Chapter 24
Thea and George made a united face of it for the beginning of the party.
The welcome, the delivery to their rooms and the afternoon tea.
She had arrived back at Hawkdean the day before and hadn’t seen him.
Then they had travelled in separate carriages.
He had spoken to her only once since, to remind her that she was to ‘behave herself.’ She was pleased they had avoided more conflict, but nervous about what was to come.
At least polite society dictated that he should be nice to her in public.
Thea was pleased when it was time for the tours of the estate and she could be soothed by the outdoors.
It was a strange form of outdoors, though.
Sort of what the outdoors might look like if it tried too hard.
There were fields, lawns, trees and lakes, but all perfectly placed, as if afraid to make a nuisance of themselves.
‘Get off my lawn you woolly bastards,’ came a cry from up ahead.
Thea was slightly in front of the main party who walked slowly, and wondered if the ‘woolly bastard’ was another type of plant she hadn’t heard of yet, but then saw the commotion.
Knatchbull ran after three sheep, arms waving to shoo them back into a recently landscaped field.
‘Bloody errant band of sheep keeps nipping up the ha-ha,’ she heard him say to Speckle with whom she had had a pleasant chat over tea.
‘Wall’s not high enough. They shit everywhere and eat the topiary.
’ Thea thought she would do the same if she were a sheep on Knatchbull’s estate.
Gathering himself, he looked around to see if anyone had heard, so Thea, trying to be a good guest, pretended she hadn’t heard and gave him the most pleasant smile she could muster.
‘Your estate really is exceptional, Mr Knatchbull,’ she said, knowing George would want her to boost their host’s ego, whilst hating him with every fibre of her being. ‘You chose very well, and I expect the soil is good?’
‘Very,’ was all he said before turning back to Speckle.
Kit was under no illusions that he was here to provide free advice on Neville’s plants and gave Thea a knowing smile.
‘Gentlemen,’ said Knatchbull, turning to the party who had now caught up.
‘I do hope you have enjoyed the parkland recently landscaped by Mr Capability Brown himself. If it pleases you, I would invite you to the glasshouses to view my most recent triumph.’ A trip to the Upper Plumbthorne glasshouses was one of the only things that Thea thought could make this trip remotely tolerable – but as the gentlemen moved away, shepherded by a beaming Knatchbull, it became clear that Thea was not invited.
The ladies made to move back to the house.
Again, she was alone in nature and took a second to breathe in a little fortifying fresh air as she watched the sheep graze.
Then all of a sudden, she wasn’t alone.
‘Look who has just arrived,’ came a bubbly voice from behind her. ‘Now we cannot fail to have fun now Harriet is here.’ Thea turned to find Cecily and Harriet approaching and couldn’t help but smile. She kissed their cheeks in turn.
‘I am desperately sorry I have not had chance to welcome you as warmly as I would wish so far,’ said Cecily, still grasping the material of Thea’s sleeves. ‘It is only that this is the first big event we have hosted at Upper Plumbthorne and is there not so much to do?!’
‘There is,’ agreed Thea, shuddering to think of the parties they had hosted at Hawkdean. ‘And while the servants do most of the hard work it is surprising how many demands come through the lady of the house.’
‘Isn’t it,’ said Cecily, leaning in wide eyed. ‘I can’t believe the requirements some people have. Mrs Fairclough turned up her nose at her room and so I had to move her. The same with Mrs Mortimer.’ She looked at Thea, remembering they were sisters-in-law, but Thea waved her away.
‘Do not censor yourself on my account,’ she said, ‘her family have reminded me on many occasions of how unfit I was to be George’s wife.’
Cecily’s eyes widened. ‘He could have found nobody better. And she has had my housemaid in tears already by complaining about the bedspread in the yellow room. How was I to know she had an aversion to monkeys?’
‘And yet Thea and I will be the perfect guests,’ said Harriet, winking at Thea. ‘Polite and the life of the party. Or at least, one each.’
Cecily giggled and walked between them, taking one of their arms on either side.
‘I am determined to have fun while you are here. Once we get everyone settled, I am sure we can leave the men to their shooting, and we shall be able to talk and play games and do just as we like. And Thea, I have arranged some after dinner entertainment for tonight with exactly you in mind. I am sure you are going to love it.’
This made a little anxiety fuzz inside Thea’s brain. Her hope was always to blend into the background, not to be the focus of the entertainment. ‘That sounds excellent,’ she said instead. ‘What have we to look forward to?’
‘I have engaged a scientist!’ said Cecily, almost squealing with delight.
‘One of those locum ones. They go around and give displays to people in their houses. The ladies improvement society will have nothing left to do but admit your science is fascinating and you will be the most popular one there.’
‘Oh,’ said Thea, thinking the display didn’t sound too bad, but that Cecily was far too generous to the ladies of society once again. ‘And do you know what he will demonstrate?’
‘He hasn’t said,’ said Cecily, ‘but he toured around here for some years apparently and is now in London. People speak very highly of him.’
‘Then I shall look forward to it,’ said Thea. But then she looked toward the other ladies in the party. Martha was hanging back, rolling her eyes as Emma wiped sheep poo off her shoe, aided by Helena and Winnie Hatchett. She wasn’t sure this would go well.
Emma had the same horrified look on her face as they entered the forty fifth minute of Dr Travers’ demonstration.
Thea wasn’t sure where Cecily had found him, but the man was deathly dull.
The subject of the display was the thermal properties of almost anything.
He had been very clear about that when he gave the detailed, ten-minute introduction, followed by his methodology and an extensive account of the manner of heat transfer through various materials.
Many materials, it seemed. He had tried to make it relatively interesting by using, as the demonstration materials, things that people selected from the house of Cecily and Neville.
They had so far watched as he had heated a goblet, a candelabra, a decorative porcelain shepherd, a chair, and Doctor Speckle’s boot.
The best bit had been when he almost set fire to a cushion, but that hadn’t even gone up enough for it to be classed as diverting.
Thea slipped further into her chair. It hadn’t helped that Cecily had announced the entertainment by asserting that she was sure it would bring the interests of Her Grace the Duchess of Hartford’s interest in science to life.
Thea loved her for trying, but the evening had only served, as she feared, to cement in the minds of the group of society ladies that science was something as dull as they imagined Thea to be.
Although she willed him to stop, Dr Travers went on for another half an hour before a final flourish in which he warmed up a little wine, and the crowd clapped feebly.
Even the scientist looked like he had bored himself, thought Thea.
‘Well, how about some dinner?’ asked Cecily, getting to her feet and clapping her hands as if to reassure everyone that this, at least might be enjoyable.
Thea saw Martha go over to Dr Travers, congratulate him and put a hand on his back as he shook his head.
Her heart warmed at the sight of her and her ongoing encouragement of others.
She had done the same for Thea herself countless times over the past couple of months.
‘I actually fell asleep; did you see me?’ asked Harriet as they trooped through for dinner. ‘Too much wine early on and that godawful demonstration. It’s a good job you take me to the ones in London, or I should think you were utterly mad.’
Thea sighed. ‘And now everyone here is certain of it.’ Harriet looked to her, apparently alarmed at her dejected tone, but they were all quickly ushered to their respective seats, the wine poured and lavish dishes of prawns, baked lemons, veal, curried beef and beans.
Thea found herself sandwiched between Crumpacker and Emma Fairclough, and opposite Doctor Travers.
She smiled at him as encouragingly as she could manage.
‘My esteemed Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen.’ Knatchbull’s voice wheedled from the centre of the table.
‘It is the greatest pleasure of Mrs Knatchbull and myself to welcome you all to our humble abode.’ Murmurs of appreciation skittered around the table.
Thea could see George already motioning to the footman to top up his wine.
‘We have been most fortunate,’ went on Knatchbull, ‘to acquire this excellent home and piece of land and I should give thanks to you and also to the patronage of the ruler of this land to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude. May I ask you to stand and toast to our king and queen.’ He raised his glass at the last statement, and everyone around the table stood to offer their toast. Thea watched the smile on George’s face sour.