Miss Winbolt and the Fortune Hunter Read online

They talked of other things for a while, but then Philip asked, ‘By the way, did you happen to see any strangers on your way back? They were saying down in the stables that some fellow or other was wandering about round here yesterday. From what they told me, he arrived halfway through the morning, left his horse at the inn in the village and went for a walk. Odd sort of thing to do, wouldn’t you say? Did you catch sight of him, Emmy?’

  Emily’s cheeks grew warm, and were even warmer as she felt Rosa’s eyes on her. She replied with commendable calm, ‘No, I don’t think I did. Did he…did he go back to the inn?’

  ‘Yes, but quite late. He claimed to have lost his way. But he must have come back along the stream about the time you were there.’

  ‘Is he…is he still at the inn?’

  ‘I don’t know! I haven’t seen Will Darby this morning. Why are you asking? There’s no reason to be afraid. They all thought he looked like a gentleman. I don’t think he’s dangerous.’ Now that is entirely a matter of opinion! thought Emily with a wry smile, hastily straightening her face when she saw Rosa looking at her again.

  Philip went on to talk of other matters, and the stranger was not mentioned again. Emily hoped he was for got ten. But afterwards Rosa looked Emily in the eye and said firmly, ‘It’s a lovely morning. Do you feel well enough for a walk in the garden? Or shall we sit in the small parlour? There are just the two of us here this morning. Philip has to go over to Temperley.’

  Philip said, surprised, ‘Aren’t you coming with me to see your father?’

  ‘Not this morning, my love. It’s a business call, and you’ll do much better without me. No, Emily and I are going to have a comfortable chat in the garden. Aren’t we, dear?’

  ‘I thought I might go…’

  ‘You mustn’t disappoint me, Emily,’ said Rosa, with smiling determination.

  Rosa was the sweetest, gentlest girl imaginable, thought Emily, except when she’s looking as she does at the moment. She gave up. ‘No. I see that I mustn’t. Very well. The garden it is. I should like a walk.’

  ‘And a talk, I hope,’ said Rosa with another charming smile.

  It was a beautifully sunny day and the two ladies, wearing wide brimmed hats and carrying parasols, went out into the garden. They walked for a while, and then sat down in the shade. Emily looked around her. She had helped Philip so much here when he had first inherited Shearings. Their Great-Uncle Joseph’s chief interest had been in new methods of farming, and Shearings’s gardens had lain neglected. She and Philip had worked so hard that first year to create this haven of flower beds and shaded walks, arbours and fountains. Emily sighed. She was genuinely happy that Philip had found Rosa. They were ideally suited. But it was some times difficult not to be nostalgic about the past.

  Rosa snapped her parasol shut and turned to Emily, who saw the militant look in her sister-in-law’s eye and braced herself.

  ‘Now!’ she said. ‘Now you can tell me just what happened yesterday, if you please.’

  ‘I…I’ve told you.’

  ‘So you did. And I believed you. But that was before I heard about a stranger. A gentlemanly stranger.’

  ‘What…what has he to do with me?’

  ‘That is what you are going to tell me, Emily dear. I know you. You’re a bad liar. And I have a strong suspicion that you not only saw this “gentlemanly stranger” yesterday, but probably talked to him, too. Is that what made you so late?’ She stopped and looked closely at Emily. ‘Dear heaven, I hadn’t thought… He didn’t attack you, did he? Is he the cause of those bruises and scratches? Tell me, Emily, don’t be afraid.’

  ‘No, no! You’re quite wrong. I told you the truth about those. I got them when I climbed the tree. Most of them.’

  ‘And the rest?’ Rosa’s lovely face was unusually stern.

  Emily heard the determination and realised that she was not going to get away with less than the truth.

  ‘You see too much, Rosa. I should have known you’d guess. Very well. I climbed up the tree as I told you and saw that I couldn’t get down. That was true. But you’re quite right. I didn’t tell you everything.’

  ‘Which was…?’

  ‘It seemed like hours before I saw someone coming, and when I did I took it to be Will Darby. I knew he would pass by on his way home so I called out to him and he came over. But…but it wasn’t Will Darby, after all.’

  ‘I knew it! It was this stranger,’ Rosa said.

  Emily nodded. ‘He agreed to catch me if I jumped, but the branch broke, and we fell and rolled down the slope. That was when I got the rest of the scratches.’

  ‘Was he hurt?’

  ‘I…I don’t think so. He didn’t seem to be. He…he’s very strong.’

  Rosa watched, fascinated, as Emily’s lips curved up in a small, reminiscent smile. ‘What…what happened then?’ she asked care fully.

  ‘I was dazed, of course. He waited until I felt better, then…’ Emily glanced briefly at Rosa and said, ‘Then I left him and came home.’

  ‘Alone? He didn’t offer to see you home safely? What a strange man he must be to leave you to find your own way after such a fall! He can’t have been much of a gentleman.’

  ‘No! No, you mustn’t think… He…he wanted to bring me home. I wouldn’t let him.’

  ‘Why ever not?’

  ‘He…he…he kissed me.’

  ‘Against your will? The heart less wretch!’

  ‘No… It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t at all like that!’

  Emily got up and walked away. Her voice was muffled as she said, still not turning round, ‘I let him kiss me. Willingly.’

  This surprised Rosa so much that for a moment she couldn’t say anything. Then she stammered, ‘I can’t believe it!’

  ‘Neither can I! Not now.’ Emily stood a moment with her back towards Rosa. When she turned round, she had a look of desperation on her face. ‘I don’t know what came over me, Rosa!’ she said in a stifled voice. ‘I’m not normally so…so idiotic. Perhaps it had all been too much for me—Mrs Gosworth, the bull, then falling from the tree…I don’t know! But, whatever the reason, I behaved like a…like a wanton. I must have been mad. How will I ever forget it?’

  ‘Of course you can. You were dazed, in shock. Don’t get upset, Emily! It was probably more difficult than you think to refuse him.’

  ‘But afterwards…I should have been angry, should have fought to get away from him as quickly as I could. But I didn’t.’ She fell silent and her face softened into a smile of remembrance. For a moment she looked…vulnerable. ‘I enjoyed it. He was so kind…so gentle… I felt so…so safe with him…so cherished… I didn’t push him away. I wanted him to kiss me again. And he did.’ She shook her head in a gesture of repudiation. ‘I’m still…so ashamed.’

  Rosa got up and said softly, ‘Dearest Emily, you mustn’t be. I think it quite likely that the shock of the fall affected your behaviour yesterday. You were grateful to him, as well as dazed. I shouldn’t worry about the state of your morals! But there’s more to it than that.’ She thought for a moment. ‘Let’s go for a walk.’

  As they walked through an avenue of trees planted by Philip’s great-grandfather nearly a hundred years before, Rosa said, ‘Mrs Gosworth can be very cruel indeed. I suffered at her hands quite badly. My first marriage, as you know, was an unhappy one. Stephen, my husband, was involved with some very disreputable people… Mrs Gosworth somehow or other heard about Stephen and when I visited her shortly after our marriage she hinted that I had ruined Philip’s life by marrying him, that the Winbolts’ reputation was irreparably damaged by associating with me. Philip had to work hard to reassure me afterwards that it was all nonsense—she can be very convincing.’

  She stopped and looked at Emily. ‘You are one of the most level-headed people I know, Emily, but yesterday you were so angry with Mrs Gosworth that you forgot about a very dangerous bull and could have been killed. And afterwards, when you were telling me about the stranger, you said you had fel
t “cherished”. That’s a very unusual word for you. You are much more likely to insist on your independence. You must have felt the need of comfort quite badly. Tell me, Emily—what did Mrs Gosworth say to upset you so?’ When Emily said nothing she went on, ‘Was it about me? Did she suggest that your reputation had suffered because of your relationship to me? I must say, I thought Philip had put a stop to such talk when he saw her earlier this year.’

  ‘No, it was nothing like that.’

  ‘Perhaps she tried to suggest that you were unlikely to find a husband? That’s a favourite ploy of hers to any girl over the age of twenty.’

  Emily said bitterly, ‘On the contrary. She suggested that I ought to marry as soon as possible. It shouldn’t be too difficult, she said, to find a husband for someone with a fortune like mine, even if they have little else to recommend them.’

  Rosa was as angry as Emily had ever seen her. She said something under her breath, walked on a few paces, then exclaimed, ‘That woman is poisonous. She should have been chased out of the neighbourhood years ago! Little wonder that her own family refuses to go near her. Why the county continues to receive her I do not know! Emily, she is not worth a second thought.’

  Emily did not reply for a minute. Then she said quietly, ‘But it’s true, isn’t? I learned that before I was twenty from the man I had been about to marry. I had thought we loved each other, but he only loved my fortune. I heard him say it. “Of course I’m not in love with her, Caroline,” he said. “You know I love you. But I need her money. Good lord, why else would a man tie himself to a cool fish like Emily Winbolt? I’d sooner go to bed with a block of ice.” It was quite a shock.’ Emily gave a bitter little smile and went on, ‘He was furious when I called the engagement off.’

  Rosa put her hands on Emily’s shoulders and shook her. ‘I didn’t know the young man, it was before I knew you, but you were well rid of him. He could never have made you happy. Emily, you are an intelligent, caring person with a delightful sense of humour. The sort of man you could love would have to be someone special. And he would be proud to have you as a wife.’

  ‘Where will he be found? I’ve met many men since, but never one I wanted for a husband. Most of them found my fortune more important than I was. I’ve never fallen in love again, never felt the least stirring of desire for any one of them. Half the time they didn’t under stand what I was talking about. Even if they had cared. And very few men appreciate what you call my “delightful sense of humour”.’

  ‘Very few men see it. You are always too guarded.’

  ‘I’ve learned to be wary. To tell the truth, I doubt now that I shall ever marry.’ She looked at Rosa with the beginning of a smile. ‘And do you know? This will probably shock you, but I have to confess it. I didn’t feel like a cool fish yesterday. That stranger’s kisses were far more exciting than any I’ve known before. They stirred me more than Harry Colesworth’s ever did. Isn’t that scandalous?’ She laughed. ‘Don’t look so worried, Rosa dear. I know I couldn’t marry the man—he was little more than a vagabond. Certainly no one a respectable spinster like me could ever consider as a husband! No, I don’t think I shall marry, whatever Mrs Gosworth says.’ She paused, and then said hesitantly, ‘In fact, I have a different plan for the future. You could help me with it, if you would.’

  ‘Of course I will,’ said Rosa. ‘But what is it?’

  ‘If Philip agreed, I should like most of all to set up house on my own. Near at hand, of course. You could help me to persuade him.’

  Rosa was deeply shocked. She turned on Emily. ‘What a dreadful idea! I won’t do anything of the sort. I wouldn’t be at all happy with such an arrangement and neither would Philip. This is your home, Emily, and the only good reason for you to leave it would be with a man who loves you and wants to marry you.’ She stopped short, and continued more slowly, her voice revealing how hurt she was, ‘What have we done that you should prefer to live alone, however near at hand? I thought you loved us.’

  Emily sighed inwardly and wished she had said nothing. It was just as she had foreseen. And Philip’s reaction would be just the same. How could she explain to two of the people she loved best in the world that she often felt lonely in their company, often felt like an outsider, a hanger-on, however kindly they treated her? She loved them, enjoyed their company, and would always want to spend time with them. But she would never be really content until she was mistress of her own establishment, creating a garden again, planning improvements. In that way she would feel in de pen dent enough to spend as much time as she wanted with them, without feeling she was intruding on their idyll. They were so happy together. She sighed again. They would never understand. It was an impossible dream.

  Meanwhile Emily’s stranger had arrived at Thirle, where he was staying with Lady Deardon, his godmother.

  ‘Really, William, you are a disgrace! What the servants think of you I cannot imagine.’

  ‘Good God, ma’am, since when have we had to worry what the servants think? You don’t pay ’em to think!’

  Lady Deardon tapped her stick impatiently. ‘Your life in South America has spoilt you, my boy. Mark my words, you’ll soon change your tune when you have an establishment of your own to run here in England. Good servants are to be treasured. Your man arrived some time ago with your baggage. I cannot for the life of me call him your valet. Anyone less like a gentleman’s gentleman would be difficult to imagine. But I suppose he knows what to do. Do go and put some respectable clothes on before Reggie sees you. You know what a stickler he is, and he’ll be back for dinner soon. Then you can tell me your news.’

  ‘There isn’t much,’ William said briefly, as he went out. ‘I haven’t seen anything I’d call really suitable.’

  Emily would not have recognised him when he at last came down stairs again. Not only had he washed and shaved, but everything about him, from his carefully brushed hair to his gleaming evening shoes, his immaculate shirt and perfectly tied cravat, his beautifully fitted coat of blue super fine and snowy white pantaloons, pronounced him to be a gentleman of some distinction.

  ‘I must say you scrub up well,’ said Lady Deardon. ‘Why you choose to wander about the countryside like a tramp I cannot imagine. Reggie has just arrived. He’s dressing now, so there’s time for us to have a talk. Have you heard anything more about the children?’

  ‘The latest news is that they will stay in Jamaica with the Warburtons until they can all come to England some time in the autumn.’

  ‘Who are these Warburtons?’

  ‘Good friends of mine from my days in the Navy. When John died so unexpectedly, they took the children in.’

  ‘Poor little things. I take it that Juana’s family still refuse to have anything to do with them?’

  ‘When Juana ran off with my brother, the Lopez family didn’t simply refuse to acknowledge her marriage to him, they cut her out of their lives completely. The children don’t exist as far as they are concerned. Juana’s family will never relent, even though her children are now orphans.’

  ‘So they are your responsibility. What are you going to do?’

  ‘What else can I do but find some where to live and make it into a suitable home for us all? The children are safe enough for the moment, but it’s hard to say what effect the events of the past year have had on them. It will be better when we are all together in a house of our own.’

  ‘Have you found anything?’

  ‘There’s only one possibility in the district. I came across it today. Charlwood. It’s a handsome estate not too far from here, and the land is in good heart. The house itself looks ruinous, but it could be rescued. It is basically sound and it has plenty of rooms. The gardens and park have real potential, too. They’ve obviously been laid out by a master hand. I liked it.’

  ‘So it’s for sale? I know Charlwood quite well. It was once a lovely place, but there was some sort of dispute over ownership when the old man died, and it’s been empty for years.’

 
‘That’s the drawback—the whole place has been neglected too long. It would be months before the house was ha bitable. A year even.’

  ‘It’s in a beautiful situation, William. It sounds as if it could be just what you’re looking for.’

  ‘It certainly came close. But the children will need to settle down as soon as possible after they arrive here.’

  ‘It’s a wife you need, if you’re to look after those children properly. Have you thought of that? A mother for them is more important than four walls and a roof.’

  ‘I know, I know. I haven’t the slightest wish to marry, but I suppose I must. To be honest, it’s a devil of a mess.’

  ‘Bringing up two orphans won’t be easy. They need a mother and you haven’t even found a wife yet! It isn’t every woman who would be willing to take on a readymade family such as that.’

  ‘Since they are the only reason I would even consider marrying, any wife of mine will have to accept them. John was my brother and his children are now my responsibility. There’s no alternative.’

  ‘Well, if you do wish to hold on to them you must find a decent, well-bred young woman and marry her! That is far more important than any house.’

  ‘How the devil can I ask anyone to marry me when I haven’t a home to offer her? What should I say to her? “Madam, you can have my heart, my name and two orphaned children, but, alas, we shall have to live in a field!” I can’t see any sensible woman accepting such an offer, can you?’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous, William! Of course she wouldn’t. But now I come to think of it, there’s a very pretty Dower House at Charlwood. Is it included in the sale?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well, then, you and your family could live there until the main house is ready. I know it’s a little small—’

  ‘Extremely so. That was why I have almost decided not to consider it.’

  ‘Is it as much of a ruin as the main house?’

  ‘No, a few months’ work would put it in order.’

  ‘It could surely house you all till Charlwood itself is ready to receive you.’