Keeping the Castle - By Patrice Kindl Page 0,63

a talent like Miss Vincy’s, and no young brother or mother for whom I must save an estate, would I have the courage to live alone and independent? Then, if I ever did choose to marry, I could marry someone I liked and respected, without reference to his fortune. Someone who could make me laugh, for instance. Someone like . . .

However, I did not have a talent like Miss Vincy’s and I did have a mother and young brother who dearly needed me to marry well, so it was not worth thinking of. Perhaps one day women might be able to choose their husbands with no thought of money and position, but not in this day and age in Lesser Hoo, Yorkshire, England.

“My life is quite tolerable, by and large,” Miss Vincy was saying, “except that I see my son less than I would wish. I did have to promise my mother that I would marry any man of whom she approved, if she could maneuver him into asking, but I felt that I would be able to discourage most men from asking. Unfortunately, somehow or other Mr. Godalming got the idea that I was open to his advances. I do not know how it was that you got rid of him, Althea, but I am most grateful.”

The mortification which smote me may be imagined. “Oh, really, I had nothing to do with it,” I muttered, feebly repulsing her attempt to show her thankfulness by kissing me. “It was entirely Mr. Fredericks’s doing.”

I next had to listen to an effusion about what a staunch friend and all-in-all splendid fellow Mr. Fredericks was. In the faint hope of disillusioning her, I explained how he had discouraged Mr. Godalming, but she laughed merrily and shook her head at his cunning.

“I shall have to remember that!” she said. “Tho’ perhaps poor Papa would prefer I not use it too often.”

Dr. Haxhamptonshire called that afternoon and pronounced Leon to be well on the road to recovery. His temperature remained low for the rest of the afternoon, and it was determined that Miss Vincy and I would return on the morrow to our respective abodes.

The good doctor was warned not to call Miss Vincy by her married name again (“I only told him, because I did not wish him to look down on my son as illegitimate, and perhaps not exert himself to do everything he could,” she explained), and I thought he would obey, if only because a man as rich as Mr. Vincy and a woman as determined as Mrs. Vincy could cause him serious harm, even here in our quiet little corner of the world.

We ate a humble but hearty meal, and spent the evening with the invalid, who was awake and beginning to be interested in some warm gruel. Nurse Braddock sat with us and revealed herself to be a good, decent soul, fond of Miss Vincy and of young Leon. We whiled away the evening listening to her tales of Miss Vincy’s infancy and early years—I had little difficulty believing that she was a perfect paragon of goodness, and clever with her crayons—and went early to bed.

As neither of us had had the forethought to bring a change of clothes along on our visit, and as we did not wish our families to know where we were, Mr. Fredericks had been authorized to bring us the necessities so that we might present a dignified and decent appearance. To give greater color to the story that we had been staying at some distance, he then undertook to drive me by coach to the castle before returning Miss Vincy to the Park, even tho’ it was but a twenty-minute walk for me and fifteen for Miss Vincy.

We washed and dressed ourselves with as much care as possible and awaited his arrival. Master Leon was up this morning and toddling about, pestering his mother and his nurse to be allowed to go out of doors. Beyond the fact that he was new-risen from a sickbed, the day was rainy and blustery; he was instructed not to think of such a thing, but to play with his toys quietly in front of the fire.

But the morning wore away and Mr. Fredericks did not come. By noon Leon had exhausted his newfound vigor and become tired and peevish. He wept and coughed and clung to his mother, whom he rightly suspected was preparing to leave him. Nurse Braddock fed him some porridge with cream