Off the Rails (16 page)

Arabella knew what it was at once. ‘Papa’s come home,’ she said. ‘Now we’re for it.’ Her pretty face was set in its old supercilious expression and Maria looked as though she was going to burst into tears.

‘He’ll give us a spection,’ she told Milly, fearfully. ‘’Tis what he does when he comes home. He gives you a spection.’

‘And he’ll not find us wanting,’ Milly said, trying to reassure her. ‘He’ll be pleased with you. You’ll see.’

But Maria wasn’t comforted and drooped away to the nursery for her meal as if she was carrying the weight of the world on her thin little
shoulders
.

They’re afraid of him, Milly thought, as she watched them climbing the stairs. Poor little things. Well, I’m not. I’m the equal of any bully no matter how much he roars.

But as she was to find out that afternoon, Sir Percival wasn’t the sort of man who roared to get his own way. He simply expected unquestioning obedience and invariably got it. He made an entrance into the schoolroom just as Milly and her pupils had settled themselves round the table and the
two girls sprang to their feet at once and stood perfectly still, looking down at their slippers as if they were afraid to meet his eye. Milly stood
respectfully
too, but she faced up to him boldly.

‘Miss Smith,’ he said, looking at her sternly, ‘I understand from Mr Garnforth that these gels have been walkin’ in the grounds every mornin’. I must say I find that hard to believe. Is he correct?’

The icy menace of the man made Milly’s heart judder but she stood her ground. ‘Perfectly correct, Sir Percival,’ she said. ‘That is where they have their reading lessons.’

‘Indeed?’ he said and he made the word sound sarcastic and threatening.

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Readin’ lessons?’

‘Yes, sir.’

He looked at her with open disbelief. ‘Then perhaps you will be so kind as to provide them with a readin’ book,’ he said, ‘so that I may ascertain what progress they are makin’.’

Maria was turning pale before their eyes and Arabella was wiping her hands on her skirt. You’re a nasty bully, Milly thought, but I’ve got your measure and I’ll not let you bully these girls, not if I can help it. She pulled her book of fairy stories from her pocket, turned her back on her employer, set it on the table and opened it at ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Begin at the
beginning
,’ she said to Arabella, smiling at her. ‘She may sit down to read, may she not, Sir Percival?’

He waved a white hand at them to signify that she might. So Arabella sat down and took the book in her hand and began to read. She was already beginning to recognize words and to be able to piece them together but, as Milly knew, she was word perfect with this story because she knew it by heart.

‘Once upon a time,’
she read,
‘there lived a king and a queen who lacked but one thing to make them entirely happy. The king was young, handsome and wealthy; the queen had a nature as good and gentle as her face was beautiful; and they adored one another, having married for love – which among kings and queens is not always the rule.’
Then she paused and looked at Milly to see whether she’d read enough.

‘Well done,’ Milly applauded. ‘You read that very well. Wouldn’t you say so, Sir Percival?’

‘Commendable,’ he said, but it didn’t sound like praise. ‘How of the younger one?’

‘Pass the book to your sister, Arabella,’ Milly said, as if reading aloud were perfectly natural to both of them. ‘Start here, Maria. ’Tis when the baby has been born. You remember, don’t you?’ And she read by way of
prompting her nervous pupil,
‘Strangers meeting in the street fell upon each other’s neck, exclaiming …’

‘Our queen has a daughter!’
Maria remembered with superb fluency.
‘Yes, yes – our queen has a daughter. Long live the little princess!’

‘Well, well!’ her father said. ‘Very commendable. Al fresco tuition appears to have achieved somewhat.’ And he patted both girls on the head, very awkwardly, as if they were wild animals that might bite him if he got too close, and left them.

Maria was so relieved she got an attack of the giggles.

‘Oh hush!’ Arabella said. ‘He’ll hear you and come back.’

‘I think he’s gone,’ Milly told her. ‘There’s no sound of him.’

But Arabella was anxious. ‘He could be outside the door,’ she said. ‘You never know with Papa.’

‘Try to giggle quietly,’ Milly said, ‘and I’ll go and see.’ She tiptoed to the door as quietly as she could, inched it open and put out her head – to find herself almost nose to nose with Felix. It was the most extraordinary moment. They were so close to one another she could feel the warmth of his breath on her forehead and he was looking at her in such an
extraordinary
way, almost as if he was going to kiss her. It was like being caught in a spell. Then he took a step backwards and laughed and the spell was broken.

‘What
are
you doing?’ he said.

‘Looking out for Sir Percival.’

‘I passed him on the stairs,’ he told her and strode into the room. ‘
Boo-ba
-doo gels!’

They fell on him, both talking at once. ‘We’ve been spected.’ ‘And we
read
to him. Can you imagine that, Uncle Felix?’ ‘We didn’t make
one
mistake.’

‘Time for Bears,’ he said, dropping to his hands and knees. ‘Who’s first?’

It was a very noisy dinner and seemed to involve a great deal of drinking and shouting. At one point several of the gentlemen banged on the table with their knives and sang an interminable song, very loudly. It quite made her head ache. But George was in his element, booming and shouting and making jokes she couldn’t understand. Eventually they seemed to have come to some decision because they were all nodding and clapping and George stood up and made a short speech.

‘Gentlemen,’ he said, ‘you have made a momentous decision here this evening. Nowt but good will come of it. Of that you can be assured. I will run this campaign for you and Sir John Lowther according to the best possible principles and according to the best possible principles we will prevail. By this time next year York will have a Tory Member of Parliament.’ He paused to give them time to cheer and thump the table and then went on, his voice throbbing with deliberate emotion and his eyes moist with induced tears and brandy. ‘Moreoever, I tell ’ee this. The highest gratification I can receive is to promote our glorious cause and to work to bring it about. My politics, gentlemen, as you all know, are simple and straightforward. You could say they are politics in a little room.’ He paused to ensure that he had their full attention, standing before them with his face rose-red with drink and his thumbs hooked into his waistcoat pocket in the manner of an orator. ‘They consist, gentlemen, in a sincere love of the king and the constitution and a desire to hand it down unsullied to my children.’ His audience were enraptured and cheered him until they were hoarse.

Lizzie turned her orange-feathered head to admire him. Such a good man, she thought. A wonderful man. I wish Jane could have been here to hear him.

On their way home in the carriage the wonderful man fell asleep and woke when the horses stopped to complain that he’d had ‘a reet skinful’ and felt ‘reet sick’.

‘You work too hard, that’s how ’tis,’ Lizzie sympathized. ‘Tek my arm.’

But he shook away her proffered arm and staggered off without her, blundering heavily up the stairs to their bedroom where he fell diagonally across the bed and slept again, snoring loudly.

As there was no room for both of them, Lizzie tiptoed quietly away to
the blue room and slept there. Which was perhaps just as well, for later in the night her much admired husband woke and was sick all over the carpet and the armchair.

D
ESPITE HER MISGIVINGS
, Jane Cartwright was very taken with Leeds. She liked the old Talbot Inn and the fine shops in Briggate and was intrigued by the way the ancient Moot Hall stood right in the middle of the road as if it were a sentinel. On her second afternoon she discovered the linen drapers and bought so much of their fine cloth that she could barely carry it all back to the Talbot Inn.

‘New clothes for the children,’ she explained to Nathaniel when he got back from his meeting, ‘and Christmas presents for my Milly. Not long till Christmas now. I wonder how long a holiday they’ll give her. After all, it’s not as though she’s a servant.’

As it turned out, she was given the full twelve days and arrived home on Christmas Eve, on the four o’clock stage from Middlesbrough, laden with parcels, and with a handsome young escort to help her carry them. Jane had been waiting for nearly half an hour in the coach yard with the children beside her, all warmly wrapped up in their new coats and their new mufflers with new button boots on their feet and new beaver hats on their heads, and as soon as they saw her they rushed towards her with their arms outstretched to hug and kiss her. And the escort put down his parcels and strode towards their mother with
his
arms outstretched.

‘Oh, Mrs Smith,’ he said. ‘How
good
it is to see you. You haven’t changed a bit. I would have known you anywhere.’

It took her a second to recognize him and then it was with a shock of such pleasure it brought a flush to her cheeks. She put her arms round his elegant neck and kissed him like the son he was. ‘Felix,’ she said, ‘my dear boy.’

‘Who,’ Nat said to Milly very suspiciously, ‘is that?’

‘That’s Felix,’ big sister Milly told him, ‘and he’s bought us a hamper full of good things.’

He wasn’t placated. That was
his
mama the young man was hugging and
he and Papa were the only ones allowed to do that – except for the girls, of course. ‘Why?’

Milly was no help to him at all. ‘Why not?’ she said.

‘I’ve got a new coat,’ Mary told her, holding out the skirt for her
inspection
. ‘An’ a new muffler. An’ gubs an’ boots an’ a hat.’

‘Very pretty.’

‘Her name’s not Mrs Smith,’ Nat said, scowling at this unnecessary young man.

‘It’s going to snow,’ Jane said, squinting up at the sky which was
colourless
with cold. ‘Home I think and as quick as we can.’

The snow began to fall as they approached Bootham Bar and by the time they reached Shelton House their coats were flecked with it and it was curtaining around them so thickly they could barely see where they were going. Nathaniel was waiting at the door for them and rushed them inside, all talking at once – except for Nat, who was still scowling – and then settled them by the fire in the parlour, with a glass of hot punch to warm the adults and a glass of Mrs Cadwallader’s nice hot lemonade for the
children
and Spot sitting at their feet and the shutters closed against the weather.

‘Welcome home!’ he said to Milly as he handed her the punch, adding courteously, ‘And welcome to you too, Felix. It is good to make your acquaintance. I’ve heard much about you.’

‘And I of you, sir,’ Felix said. ‘Milly never stops talking about you all.’

‘How long can you stay with us?’ Jane wanted to know. ‘You’ll not go rushing away as soon as dinner’s done, will you?’

‘I could stay as long as you’ll have me,’ Felix said, giving her that old shy smile she knew so well. ‘There’s no one at home in Foster Manor except the pater and, truth to tell, he don’t notice whether I’m there or not and Sarah’s got a house full of Livingstons, which makes me a bit of a fish out of water, and Emma’s house is full of Smithson Lumleys.’

‘If that’s the size of it,’ Nathaniel told him, ‘consider it settled. You can stay as long as Milly does and then escort her home again afterwards, which would please us mightily. How would that be?’

There was great satisfaction all round – except for Nat, whose scowl was enough to turn the milk sour.

When Audrey had arrived to take the two children away for their nursery tea, Nathaniel turned to his wife and made a grimace. ‘What
was
the matter with our Nat?’ he said to Jane. ‘I’ve never seen such a little
thundercloud
and that’s not like him.’

‘He’s jealous,’ Milly told him.

That surprised him. ‘Jealous?’

‘Of Felix,’ Milly said. ‘He was fairly bristling when Ma kissed him.’

‘Oh dear!’ Jane said. ‘I shall need to set that to rights. I can’t have my poor Nat feeling put out.’

‘Don’ ’ee fret,’ Milly said, smiling at her. ‘Let me read ’em their story tonight and ’twill be right as rain in the morning. I promise.’

Jane was half impressed, half doubtful. ‘How will ’ee bring that about?’ she asked.

‘By magic,’ her daughter said, giving her a wicked grin. ‘I’m a dab hand at magic.’ She knew she was bragging, which wasn’t very admirable, but why shouldn’t she? She
was
a dab hand. Look how she’d coaxed Arabella and Maria to read.

So that evening, while the others were still dressing for dinner, she went to the nursery. Nat and Mary were bouncing up and down on their beds and Audrey was fussing beside them, begging them to ‘be good children and get into bed, there’s lambs’.

‘I shall count to three,’ their sister said sternly, in her governess voice, ‘and if tha’s not under the covers and quite quiet tha’ll not get a story.’

They were ready as she reached two. ‘Now then,’ she told them, speaking in her own voice, as Audrey left the room, ‘I’ve got a lovely story for you tonight.’

‘But you’ve not brought your book,’ Nat said.

‘That’s on account of this story is in my head,’ Milly said. ‘And all the better for being in such a good place. Now then, are you comfy?’ And when they nodded, she began her tale.

‘Once upon a time there was a little boy. He lived in a mighty big house and had lots of servants to wait on him and plenty of fine things to eat and fine clothes to wear and a pony to ride when he was old enough, so you’d think he was the luckiest boy alive.’ Earnest and happy nodding. ‘But no, I’m sad to say he wasn’t, on account of on the very same day he was born, his dear mama, who loved him very much, the same as your ma loves you, his dear mama took ill and died and the poor little boy was left all alone wi’out a mother to care for him. Wasn’t that the saddest thing? Now then, what could be done about it? His father thought and thought and couldn’t come up with an answer, the servants thought and thought and couldn’t come up with an answer, even the groom thought and thought but
he
couldn’t come up with an answer either and said they’d probably have to feed the baby to the pigs, like as not.’ Wide-eyed shock. ‘And the poor little baby lay in his pretty cot and cried for his mama. And then, just when they were all at their wits’ end and the poor little baby had cried himself to sleep on account of there was nobody there to cuddle him and feed him, a fairy flew in through the nursery window.’

The two children were transfixed, waiting in silence for the story to go on.

‘She was a very sensible fairy,’ Milly said. ‘Some fairies can be very sensible, you know. “
Stop that caterwauling
”, she said, “
and let me think what’s to be done. I can’t think if you mek a row.
” So they all stopped crying and stood where they were and they waited. “’
Tis plain for to see
,” the fairy said, “
that what this baby needs is another mother.
” And she waved her wand, so that sparkles flew in all directions like fireflies, and a beautiful lady walked in through the door. She had lovely thick dark curls on her head, and the finest brown eyes you ever saw and the gentlest face and she was wearing a shawl made of very soft wool in every shade of pink and blue and lilac.’

‘Like Mama,’ Nat said. ‘She’s got a shawl like that.’

‘And gubs,’ Mary put in.

‘And gloves,’ Milly agreed.

‘Like Mama,’ Mary decided.

‘Quite right,’ Milly said, ‘she was very like your mama, with her dark hair and her kind heart. The spit and image, you might say. And when she saw the poor little motherless baby a-lying in his cot with the tears still wet on his poor little face, she picked him up straightaway and gave him the biggest cuddle ever. And so she became his mother and fed him and looked after him until he was a big boy and had to go away to school. And even though he’d had a reet bad start in his poor little life, he ended up such a happy baby that they called him Felix, what means happy. Did ’ee know that?’

‘Felix?’ Nat said.

‘Aye.’

‘The one what’s come here to stay?’

‘Aye. The very same. The one what’s come here to stay.’

Nat considered this for quite a long time. ‘Did
his
mama die, like you said?’

‘She did.’

‘On the day he was born?’

‘She did. And then our mama, what has the kindest heart on the world, as tha knows, she picked him out of his cradle and cuddled him and looked after him, and that’s why he’s so fond of her. I think she’s the kindest mama ever and that’s the best story ever. Don’t you?’

He considered again and then smiled at her. ‘Yes,’ he said.

And Mary echoed him. ‘Yes.’

‘Now settle to sleep,’ Milly said, stooping to kiss them both, ‘and if tha’rt good, tomorrow we’ll play Bears. Felix is top-notch at Bears.’

So despite its rather precarious start, it turned out to be a very happy holiday, their easy world shining with snowfall, the Christmas goose cooked to succulent perfection, the presents splendidly successful, and Bears every afternoon. Nathaniel said he’d never
had
such a rollicking Christmas and when he said goodbye to Milly and Felix he told them he hoped he would see them both again ‘very soon’.

‘Oh you will, sir,’ Felix assured him. ‘You will.’

‘I’ll be back at Easter,’ Milly promised as she kissed her mother. ‘Save me some of the plum cake.’

‘That’ll be gone long afore Easter,’ Jane laughed. ‘We’ll need to bake a simnel cake if ’ee wants cake.’

‘Look after our Milly,’ Nathaniel said as he shook hands with Felix.

The answer was as solemnly given as a vow. ‘You may depend on it.’

And then they were both climbing into the coach and Milly was waving through the little window and the horn was sounding and the horses were snorting and the holiday was over.

‘I like your Felix,’ Nathaniel said to Jane as they walked back home. ‘He’s a gentleman.’

‘He is,’ Jane agreed. ‘A proper gentleman.’

They crunched over the trodden snow for several happy seconds. ‘If you ask me,’ Nathaniel said, ‘I think he’s sweet on your Milly.’

‘Aye,’ she said. ‘Quite possibly.’

‘Very possibly,’ Nathaniel said. ‘The signs are there.’

‘’Twill be a boy and girl affair,’ Jane told him. ‘They’re too young for owt else, which is just as well to my way of thinking. If they were serious, his father’d have summat to say.’

‘Aye,’ Nathaniel said. ‘Possibly.’

‘There’s no possibly about it,’ Jane told him. ‘His father’s a stickler for family alliances and obedience and that sort of thing. He’ll want him to marry a duchess, at the very least, if I’m any judge of the man. He’d not tek kindly to our Milly.’

‘Our Milly’s the equal of any duchess,’ he told her, tucking her hand into the crook of his elbow. ‘Howsomever, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. They’re young yet. You’ve the right of
that
. Much could happen in the meantime. There are changes coming.’

Milly and Felix talked about their holiday all the way back to Cross Lanes where Felix had arranged for the dog cart to meet them and the coach stopped to put them down. But when it had rattled away and left them
standing on the snow-trodden path in a desert of snow-covered fields with a keen wind blowing, there was no sign of a cart and no sound of one either.

‘It will be along presently,’ Felix said, with a confidence he didn’t feel. ‘We could walk and meet it, if you’d care to. We’ve only got our travelling bags and I could carry them. Easily. And we’d have the wind at our backs. What do you think?’

So they walked, with the wind at their backs, and after a while, because her hands were cold even in their gloves, she took his free arm and walked as close to him as she could get. And since they were on their own in an empty countryside, with no one to hear them, they began to talk rather more freely than they’d dared to do when they’d been in company.

‘It was so good to see your mother again,’ he said, ‘even if it did upset young Nat.’

‘He got over it,’ she said happily.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘How did you persuade him? I didn’t like to ask while we were …’

‘I told him a fairy story,’ she said, and explained. ‘About a little boy who lost his mother when he was born and how a fairy godmother came and waved her magic wand and a beautiful lady came to look after him.’

‘That accounts for his question,’ he said, when she’d finished.

‘What question?’

‘He asked me if I’d really lost my mother on the day I was born. I told him I had but I
did
wonder why he’d asked.’

They walked on, thinking all this over. ‘We have a lot in common,’ he said at last, ‘apart from the fact that your mother brought us both up, which is the most important thing. We’re both orphans, are we not? I lost my mother on the day I was born and you lost your father even
before
you were born.’

‘Aye. I did. But then there are lots of orphans. There’s nowt unusual in being an orphan. Happen that’s why there are so many in fairy stories.’

‘You and your fairy stories,’ he said.

‘There’s a deal of truth in a fairy story, I’ll have ’ee know.’

‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘There is. You’re right. Your mama and Mr Cartwright are like a fairy story.’

That was intriguing. ‘How so?’

‘They married for love,’ he said, ‘like Sleeping Beauty’s mother and father, which is a rare thing.’

‘Aye,’ she said, thinking of the Hudsons, ‘so it is.’

‘It made me feel happy to see them so happy, if that’s not a foolish thing to say.’