Sprig Muslin

‘Oh, there is not the smallest need for you to put yourself about!’ struck in Lady Widmore. ‘Fabian was saying to me last night that he would be pleased to take her up in his carriage as far as to Oundle, for he goes to Melton today, you know, and it will not carry him far out of his way.’

‘I am very much obliged to him, but must not trespass upon his good-nature,’ replied Sir Gareth, a note of finality in his voice.

‘No such thing!’ said Lady Widmore robustly. ‘It can make no difference to Fabian, and I am sure I know not why you should be dancing attendance upon a schoolgirl, Sir Gareth!’

There was a challenge in her eye, but before Sir Gareth could meet it, Mr Whyteleafe said with precision: ‘I must venture to inform your ladyship of a circumstance which cannot but preclude Mr Theale’s being able to offer his services to Miss Smith. Mr Theale’s travelling carriage, closely followed by the coach containing his baggage, passed beneath my window at fourteen minutes past seven o’clock exactly. I am able, I should explain, to speak with certainty on this point because it so chanced that, being desirous of knowing the hour, I was at that instant in the act of consulting my watch.’

The Earl had never liked his chaplain, but he had not hitherto considered him actively malevolent. He now perceived that he had been cherishing a viper. Sir Gareth was of course bound to discover the truth, but it had been his lordship’s intention to have taken good care that he should not do so in his presence. The more he had considered the matter, the stronger had become his conviction that the disclosure would lead to an awkward scene, and the avoidance of awkward scenes was one of the guiding principles of his life. In an attempt to gloss over the perilous moment, he said: ‘Yes, yes, now you put me in mind of it, I recall that my brother said he rather thought he would make an early start. Doesn’t like travelling in the heat of the day,’ he added, addressing himself to Sir Gareth.

The door opened, and Lady Hester came into the room. Sir Gareth, as he rose to his feet, pushing back his chair, saw with concern that she was looking pale, and rather heavy-eyed.

‘Good-morning,’ she said, in her soft voice. ‘I am afraid I am shockingly late this morning, and as for Miss Smith, my woman tells me that she is still asleep.’

‘Lady Hester, have you yourself seen Amanda?’ Sir Gareth asked abruptly.

She shook her head, looking enquiringly at him. ‘No, I didn’t wish to disturb her. Ought I to have? Oh, dear, you don’t think she can have – ?’

‘Yes, I do think that she can have,’ said Sir Gareth. ‘I have just learnt that your uncle left Brancaster two hours ago, and nothing appears to be more likely than that he took Amanda with him.’

‘Well, what if he did?’ demanded Lady Widmore. ‘Very obliging of him, I should call it, and nothing to make a piece of work about! To be sure, it is excessively uncivil of her to have gone off without bidding anyone goodbye, but I, for one, am not amazed.’

‘I will go up to her room immediately,’ Lady Hester said, ignoring her sister-in-law.

She found Amanda’s bedchamber untenanted. A note addressed to herself lay on the dressing-table. As she was reading the few lines of apology and explanation, Povey came in, checking at sight of her, and saying in some confusion: ‘I beg pardon, my lady! I was just coming to see if Miss was awake!’

‘You knew, Povey, when you told me that Miss Smith was asleep, that she had left the house,’ said Hester quietly. ‘No, do not try to answer me! You have done very wrong. I don’t wish to talk to you. Indeed, I don’t feel that I shall be able to forgive you.’

Povey instantly burst into tears, but to her startled dismay her tenderhearted mistress seemed quite unmoved, leaving the room without so much as another glance thrown in her direction.

Lady Hester found Sir Gareth awaiting her at the foot of the stairs. She put Amanda’s note into his hand, saying remorsefully: ‘It is just as you suspected. I have been dreadfully to blame!’

‘You! No, indeed!’ he returned, running his eye over the note. ‘Well, she doesn’t tell you so, but I imagine there is no doubt she went away with your uncle.’ He gave the note back to her, saying, as he saw her face of distress: ‘My dear, don’t look so stricken! There is not so very much harm done, after all. I own, I wish I knew where Theale is taking her, but I daresay they will not be difficult to trace.’

‘It is quite shameful of Fabian!’ she said, in a tone of deep mortification.

He replied lightly: ‘For anything we yet know she may have prevailed upon him to take her to Oundle, where, I don’t doubt, she will try to give him the slip.’

‘You say that to make me feel more comfortable, but pray don’t!’ she said. ‘There can be no excuse for his conduct, and the dreadful thing is that there never is! Even if she made him think she indeed had relations at Oundle, he cannot have thought it proper to remove her from Brancaster in such a way. And I very much fear that he has not taken her to Oundle. In fact, it would be much more like him to carry her off to his hunting-box, which I should have no hesitation in saying is what he has done, only that he must know that is the first place where you would look for her.’

‘Well, if we are to speak frankly of your uncle, I will own that that is precisely what I fear he may have done,’ said Sir Gareth.

‘Oh, yes, pray say what you like! I assure you, none of us would disagree with you, however badly you think of him, for he is almost the most severe misfortune that ever befell us. But it would be quite foolhardy of him to have taken her to Melton Mowbray!’

‘I suspect that he thinks I shan’t attempt to follow him,’ replied Sir Gareth dryly. ‘Your brother and his wife certainly believe me to have brought my mistress to Brancaster, and your uncle’s conduct now leads me to suppose that they are not alone in that belief.’

‘I don’t know very much about such matters,’ said Hester thoughtfully, ‘but I shouldn’t have thought you would do that.’

‘You may be perfectly sure I would not!’

‘Oh, yes, I am! I told Almeria so. I cannot but feel that it would be such a silly thing to do!’

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nbsp; ‘It would also be an extremely insulting thing to do,’ he said, smiling at her tone of serious consideration. ‘How Theale came to credit me with so much ill-breeding is something that perhaps he will explain to me presently.’

‘Well,’ said Hester, wrinkling her brow, ‘I think it is just the sort of thing he would do himself, which would account for it. But what has me in a puzzle is why you should think he would not, in that event, expect you to follow him. I should have thought it quite certain you would do so – unless, of course, not pursuing people who steal your mistress is one of those rules of gentleman’s etiquette which naturally I know nothing about.’

‘No,’ he answered, laughing, ‘it is not! But if I had been so lost to all sense of propriety as to have brought my mistress with me, when my errand was to beg you to honour me with your hand in marriage, I must indeed have found it an awkward business – to say the least of it! – to recover Amanda from your uncle.’