The Unknown Mr. Brown (17 page)

“Well, you needn’t be so smug about it,” Kate retorted sharply. “I’ve no doubt a change of plans suits you, but this is Robert’s home when all’s said and done, and it’s a little hard that he should feel obliged to stop away in order not to upset a young girl I happen to employ.”

“That,” Victoria replied, sounding strained but still infuriatingly polite, “is surely an exaggeration. Robert, I imagine, would hardly consider the feelings of an employee if it interfered with his own convenience. Aren’t you making rather a thing out of that unlucky week-end?”

“No,” said Kate, seizing her opportunity when at last it offered with an uncharacteristic abandonment of reserve. “It’s you who, I suspect, has magnified things out of all proportion. I can respect your effort to cover up hint feelings with a show of indifference, but not this refusal to come to terms with yourself.”

“Oh, I’ve done that,” Victoria said quietly, her eyes grave and curiously worldly-wise, and Kate blurted out before she could stop herself:

“Are you in love with him, Victoria?”

“I don’t think you should ask me that, Kate. I may have been silly and extremely green, but my feelings are my own business and quite unimportant.”

Resentment began to stir in Kate. Although she could, in her rational moments, allow that everyone was entitled to privacy, it was humiliating to be put in one’s place by a chit of a girl who, unintentionally or not, was causing so much trouble.

“Very well,” she said, controlling an impulse to quarrel vulgarly by taking refuge instead in the authority of an employer, “you are, of course, entitled to keep your own counsel, but if, as you state, your feelings are unimportant, I would be glad if you didn’t let them interfere with your obligations here at Farthings. Elspeth tells me you spend too much time in the kitchen asking vague questions about the past which she’s in no position to answer and you seem to have temporarily lost your touch with Timmy. Children’s attachments can, I know, be fickle and subject to change, but it would be a pity if he turned against his godfather for want of a little tact on your part.”

Victoria had listened without interruption or protest, but her face had grown whiter and more sharply angled and she looked as she had that evening standing at the foot of the stairs saying so quietly that it was more humiliating to be bolstered up with fairy tales than to face the fact that one had been made a fool of. For a moment Kate felt ashamed of resorting to cheap criticism to relieve her feeling, but before she could add a word of retraction, Victoria said in a voice which had lost its cool confidence and sounded bewildered and very young:

“Then it would be better if I went away. I—I’m sorry, Kate, if I’ve been the cause of—of any trouble, but Timmy will soon forget his resentment of Robert once I’ve gone. He was only jealous. I shall miss you, Kate, but it will be better this way.”

Kate watched her with troubled eyes. She wanted to take the girl in her arms, to tell her the whole thing was a storm in a teacup and was best forgotten by both of them, but there was too much truth in Victoria’s sad conclusions and, for her own sake, it might be wiser to make a break while there was still time to forget.

“Yes, perhaps it would,” she said with a regretful sigh. “Not because I was finding fault, perhaps unfairly, but because I think it might be best for you. I shall miss you, too, very much, but it needn’t be the end of friendship. You’ll come back here one day for a visit.”

“You said that in Switzerland when I thought Mr. Brown wouldn’t agree—do you remember? Even if he won’t, you said, you can at least come on a visit and we’ll pick up the threads. How long ago it all seems,” Victoria said, and thought as she had then that those sort of promises were usually doomed to be unfulfilled, but Kate frowned.

“Yes, I’d forgotten Mr. Brown. I’d better write and make tactful explanations and perhaps suggest some alternative plan to see you through the next few months.”

“No, I’ll write. A course at some commercial college would fill in the time nicely before the Trust is wound up, and the solicitors, at least, would see the sense in that and point out to Mr. Brown that I could hardly be expected to earn a respectable living without some sort of training. He should, of course, have thought of that long
ago.”

Victoria, having delivered her little speech with matter-of-fact finality, was gone before Kate could form any suitable reply, and she sat down limply in the nearest easy chair, feeling despondent and somehow at fault. She considered ringing up Robert to ask advice, but she knew him too well to expect interference in a situation which involved himself. He would find his own way of resolving his difficulties when and if the time came and, whether or not Victoria had been near to loving him before being shocked into apathy by that pointless deception, it would be better to allow her time to readjust in some other environment than stop on at Farthings with perpetual reminders of a spoiled dream.

She remembered now that it had been Robert who had casually acquainted her with the girl’s whereabouts and suggested the possibility of arriving at some mutual agreement He must, she supposed with slight surprise, have kept track of the child’s progress through the years, owing to his irrational sense of responsibility at the outcome of the trial.

Had Robert been merely curious to see how she had turned out, thanks to a benefactor who must have shared something of his own disquiet or had he more definite plans which he hoped would mature given the appropriate environment and careful handling? And why, thought Kate with a fresh renewal of exasperated curiosity, when he was so nearly within reach of his goal, had he chosen to play a trick which, if discovered, could only result in wreckage? As it was, she had no doubts that the watchful Mr. Brown would be prompt in removing his protégée to more suitable quarters, and since it was only too likely that Robert’s name had appeared with increasing regularity in Victoria’s duty letters, it would not be difficult to arrive at a reason for her sudden request to leave. Robert was too well known in legal circles to escape censure should her letters have been indiscreet and one thing could lead to another ...

The solicitors’ reply to the letter Victoria had written about her plans was unexpected and far from helpful. Mr. Brown, they informed Victoria, was entirely satisfied with the present arrangement and saw no reason to make any changes, providing that Mrs. Allen was still willing to offer employment. They trusted that Miss Hayes was not being so inconsiderate at this late date as to indulge in girlish fancies, and remained hers faithfully.

“Girlish fancies indeed!” she exclaimed indignantly, shaking back her hair like a startled pony. Kate had been watching her across the breakfast table as she read the brief communication and gave a sympathetic smile.

“Yes, I’ve heard too,” she said, meeting Victoria’s outraged gaze with some wryness. “It looks as though we’ll have to make the best of it, doesn’t it?”

“You could always write and say you’ve sacked me. Even Mr. Brown could hardly insist on my remaining here in that case,” Victoria replied, and Kate sighed.

“Probably not, but since the decision was yours and not mine, the question of sacking doesn’t arise,” she said briefly.

“But you agreed. You thought it was best in the circumstances. You could say with perfect truth that you found me unsatisfactory.”

“I could, but I haven’t. I thought it best only for your own sake, but as you evidently didn’t see fit to explain your reasons for wanting to leave, you can’t blame your Mr. Brown for not taking you seriously.”

“It should have been sufficient that the arrangement didn’t suit me. I’m not a child any longer to be dismissed as inconsequent and tiresome. Surely they must realise that I’ve rights which weren’t in existence when the Trust was drawn up. If you can marry at eighteen without the consent of parents, and vote and be allowed H.P., there’s no power that can stop you ordering your own life at twenty.”

“No, there isn’t,” Kate admitted. “Still, I suppose one can’t entirely rule out one’s obligations. Your Mr. Brown may be a crank and a bit of a despot, but he’s entitled to expect some return for his generosity. Well, it looks as if you’ll have to submit with a good grace to stopping on here for a time. I can’t in all honesty sack you to force a different decision and I don’t suppose Mr. Brown or the lawyers would know what on earth to do with you if I did.”

“No, I suppose they wouldn’t. Oh, well, I’m sorry if you’re stuck with me after all. Perhaps I should have made my reasons rather plainer,” Victoria said, sounding flippant but looking as if she wanted to cry, and Kate’s eyes grew soft. So the child hadn’t played her strongest card and alleged unwelcome masculine attentions.

“Perhaps you should—” she said gently, “—if, that is, you think you were being taken advantage of.”

Victoria lowered her lashes but did not quite succeed in hiding the brightness of tears.

“I try not to think at all,” she replied, keeping her voice quite steady. “I was green and gullible and took too much for granted, I expect. If it hadn’t been for that practical joke I might even have taken Robert seriously, so perhaps it’s all worked out for the best.”

“But, Victoria—”

“Don’t try to explain things away with feeble excuses out of loyalty, Kate. I can guess that your own feelings were no less sore than mine, but I’m out of your way now—if I ever was in it.”

“What on earth are you talking about? Is it possible that—”

“Can I speak to you a moment,. Mrs. Allen?” said Elspeth’s voice from the doorway. “If Miss Toria is leaving us shortly, you’d do well to be thinking of a replacement. I’m no’ so young that I can take over Timmy for more than a wee while, so you’d best get out an advertisement for the local paper. A daily girl might suit us better than someone living in.” She spoke as if Victoria were not present, and Kate frowned. The implied rebuke was no less annoying than the untimely interruption.

“Miss Toria isn’t leaving us, after all, so there’s no need for you to fuss,” she said a little shortly. “You should know, in any case, that I’d not expect you to add Timmy to your other commitments.”

“Verra guid,” said Elspeth primly, pulling down the corners of her mouth and registering her displeasure by reverting to the well-trained servant whose opinions were neither asked for nor heeded. As she turned to leave the room, however, she added with the habit of long privilege: “You’ll no’ throw dust in my eyes, missus, by reminding me of my poseetion. There’s a deal of nonsense goes on in this hoose that a mite of common sense would clear up without setting us all at odds.”

“Oh, dear!” said Kate as the door closed behind her. “Now I’ve offended her. What were we saying, Victoria? I’ve an idea we were interrupted at a rather crucial moment.”

“Nothing of any importance,” Victoria answered. “I’d got rather tangled up with a lot of foolish thoughts as a result of Mr. Brown’s refusal to play ball, but if you really want me to stay, Kate, that’s all that matters. Let’s forget the whole thing.”

“Very well,” Kate replied a shade stiffly, conscious of being gently put in her place, but she did not find as the days went on that it was easy to dismiss the matter so lightly. She was troubled not only by the girl’s air of withdrawal, but the slight sense of strain which seemed to have crept into their pleasant relationship.

“It’s a ridiculous situation,” she complained to John Squires on one of his hurried visits. “I’ve no desire to get rid of Victoria, but I think she’s beginning to feel she’s here on sufferance thanks to the uncooperativeness of this tiresome Mr. Brown. Timmy seems to have forgotten his temporary resentment, which is something to be thankful for, I suppose, but Elspeth’s particularly crotchety these days, and Robert keeps away.”

“And that, of course, is the reason for your disquiet, my dear,” John said with some dryness, and she looked at him in surprise.

“Are you implying that I’m jealous?”

“Well, aren’t you? I have no means of knowing what, if any, understanding lies between you and Farmer, but you’ve regarded him as your special property for so long that it’s only natural to be a little piqued.”

“You have no earthly right to take me to task—to suggest motives that you can’t possibly be sure of. You’ll be accusing me next of being Robert’s mistress and resenting the attractions of a younger woman!” Kate cried, but he had smothered his own feeling for too long to choose his next words with care.

“If that should, by any chance, be true, I would be the last to blame you,” he said, refusing to raise his voice to match hers, “You are a young woman still, with healthy desires and appetites that should not be denied, but you’ll need more than that to satisfy you later on. You’ll need marriage and children and the security of a legitimised union as you grow older, and it’s time we, both of us, took stock.”

Kate stared at him speechless for a moment while she sought vainly for the remnants of her old composure.

“Your tolerance is as insulting as your well-worn advice,” she flung back at him then. “I suppose you’d be complacent enough to offer to supply all these things and kindly overlook any little lapse on my part.”

“Hush, my poor, angry dear, don’t throw my ill-expressed intentions back in my face. Whatever you may or may not have been to Robert Farmer has no bearing on my own feelings. I would have you, Kate, on any terms if I thought I could make you happy,” he said, his blue eyes suddenly a little shy, and she burst into tears.

“Oh, go away ... go away!” she wept, touched and exasperated at the same time, and because it had been too long since he had learnt to deal persuasively with a weeping woman he got up at once and took his leave of her. He had scarcely reached his car, however, when he was confronted by Victoria, who demanded indignantly to know what was the matter with him.

“Nothing that concerns you,” he replied with unusual asperity, but she refused to be snubbed.

Then you shouldn’t quarrel with all the windows wide open,” she retorted. “Why couldn’t you take poor Kate in your arms and knock some sense into her instead of slinking off as if you’d put both feet in it?”

“I may very well have put both feet in it, but I wasn’t aware of slinking off,” he replied with the ghost of a smile. “Were you listening under the window, young woman?”

“Of course not, but I couldn’t help hearing when Kate started to shout. Why do you let yourself be used just as a safety valve?”