The Imaginary Gentleman (15 page)

L
AURA CAME DOWN TO THE
drawing room to find the whole party gathered there. Unable to question her brother in the presence of their guests, she burned with curiosity about his mysterious visit to Plymouth.

Elspeth was practising her winning ways upon young Woodruff, returned already from his visit to his Cornwall friends.

“Why, Mr. Woodruff, you delight us with your presence again so soon!” she said.

“The society in Cornwall lacks the charm of that in Devonshire,” he said, with a smile he fancied was rather worldly.

Elspeth bowed her head. “You are very kind.”

“There was nothing to keep me in Cornwall once the rats were caught,” he added.

“Shame on you! You only missed our society after your rat-catching sport was over!”

“'Twas an obligation, you know,” he said.

Elspeth turned to delight over Miss Evalina's attire—a white muslin gown embroidered over with tiny flowers, so cut that it gave a tempting glimpse of her high round bosom. “Does she not look charming, Edward?”

The captain made the required compliment and Evalina blushed, thanking him.

Mrs. Woodruff glanced at the baronet, extracting his agreement that Miss Evalina indeed looked delightful, but Jane had to gently nudge Evalina as a reminder to thank that gentleman for his compliment.

Before they all proceeded into the dining hall, Mr. Woodruff found the opportunity to whisper to Elspeth, “I have a letter for you, my dear Mrs. Evans.”

“There is a reply? I thank you, sir.”

He did not hand her the epistle at once, perhaps wishing to avoid his mother's interference while prolonging the sense of subterfuge.

Evalina trailed in the rear of the procession of couples. Jane, her senior, went into dinner alongside the captain, unaware of Evalina glaring at her back.

For the duration of the first course, Laura was regaled with tales of Mr. Woodruff's recent exploits in rat-catching.

“Are you a champion in this noble art?” asked Laura.

“Ha! Ha! I rather believe I am,” he said. “For I killed eleven and my friend only got six!”

“How many did the rat-catcher get?”

Mr. Woodruff mumbled an answer not intended to be fully intelligible, and Laura surmised that he was disinclined to dwell on the achievements of the professional man.

“My host was very grateful, I assure you. The cook prepared a special pie in my honour, for she was tired of the thieving rodents.”

“Jeremy, this is hardly fitting conversation for dinner,” said his mother.

His sister Jane said, “I wonder you had time to fulfill any social obligations on your journey, Jeremy.”

“Good Lord, Jane! That was the purpose of the visit!” His eyes swivelled towards the lady at the head of the table, but Mrs. Evans would not understand his hint.

Evalina did her best to make a contribution to Miss Morrison's conversation with Jeremy. Yet she could not help glancing across at the captain, seeing how perfect were his manners in addressing all his attention to his dinner partner—for surely it could be only his sense of duty causing him to never look across at Evalina once?

Evalina knew not the topic of Edward and Jane's conversation, which at first dwelt much on the dishes before them, as he recommended the cook's specialties. They spoke next of his sister. Miss Woodruff was appreciative of Laura's wit and admiring of her skill in drawing, and to these remarks Edward was gratified to respond. However, Jane also paid compliment to Laura's grace and commonsense, and this well-meaning praise served to remind him of his sister's lapse from those very standards that were the foundation of his esteem for her. His brotherly affection was undiminished and his
debt of gratitude could never be fully discharged. However, he could scarcely imagine how their old friendship, their fellowship of understanding of the world, might survive, and this caused him grief of which Miss Woodruff was naturally in ignorance.

While the new dishes were set out on the cloth for the second course, the colonel looked down the long length of the table, booming, “Sir Richard, how often have you folk enough to fill this board? I'd advise you to be rid of it.”

The baronet paled. “It has stood here these two hundred years and more. At this very board, Her Majesty the Queen dined.”

“You received our beloved Queen, Sir Richard!”

“'Twas not our present queen—God Bless Her—but Good Queen Bess, who spent the night here—an honour shown my forebears for their loyalty.”

“Awfully long ago,” observed Mr. Woodruff, with his approximation of a satirical expression.

“Indeed,” said Sir Richard. “History has been preserved throughout the ages at Oakmont.”

“Cut it!” cried the colonel.

“Cut what?”

“Cut the end from the table. It can be added later should great feastings return to Oakmont.”

“What a clever notion,” said Elspeth. “Military men are always so practical.”

Everyone turned to the baronet, who sat stunned in his great chair. Elspeth nodded at him with a kindly encouragement.

“One thing more,” said the colonel. “Once it's shorter, the table can go across the end of the room, leaving space for dancing.”

Elspeth clapped her hands. “Sir Richard, what do you say?”

“Dancing was always in the Royal Room,” said the baronet stolidly.

“And the Royal Room is …?” asked Elspeth, raising her pretty hands in question.

What is she up to? thought Laura.

The baronet was frowning. “It is pulled down, as you know,
Elspeth.” He turned to Mrs. Woodruff, adding, “It fell into disuse, and, for a time, was used as winter housing for the sheep.”

“For the sheep?” she said faintly.

Sir Richard nodded. “In the year of the Great Tempest of 1685, the top barn blew down, the lambs were housed there, and it became a pattern, yes.”

Miss Evalina's upper lip curled a little. She said, “The ballroom was used to house
sheep
?”

“Well it was never called a ballroom. It was the Royal Room, for Queen Elizabeth, after she paid the family the honour of receiving her loyal subjects from the neighbourhood there. It was the only room large enough for dancing.”

Young Jeremy spluttered with laughter. “Not when the sheep were in it.” The baronet looked hurt. “I do beg your pardon,” said Jeremy.

Laura rescued the situation. “We understand that the room was not habitable when the lambs were brought in, as the wall on the eastern end was collapsing. Later our grandfather had it pulled down for it was not worth repairing. He was also responsible for the restoration of the house.”

“It is believed to be almost exactly as it was in Queen Elizabeth's time,” said Sir Richard, with pride.

“Why not bring the place up to date?” said the colonel.

“Up to date!” said Richard, in horror.

“Why, yes,” Miss Evalina said. “This room could be ever so delightful, with silk curtains all along the wall there to cover up the stone.”

“You are very modern in your notions, Miss Evalina,” he said, leaning away from her suspiciously, as though a changeling were in their midst.

“Everyone is modern nowadays!” she said. “You could install two elegant candelabra to replace this great thing,” she said, pointing overhead to the enormous circle of iron, in which burnt a ring of unfashionably thick candles.

“You clever girl!” said Elspeth. “Sir Richard, can you not imagine it so?”

“I cannot,” he said, his voice hollow.

“Come now, Cousin!” Elspeth said, smiling archly. “It has taken the clever Miss Evalina to show us how old-fashioned we are.”

The baronet bowed towards Evalina with the kindness that was second nature to him, yet there was a certain distance in his expression.

Seeming not to see the danger, Elspeth said, “Sir Richard, you could have some portraits hung at the end of the room.”

“Under the banners?” They all turned to look upon the two old tapestry pennants, their fringes trailing in tattered despondency upon the wall.

“Who has such things on dining room walls nowadays?” said Elspeth. “Lady Clarydon would burst into laughter if she saw them.”

“She had better not come here, if we are not good enough for her,” said the baronet.

Miss Evalina giggled and her mother glared a warning. Evalina blushed and opened her fan, cooling her cheeks with it. She saw that the captain watched her and hid behind her fan for a moment, before lowering it, very slowly, until her décolletage was revealed again. His eyes moved to her bosom and back to her laughing eyes.

“Countess or not, I should soon show her the door if she did not value my dear family,” said Elspeth. “However, those old things on the wall might afford her amusement.”

“I had thought to have them repaired. Perhaps they should be replaced altogether,” said Richard.

“Excellent!”

“Well said!”

“Bravo, sir!”

The cries of encouragement died own and the baronet said, “Yes, I think copies would do very well—exact copies, naturally!”

 

After dinner, when the gentlemen rejoined the ladies in the drawing room, Mrs. Woodruff saw, to her annoyance, her younger daughter paying attention to the captain.

“What think you of my suggestions for the dining hall, Captain?” said Evalina.

He bowed. “I have lived too long at sea to appreciate dull wood and metal around me. A sailor soon comes to value a woman's hand in his surroundings.”

A saucy reply, hinted at in her eyes, was interrupted when Laura walked past them to sit with Miss Woodruff on the sofa. When Evalina looked back to the captain, she found he had fallen into a reverie. Following his gaze, she saw that it rested upon Laura. Or is it my sister who draws his eyes? Evalina wondered. Jane looks very nice tonight; her hair becomes her in that fashion. Everyone must notice how white her throat is.

In an echo of her thoughts, the captain said, “Your sister is looking very handsome tonight.”

Evalina gasped a little and forced a smile to her lips. “She is lovely. Jane is the best sister I could ever have.” However, her thoughts were that Jane had dressed herself with care for
him
.

Evalina was not the only person who marked the direction of the captain's gaze. Her mother entered their conversation. “My daughter Jane will likely be talking to Miss Morrison about her music, Captain,” she said. “I don't believe you have heard her play.”

“No, I have not had that pleasure,” he said.

At that very moment, Laura was asking Miss Woodruff to favour them with an air, and Jane moved to the piano. Laura shifted the candles on the pianoforte and sat beside her to serve as page turner. The captain gallantly moved closer to the instrument, and Miss Evalina saw there was nowhere for her to sit where she was in his line of vision.

Jane captivated her audience, demonstrating more than accomplished fingering, for she had the rare talent of infusing fine feeling into her music. Her hearers were captivated, breathless almost in their attention. The candlelight picked up a glow in her complexion so that it looked creamy rather than pale.

Evalina tried valiantly to enjoy Jane's success. It had always been easy in the past to praise her older sister's accomplishments when gentlemen seemed to prefer her own prettiness. How she resented sharing this man's attention for half an hour!

Elspeth looked at Evalina's expression, which seemed dangerously close to a pout. The poor girl knows not how to bear the shade for five minutes, she thought, I imagine she has taken admiration as her due, since she was on leading strings. I will ask her to sing, when Jane has finished. That will afford me some amusement.

Miss Evalina sang two songs that were well applauded, but for the first time the young lady realised that the great gap between her own accomplishment and her sister's was observed by others. Evalina's performance was enjoyed, her sweetness gave much pleasure to her listeners, but she had not the skill that long hours of practice had given Jane, whose performance was further enhanced by her musical taste.

I suppose he will marry Jane and she deserves him, Evalina thought, taking that leap of imagination so often encountered in those who love.

 

As the baronet and Edward handed the visiting ladies into their carriage, Laura's attention was caught by the secrecy of Mr. Woodruff's movement as he slipped a small package, the size of a thick letter, to Elspeth. She saw how Elspeth concealed the little thing in the end of her shawl.

For what reason can Mr. Woodruff be writing to Elspeth? Surely they are not on such terms as to correspond, she thought. The young man's subterfuge lacked a respectable look.

The colonel and his lady travelled home with conflicting opinions about the evening. Mrs. Woodruff had never seen signs that the baronet was actually falling in love, as yet. However, that evening, she had perceived what her husband had missed—that Evalina had somehow fallen from favour with Sir Richard.

“That talk of bringing Oakmont into the nineteenth century has done the damage,” she said.

“Nonsense,” said the colonel. “What man could resist my little Evvy?” He put his arm around the shoulders of his favourite and gave her a hug.

“The time to bring about changes at Oakmont would come
after
Evalina had secured him,” said his wife.

“All will go as planned,” he said. “The baronet will soon come around to seeing that one can dwell too long in the past.”

“Do you not find anything praiseworthy about Sir Richard's pride in his family's history, Papa?” asked Jane.

“Pride is one thing. To retain inconvenient furnishings is quite another,” he said.

“I never saw a gentleman so unfashionable,” said Jeremy. “His coat is a decent cut but he folds his neck cloth like … an old man.”