The maid quickly ushered Amy into the room, then bobbing her knee respectfully she quickly withdrew, drawing the door shut behind her.
Amy stared about her in awe, so taken with the huge bookshelves and luxurious furnishings that she temporarily forgot to be nervous. It was very much a gentleman’s room, with great gold-framed oil paintings of hunting scenes dotted about the walls. There was an omate marble fireplace with two leather deep-winged chairs to either side of it and a fringed Oriental rug on the floor between them.
‘So … you found us then, Miss Ernshaw?’ Mr Forrester’s deep voice pulled her back to the present.
‘Yes, sir.’ She was squirming beneath his gaze and feeling extremely uncomfortable, when suddenly she became aware of another presence in the room. An old lady was sitting almost hidden in one of the winged chairs to the side of the fireplace. She too was closely scrutinising her, and Amy felt the sweat break out on her forehead. The old woman was so aged and wrinkled that she made Molly appear almost young in comparison. Yet for all that, her eyes were bright and alert. She was extravagantly dressed in so many frills and bows that they seemed to swamp her tiny figure. And her face with its white complexion, highly rouged cheeks and scarlet painted lips reminded Amy of a china-faced doll that she had seen in the toy-shop window in the town. The whole look was topped by what was obviously a very elaborately curled dark wig that only seemed to emphasise the pallor of her face. The old lady’s eyes had narrowed to slits. In fact, she was staring at Amy so intently that they appeared to have almost disappeared into her wrinkles. Her hands were covered in rings that caught and reflected the weak fading light that shone through the windows, and one of them clutched a silver-topped walking stick that she suddenly tapped impatiently on the floor.
‘Well, come ’ere then, lass, and let me ’ave a good look at you,’ she ordered in a voice that brooked no argument. The walk across the room seemed endless but eventually Amy stood before her.
‘Take off your ’at,’ the old woman ordered shortly.
After fumbling with the ribbons beneath her chin, Amy did as she was told. Her long auburn curls spilled about her shoulders and the old woman’s eyes went from Amy to Mr Forrester’s. ‘You were right,’ she said. ‘The resemblance is uncanny.’
Amy had no idea at all what the woman was talking about, so for now she wisely remained silent.
‘Amy, this is my mother, Mrs Forrester senior.’
Amy bobbed her knee respectfully. ‘How do you do, ma’am,’ she said politely, and for the first time the old woman’s face softened, her eyes still tight on her.
‘Now then – I believe you have some sketches to show me.’ Mr Forrester was impatient to get down to the business at hand, and relieved for an excuse to escape the old woman’s scrutiny, Amy crossed to the desk and, hastily withdrawing the sketches from her bag, she placed them in a neat pile before him. Samuel began to lift them one by one and study them closely.
‘Mother, come and look at these,’ he said eventually, as if Amy were not even present, and stiffly the old woman rose from her seat and leaning heavily on her cane, she hobbled over to him.
As she began to leaf through the sketches, looking through an eyeglass that hung from her neck on a silver chain, Samuel pulled a bell-rope, and seconds later, the young maid who had shown Amy in reappeared at the door.
‘Ah, Lily, show Miss Ernshaw to the kitchen and see to it that she has some refreshments.’ He smiled for the first time at Amy. ‘I’m sure you must be thirsty after your walk?’
Amy nodded, feeling totally out of her depth.
‘Go with Lily, my dear, and my mother and I will look more closely at your sketches until you return.’
Obediently, Amy followed the maid from the room, and once the door had closed behind them she let out a great sigh of relief.
The maid grinned cheekily. ‘Don’t let old Mrs Forrester frighten yer. Her bark’s far worse than her bite.’ She was leading Amy to a green baize door that stood right at the far end of the long hallway, and after following her through a maze of corridors, they passed through another door and into the kitchen.