Every Mother's Son (11 page)

‘I don’t know,’ Tom admitted. ‘But that’s ’joy of living in a country district. Everybody knows everything about what’s going on, but it goes no further and they all pretend that they know nowt.’

‘But now,’ Fletcher said slowly, ‘young Charles Hart has noticed ’likeness.’

‘He has. I’ve no doubt about it, but he’s not going to ask his father, is he? And he’s certainly not going to question you. But I thought you ought to know.’

Later that night, Fletcher told Harriet what Tom had said. She suppressed a cynical smile at the idea that Ellen Tuke thought she had kept her secret; in a small community like this, somebody was bound to put two and two together. And, wide awake with a harvest moon shining though their bedroom window, she recalled Tom’s Aunt Mary once telling her how Ellen Tuke hadn’t always been truthful, and of how she had cried when Fletcher was born. ‘I’m sure your mother and Christopher Hart thought that no one knew of their liaison,’ she said softly, knowing how hurt and embarrassed Fletcher was over the whole sordid affair. ‘But how wrong they were.’

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Daniel turned twenty in December and during the long Christmas vacation Charles rode over to visit. He said that Beatrice was confined to her bed with a cold and was in a filthy temper because of it.

‘She’s not been made into a lady, then?’ Daniel asked.

‘Not that you’d notice,’ Charles grinned. ‘How’s everybody here?’

‘We’re all well,’ Harriet answered. ‘Fletcher took Lenny to ’market and bought a pig in litter, so he’s happy. Dolly’s got a new dress.’ She smiled at Charles as she gave him all their doings. ‘I’ve got some new kitchen curtains, but best of all, Maria is coming home tomorrow and staying for Christmas.’

‘Hurray,’ Daniel cheered. ‘We’ve really missed her.’

‘I’m sure you have,’ Charles agreed. ‘I miss Beatrice too whilst she’s in Switzerland. I’ve seen more of Stephen this year, and astonishingly George’s tutors seem to think he has an outstanding future in front of him.’

‘Really!’ Harriet said. ‘In what?’

‘Well,’ Charles said, ‘apparently he’s very bright and really brainy.’ He laughed. ‘I can’t imagine it; my little brother! And the opinion is that he should eventually go into law or medicine, or science.’

‘Goodness!’ Harriet exclaimed. ‘Your parents must be very pleased to hear that?’

‘They are.’ He hesitated and then glanced at Daniel. ‘And – so it rather takes the edge off their disappointment in me.’

Fletcher and Lenny came in as he was speaking, and after greeting Charles, they took the other seats at the kitchen table. ‘Why?’ Fletcher asked. ‘What have you been up to? Are you in trouble at school?’

‘No, no, not at all,’ he speedily assured him. ‘It’s just that I’ve asked my father if, rather than going to university as he wants me to, I might travel to Europe for a few months.’

Daniel inhaled; he still hadn’t broached the subject with his parents and he was sure that that was what Charles was leading up to.

‘And he’s said no?’ Fletcher asked.

Charles sighed. ‘He has, and I don’t understand why. He didn’t go to university – he went straight into the estate to help his father.’

‘Perhaps he always regretted it,’ Harriet suggested.

‘Maybe,’ Charles said. ‘But I know that Stephen will want to do exactly the same. He wants to farm and ideally he’d like to start now, but Father won’t hear of it.’

He paused for a moment, and then said, ‘But I’m not giving up yet, and what I was going to ask, if you would consider it, is, if I am allowed to travel, would you permit Daniel to come too?’

Harriet gave a small gasp and put her hand to her chest, whilst Fletcher turned his gaze on Daniel, who looked stunned.

‘Daniel?’ Fletcher said. ‘Is this what you’d like to do?’

‘W-wait,’ Harriet said, clasping her fingers tightly together. ‘Don’t rush into anything.’

‘I won’t, Ma,’ Daniel said quietly. He knew what she was thinking of, or rather
whom
she was thinking of: her brother who went away and never came back and left her not knowing whether he was alive or dead. ‘But you know I’ve been thinking about it.’

Harriet sank into a chair. My firstborn, she thought. When he was onny a babby I often wondered what I would do if ever I should lose him. But that had been when she was at a low ebb, recently widowed with no one to turn to. Now she was a happily married woman with a husband and a family of children who loved her in return, and she knew in her heart that Daniel would never completely desert her.

‘I went away travelling when I was a young man,’ Fletcher told Charles. ‘Older than either of you, though, and my circumstances were very different. And although I wasn’t away for very long, I saw things that I could never have imagined, and I never regretted it.’ He looked across at Harriet, who gave him a wistful smile. ‘But I allus knew I’d come back when ’time was right.’

They all sat in silence, even Lenny and Joseph and Dolly, who was looking enviously at Daniel, whilst Elizabeth stood by her mother’s knee and gazed at them all.

Fletcher cleared his throat. ‘I think you should go, Daniel, if that’s what you want to do, but it’s your ma who should mek ’final decision.’

‘We don’t need to decide now,’ Charles said hurriedly. ‘There’s no rush, but I wanted to ask so that you could mull it over.’ He glanced at Daniel. ‘It’s something we talked about when we didn’t realize there was a possibility of its happening. But if there is, if he can, I’d choose Daniel above anyone else as a companion.’

‘What?’ Daniel found himself strangely moved by this show of friendship. ‘Rather than any of your
chums
from school?’

‘Yes, rather than any of them. I know that you would always get me out of a hole that I’d dug for myself rather than leave me in it,’ Charles joked.

‘Ah! Now we have it,’ Daniel retaliated. ‘He onny needs a strong labouring man to carry his bag.’

Harriet gave a sudden laugh. Why would she deprive Daniel of such an adventure when he and Charles were so perfectly suited to travel harmoniously, when they complemented each other so well? Daniel with his whimsical humour and practicality, Charles with his gentlemanly ways which hid a warm and witty personality that would surely get them out of any scrapes.

She found that her throat tightened as she started to speak. ‘I wouldn’t hold you back from doing owt you wanted to do, Daniel, provided it was honest and legal, of course.’ She smiled, but had to blink back tears at the thought of her son leaving home.

Daniel got up from his seat and gave her a hug. ‘Thanks, Ma,’ he said huskily. ‘I’d like to travel and this might be my best chance … knowing that I’ve got a fine gentleman to look after me and find our way home again.’

Charles raised his eyebrows in mock irony, and said enthusiastically, ‘That’s great. Now all we have to do is persuade my father. I don’t think my mother is against the idea, but I wondered …’ he paused and looked at Fletcher, ‘I wondered whether you and Mrs Tuke would help me out over this and explain to them that Daniel is keen to come too?’

So whose idea was it? Harriet asked herself. Charles has made the first overture but has Daniel put him up to it with his thoughts of searching out his elusive grandfather?

‘Yeh, that can be arranged,’ Fletcher said calmly. ‘Mebbe when Christmas is over? That’ll give us a chance to discuss all ’possibilities.’

It will also give Fletcher time to think up an excuse not to call on them, Harriet thought. He won’t want to be face to face with the man he now knows to be his father.

Daniel walked alongside Charles and his horse out of the farm and up on to the top road. ‘I can’t believe that was so easy,’ he said. ‘Nor could I believe my ears when you asked! I just wasn’t ready for it.’

‘I couldn’t believe I’d said it either,’ Charles said. ‘It seemed to pop out when I mentioned Father’s disappointment in me. Which was perfectly true, by the way, and I think that your mother was probably right when she suggested that maybe he regretted not going to university himself.’

‘But that’s unfair, if he expects you to do summat just because he didn’t do it when he was young.’ Daniel frowned. ‘Does it mean that older people want to live their dreams through us? Like Granny Rosie, for instance? Is that why she would like me to find her long-lost …’

‘Beau?’ Charles suggested. ‘Lover?’

‘Yeh,’ Daniel said. ‘Except in her case, I don’t mind at all if it gives me an excuse to travel and see some other countries.’

‘You’re going to have to ask her again where she thinks he might have come from.’ Charles mounted Prince as they reached the top road. ‘The world is a big place.’ He grinned and lifted his hand in farewell. ‘So we might be gone a considerable length of time!’

Christopher Hart paced the drawing-room floor, a brandy glass in his hand. ‘It’s such a missed opportunity,’ he said. ‘Charles will regret it. He would be mixing with the top young men, his peers, people of influence.’

Melissa sighed. ‘And after that? You’d still expect him to come home and run the estate. He’d lose touch with all these so-called people of influence.’

‘But don’t you see, Melissa, he’s doing what I did, which is why I know that by refusing a chance of university life he’s missing out on a great advantage,’ he insisted. ‘He should do what I didn’t – go to university, not go gallivanting all over the Continent. Dash it all, if he wants a holiday there’s nothing to stop him. We could all go,’ he added, as if it had just occurred to him. ‘We could go to Switzerland, to France. Why not?’

‘We could,’ Melissa agreed. ‘But Charles doesn’t want to come with us. Haven’t you noticed? He’s grown out of us, like a suit of clothes. He’s nineteen, Christopher, not a child. He wants to go on an adventure of his own.’

Christopher stopped his pacing and sat down. ‘I don’t understand young men of today,’ he said. ‘I’m too old to understand them.’

Melissa gazed at him. So you are, my darling, she thought. ‘Why don’t
we
go away?’ she said suddenly. ‘When the boys have gone back and Beatrice has returned to Switzerland, why don’t we take a trip to Paris? It will be cold but we could see the sights; take a boat trip on the Seine. There won’t be many tourists in January or February. Oh, do let’s! We could visit the Louvre; see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. I’ve never seen them.’ She became quite excited at the thought of it and the expectation that it might give her ageing husband a new lease of life.

‘Mmm,’ he said non-committally. ‘Well, we’ll see. But what to do about Charles?’

‘Let him go,’ she said, and as something else occurred to her she added, ‘Why didn’t you go to university after school? Why were you so keen to come home?’

‘Mmm?’ he said again, and scratched his beard. ‘I was the only son. I suppose I felt it my duty to come home, although I really did want to help run the estate.’ He looked vaguely into the distance. ‘But it was a mistake. I should have gone. It would have broadened my vision.’

They heard the clatter of hoofbeats and shortly afterwards the bang of the front door. ‘Charles,’ Melissa murmured. ‘Home for supper.’

Her eldest son put his head round the drawing room door. ‘Not late, am I? I’ll just slip up and change; won’t be long. Will Beatrice be joining us?’

‘No,’ his mother said adamantly. ‘I’d rather she didn’t. I don’t want your father catching her cold and being ill at Christmas.’

Charles quickly washed and changed his riding clothes for a pair of grey trousers, a clean white shirt, cravat and a black jacket and then knocked and slipped into Beatrice’s room.

‘How are you, old thing?’ he asked. ‘I hear you’re not coming down to eat.’

‘No,’ she sighed, and blew her nose. ‘I was going to, but Mama said she’d rather I rested so that I’d be all right for Christmas. It is only us for Christmas, isn’t it? We’re not entertaining?’

‘Only drinks after church on Christmas morning,’ Charles said. ‘I expect it will be the vicar and his wife and one or two others, but that’s all. I wish you were coming down for supper,’ he added. ‘I wanted your support over this proposed tour. Daniel’s parents have said he can come, so that’s one hurdle over.’

Beatrice yawned and slid down below the sheets. ‘When?’ she asked. ‘When will you go?’

Charles shrugged and then, hearing the supper bell, headed for the door. ‘I haven’t been granted permission yet,’ he pointed out.

‘You’ll get it,’ she said. ‘Just seem really disappointed if Papa is negative.’

‘Which I will be.’

‘Mama will agree,’ she assured him. ‘Just gaze pleadingly at her, and tell them you wish you were as clever as George!’

He shook a fist at her and hurried downstairs to join his parents and Stephen at the dining table. George followed him in. George seemed to have grown in stature since the school’s report on his academic qualities, no longer the baby brother but on an equal standing with his brothers.

After soup and a light fish course came roast haunch of venison with redcurrant jelly, and as the dishes were being cleared away Christopher announced, ‘Your mother and I have decided that you can travel, Charles, if you are really fixed upon it and providing you have a suitable travelling companion. One of your chums from school, for instance.’

‘Oh! Thank you, Father, Mama!’ Charles looked gratefully at his mother, knowing that she had probably pleaded his cause. ‘That’s simply wonderful. I’ve suggested it to some of the other fellows, as a matter of fact, but none of them have the necessary spirit of adventure, so I’ve asked Daniel Tuke. He’s very keen and his parents are willing too. He’s very sensible, of course, and he’ll be a good sort of chap to have along.’

‘Oh!’ His father seemed flummoxed at the decision already made. ‘Really?’

‘Yes. He’d been thinking of travelling abroad in any case, so it’s quite opportune.’

His mother gave a little smile. ‘Where is Daniel thinking of going?’

‘Oh, well, his plan is to search out his grandfather, if he’s still alive,’ he said. ‘So somewhere in the Mediterranean.’ He grinned triumphantly at his brothers. Stephen raised a laconic eyebrow, whilst George gave a little frown and said that he’d look on a map first thing in the morning and suggest places where they could start.