‘If there was even a chance he was a familiar of the King! How often does any man of quality pass through Chalcaster these days? Next to never! And yet you have just sent a decent-seeming man away as if he was a beggar – no, worse than a beggar! Apparently you have some regard for them.’
‘Alice, it is not appropriate for you to indulge yourself in this way.’
For a moment her sister stood rigid, with very real tears on her cheeks. ‘You don’t understand,’ she got out at last. ‘Emily, what do we have? A house and a name, and both too costly to keep. Mary married a tradesman because she was terrified of the poorhouse, and now he’s off to the wars – and Rodric too! How will we revive our fortunes if not by allying ourselves to a man of real standing? And will it come from you? No, you’re like a bee that buzzes in and out, defending us from all comers with the sting of your words, while Mary tries to gather honey. But if we are to ever be something more than we are now, it’s up to me to make it so. I am the only one who will restore the greatness of our family. And if I do, it will be in spite of you!’
Poldry came out then, blinking in the cold silence that had developed between the two sisters. He climbed up into the buggy and plainly decided his best choice was to give his attention entirely to the horses.
Leaving the town, Emily felt as though she had been driven out, as though she was an army that had been routed in a war.
4
We have endured another engagement in the swamps of the Levant. I am proud to report to you that I carried myself like a proper soldier and stayed with the line as we advanced. We were told that the colonel wished to force the enemy back. In this he was successful, for we advanced through the thick and clouded air, burdened by our packs and our muskets, and never saw so much as a single Denlander. Our sergeant declared, arbitrarily it seemed to me, that we had achieved our objective. When we turned, to recross all that ground we had taken, there the Denlanders were.
They had been shadowing us all that time, but it was plain that they had been as ignorant of this fact as we. No doubt the papers will carry an account of our heroic stand against their foreign tyranny. In truth there was merely a handful of shot before both sides retreated to a defensible position, after which we were unable to locate each other to continue the battle. The whole event would more fittingly make the subject of one of the papers comic sketches than an account of our martial glory.
As the buggy drew up to Grammaine, Grant hurried out to greet them. He was Grammaine’s groundsman, currently left to them by Mr Northway’s whim. Not young, yet younger than Poldry, he was a big, broad-shouldered man stronger than many half his age. Striding over, she saw his face was tight with disapproval, and Emily felt a sudden jolt of worry.
‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘Is it Mary? Has something happened?’
‘Nothing like that, ma’am.’ Grant’s eyes slid over towards the house as though something venomous was lurking there. ‘Wanted to tell you, before you go inside. There’s a visitor.’
‘Is it another messenger?’ Alice demanded. ‘Don’t . . . don’t tell me that Deerlings . . .’
‘Alice, enough,’ Emily ordered her, because apparently the worst the girl could imagine was that a ball might be called off, a catastrophe Emily rather thought they would survive.
‘He came while you were at Chalcaster, but he’s not said a thing about why. Wanted to talk to you in particular, ma’am.’
Emily let out a long breath, even as Alice began demanding to know who ‘he’ was.
‘Has he been waiting long?’
‘Best part of two hours,’ Grant confirmed. ‘Been making himself at home, he has.’
It was a confrontation Emily had not been looking for: this was something she steeled herself against before heading into town, not a trial to meet her on her return. She felt suddenly on unfamiliar ground, as though her own house had been turned against her.
‘Well, then,’ she said, ‘the sooner I meet with him, the sooner he can be on his way.’
When she stepped inside, the sight that met her eyes brought her up short.