Chapter 17 #2
‘I see,’ said Frankie, throwing another glance at Thea. ‘I am sure your mother and Mrs Henry enjoyed the ladies with swords almost as much as you?’
‘Harrr!’ shouted Abigail again, overexcited and delighted. She put her hands on her hips and turned to Frankie. Thea really was going to have to do something about that attitude, she thought. But for now, it was too cute.
Thea started to pink.
‘Never mind that,’ tried Thea, attempting to catch Abigail’s stick and return some order to the situation.
‘That’s quite enough of trying to hit Frankie with a sword, I need her useful for the new arboretum.
Also we need to see if Samantha and Martha are finished with the snails. Do you think Annie is–’
‘Here,’ said Annie, appearing around the door. ‘I’ll take them to the forest. Let them let off a bit of steam.’
‘Excellent idea,’ said Thea as Annie took Abigail’s hand and led her to find her brother and sister. Thea tried to exit the glasshouse as she knew Frankie was unlikely to let the matter of gladiators go, but it was another question that came.
‘Lady Foxmore will be staying with you for the whole summer?’ asked Frankie, averting her eyes a little.
Thea’s heart raced. Frankie already knew enough about her to cause trouble if need be, but any further complication regarding Martha would be inadvisable and it was clear that Martha wasn’t going to warm to Frankie any time soon. It was almost as if Frankie could read her mind.
‘I’m only asking Your Grace, no trouble. It is nice for you to have company. Annie says the duke will be bringing Miss Bellegarde when he arrives and we have to be nice to her but not engage directly.’
Thea swallowed nervously, but hoped she could trust Frankie.
‘That is correct. I rarely see her, but I suspect she avoids me. She must come out sometimes.’ Frankie nodded in understanding, so Thea went on.
‘But you should see more of Lady Foxmore as the duke has agreed she may stay for some of the spring.’
‘Generous,’ said Frankie, with barely disguised sarcasm.
‘This does concern you somewhat,’ said Thea, the conversation jogging her memory. ‘As the duke is keen to send plants to Mr Knatchbull, he has suggested that we take on an advisor.’
‘An advisor?’ asked Frankie. ‘Why do we need..?’
‘When the duke heard of our… current arrangements,’ tried Thea, ‘he thought someone vetted by himself may be appropriate.’ She swallowed involuntarily at the tone of George’s last letter.
He would be furious when he returned to Hawkdean.
The fact that his estate now had a female head gardener had spread quickly around his circle, and he had not been appreciative of hearing of it from Doctor Herbert.
‘I understand,’ said Frankie. ‘A man.’
‘Yes,’ said Thea. Embarrassed that she had been overruled in her own house.
‘But we shall do as he suggests, of course.’ She gathered herself.
George hadn’t suggested, he had demanded, but Frankie didn’t need to know that.
‘I am pleased to say that Lady Foxmore had a suggestion which the duke has agreed to.
Algernon Crumpacker will be joining us in the next month or so.
Apparently, he travelled with Lady Foxmore on the first two voyages and had been a student of Linnaeus so I hope he will have some useful information to impart.
Frankie did look a little nervous, thought Thea. She would have no trouble holding her own on the plant knowledge, but Thea knew she still worried about reading and writing. ‘I am sure that will be useful, Your Grace.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Thea. ‘I am sure we can all make the best of it and learn a lot about botany. Although,’ she dropped her voice a little even though she wasn’t sure why.
‘I understand that he has also been employed by Mr Knatchbull at Upper Plumbthorne, on occasion over the last year or so.’ She stopped and smiled as Frankie wrinkled her nose.
‘Quite,’ said Thea. ‘Knatchbull has been raving about the Linnaean botanist he has had working for him.’
Frankie leaned on the side of a planting bed and crossed her arms. ‘You said the duke was never interested in the plants before. Why now?’ she asked.
Thea didn’t know how to answer this, as it was also a question that had been confusing her.
She chose the diplomatic answer. ‘His Grace is naturally keen to develop the relationship between the households and Mr Knatchbull values plants. I also suspect we will be seeing more of Mr and Mrs Knatchbull, Dr Herbert and Dr Speckle, who, despite sacking him, Dr Herbert now can’t seem to function without. ’
‘And do you trust Mr Crumpacker, Your Grace, if he has worked for Knatchbull?’ asked Frankie.
Thea furrowed her brow. ‘Apparently Crumpacker is exceptionally loyal to Lady Foxmore.’ She picked some browning edges from a Chlorophytum to try and hide her unease. ‘And she is to him, therefore I shall trust him.’
There was an awkward pause.
‘Gladiators then, Your Grace?’ Frankie asked, breaking the tension as she picked some dead leaves off a passionflower that climbed up the wooden structure.
Thea was glad of the respite. ‘Yes,’ she said as neutrally as she could imagine. ‘They were exceptionally entertaining for the children.’
‘Very good of you and Mrs Henry to take them,’ said Frankie, a cheeky twinkle in her eye. ‘Must have been intolerable.’ Thea would not permit this from any other servant, but she had a feeling she would have to tolerate it from Frankie, and actually quite enjoyed it.
‘Mrs Henry particularly enjoyed the show,’ said Thea.
Frankie snorted. ‘And I bet she disappeared afterwards.’
‘She did no–’ but she broke off as she realised that Harriet had, in fact, left her immediately after the show.
‘Good for her,’ said Frankie, chuckling. ‘I hope she tamed one.’ Her face took on an even more mischievous look. ‘I assume you had a terrible time, Your Grace?’ Frankie asked, crossing her arms and leaning back on a low wall. Thea picked some invisible dust from her sleeve.
‘Better than the cock fighting,’ she said, turning on her own bright smile and challenging Frankie’s. Perhaps the thing to do was to play her at her own game.
‘She might be good, but she is also impertinent,’ muttered Martha to Thea. ‘She needs to learn some manners.’
‘That I cannot argue with, but she has gumption and is quite extraordinary,’ said Thea, as the two of them tramped after Frankie on the way to her intended arboretum site. ‘And she is also sensible of having you and the coming Mr Crumpacker in the glasshouses.’
‘I suppose so,’ said Martha.
Thea snorted. ‘You always were the jealous type.’
‘Can’t help it.’ Even Martha was a little breathless from trying to keep up with the energetic gardener. ‘You seem to attract girls like moths to a flame.’
‘Two, apart from you,’ said Thea, unimpressed. ‘It hardly makes me a chandelier.’ She paused as a thought occurred to her. ‘Oh, and Harriet kissed me, if we’re going for full disclosure, but that was quite unsatisfactory also.’ She felt Martha stop and smiled to herself as she strode on.
‘Harriet?!’ shouted Martha from behind as she ran to catch up. ‘Harriet Henry? I should have known she would be no more sensible than she was when I caught her in that carriage with Emma, but I wouldn’t have thought she would be your choice?’
‘Absolutely not,’ said Thea. ‘I think she’s just working her way through all the willing ladies in London after her split with Hugh.’ This seemed to satisfy her companion.
‘Goodness, we have to stop talking,’ said Martha, gasping a little. ‘That girl has energy.’
They caught up with Frankie on an incline overlooking the natural Hawkdean lake.
They must be around a quarter of a mile from the house and nearby glasshouse now.
‘I thought here,’ said the gardener, hands on her hips as she gazed around.
‘Good soil, far enough away from the formal gardens, and it won’t obscure your view from the house.
’ She looked around at them. ‘I take it you’d agree? ’
Thea nodded but saw Martha scowl. ‘You’d see it better from the drive if it were down there on the east slope,’ she said almost petulantly. ‘Better when receiving visitors.’
‘West-facing avoids morning sun,’ said Frankie with only fact in her voice.
‘East facing slopes mean damaged spring blooms so if Her Grace wishes to grow magnolia or camellia, it needs to be over there.’ She pointed to the side she had previously indicated.
‘We can do a lime avenue on the entrance and a carriage path round the arboretum. Better for Her Grace to show off in person.’ She managed to say it without a hint of judgement.
Martha opened her mouth to speak and then shut it again. Thea looked between them, amused.
‘A very good point, Frankie,’ she said, shooting Martha a look. ‘That will be quite acceptable.’
‘Then I’ll start the planning, Your Grace,’ said Frankie. They stood as an uneasy trio, overlooking the lake, Martha uncharacteristically quiet.
‘Do you think you will be content here?’ Thea asked Frankie. ‘Have you seen enough to know that you will like the country as much as London?’
Frankie turned to her briefly, and then back to the lake.
‘I think I shall. The house is the biggest building I have ever seen in my life and I keep getting lost. And there is a lot of air, but the plants seem to enjoy it. I have lots of ideas for the garden if we can get the seeds or the plants and there must be a way with that protea.’
‘No luck yet?’ asked Thea.
‘No, but it’s still early,’ said Frankie. ‘I’ll not worry until May.’
‘I assume you have attempted scarification on some,’ asked Martha, imperious.
Frankie was unmoved. ‘Both scarification and stratification my countessness,’ she said smoothly. ‘And I boiled one, just to see.’
Martha blinked once. ‘No doubt that one has been rendered entirely unviable,’ she shot back. ‘With seed in such high demand that is a little reckless, do you not think?’
Thea rolled her eyes to herself and thought she should come to Frankie’s aid.
‘Many people have tried many things,’ she said.
‘It is a difficult plant. We had eight seeds from Mister Gordon and we will hope. He had no more so either they are rare, or Knatchbull has them all in his endeavours to grow for the queen. We have to try everything.’
Frankie nodded and kicked a stone, a defiant look in her eye.
‘Boiling works well for the Indian shot plant. Like The duchess says, we have to try everything if we want to do it first. I won’t have Herbert beating me.
’ Thea suspected Frankie wanted it almost as much as she did, but could they have any hope against Knatchbull’s army of gardeners, state of the art glasshouses and presumably plentiful seed?
‘Let’s walk back,’ she said, managing a faint smile. ‘I am sure you will figure it out.’
‘It’s strange,’ said Martha, flicking open her pocket watch and checking the time as they walked. ‘They germinate everywhere at the Cape without any help at all. I wonder what the difference is?’
Thea shrugged as the house came into view.
It always made her shudder a little, as it had the first time she saw it.
Grand, imposing, and a reminder of the Hartford’s wealth and status in the country.
‘Maybe it’s something in the air or the soil?
I tried everything with the seed you sent before.
Warmth, cold spells, compost, no compost, dry, wet.
Nothing. Some others at least germinate here before they are frozen to death or cooked by the firewall, but with the protea there was nothing at all. ’
‘Hmm,’ said Martha, ‘but there must be something. I can get more seed. We can approach this methodically.’
‘I have plenty of ideas,’ said Frankie as they arrived at the potting shed.
‘If we have enough. We can trial every way in Philip Miller’s dictionary, and I have some thoughts of my own.
’ She stopped dead and looked between them both.
‘We will do it.’ Martha looked at her and nodded once, before stalking away.
Thea looked between them. Two capable growers who had determination in spades.
It would start to happen now, now they were here.
Frankie had transformed the glasshouses in a matter of weeks.
Martha had sailed the globe and had seen things Thea could only dream of.
She pushed down feelings of her own inadequacy and resolved that her part in the team was neither skill nor experience.
So what was it?