The Sapphire Child (The Raj Hotel #2) - Janet MacLeod Trotter Page 0,25
Grandmamma. Granny sounds so parochial, don’t you think? And while we’re on the subject, Andrew, you will call me Mamma.’
Minnie didn’t seem put out by her daughter’s rebuke and smiled at Stella. ‘Welcome, dear. You won’t remember me but I visited The Raj Hotel when my dear husband was still alive.’
‘I do remember,’ said Stella, shaking her hand. ‘You were both very kind and gave me money to buy a bell for my bicycle.’
‘Fancy you remembering that,’ Minnie exclaimed.
Lydia was issuing orders to a station porter about luggage when a tall woman dressed in men’s plus twos and waistcoat pushed her way through to them. She wore a battered plum-coloured hat on top of a mop of unruly brown hair.
‘Andrew!’ She lunged at the boy, kissing his cheek and hugging him. ‘I’m your Auntie Tibby. Welcome to Ebbsmouth. Sorry I’m late. Bicycle got a puncture. And you must be Stella?’ She had a smoker’s husky voice and gave Stella a hearty handshake with tobacco-stained fingers. ‘Tom and Esmie are always singing your praises.’
‘Very pleased to meet you, Miss Lomax,’ said Stella.
‘Call me Tibby. Miss Lomax makes me sound like a frightening old spinster.’
‘That’s what you are,’ Lydia murmured out of Aunt Tibby’s hearing, putting a possessive hand on Andrew’s arm.
‘Hello, Lydia – and Mrs T,’ Tibby said amiably. ‘I hope you’ll bring Andrew and Stella to The Anchorage soon.’
‘We’ll see,’ said Lydia. ‘They need to settle in at Templeton Hall first.’
‘Perhaps you’d like to come up to the Hall, Tibby dear?’ Minnie suggested.
Lydia frowned at her mother. ‘Not today. Andrew and Stella need to rest after their long journey.’
‘Of course,’ said Tibby. ‘You can ring and let me know when’s convenient.’ She smiled at Andrew. ‘Do you play golf?’
‘I’ve tried,’ said Andrew, ‘but I’m not very good.’
‘Well, you can come and hack around my rough-and-ready course anytime you want. Some of the boys like to play.’
‘The boys?’ he queried.
‘The artists who live with me.’
Lydia took her son by the arm. ‘Come on, let’s get you home. Car’s parked at the entrance. Goodbye, Tibby.’ She swept Andrew forward, leaving her mother and Stella to follow.
Tibby fell into step with Stella. ‘I hope you’ll call in at The Anchorage whenever you please. You’ll be very welcome, dearie.’
‘Thank you,’ Stella replied. ‘I look forward to visiting.’
Tibby gave a wide smile that made her hazel eyes crinkle in her weather-beaten face. She looked nothing like her twin brother, but Stella took to her at once. She sensed that Tom’s sister would be an ally against the forceful Lydia, if one should be needed.
Stella, sitting in the back of the car with Minnie, gazed in wonder as they drove up a tree-lined gravel drive bordered by lush green lawns and flowerbeds packed with colourful flowers and shrubs. Ahead lay a beautiful whitewashed mansion, its casement windows partially hidden beneath creeping honeysuckle and climbing roses. The whole vista was a riot of colour, and heady floral scents wafted in through the car windows. Andrew had been right when he’d said his mother had bags of money.
Lydia, who was driving, had not stopped talking since the station, her stream of conversation almost solely addressed to Andrew who was sitting in the passenger seat beside her. Stella tried to listen in at the same time as showing an interest in Minnie’s obvious pride at her garden.
‘. . . and I got Lily, the maid, to lay out the lead soldiers on the nursery table,’ said Lydia. ‘They belonged to your grandfather Archibald – Tibby thought you might like to play with them. Looking at you, I’d say you’re already too old for that. Mind you, old Archibald used to stage mock battles in his library till the day he died. Keeled over in the middle of re-enacting Waterloo, by all accounts. But he was a strange old bird. Cantankerous wasn’t the word.’
‘Dad said he was a bully,’ Andrew commented.
Lydia huffed. ‘Your father was too soft – let himself be pushed around when what he should have done was stand up to the old boy. I tried to smooth things over between them but it was a waste of time and energy. Both as stubborn as each other in their own way.’
‘Lydia, dear,’ Minnie murmured from the back seat, ‘Tom’s not here to defend himself, so don’t be unkind.’
‘Oh, Mummy, you just think the best of everyone. Daddy knew what Tom was like – he always took my side . . .’ Lydia’s voice wobbled.