The Victory (89 page)

‘
It is so lucky that your cook — what is his name? Danvers,
yes — so lucky that you could find him a place. I could not
imagine Barnard serving under anyone else.'

‘
Oh, John Anstey's delighted! He's had one bad cook after
another, and he's always envied us Danvers, and Danvers is
delighted to be moving to a new house, with a modern
kitchen, and to be able to spend his off-duty time in the city,
instead of having nothing but fields around him. So everything works out very well. I shall be glad to have Barnard
back at Morland Place, though I don't know what he'll think
of the Rumford Mary Ann installed. She and Barnard never
got on together.’

Some of the light in her face faded at the mention of Mary
Ann, and by an understandable connection of ideas she said,
'Is Fanny still against it?'

‘
I'm afraid so,' he said. 'I thought she'd come round to the
idea in a day or two, but she still sulks and scowls and bursts
into tears if I try to talk about you.'

‘
It is very bad,' Héloïse frowned. 'I don't know what we
should do. Do you think perhaps I ought to come and meet
her, so that she can see I am not an ogre?’

James looked doubtful. 'I'm only afraid it may put you off
the whole idea if she is unpleasant to you. She can be very bad
when she really puts her mind to it.’

Héloïse laughed at that. 'Oh, you foolish, do you think any
thing could make me want not to marry you? I'm only afraid
that something will happen to stop us.' She clutched his hand.'I can't tell you, James, what terrible, stupid fears I have.’

He put his arms round her. 'You don't need to tell me. I
have them too, all the time. But everything will be all right,
you'll see.’

*

As Fanny continued intransigent, it was decided that Héloïse should come to Morland Place one Sunday and spend the day
there, so that Fanny could be introduced to her and, it was
hoped, discover her to be no threat. The fifth of October was
chosen, and dawned a delightful, sunny, Indian-summer day
after several wet weeks, and everything seemed set fair for
Héloïse's first visit to Morland Place in ten years, except that
Fanny refused to get out of bed.

The baffled maids at last were forced to call upon James to
solve the problem, and he went up to the nursery and tried to
coax her.

‘
Come on, Fanny, don't be silly. I promise you you'll like
her. Everybody does. She's so very pleasant and good-
tempered; and I want you to make a good impression on her.
You can be such a good girl, and I want you and her to love
each other.'

‘I won't love her. I hate her!' Fanny cried into her pillow.

‘
You're just being silly,' James said, beginning to feel irrit
able. 'Now get up this instant and let Sarah dress you.
Madame will be here soon, and I want you to be downstairs
ready to greet her when she arrives.'

‘
I won't! I won't have her here! I hate her! If she comes
here, I'll kill her!’

James grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her roughly.
'Now that's enough! I won't have you talking like that! I've
tried to be patient with you, God knows. Get up this instant,
and get dressed, and come downstairs, and I warn you,
Fanny, if you don't behave yourself today I shall be very
angry indeed.’

Fanny eyed him cautiously, aware that this time he was
serious. Her tantrums had reached the limit of their effective
ness. She burst instead into unhappy rather than angry tears.

‘
You don't love me any more!' she wailed pitifully. 'You
love this other lady instead, and when she comes you won't want me, and you'll send me away!’

James took her in his arms. 'Oh Fanny, sweetheart, is that what's the matter? Of course I love you! My getting married
won't make any difference. You'll always be my darling little
girl.'

‘
Promise me! Promise you won't love her more than me!’

 
‘
Of course not. I love her differently from you. Don't be
silly, Fan.'

‘
Say you love me best!' she cried passionately, and James
obliged.

‘
I love you best of all, Fanny. Now will you be a good girl
and get up, and be nice to Madame when she comes?’

Fanny nodded into his shoulder, and allowed herself to be
detached inch by inch. James handed her over to Sarah, who
had been waiting all the while with her clothes, and went out,
and Fanny, still hiccoughing and wet-cheeked, watched him
go thoughtfully. She knew how far she could push her father,
and though that was a very long way indeed, she was aware
that she had come to the end of his tether at last on this
matter. She would have to change her tactics.

When Héloïse arrived for her visit, therefore, she found a
subdued and outwardly polite Fanny waiting in the great hall
to say how-do-you-do and curtsey.

‘
How do you do, my dear,' Héloïse said pleasantly. 'I hope
we shall be friends.'

‘
Yes, madame,' Fanny said demurely, as she had been
instructed, and James, standing behind her, felt a surge of
relief. He did not see, as Héloïse did, the burning look of
hostility in the eyes she lifted briefly to her rival's face as she
rose from her curstey.

It was a pleasant day. After taking some light refreshment, they all went for a walk around the gardens while the sun was
high, and James produced some bread for Héloïse to feed the
swans, which made her laugh. Then Father Aislaby went
away to his duties and Fanny to her dinner, and the other
three looked over the house together, and made plans.

‘
I thought we'd sleep in the great bedchamber when we're married,' James said. 'It needs new hangings, but we can get
that done before the day. My mother and father slept there,
you see, and they were so happy, I feel it would be appropriate.’

Héloïse smiled. 'Thank you. I should like that. And what of
the others? Mathilde is too old to sleep in the nursery. She
ought to have a room of her own.'

‘
The west bedroom is the prettiest,' Edward said. 'Our
sister Mary always used to have it. It's a nice bedroom for a
young lady.’

Héloïse hesitated. 'I wonder, if it is the best bedroom,
shouldn't Fanny have it? She is the young lady of the house,
and the heiress, too.'

‘Fanny sleeps in the nursery,' James said.

‘
But I think she will not like to share it with my children,' Héloïse said carefully, forbearing to add that she did not like
the idea of Fanny, in her present mood, having free access to
Sophie and Thomas. 'If the occasion of our marriage is also
the occasion of Fanny's being given her own room, like a
grown-up girl, it might help to reconcile her.'

‘
That's a good idea,' Edward said. 'I think you ought to do
that, Jamie.’

James shrugged. 'All right, if you think it will help. Then
Mathilde had better have the red room, I suppose — not that it's very red now, but I can't get out of the habit of calling it
that.’

They continued their stroll, talking about redecoration and
new hangings and china and linen. They wandered into the
long saloon and Héloïse stopped in front of the portrait of
Arabella Morland and stared at it thoughtfully.

‘
I wonder what Mathilde will think of it when she sees it —
but probably it will not strike her. One can never see the
likeness of oneself in other faces. I told you, did I not, James,
how your mama and I were sure that this lady is Mathilde's
ancestress? There will be a kind of rightness, after all this
time, in Mathilde's coming to live here. As if a loose end has
been tied.’

James put his arm around her. 'Everything about your
coming here is right,' he said. 'And Mathilde's is not the only
loose end. You should have been mistress of Morland Place
long ago, when we first meant to marry; and now you will be.’

Tor a little while only,' Héloïse reminded him with a faint
smile. 'Don't forget it is Fanny's inheritance. And when she
comes of age, we may find ourselves turned out.’

James laughed. 'Oh, she'll have got over her sulks by then, my darling, I promise you. And if she doesn't, we can always
go back and live at Plaisir.'

‘You're keeping that, then?' Edward said.

‘
Certainly,' James answered for her. 'We shall use it to get
away together, when having all these people around us
becomes too much.'

‘
Oh, but I like to have lots of people around me, James,'
Héloïse objected. 'It is what I have looked forward to most.'

‘
Not most, darling,' James prompted, but she gave him a
wicked smile, and refused to yield.

*

The offer of the new bedroom did something to placate
Fanny, though at first she was suspicious about why the
unknown Mathilde was being given the red room, which was
bigger. She thought that perhaps she was being fobbed off with
second best, but Edward told her quite sharply that the west
room was indisputably the best, and prettiest, and that the
Countess Annunciata when she was mistress of Morland Place
would sleep in no other, and James added that Mathilde
would later have to share the larger room with Sophie, when
she became too big for the nursery.

Still Fanny was not convinced, until finally James said,
‘For heaven's sake, Fanny, you can have the red room if you
really prefer it. I just thought you'd like the blue room best.'
And then she smiled graciously and accepted.

The other placatory treat Oat was offered her was to be a
bridesmaid at the wedding, which she refused sulkily until she
learned that 'that woman's' children were to be so honoured,
and then she changed her mind, provided she could be first
and best, and have a better gown than her step-sisters.

The question of clothes was a vexed one to Héloïse, who
doubted whether Flon's fingers would be capable of the work
involved, and yet who did not want to hurt her feelings by
engaging an outsider. Flon herself solved the problem by
addressing it one evening at Plaisir.