Prue Phillipson - Hordens of Horden Hall (10 page)

“Why, the villain,” Bel cried. “He calls this a retraction!”

Nat laid a hand on hers. “He doesn’t know Daniel as we do. How could he? To say this much must have caused him a great struggle.”

Daniel peered over the letter. “I’m glad
you
both believe in my honour. How does he go on?”

“He finishes that sentence with
‘but my daughter has told me the rather peculiar circumstances under which he said that the idea of loving her was preposterous. She has repented of eavesdropping, an activity which invariably leads to more wrong, but if the words spoken by your son represent his feelings towards her he will not expect me to reply in the affirmative to my mother’s proposal.’”

Bel leant forward to peer past Nat at Daniel. “They didn’t, did they, represent your feelings, Dan. I saw your tears.
They
expressed your feelings a great deal better.”

Daniel leapt up and planted himself before her with his back against the stone balustrade. “No they didn’t, Mother, and I wish everyone would leave my feelings alone. When I shed tears I was just mad with frustration at the whole foolish visit. I wish it had never happened.”

“Very well, my love,” she said. “Go on, Nat.”

“There is not much more. He says he has enclosed a note for us to give his mother but for our information he has written,
‘I have no wish to give my daughter in marriage to your son or anyone else unless the Lord shows me a worthy man and directs me to do so.”

Bel shook her head. “There you are. He calls upon the Lord again. He will make no move of his own volition or responsibility and he will not allow his poor child such freedom either. I cannot think he is right. God has given us minds and hearts and a free will.”

“Yet waiting upon Him in prayer is also right, Bel. I pray that our son will live a good life and in due course find an excellent woman who will bear him children.”

And
I
pray, Daniel thought, that I will do great deeds for my King, show strength and courage and maybe one day meet a pretty girl who has an uncomplicated family with a comfortable little fortune and a cheerful disposition.

His mother had now risen too and put her arm round his shoulders.

“Maybe William is not as vicious as you feared. It is much for a man like that to recognise his own faults. Do not be too anxious for little Eunice. He will not let her starve and she will almost certainly grow into a better woman than those shallow French brats.”

He pulled away from her. “As I said before I want nothing to do with any girls. How long will this dreadful journey home take? Why can’t we go back by sea on our own? How long will the French family stay when we get there?”

“Well,” she laughed, “I would say six days to the first question. To the second, it is my mother who is paying our fares. Like the new clothes it is her gift to make up for the years she couldn’t help me. I just hope she knows what our roads and stage-coaches are like. As for the third question I expect no more than a few weeks. Henrietta’s husband will want her home and so will his father, the old Count Rombeau. And when the girls realise there is no hope of either of them becoming Lady Horden they will be more than ready to go.”

“Good,” said Daniel. “Then I’ll go and have a sleep before supper. I am still recovering from that dreadful ball.”

CHAPTER 9

“
We are all to get out and walk up the hill. The lead horse has gone lame.”

Nathaniel passed on the coachman’s message to the sleepy passengers.

Daniel jumped out readily and held out his hand to the nearest lady who happened to be Madeline.

“These cursed English roads!” she cried. “Just look at the mud. Well I sha’nt get out. What difference would my little weight make?”

Lady Horden rose. “If your grandmother can walk you can. Put on your chopins as your mother is doing.” Daniel looked at these things curiously. They were French galoshes but with higher heels than English ones. Walking in them, he thought, must be difficult.

His mother had already slipped her pattens over her shoes and she and his father were descending at the other side, followed by Henrietta and the eighth inside passenger, a silent gentleman they had picked up at the last stage. The three outside passengers, two French lady’s maids and the man servant had climbed down out of the basket, shaking the wet from their cloaks.

Daniel assisted his grandmother down and then Diana eagerly held out her hands to him. “
I’m
coming, Dan.
I
don’t make a fuss.”

She had picked up his mother’s way of always addressing him as Dan and by this the second day of their journey Daniel had finally separated the two sisters from the composite giggling pair they had seemed to be in London.

The trials of travel were certainly a test of character. Madeline grumbled at everything while Diana copied Nat’s and Bel’s cheerfulness and looked often at Daniel to make sure he had noticed.

Now as he took both her hands she jumped into his arms and peered up at his face with her great black eyes shining as if this was a great adventure.

From first setting off from Aldersgate, Daniel had realised there was no escaping intimacy in a coach and sitting opposite to the girls he had begun to observe the differences between them. He had thought them both black haired, but Madeline’s was blue-black while Diana’s had a hint of red-brown when a sunbeam shone through the coach window. She had a trick too of winding one of her ringlets round her finger as she chatted. It might be nervous excitement but to Daniel it was appealing rather than irritating. Her mother, his Aunt Henrietta, always contriving to appear elegant and unruffled herself, would tell her under her breath and in French to stop fiddling. Daniel grinned sympathetically at her the first time that happened and from that moment she ceased any vestige of teasing him. This sent her sister into a prolonged sulk.

Holding Diana now as he set her on the ground Daniel decided she was much prettier than her sister, her nose was not as long or her mouth as wide and her surprised eyes with their arched brows were quite charming. She was shorter and slightly plumper than the more angular Madeline. Her generous bosom brushed his doublet and on the excuse of helping her to the grassy verge he lifted her off her feet over the rough stones and muddy ruts in the road. There had been rain all that morning but the sun was out now and a steamy haze was rising from the wet fields. He took her arm in case her chopins slipped on the damp grass.

Glancing back he saw that his father was helping a reluctant Madeline to descend.

“With six horses,” she demanded, “why does it matter if one of them is lame?”

“They are taking him from the traces to lead him on the grass,” Nat explained, “which means they must remove his paired horse to have the balance right. It will do us good to walk awhile now the rain has stopped.”

She snorted. “What is this God-forsaken place? How far have we to walk?”

“We’re somewhere south of Peterborough. The man says he can hire a fresh horse at the next village which is only at the top of this rise. There are fifteen miles more to the next staging inn and then we can have a good supper and a rest.”

Diana, her arm happily tucked into Daniel’s, was prancing along. She too looked back at her sister.

Madeline, picking her way delicately, was still grumbling to Nathaniel. “In France we never took a public coach. We went everywhere in our own carriage which had the latest springs for comfort. This lumbering thing bounces one to pieces. I know not how
Grandmere
will live through it for five more days.”

“Lady Horden is behaving with great stoicism,” Nathaniel said. “I am very proud of my mother-in-law but it is only what I would expect of the mother of my Bel. See how your Aunt Bel is striding ahead of all of us.”

“Why do you call her Bel? I was always told my Aunt’s name was Arabella.”

“It is, but she likes everything short and quick, names no more than three letters long. Hence I am Nat and Daniel is Dan.”

“She had better not call me Mad,” Madeline growled.

Diana looked up into Daniel’s face and giggled, “It would be a good name for her in that mood, don’t you think so?”

Daniel didn’t know what to do but grin back at her.

It was the next day that the all too frequent disaster of coach travel befell them. There had been more rain overnight and puddles dotted the broken surface of the road. The coachman drove through most of them in blind faith but one concealing a much deeper rut deceived him.

Their silent companion of the previous day had become voluble after a friendly question from Bel about his destination. He was telling his life history which included, Daniel was excited to find, a spell of service in the navy. Daniel was leaning forward to catch his every word over the rattling of the coach when there was a tremendous lurch, the sound of wood splintering and then the whole contraption began toppling sideways.

There were screams. Daniel heard his mother shout, “We’re going right over. Push the rugs and cushions that side.” She was doing it as she spoke, inserting a cushion behind Lady Horden’s head as they all slithered on top of her mother, grabbing at the benches to soften their impact. The coach settled on its side and after a pause to see that it had stopped moving they began to untangle themselves. The men strove to avoid crushing the ladies’ legs with their boots as they reached to push open the door above them.

The coachman’s head appeared in the opening. His worried eyes assessed the squirming mass of bodies.

“Is anyone hurt?”

Daniel, the tallest and most agile, hauled himself out and reached down for the nearest waving arm – Diana’s. “I think not,” he told the man.

The other ladies were still struggling among the swathes of petticoats to find their feet on the side which had now become a floor. The straw on the original floor had slid into a heap hampering their movement and horribly dirtying their dresses.

The coachman set a box below the new roof and when Daniel had dragged Diana up, the stranger pushing her from behind, he passed her to the coachman who helped her to climb down.

“I have no hurt,” she called up cheerfully. “Only a tear in my dress but it’s no matter.”

Daniel remained on top as one by one the other ladies were lifted out and passed down, sadly crumpled but none the worse.

Madeline moaned to Nathaniel as he heaved her up to the opening, “Your elbow crushed me as you fell on top of me. I shall be black and blue. I know it.”

“I am sorry. I daresay we will all have a few bruises but there are no bones broken I believe. Let us thank God for that.”

When they were all out they saw that the serving-man was crouched by the roadway, white-faced and clutching his ankle. He had jumped from the basket as the coach tipped and turned his foot on one of the road stones. The two maids were sobbing piteously, coated in mud, having clung on till they touched down and then crawled out. Some of the pieces of luggage on top had broken loose from their ropes and were sitting in puddles in the road.

The little group looked at each other with rueful faces. It began to rain.

Two hours later they were sitting round a roaring inn fire. The innkeeper who had sent a rescue party with a carriage and cart and spare horses was eager in his concern for them. Rooms where they could change their soiled, wet clothes were instantly at their disposal. Ale and wine were flowing freely and two fat chickens were roasting on a spit for their supper. He evidently had an eye for a fortune to be made.

A big-bellied man with a permanently florid complexion, he planted himself before Lady Horden as she sipped her wine. “Now my lady, after your ladyship’s dreadful experience you will not be wanting to proceed on your journey in the horrid stage even supposing they can bring up a new wheel on it by the morning. I can hire you the most comfortable coach and a man that is the best driver in the kingdom. There will be a covered cart for your servants and luggage and if the gentlemen are happy to ride there are horses the like of which you will not see at any of the regular staging inns. I will send word ahead that you are to be as well supplied at the next inn. My man knows only the best places.”

“Oh Grandmamma, we must do as he says,” cried Madeline. “I will never trust myself in another stage again.”

“We will consider your offer, my man, if the cost is reasonable, but you see there are five ladies in our party, myself, my two daughters and my granddaughters. Is there room in this coach for all?”

The innkeeper looked crestfallen. “It is a beautiful coach with padded seats and glass windows but – I fear it only seats four in comfort.”

“I shall ride,” cried Diana. “I can unpack my riding skirt and jacket tonight.”

The innkeeper still looked worried. “It is only two horses I can spare besides the two for the coach and one for the cart.

“Then I shall ride behind Dan.” Diana clapped her hands at the brilliance of this idea. “You can arrange a saddle for me, Innkeeper, can you not?”

He bowed several times with a large grin across his fire-rosy face.