19 Visitors #2
There was no time to say more, for his barrel of ale arrived from the Dog and Duck just then, and by the time a suitable location was found, the barrel installed and the contents tested, the carriage was outside bearing Souter and several boxes.
Souter! Naturally, Cora would want her maid with her, so she would have to be accommodated at the cottage, too.
A maid… he would have to find a maid to keep everything clean, and a cook, because Cora could not be expected to eat in the tap room at the Dog and Duck, as Cal had planned to do until he was settled.
And perhaps a man to see to the heavy work and act as escort when Cora went out. Where would they all sleep?
Dinner… he had to do something about today’s dinner. So much to think about! He had never had an entire household to consider before, only himself, and it was not an easy task.
“I need to run over to the Dog and Duck to arrange for our dinner to be sent over,” he said.
Cora looked up from the box she was unpacking in the bedroom. “Are you not going to cook?”
“I’ve not even started the kitchen fire yet, and my pans are still in a box somewhere. Oh… fire! You’ll need a cup of tea.”
The fire took a while to get going, and then there was water to be fetched from the well. Luckily there was a kettle already hanging on a hook, but the tea took some finding. Then he raced over to the inn to order their dinner.
When he returned, there was a murmur of female voices emanating from the parlour.
Cautiously he put his head round the door.
Cora’s four daughters were sitting in a line on a sofa.
Cora herself sat opposite them, tears pouring down her face, while Souter, her face thunderous, stood protectively behind her mistress.
“Whatever is this?” Cal cried, rushing in to kneel at Cora’s feet, taking one of her hands in his. “What have they said to you?”
“We have only said what needs to be said,” Charlotte said with a lift of her chin, and the others all nodded in agreement.
“It is for her own good,” Augusta said.
“Mama must come home to her family, where she belongs,” Maria said tearfully. “We need her!”
“She must be made to understand the consequences of her wickedness,” Sophia said firmly. “She will ruin us all if this does not end very soon.”
“You’re the wicked ones, to make her cry so,” Cal said. “Your own mother — show some respect!”
Charlotte clutched her reticule so tightly that it was bent quite out of shape. “That is all very well, Mr Garford, but how can we go on as if nothing has happened? How can we possibly hold our heads high in society when our own mother is… is… I cannot even say the word!”
“Harlot,” Sophia said. “She is a harlot, and her evil will cast a shadow over all our lives. Think of the grief you bring to the duke in his declining years, Mama. Think of the shame you bring on all of us. The whole family is brought low by this madness. You must come home at once, before it is too late.”
But Cora only wept the harder.
“Cora, what do you want me to do?” Cal said gently. “Shall I throw them out?”
“Yes… get rid of them,” she whispered.
“So be it,” Charlotte said, as the four of them rose in unison.
“You are quite beyond the pale, Mama,” Augusta said.
“You will never see little Mary again,” Sophia said.
Maria only sobbed as they filed out of the room. A moment later, the front door creaked open and then closed with a thump.
“Oh, Cora!” Cal said softly, chafing her hand. “I’m so sorry! If only I’d been here! At least you had Souter with you.”
“But I couldn’t do a thing!” Souter cried. “I’d have prevented them coming in at all if I could, but— Oh no! Now he’s here!”
She pointed through the window, where Richard Merrington, his mouth set in a grim line, could be seen striding up the weedy path from the gate.
“I’ll deal with him,” Cal said, whisking out to the hall, and opening the door before Richard had a chance to knock.
He glared at Cal. “You!”
“Who else would you expect to see? It’s my house, after all.”
“I told you to leave Staineybank.”
“And I have.”
“I did not mean you to set up camp on the doorstep, as you know perfectly well. Why do you not go back to Gloucestershire, or anywhere but here? I know why, of course. My mother is here, I suppose. You have finally achieved your aim of ruining her entirely. Well, it will not do. I shall set the law on you, Garford. You cannot come here and disrupt all our lives like this. I shall take my mother home and you will leave Brinshire at once. You can go where you want, and I think between the money you wheedled out of Garth and the very generous amount I gave you, you should be able to establish yourself somewhere else. Anywhere else.”
Cal struggled to hold onto his temper, but he kept his voice calm. “I’ve left Staineybank, as you requested, but beyond that you have no power to order me, nor has the law. As an honest Englishman, I’m perfectly at liberty to make my home wherever I please.”
“You want money, I suppose. How much will it take to—?”
Cal crossed the two paces to put himself directly in front of Richard, who drew back a little in alarm at Cal’s greater size.
“You are offensive, Merrington! I want nothing from you, and the only person who has power over me is your mother. I congratulate you! You’ve succeeded in creating precisely the scandal we all hoped to avoid.
Now go back to your great stone house and tell yourself smugly that you did the right thing, if it makes you feel better.
Don’t think about your mother, forced away from her home and family by your stupidity.
Don’t think about your sisters, losing her wisdom.
Don’t think about your daughters who will never know their grandmother.
No, think only of yourself and your arrogant refusal to turn a blind eye to a momentary aberration. ”
“A momentary aberration! It is a sin, Garford, without a sign of remorse.”
“And which of us is without sin? Are you perfect? Is anyone? And this is your mother, who gave you life and unstinting love and brought you to manhood, and you repay her with this insufferable righteousness. Oh, I have no patience with you. Go!”
“I shall see my mother first.”
“You will not. Your sisters have already distressed her enough. Go away and never come back.”
“But—”
“Get out of my house, Merrington,” he hissed. “Now!”
He took one more step towards Richard, who turned and fled. Cal gave a huff of amusement — the man was nothing but a coward! Then he went back inside and slammed the door shut.
Through the open parlour door, he saw that Cora was shaking, but she was smiling, too.
“I never knew you to get angry before,” she said.
“It rarely happens, but for him I can make an exception. Souter, the kettle should have boiled by now. A cup of tea for your mistress?”
“Oh! Oh yes, sir. At once.”
“Are you all right?” he said gently to Cora when the maid had gone to the kitchen.
She nodded. “I think so. I will be. It has just been… a difficult day. But now you are here, so everything will be well.”
“Will it?”
“It will. I know it will be difficult. I am setting myself outside all good society, and cutting myself off from my own family but that is my choice to make. They will survive my disgrace.”
“I think so too.”
“Oh, they will. One day Richard will be one of the most powerful men in the kingdom. When his daughters come to look for husbands, they will not be the Miss Merringtons of Leahollow with dowries of a few thousand and ambitions to marry the local squire’s son.
They will be Lady Caroline and Lady Jane Merrington of Staineybank, the daughters of a duke, their dowries will be tens of thousands of pounds, they will dine with royalty and dance with the sons of the nobility, and not a soul will care what their grandmother did fifteen years earlier.
I am the only loser here, for I shall never see them again, never. ”
He opened his arms and she walked into them, burying her face in his shoulder with a sob.
“Forgive me, but I must ask — have you reconsidered your decision not to marry?”
He felt the violent shaking of her head.
“You’re set on travelling this road then.
So be it. Cora, I want you to understand that you’re not alone.
You’ll never be alone. Wherever this road leads us, however lonely or wild or twisting it becomes, we’ll walk it together.
Whatever dark valleys it may traverse, I’ll be beside you every step of the way.
I’ll never leave you, Cora. I love you, and I’m yours until the last breath leaves my body, I swear it. I’ll never abandon you.”
She raised her head, tears still marking her cheeks, and looked into his eyes. “You love me?”
“I do. I’ve loved you since that first day, when we walked through the woods together… no, I think it was when you first smiled at me.”
“I thought it might have been when I first came to your bed,” she said, eyes filled with mischief.
He laughed. “It’s more than that, as you well know. I love your indomitable spirit. I love that you managed to free yourself from the yoke of society’s expectations. I love that, even now, when even your own family is against you, you know exactly where you want to go.”
“I do not think the valleys will be so dark,” she said thoughtfully.
“I think they will be filled with sunshine. Cal, I love you, too, and it is such a love as I have never known before, or ever will again. It fills me with joy and hope and optimism. We are together, and that is all that matters to me. With such a love to sustain us, there is no challenge that can bring us low. We can fly together, hand in hand, for the rest of our lives.”
“That sounds wonderful,” he said, bending his head to kiss her gently on the lips.
And there they stayed for some time until the sound of the arriving tea tray drove them apart.