr Chamberlain?”
“No, sir, although he seemed to think we were. He had a letter, sir. From Mr Goodenough!”
Mr Goodenough! Twice before he had invited perfect strangers to Staineybank, for his own secret reasons, and here he was up to his tricks again.
Jamie ran. He was young and fit and his feet fairly flew, but it was no use. By the time he had reached the Marble Hall and hauled open the heavy front door, the carriage that had brought their visitor was already making all speed down the drive.
“Missed him!” he said, in disgust.