Every Mother's Son (40 page)

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

During the following months there were many letters written and sent between England and Italy. Daniel wrote to Marco; Harriet came to terms with her brother’s change of name and addressed her letters to Leo. Maria and Dolly wrote to Calypso welcoming her as a cousin and hoping, they both said, to meet her soon. Indeed, Dolly was already planning to use her wages on a visit to Italy, although she hadn’t yet worked out how she would get there. Rosie wrote to Marco, and all of them received letters in return.

Charles wrote requesting literature from various Italian universities and colleges of art and culture, for his father had agreed that if that was what he really wanted to do he should start making enquiries immediately; he wrote to Leo and Marco too, assuring them of his best regards and intentions at all times, and asked Leo if he might write to Calypso. He also began Italian lessons.

Beatrice had long and ardent conversations with her mother, drew up plans and wrote to Marco thanking him for his hospitality and advising him of some of her proposals for Daniel’s forthcoming twenty-first birthday in December.

‘I don’t for one moment think that Daniel has even considered the event to be of any significance,’ she wrote. ‘But I do not wish it to pass unnoticed.’ She asked him to be discreet and not to mention anything of her ideas to Daniel.

She wrote too to Signor Rosso in Rome, who, although distant, was also a relative of Daniel’s and, she felt, should be informed of the special occasion about to be celebrated in this noble family.

By mid-November life was almost back to how it had been before they had gone abroad, with one or two exceptions. Stephen had secured a place as a first-year student at the Royal Agricultural College in Gloucestershire and had begun that term. George had gone back to school and informed his parents that he wished to study science and law, not farming.

‘Which means,’ Christopher said gloomily, ‘we have only one son prepared to take the reins.’

‘Which Stephen will do admirably,’ Melissa said, ‘especially if you get a good bailiff, and Fletcher has promised he will find someone suitable, has he not?’

Christopher agreed that he had and admitted that he didn’t know how he would have managed without Fletcher and would be sorry when he returned to his own farm duties. Fletcher in turn had realized whilst Daniel was away that he wouldn’t have been able to help out at the manor if it hadn’t been for Tom and Lenny taking on extra work, so when Tom had suggested they employ another lad, the son of one of their former school friends, he had agreed at once.

‘You remember Bob Taylor, don’t you?’ Tom said. ‘He was hopeless at reading and writing but could mek anything grow. He married Betsy, a lass from Brough, and took on a tenancy over at Ellerker; he died a few years back, and Betsy brought up both their lads on her own. ’Eldest, Adam, teks after his da for having green fingers.’

Fletcher remembered Bob Taylor, but there was something in Tom’s voice that made him take notice. ‘Hey!’ he said. ‘A widow woman?’

‘Aye,’ Tom said sheepishly. ‘I’ve met up wi’ her once or twice; she meks an apple pie nearly as good as your Harriet’s.’

Now that Daniel was back and resuming his work with the horse team life was a little easier, although they had decided to keep Adam on for the foreseeable future; neither Fletcher nor Tom wanted him to go off to the November Hirings, which were coming up in a few weeks’ time. He was a good all-rounder, handy with the nuts and bolts of machinery, and was teaching Joseph, who had also found an aptitude for all things mechanical.

Daniel, however, had seemed rather morose of late and Harriet put it down to the fact that he was missing the company of Charles and Beatrice.

‘He’ll have to get used to being without them,’ Fletcher said as he undressed, washed and slipped into bed beside her. ‘Charles will be off abroad soon. He’s starting at some university or other in Italy in January.’

‘It’s Beatrice that Daniel is missing,’ she murmured, then, ‘What have you been doing up at ’manor? I can smell brick dust in your hair!’

‘Mrs Hart – Melissa, I mean – I can’t get used to using her first name,’ he grumbled. ‘Her and Beatrice have got a building project on ’go, building on an extension to ’stable block. Beatrice is getting another hoss, seemingly.’ He yawned. ‘I just gave them ’benefit of my advice and suggested what they should do. I built this house, after all.’

‘So you did.’ She snuggled up to him. ‘I’ve been wondering if we should extend out at ’back. All our bairns are growing up; suppose Lenny meets somebody and gets married. He wouldn’t leave his precious pigs so he’d want to bring his wife here, and young people need their own place.’

‘Heavens,’ he said. ‘He’s onny fifteen! You women, thinking so far ahead! And what about Daniel? Won’t he want a place of his own as well? We’re likely to have a house as big as Hart Holme if we provide for them all!’

Harriet sighed. ‘No, not Daniel,’ she said. ‘And not Maria either. I believe their hearts are already broken.’

‘Mm,’ he said sleepily, ‘I don’t know owt about that, but I expect they’ll mend.’

‘Beatrice,’ her mother said. ‘It’s time you spoke to your father.’

‘I’m nervous,’ Beatrice said. ‘What if he refuses?’

‘He won’t,’ Melissa smiled. ‘But if he should, then you’d have to wait.’

‘I don’t want to upset him. He’s such a dear.’

‘Nevertheless,’ her mother insisted. ‘Time is of the essence.’

‘That’s true,’ Beatrice began, but broke off as the door opened and her father came in for his morning coffee.

‘What’s going on down at the stables?’ Christopher asked. ‘There’s a great pile of brick and stone and one of the men said they were working on Mrs Hart’s orders.’

‘Ah, yes,’ Melissa said, and looked at Beatrice.

‘It was me actually, Papa,’ Beatrice said. ‘I was going to ask you but the delivery came sooner than I expected.’

‘Delivery? What delivery?’

‘Of bricks,’ she said. ‘It’s – it’s temporary, but it will prove useful afterwards, I’m quite sure.’ She laughed nervously. ‘It’s extra storage space.’

‘It looks like an extension to the stable block to me. What are you up to, Beatrice, and you too Melissa?’ he said, in mock severity.

‘Do come and sit down, Papa,’ Beatrice pleaded. ‘I need to talk to you.’

He sat down and folded his arms, and Melissa thought how much he seemed like his old self again, his self-assurance restored.

‘When I was away in Italy, Papa, I resolved that when I returned home I would tell you of a secret I’ve been keeping for a long time; years, in fact,’ Beatrice started.

Christopher smiled. When Beatrice was a child she often whispered secrets into his ear, cupping her hand so that her mother or her brothers didn’t hear, but then telling them afterwards. ‘Did you, darling?’ he said, so pleased and proud that he was still her confidant. ‘And are you going to tell me now?’

‘Yes.’ She bent her head as she felt tears welling. ‘I’m in love, Papa. Well, no, not
in
love, but love somebody with my whole heart.’

Startled, Christopher looked at Melissa, who gave a grave and silent nod.

‘Do I know this somebody? Is he worthy of my daughter?’

‘Yes, Papa, he is. He’s of noble birth from an ancient line, much older than ours.’ She took a breath. ‘But you might think that he’s poor in comparison to us because he doesn’t own land and he isn’t rich, but I want to marry him and if you forbid it, then I shan’t ever marry anyone!’

Her father’s lips twitched and he raised his eyebrows. Here was the Beatrice of old, dramatic and determined. ‘So does that mean that if I don’t approve, then I should turn you out of my house and never see you again?’

Melissa hid a smile. Beatrice often sparred with Christopher when she wanted something, never realizing that her father would always indulge her.

‘Oh, Papa. You’d never do that, would you?’

Her father appeared to consider. ‘Mm! So you would be marrying this poor but noble man for love?’ he murmured. ‘Just as I did with your mama. And has he asked for you without coming to me first?’ He frowned.

‘I think that what Beatrice is trying to tell you,’ Melissa interjected, ‘is that Daniel won’t ask you for her hand in marriage because he doesn’t think he’s good enough for her, notwithstanding his newly discovered pedigree.’

‘Yes.’ Beatrice’s voice broke. ‘That is what I’m saying – Mama! I never mentioned Daniel! How—’

‘My dear Beatrice.’ Melissa glanced at her husband, who seemed rather perplexed. ‘It has been perfectly obvious, to me at least, for a long time, and your father and I were young once; we do know the signs.’

‘Oh, you’re both so wonderful,’ Beatrice proclaimed. ‘But how are we going to convince Daniel?’

‘Am I missing something?’ Her father gazed at her in astonishment. ‘Do you mean to say we’re talking about Daniel Tuke? Fletcher Tuke’s son?’

‘Stepson, Papa,’ Beatrice said. ‘Not a blood relation. Daniel Tuke Orsini.’

Christopher put his hand to his forehead. ‘Forgive me. Of course.’ His face cleared. ‘I first met Daniel when he was only an infant, a babe in arms. Do you remember that fateful day, Melissa, just before that dreadful Christmas when his father drowned in the estuary?’

‘I do,’ she said softly. ‘We have all had much happier days since then.’

‘We have,’ Christopher agreed, and with a subtle shift of mood said, ‘So what indeed do we do to convince the noble Daniel that my daughter must have him for her own?’

Beatrice smiled. ‘I have a plan, Papa.’

There were letters from Leo to Harriet telling her that he and Calypso were hoping to come to England very soon. ‘The grape and olive harvest is over and the fruits of our labour have gone off for processing,’ he wrote, ‘and I can now begin to make arrangements for someone to stay with Marco and make plans for our journey. I hope it will be convenient for us to come. I’m ready for the cold weather and have bought Calypso warm clothing.’

Harriet broke off from reading the letter. ‘They’re coming!’ she said excitedly. ‘He doesn’t say when, just that they’re definitely coming.’

Daniel grinned. That’s what Leo had written to him too, except that he had given him a date. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I suppose you’ll want to scrub ’house from top to bottom?’

Harriet nodded. ‘I’ll get Maria to help me.’ She put her hand to her chin. ‘I wonder if I should bring Dolly home.’

They did indeed clean the house from the bedrooms down to the ground floor. Rugs were beaten, floorboards polished, curtains that had been washed in the summer taken down, shaken well and put back up again. Windows and mirrors were washed and polished and the house smelled of beeswax as chairs and tables were burnished.

‘I wonder if they’ll come for your birthday, Daniel?’ his mother said. ‘That would be really nice, wouldn’t it, as it’s a special one. Twenty-one!’ She came over and gave him a hug. ‘I can’t believe that it’s nearly twenty-one years since you were born.’

Her eyes grew misty and her throat tightened as she recalled her joy at his birth and the trauma of Noah’s death shortly afterwards.

‘I didn’t tell them about my birthday, Ma. I never thought to. But, well, it’s special to you and me, but not—’

‘And us,’ Maria interrupted.

‘And me!’ Fletcher came through the door. ‘What? What’s special?’

Daniel laughed. ‘Nowt much, Da. Just somebody’s birthday!’

‘Oh, yeh?’ Fletcher said blithely. ‘Who’s having a birthday?’

Daniel shook his head. ‘Nobody I know. Oh, of course,’ he added hastily, ‘Charles and Beatrice will be twenty very soon.’ To cover his disappointment that he hadn’t seen either of them for several weeks, he said, ‘Look at you, Da. What’ve you been doing? You’re covered in brick dust.’

‘Yeh, I’m going to have a swill under ’pump, but ’job at ’manor is finished, thank goodness; it’s bigger than I expected it to be, but I can now go back to being a farmer rather than a builder, because ’new bailiff has started. A bit later than expected, but he’s arrived and he seems promising!’

Daniel took Maria and Lenny into his confidence and told them when Leo and Calypso were expected. ‘You’ll have to shuffle ’bedrooms round, I expect, won’t you?’ he asked Maria.

‘That’s already organized,’ she said. ‘Me and Dolly are going to share and Calypso can have my room, and Uncle Leo can have ’spare bedroom. We’ve lit fires in there already and all ’bedding is aired.’

‘I’ll need you to come to ’station with me in ’trap, Lenny,’ Daniel said. ‘Or mebbe we should tek ’waggon for their luggage.’

They discussed various aspects of getting the family to the house without their mother knowing, and apart from Harriet baking a cake and other provisions Daniel’s birthday seemed to be rather overlooked, which was fine, he thought, for it was only a number and nothing special to celebrate; he’d had the best year he could ever expect to have and would never in his life forget, with Beatrice and Charles as his constant companions as they travelled across Europe, and meeting his grandfather for the first time.

On the twins’ birthday, Daniel went to the manor with small gifts and cards from everyone; the young maid who answered the door took them, saying that everyone was out and she would leave them on the hall table for when they returned.

He was extremely disappointed, and supposed that they had gone off on a family outing, but as he was driving the trap back down the drive Beatrice rushed round from the back of the house and called to him to stop.

‘Oh, Daniel, I’m so pleased to see you,’ she said breathlessly, and he felt somewhat mollified. ‘I wanted to tell you that Charles and I are not celebrating our birthday today, because it’s only a twentieth, isn’t it, and nothing has been arranged …’ Her words tailed away at his expression. ‘Oh, Daniel, you look sad. What is it?’

‘No. No, not sad at all,’ he blustered. ‘As a matter of fact I’m really quite happy. Can you keep a secret, from my mother, I mean?’

She nodded and glanced away. ‘Of course.’

‘It’s just that Leo and Calypso are coming to stay. They’ll be here in just a few days.’

‘Really?’ she said. ‘How wonderful! I’m so thrilled for you.’