Silent On The Moor Part 33

"I say, when Bellmont told me a fellow named Brisbane owned this place, I hoped it was you. Told him you were always a good fellow to know."

Brisbane walked over and the two shook hands. Bellmont was staring in disbelief, his mouth agape.

"Hullo, Monty," I called cheerfully. "Orlando, how are you, dearest?"

Orlando dismounted and came to give me a kiss, very correctly ignoring my bedraggled state. "Very well, thank you, Aunt Julia. May I present my fiancee, Lady Harriet?"

The young lady had a pleasant, rather horsy face and an excellent seat. I smiled at her. "Lady Harriet, do forgive Orlando. He's never been very good at introductions, but he is marvellous at chess. I am his aunt, Lady Julia Grey."

She nodded, smiling broadly. "Oh, we do not stand on ceremony. We prefer country manners. How d'ye do?" She turned to her father who was chatting amiably with Brisbane. "Father, this will do quite well. The moor is excellent for hunting, and I think the village could do with a little benevolent work. The drains looked rather wanting."

Her manner was brisk and managing, and I looked affectionately at Orlando. If anyone needed managing, it was he. The boy did have ambitions, solid ones, and eventually he would be Earl March, a position of great authority and responsibility. He was well-intentioned, but neither as solid nor as articulate as his father. A firm wife, practical and efficient, would be the making of him.

"But the house," his Grace of Driffield interjected doubtfully.

Lady Harriet waved a hand. "Can be put right with a bit of work. The east wing wants restoring, of course, and there will have to be a new stable block built. The old one is far too distant from the house. It will not serve forever, of course. Once we have children to be launched and Orlando is settled in Parliament, we will need to be in London regularly and it may be too far removed. But for the first fifteen, twenty years, I think it will suit us quite nicely."

Lady Harriet seemed like a very determined young lady, and I fancied that whatever she turned her hand to inevitably came right.

"The estate comes with an excellent cook and a superb farm manager," I put in, slanting Brisbane a mischievous glance. I had a feeling Mrs. b.u.t.ters could be persuaded to remain at Grimsgrave, particularly now that so many of the ghosts of the place had been put to rest.

"And Gypsies," Bellmont put in. He had been remarkably silent, but nothing had escaped his notice.

Driffield brushed this aside. "I always let them camp on my land. Bad luck not to, you know."

He waved a courteous hand to Rosalie and John-the-Baptist who had maintained some distance from our visitors.

Driffield nodded toward the hole. "Bit of trouble?"

"Not at all," Brisbane said coolly. "It is a mine, actually. We mean to open it again. So I am afraid I cannot sell the estate. My apologies, Lady Harriet," he added with a nod in her direction.

"A mine will be excellent for the local folk," she said. "Must keep the villagers employed." Clearly the duke had raised her to take a keen interest in the lives of those dependent upon their goodwill. "Perhaps we can sort something out and purchase the house itself, but lease the moor for purposes of hunting if we promise not to interfere with the operations of the mine?" she asked hopefully.

Brisbane smiled. "You have a fine head for business, Lady Harriet. And I am certain something can be arranged."

"Excellent," said the duke, clearly relieved that his imperious daughter was not to be thwarted. He seemed to see me for the first time and I was aware of the wide streaks of mud across my costume and my hair, dripping wet and hanging free of pins.

"Do forgive my appearance, your Grace," I began, but Driffield merely waved a hand.

"Think nothing of it, good lady. I admire an athletic woman who is not afraid of a little dirt in the pursuit of sport."

Bellmont choked a little, but I smiled graciously.

"Yes, I am terribly athletic," I agreed.

I went to my brother and raised my face for a kiss.

He obliged me and I whispered into his ear. "Get down and shake hands with Brisbane. He is going to be your brother-in-law."

He opened his mouth, then shut it abruptly, the little muscle in his jaw working furiously. "I suppose there is no point in trying to talk you out of this disaster?"

"None whatsoever."

He paused a long moment, then asked, "Will he make you happy?"

Bellmont's wide green eyes were anxious, and I put a hand to his face, smiling up at him. "Do I look happy?"

He studied my face, took in my entire figure from filthy clothes to abominable hair. "I have never seen you more radiant," he admitted. He kissed the top of my head and slid from the saddle.

He went to Brisbane and extended his hand. "I understand congratulations are in order, brother," he said stiffly, and I knew precisely what that gesture had cost him.

Brisbane accepted his hand and I went to stand beside my betrothed.

"I only hope you know what you are getting into," Bellmont said with a sigh.

"I am quite certain," I told him tartly.

Bellmont lifted a brow. "I was talking to Brisbane."

He shook his head and remounted, leading the way back to Grimsgrave.

THE THIRTY-SECOND CHAPTER.

In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.

-William Shakespeare.

Much Ado About Nothing.

There is little more to say; I married him. The words are familiar, but the simplicity of them holds the whole world within. We married on Midsummer Day, in the little church of St. Barnabas at Blessingstoke, with my father's dearest friend, Uncle Fly, the vicar of Blessingstoke, to perform the ceremony. Most of my family were present, which meant the day was little short of Bedlam.

As it was my second marriage it ought to have been a quiet affair, but nothing to do with the Marches is ever quiet. My father smiled through his tears as he gave me away, and the little church was crowded with my relations and Brisbane's Scottish uncle, the Duke of Aberdour, nearly ninety and almost totally deaf. He shouted through the service, demanding to know what we said until Brisbane roared at him, "I just promised to endow her with all my worldly goods, now be quiet!" To which the duke replied, "I didn't know you had any worldly goods," and subsided into muttering for the rest of the ceremony.

In fact, Brisbane had rather a lot of worldly goods. The mine had apparently been closed when the Romans were driven out of the north, and never opened again until the weight of Mariah Young's coffin and the sodden earth had broken it open. In death, she had given her son the means to live his life as he pleased, and it felt like a benediction from the grave. Brisbane had defiantly reburied her in the chapel graveyard at Grimsgrave, flouting church authority, but then Brisbane was never one to observe rules he does not respect. Rosalie promised to lay flowers when they journeyed past each summer, for she returned to the road with John-the-Baptist. I did not know if we would ever see them again, but I knew she would keep her promise to Brisbane.

The Duke of Driffield settled matters quickly, paying a generous sum for the remains of Grimsgrave Hall and engaging Mrs. b.u.t.ters and Minna and G.o.dwin. Minna was training to be the housekeeper under Mrs. b.u.t.ters' tutelage. Mrs. b.u.t.ters, who might have held the post herself, was content to remain in the kitchen, and G.o.dwin was very nearly beside himself at the handsome flock of sheep the duke permitted him to purchase with an eye to re-establis.h.i.+ng the livestock. Work had already begun at the house by the time Portia and I left, and a new lightness had come over the place. The first thing Lady Harriet had done was burn the tapestry of Allenbys, claiming it was ugly and full of moths. She might have been right. It seemed a little sad to destroy the record of such a long and n.o.ble lineage, but I thought of all the pain and suffering that lineage had caused, the slow descent into madness, and I was glad for Lady Harriet. Even if ghosts walked at Grimsgrave, they would never stand against her sound common sense and practicality. When I last saw Grimsgrave, Lady Harriet was having the black pond in front of the house drained to make a flower garden.

Portia agreed to take Florence, as Puggy would not be separated from his little family. I still had Grim, and Brisbane had acquired Rook, the lurcher, who refused to travel with the Gypsies, but simply lay down in the road until Brisbane came to fetch him. I did not know how we were going to manage travelling with him, but he was surprisingly delicate in his habits, and I grew fond of him very quickly.

The wedding itself was arranged with tremendous speed and very little trouble. I simply let my sisters fuss over the details and spent every moment I could with Brisbane. They dressed me in a very suitable, elegant gown of heavy lavender silk, a nod to the mourning I no longer wore, and a wreath of lavender blossoms in my hair. I did not wear a veil, and by the time the dancing was finished, the lavender had broken to bits, twining in my hair only to fall out later in Brisbane's hands, like so many pieces of confetti. Brisbane was dressed in beautiful black, with the purest white s.h.i.+rt and waistcoat, a picture of elegance in spite of his tumbled hair and the slight shadow at his jaw.

We stayed the night at my little house, the Rookery, with no one to wait upon us. I dismissed Morag for the night, and sent Aquinas up to my father's home at Bellmont Abbey. We were alone, finally, and I stared at the ring upon my left hand, a slender band of diamonds.

"I told you I didn't need diamonds," I chided him. "Plain silver would have been enough."

"It is plain silver on the underside, and I had it engraved," he told me. He slid it off my finger and rolled it in his fingers, catching the light.

A chain of letters had been incised inside, "*HIIii116,'" I read aloud. "Another Shakespearean code, and a simple one."

"You know what it means?" he asked, settling me onto his lap. I put one arm about his neck and held out my other hand for him to replace my ring.

"Hamlet, of course. *Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.'" I put my brow to his. "I have never doubted it, you know. Not really. But it is a lovely quote."

He slanted me a wicked look. "Well, it was either that or All's Well That Ends Well, Act One, scene one, line two hundred twenty-one."

I furrowed my brow. "I do not remember that one."

He slid an arm under my knees and rose effortlessly to his feet. "*Get thee a good husband, and use him as he uses thee.'"

I was still laughing when he kicked the bedroom door closed behind us.

What followed was a revelation. It is astonis.h.i.+ng that so simple a thing can change everything, but there it is. Before we went into that room, the world was as it has always been, but by the time I awoke, long afterward as dawn was just beginning to silver the shadows, my entire life had changed. I stretched and yawned, sinuous and satisfied as a cat. It woke Brisbane who opened one eye and grinned at me sleepily.

"You have ruined that corset in your haste," I told him severely. "That was French lace, you know," I added, mourning the loss of the beautiful pale violet confection. I had ordered it from Paris at great cost and worn it precisely once.

"I'll buy you another. Besides, it is nothing compared to my complaint. You snore," he said thickly.

I hit him with my pillow, sending a shower of feathers into the air. One settled on his shoulder and I blew it off. "I do not. You must have been dreaming of another wife."

He took the pillow and put it under his head, leaving me nowhere to rest mine except his chest. I nestled there, one hand toying with the crisp, dark hair that spread toward his belly. Another interlude, vastly more interesting than those on the moor, took place and the sun was fully up by the time we had concluded our exchange of affections.

"We haven't even talked about the wedding trip yet," I said, yawning broadly.

Brisbane quirked a brow at me in a gesture I knew so well. "If that was where your thoughts were, remind me to apply myself more thoroughly next time," he said with a touch of asperity.

"Oh, no. I only thought of it after, I a.s.sure you. If you apply yourself more thoroughly I don't think I will be fit to leave this bed," I consoled.

He nodded. "That is better. As to the wedding trip, I have had Monk on the Continent, scouting suitable destinations. He seems to think Venice would be lovely, or perhaps a villa in Greece?"

I stared at him. "Monk has been looking for a house? For us?"

"Of course. You don't think I would marry you and drag you off to someplace, sight unseen? I trust him implicitly. He always thinks to inquire about things like hygienic arrangements," Brisbane said, raising a brow significantly. "I gave him a list of places I compiled months ago and sent him off to look them over."

"I cannot believe you have been thinking about this marriage, planning this marriage for months."

He put a hand through my hair, twisting it around his fingers. "I have been planning it since that first interview in your study at Grey House, a few weeks after Edward's death. You were all wide eyes and tart tongue, and you insisted to me Edward could not have been murdered."

"You are joking," I said, tickling his chin with a lock of my hair.

He shook his head, wrapping his arms about me and pulling me closer still. "I seem to recall you are the one always telling me to respect the sight," he said, only slightly mocking.

"You had a vision? About me?" He did not answer at first, and I began to nip at him with my fingers until he replied.

"Ow, yes, stop that, you vicious little beast. I had a vision of you, the first time I stepped into Grey House, the night Edward died. That was why I kept staring at you while he lay on the bed, convulsing between us. I had seen you standing before me, your hand in mine. I could not hear what was said between us, but there was a sense of belonging to you, as if I had always known you somehow, and you had been waiting for me. It came as rather a nasty shock to realise you were already married."

"Why were you so cold to me then? I thought you quite hated me."

"I hated what was happening to you," he said, brus.h.i.+ng a bit of hair out of my eyes. "I knew you would suffer when he died. Besides, I never quite thought of myself as the marrying sort."

I stared at him, comprehension dawning. "You were afraid of me."

"Quite terrified," he said, smiling. He kissed my palm then, and I settled back against him.

"I cannot imagine that," I told him. "You, so coolly disdainful and dismissive. Terrified of me as I stood trembling in front of you, thinking you were the most alarming man I had ever met. I cannot believe you have ever been afraid of anything."

"It was a rather novel experience, I a.s.sure you," he said, tracing a path along the small of my back. I thought of the journey that had brought us together, the earl's daughter and the country-bred Gypsy lad, and I marvelled at the workings of fate. So many little turnings along the way, and if either of us had taken a different path, we would never have found one another.

"Tell me," I commanded. "Tell me about your adventures. I know you have been to China, to Egypt. I want to know it all. Tell me about the Orient first. Is it very exotic?"

Without warning, Brisbane, my partner and now my husband, rolled me smoothly onto my back and put his lips to my ear. "Later," he said, applying himself enthusiastically to the conjugal arts.

"But I want to know about China," I said, laughing as he did something rather new and thoroughly enjoyable.

He drew back, looked at me with those mesmerising witch-black eyes. He put a firm finger across my lips. "That is a tale for another time."

From the Correspondence of Lady Julia Grey From Grimsgave Hall, Yorks.h.i.+re Dearest Aunt Hermia, How silly you are! I cannot imagine why Portia has embellished her letter so, but I can promise you things here in Yorks.h.i.+re are not nearly so dire as she imagines. I think her quarrels with Jane have left her peevish. I do not know what you hear on that score, but I beg you to invite Jane to tea and speak firmly to her. Goodness knows I do not approve meddling in the lives of others, but something simply must be done about the pair of them.

The estate of which Brisbane has taken possession is called Grimsgrave Hall, and the name, I confess, is rather apt. It lies at the edge of the moor, where I am told there is very good hunting for grouse, although at present it is rather empty and well, moorish. It is an old house, although not nearly as old as Bellmont Abbey-17th century, I should think and in its day it must have been a handsome place. (Really, Portia ought not to have used the phrase "G.o.dforsaken pile". It could be quite nice with a bit of fixing up.) True, one of the wings has crumbled to ruin, but I suppose that could happen to anyone. There is a pretty little pond in front of the house, and despite what Portia says, I do not believe it is stocked with the bodies of depressed housemaids who have drowned themselves. It is a bit weedy to be sure, and gives off a rank smell when the wind is blowing, which as we are on a moor is rather constant. But, as I say, we have no cause to believe it is the site of serial suicides, although that would explain why the staff are so few in number. The rooms are quite modest, we are told, since the old wing fell down, and the Hall can be kept clean with very few pairs of hands. Of course, it could use a few more hands, as the beds are a little damp, if I am to be honest, and one has to exercise caution in sitting lest great clouds of dust or colonies of spiders be disturbed. Accommodations on the whole are acceptable, if rather medieval. Portia and I are sharing, and the bedroom is furnished with a chamber pot. I shall draw a veil upon that delicate subject and leave the rest to your imagination.

The occupants of the house were a bit of a surprise, although perhaps not the "catastrophic disaster" to which Portia refers. The previous owner, a very civil elderly person called Lady Allenby, is still in residence with her daughters, Hilda-who I must own is rather nasty and says as little to us as she possibly can, preferring to occupy herself with her poultry-and Ailith, who is a little too pretty for comfort. (Did Portia really call her "angelic"? I must speak to Portia about her standards.) In any event, they are rather comfortably ensconced, at least until Brisbane fits a cottage for their use, and we do not look for them to leave for some time. The house is equipped with a very excellent cook-housekeeper, the rightly-named Mrs. b.u.t.ters. She is a bustling, energetic sort of person with a very light hand for pastry. I will endeavour to secure her recipe for Scottish shortbread, as it is much crisper than Cook's and just the thing on a brisk afternoon with a cup of tea. There is a scullery maid called Jetty, but she is a bit simple-as scullery maids so often are-and has little sense and limited conversation. She occasionally shrieks for no reason and throws her ap.r.o.n over her head, but Mrs. b.u.t.ters does not seem to be alarmed by this, so we have learned to continue eating our meals and ignore her. (Yes, dearest. We take our meals in the kitchen. I did say "medieval", did I not?) Valerius has taken it upon himself to look into the drains of the little village nearby. I cannot think it a very nice hobby, however, it keeps him happy and occupied, and with Valerius one can hardly ask for more.

I am a little alarmed about Florence. She has grown quite stout, although the trip to Yorks.h.i.+re seems to have upset her. She merely picks at her food and keeps looking at me reproachfully. I suppose I ought to consign her to your care when I travel, but I thought the moorland air would be good for her. As usual, Grim has been a hardy and stalwart companion, and I have got quite accustomed to carrying him along. I only hesitate to take him on sea voyages. You know what birds are.

As for Brisbane himself, he is proving impossible as usual. I hardly know what to think, for one minute he is pleased-demonstrably pleased-to see me; the next he is quarrelsome and peevish. Perhaps you are right and he is dyspeptic. It would certainly explain a lot...

I must dash. Miss Ailith has taken me to meet an acquaintance of hers, a Gypsy woman who lives in a cottage upon the moor, and I have promised to call upon her today. She reminds me of you a little, dearest, although I cannot think why. Perhaps it is because when one is with her, there is the oddest sense that all one's troubles are really not so terrible and that all will come right in the end. As you can tell from that bit of sentimentality, I miss you dreadfully. Do give my regards to the other ladies at the meeting of the advisory board of the Refuge for Fallen Women and give Father a kiss and Bellmont a pinch from me.

With fondest affection, I am your loving niece-.

Julia.

From the Journal of Morag Colquohoun.

Sometime in April, Somewhere in Yorks.h.i.+re (otherwise known as the Seething Bowels of h.e.l.l).

Well, it is precisely as I expected, a disaster from end to end. It did not begin well. Lady B. was weeping when we left London. She made to dash away her tears, but I could see them, and all I have to say about that is if that sniffy Miss Jane thinks she is too good for Lady B., I will have something to say to her. There's no finer person than Lady B., even if she does not like men. My friend Bet says it's flying in the face of G.o.d to lie with another woman, but I say the world is a cold and cruel place and if a body can find someone to love, that's good enough. That reminds me, I wonder what His man Monk is about these days? I thought I should see him when we arrived and made a point of wearing my best hat but he was nowhere to be seen, nor have I heard anyone speak of him since our arrival. ( NB: ask Her if Monk came with Him.) Which brings me to Him, the whole reason we came into Yorks.h.i.+re. I have to say, I agree with his high and mighty lords.h.i.+p, Her brother Bellmont. It doesn't do for a lady to go haring off after a gentleman, even one so flighty as He is. I admit He's a fine specimen of a man, if you fancy the dark and moody type. He reminds me of that Heathcliff fellow from the book She made me read when She decided we were coming to Yorks.h.i.+re. I told Her so, and she took the book away before I could finish it. I hope it ended happily, although I cannot see how. Everyone important was dead halfway through.

I am glad I read it in part otherwise I might never have been prepared for the moor. It is a great, empty place, and one wouldn't think such emptiness could be alarming, but it is the most frightening place I've ever been and I once walked the streets of Seven Dials, so nastiness isn't nothing new to me. It is the wind, I think. It goes and goes, all the time, like a speaking voice that never says a word, but keeps talking just the same. It is enough to send a body mad, I'd warrant, and I've taken to stopping my ears with cotton wool to drive out the sound of it. Of course, I cannot hear Her when she calls, but that is all to the better. I've little enough to do here. There are no proper rooms for a lady's maid, no private bedchamber for me, no little parlour to do my needlework. She has taken to wearing country tweeds and my greatest duty is sc.r.a.ping the mud from Her shoes. She does not mind the moor, but I have always said She was not quite like other Ladies. She leaves me to my reading and tending the dogs and listening to Minna chatter. (The cotton wool helps there too.) She's a London girl, Minna is, but I've seen the way her eyes follow that Mr. G.o.dwin, and there'll be trouble there, mark my words. He seems a nice enough lad, but I never trust a farmer. They smell of dirt and s.h.i.+t and their hands are never clean. Give me an honest sailor or publican any day. The finest-smelling man I know is Her father, his lords.h.i.+p himself. He smells of pipe tobacco and books. (Mem: Monk smells of beeswax. Why should that be?) I have just realised I wrote "s.h.i.+t". Lady Hermia said I wasn't to swear anymore and that I must give a ha'-penny to the poor box at the church if I forgot. She didn't say nothing about writing, and if she had I would have told her it is a far sight easier to remember proper speaking when I have to speak to the quality, but writing here is like talking to Bet, and if your best friend can't overlook a little swear word now and again, what's the use of her? Besides, She doesn't go to church except to listen to the music or look at the windows, so how am I to get to church to put my coin in the poor box? Perhaps with Easter coming on She will make an exception. If not, I can send the ha'-penny to Bet. She's poor enough, I reckon, and that just means I will have pa.s.sed over the part where the coin sits in church, waiting to be given. Poor Bet. I've told her a hundred times to leave the game, but she says it's easy money. Easy money! I never worked harder in my life than I did as a wh.o.r.e. Taking care of Her is a far sight easier than trying to make enough to kip in the doss house for the night. I try not to remember it, but it is like trying to stuff too many clothes into a trunk. You can shove and shove and even try sitting down upon it, but if you've put too much in, it will burst open and make everything untidy. That's how bad memories are. There are times I lie in my bed after I've tucked Her in, and I know I am warm and safe and none shall harm me, but still I remember. I remember the fear and the hunger and the bone-grinding sameness of it all. And that's when I make certain Her slippers are warmed the next morning and Her bath is just as She likes it. She thinks She takes care of me, but really, I take care of Her.

I wasn't certain of Her at first. I mean, She knows She is a Lady and who Her father is. That doesn't matter to Her. She will have a conversation with me, just as civil as if I were Her equal. Curious, isn't it? I said Bet was my best friend, but really, I think it must be Her. When I first went to Her, she was a little silly and vague. She barely noticed me. But after the master died and He came into Her life, things changed a bit. It's as if She woke up and really saw things for the first time. Now She's got a trick of looking right through a person, as if She can see precisely who you are. I think she's learned that from Him, and I think that scares the devil out of Him. (NB: another ha'-penny to Bet.) He's never met the like of Her, and why would He? There's not another like Her, and if He were half the man I think Him, he'd have noticed by now. Well, of course He's noticed, a man would have to be blind and deaf not to notice Her. (She was pretty before the master died, but widowhood has been the making of Her. Lady B. has turned her out smartly, and She has a liveliness about Her that She never had before.) Still, He hasn't done anything about it, and I begin to despair of Him. He's no proper Scot if He cannot screw up His courage to court the woman He loves, and I think He does love Her. He's just too daft to know it yet.