LITMIR.BIZ

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mother can be a little overpowering sometimes, but as she is old I usually humour her views.’

      ‘ You sound worried that I might not.’

      He laughed. ‘It is not her I am trying to protect with such a warning, Bea, but you.’

      ‘I am not a green girl…’

      ‘She has some knowledge of your past.’

      ‘Oh.’ The wind was quite taken from her sails and where interest had been before, there now lingered dread. How much did she know and who had told her?

      ‘Mama.’ Taris leant down to kiss her forehead. Here in Falder Beatrice noticed his new ease of movement. He had even placed the cane at the front door with his cloak and hat.

      His mother’s hands came across his and she held them close, the look on her face one of love and then considerable interest as her gaze fell behind him.

      ‘And you have brought a visitor…?’

      ‘Mama, may I present Mrs Beatrice-Maude Bassingstoke. Beatrice, this is my mother, the Dowager Duchess of Carisbrook. I have asked Beatrice down for a few weeks in the hope of showing her Falder.’

      ‘I see.’ The woman’s eyes slid across her face, missing nothing. ‘I was sorry to hear of the recent loss of your husband, Mrs Bassingstoke.’

      ‘Thank you.’

      ‘My own husband was incapacitated for his last few years and I know how very difficult it can be.’

      Beatrice nodded.

      ‘Did you have much help with him?’ Inside the question Beatrice sensed knowledge.

      ‘I did not, Duchess.’

      ‘No mother or father? No sisters or cousins?’

      She waited as Bea shook her head.

      ‘No one?’

      The silence stretched out until the old woman gestured her forwards. ‘Then you are in need of a good holiday, my dear. A long overdue holiday, I should imagine. Do you play whist?’

      ‘Badly.’

      Taris’s mother began to laugh. ‘Emerald told me just the same. Do you like the sea too?’

      ‘I beg your pardon?’

      ‘The sea. Emerald enjoys the ocean. I was wondering if that was some other thing you had in common?’

      ‘I have not had much experience of water, Duchess.’

      ‘Horses, then? Do you ride?’

      ‘I used to ride well once, but—’ She stopped.

      ‘Then you must do so again. Taris has a number of his steeds standing at Falder. He will help you choose an appropriate mount. What of dancing? Are you a woman who enjoys a whirl on the floor?’

      Before she could stop herself Bea reddened rather dramatically, thinking of the one and only waltz she had danced in her entire life. And then she took in a breath. My God, this woman would think she was a dolt should she keep up with this tack. ‘I read extensively, Duchess, and write too.’

      ‘Novels?’

      ‘No. Tracts for The London Home, a new broadsheet for women exploring various options that they may wish to take in their lives.’

      ‘Making up for lost time, then?’

      Taris interrupted her. ‘It is getting late, Mama, and we need to refresh ourselves before dinner.’

      ‘Which room has the housekeeper placed her in?’

      ‘The green salon at the top of the stairs.’

      ‘No, that will not do at all. Put her in the gold

      room, for it is far more restful. She will like that room better.’

      Taris’s smile broadened. ‘You are sure?’

      ‘I am,’ she said curtly before turning away, the first surprising beginnings of tears on her lashes.

      Once again out in the hall Bea was not certain if she should ask Taris anything about the exchange; when he did not seem to want to discuss the conversation further she merely did as the housekeeper asked and followed her. Taris stayed below, watching her as she made her way up.

      When they finally came into her chamber Bea thought that she had never in her whole life seen such a beautiful space. It was as though light and airiness had been spun into the fabric on the bed and the walls, a deeper brocade in burgundy counter-playing against it. A writing desk inlaid in patterned walnut was set up near the window with pen and paper and ink, and a bookcase graced the whole of one side, the titles numerous and varied.

      Long full-length glass doors opened out on to a balcony and away far in the distance the forests climbed up the hills, moving from lighter green into darkness.

      ‘Dinner will be in three hours, ma’am. I shall send your maid to help you dress.’

      ‘Thank you.’

      ‘Master Taris said to tell you that he would come himself to bring you down to dinner.’

      ‘I shall be ready.’ When the woman turned to the door Bea could temper her puzzlement no longer. ‘Might I ask you a question before you go?’

      ‘Of course.’

      ‘This library looks as though someone has spent a great deal of time building it up?’ Her fingers slipped across the bindings of the books.

      ‘This was Master Cristo’s room, ma’am, before he left for Europe.’

      ‘Master Cristo?’

      ‘The youngest Wellingham brother, ma’am.’

      ‘I see.’ She waited as the woman departed and looked closely at the titles. Older works with little that had been published during the past few years. Cristo Wellingham? She had not heard this name mentioned once in society and resolved to ask Taris all about him.

      The door flung open less than a half an hour later and Lucinda Wellingham stood there in her travelling garb and a look of wonder on her face.

      ‘It is true, then? Mama allowed you to stay in here. My God. No one has been in here since—’ stopping, she put her hand to her mouth ‘—since Cristo left.’ Beatrice was certain that this sentence was far from the one she had been going to say. ‘Mother must have really liked you.’

      ‘I think she wanted me to have the room because of all the books. I had just told her that I both read and write.’ Another thought struck her. ‘Did the Duke and Duchess of Carisbrook travel up with you?’

      ‘They did. We came in two carriages as the children and their nanny were with us and so was Azziz, Emerald’s friend from when she lived in the Caribbean.’

      ‘She lived in the Caribbean?’

      ‘For years and years.’

      Lord, Beatrice thought, every new thing she found out about the Wellinghams made the family stranger.

      ‘Have you travelled, Mrs Bassingstoke?’

      ‘No. I had been to London a few times years ago but of late…no.’

      ‘The Wellingham ships travel all over the world. One day I shall take passage and stay away for years. You and Taris could come too and we could see the sights together.’

      ‘That is very generous of you, Lady Lucinda, to think to include me on such a grand scheme, but—’

      ‘Taris likes you or he would never have brought you here. He never has, you know, brought anyone else. You are the very first.’

      Hesitating, Bea wondered just how much of her recent incident on Regent Street she should relate to a young woman who talked a

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