“I was hoping that too. But don’t you mean too much sense of justice? It was very bad of me, but you must remember that I’d never met you.”
“Then you shouldn’t have prejudged me!” she said severely.
“I know I shouldn’t. I hope it may be a lesson to me.”
“So do I, but I doubt it!” she retorted, trying not to laugh. However, having discharged her spleen, her natural good humour reasserted itself, and she did laugh, and said candidly: “As a matter of fact, when I came to think it over, I did perceive that there was a good deal of excuse for you. It must have looked as if I were trying to lure Torquil into matrimony. The thing was that it never entered my head that I ought to hold him at a distance, because he is only a schoolboy, and I am years older than he is. And my aunt told me that he lacked young companionship, which indeed he does, poor boy! To own the truth, sir, I am excessively sorry for him.”
He looked at her, an arrested expression in his eyes. “Are you?”
“Well, of course I am! Are not you?”
“I am very sorry for him,” he agreed.
She thought he sounded indifferent, and suspected that he had no liking for Torquil. “I know you don’t think so,” she said, “but I believe he would be very much better if he were not cooped up here. It seems to me quite shocking!”
“Does it?”
“Yes, it does! My aunt believes that London would knock him up, and dreads his being ill. I fancy she is afraid he would go the pace too fast, and commit some extravagant folly, through being so excitable. I expect she is quite right, because he’s green, and would be bound to hob-nob with the sort of young man who is always ripe for a spree: I daresay you know what I mean?”
“Choice spirits,” he said, with the glimmer of a smile.
“Is that what they are called? Well, I do see that that might be dangerous, and I perfectly understand my aunt’s anxiety. But what I do not understand is why he must be kept at Staplewood the whole time, and never permitted to go anywhere! One would have supposed that my aunt would have wished to try if one of the watering-places might not be of benefit to him, but—” She stopped, and said, in a conscience-stricken tone: “I didn’t mean to say that. I know I should not.”
“Are you afraid I might tell Minerva? I shan’t.”
“No, but I shouldn’t criticize her.”
“On the contrary! You should—and, in fact, you do!”
“Yes,” she confessed. “I can’t help doing so, but I feel it’s ungrateful, because she has been so kind to me.”
“Are you fond of her?” he asked abruptly.
She began to plait her fringe again, and did not answer immediately, but when he laid his hand over her unquiet ones, checking her, she looked up, and said, with an embarrassed flush: “Oh, dear! was I at that again? No, I’m afraid I’m not fond of her. Not very fond of her, that is! I don’t know why, because she seems to be fond of me, and in general, you know—”
“Seems?” he interrupted, keeping his hand over hers.
She met his eyes, a little shyly, and found that they were smiling, inviting confidence. Without knowing why she did so, she said impulsively: “I don’t think she’s fond of anyone! It makes me far from easy. I can’t explain!”
“You need not: I know what you mean. Minerva has overwhelmed you with gifts—you called her generosity crushing, but you wouldn’t feel crushed if you believed she held you in affection, would you?”
“Ah, you do understand! I should be grateful, but not crushed!” She sighed, and said ruefully: “I thought there was nothing I wouldn’t do to show my gratitude, but I can’t marry Torquil! It is quite out of the question. When my aunt suggested it to me, I thought she must be out of her mind!”
It was a moment or two before he answered her. He began to speak, and then shut his mouth hard, as though he were exercising considerable restraint. Finally, he said, in a brusque voice: “No. Obsessed!”
She nodded. “I know that: Staplewood and the succession! But that’s not it!”
“You are mistaken.”
“No, I don’t think I am. She seems to be determined to keep Torquil under her thumb: not just now, but always! And I fancy she believes that if he married me she could do it, that I shouldn’t interfere, or try to take him away, or—or usurp her position.”
“Undoubtedly.”
“It is a shocking thing to think of anyone, but what else can I think?” said Kate. “You see, my father told me how very ambitious she is, so I supposed that she must be hoping that Torquil would make a splendid match. But, of course, if he married a girl of the first stare it is not to be expected that she could keep her here, in—in subjection, is it? Well, even if the girl were willing to allow my aunt to rule the roost, she might not be willing to be buried here all the year round!”
“Most unlikely. But there is more to it than that, Kate: such a girl would not be, as you are, alone in the world. She would have parents, perhaps brothers and sisters, certainly more distant relations—uncles, aunts, cousins.”
“If it comes to that,” said Kate, “I have distant relations too! I am not acquainted with them, but—”
“Exactly so!” he said. “But they are not concerned with your welfare!”
“Oh, no! I daresay most of them don’t know I exist!”
“It is precisely that circumstance which, in Minerva’s eyes, makes you a desirable wife for Torquil.”
He spoke with deliberation, and her eyes widened a little, searching his face. The vague uneasiness which troubled her deepened; she said carefully: “I collect that you think that my aunt might try to—to constrain me—to force me to marry Torquil, but I promise you it isn’t so! It was only a suggestion! I have told her that I shall never do so, and, although she has begged me to think it over, I am persuaded she realizes that I shan’t change my mind.”
As though urged by some inner impulse, he grasped both her hands, and held them in a compelling grip, saying harshly: “Kate, go away from this place! On no account must you marry Torquil!”
“Well, of course I must not!” she returned, slightly amused. “Even if I weren’t too old for him, he isn’t fit to be married!”
“Why do you say that?” he asked quickly.
“Good God!” she exclaimed. “Surely you must be aware that he hasn’t yet outgrown the schoolboy? He hasn’t learnt to control his temper, for one thing! The least check makes him ride rusty. As for forming a lasting attachment, fiddle! I daresay it may be years before he does so. At the moment he is inclined to fancy himself in love with me, but he was fancying himself in love with Miss Templecombe when I first came here, and it was only when he heard of her engagement that he transferred his affections to me. Would you care to lay odds against his transferring them yet again if some reasonably pretty girl were to appear in the neighbourhood? Of course you would not!”
He released her hands. “Of course I would not,” he agreed, and sat heavily frowning at the ground between his forearms, which he had laid along his spread legs, his hands clasped between his knees.
In some perplexity Kate looked at his down-bent head, and said: “You don’t wish Torquil to be married, do you, sir?” She waited for a reply, but he only shook his head. She continued: “Why not? I can readily understand that you would not wish him to marry an adventuress, but I have the oddest feeling that you would oppose his marriage to anyone. You have told me that you don’t covet his inheritance, and I believe you don’t indeed. But I cannot feel that you hold him dear, so—so why, Mr Broome?”
He glanced up at that, wryly smiling, and said: “Oh, no! I refuse to be Mr Broome—Cousin Kate!”
“You know very well that I am not your cousin!” she said.
“I know that you refused to acknowledge the relationship! What was it you said?—at the worst you could only be a connection of mine! Excessively rag-mannered I thought you!”