‘Will he be there?’ said Gavin, glancing at Ridley.
‘Yes, of course. It will be his house as well as mine. We shall share it.’
‘They will share it,’ said Nevill, in a tone that approved this course.
‘Will you have any more children?’ said Gavin.
‘No, I don’t think so,’ said Eleanor.
‘Why don’t you?’
‘Well, people don’t generally have more than nine.’
‘Queen Anne had eighteen.’
‘Yes, but I am not a queen.’
‘Do queens have more than other people?’
‘It seems sometimes as if they do,’ said Eleanor, smiling.
‘If you had any more, would they live with you or with Grandma?’ said Honor.
‘With me,’ said Eleanor, obliged to continue on the line.
‘Would Hatton go to your house to take care of them, or would she stay with us?’
‘She would stay with you. You will always have her.’
‘Hatton will always stay here,’ said Nevill. ‘Not with those other children.’
‘Here is Hatton coming to fetch you,’ said Mullet, in the conscious tone of one whose presence has been forgotten.
‘Perhaps with a true instinct,’ said Ridley, smiling at Eleanor. ‘I think our ordeal did not become less, with the age of those who sat in judgement.’
‘Mr Ridley always take care of her, and Father coming back soon,’ said Nevill, glancing behind Hatton’s hand at his mother.
‘Doesn’t he understand any more than that?’
‘He understands everything, madam. He gets into the way of saying things.’
‘Father never come back any more, but Mr Ridley always stay with her,’ said Nevill, with his ready proof of what was said.
‘Well, you will all give me a kiss and tell me you are glad I am going to be happier,’ said Eleanor, with a note of welcome for the end of her task.
‘I will make the same request, as the congratulation applies to me,’ said Ridley. ‘And I hope to become a welcome nursery guest.’
Honor and Gavin bowed to circumstances, and their brother gave another backward glance.
‘He will kiss him another day,’ he promised.
Hatton let him mount the first flight of stairs, and then picked him up and carried him to the nursery, his expression undergoing no change. Honor and Gavin were in some discomfort at the end of the scene, and followed with high, conscious talk. Nevill ran round the nursery two or three times and paused at Hatton’s knee, as if by chance.
‘Go down to Grandma soon today. Mother won’t be there any more.’
‘Yes, Mother will be there. She is not going away yet. She will not be married for some time.’
Nevill cast his eyes over Hatton’s face and resumed his running.
‘Just fancy this change in the family!’ said Mullet, in a low tone to Hatton. ‘Who would have thought it, when the master died?’
‘That would not have been the moment for picturing it, certainly.’
Gavin burst into a loud laugh.
‘Did you have this kind of thing in your family, Mullet?’ said Honor.
‘Well, perhaps in a way I did,’ said Mullet, in a constrained tone.
‘I will go and get on with my mending,’ said Hatton. ‘I am not sharing the holiday.’
‘Well, what was it?’ said Honor, after waiting for the door to close.
‘Well, something like this did happen to my relations,’ said Mullet, folding up garments, as if fluency were more natural when her hands were occupied. ‘It was a family of cousins who lived in London; well, an aunt and cousins it really was, but my aunt was a colourless sort of person, who attracted little attention, and it is my cousins whom I always think of as the victims of the stroke of fate.’
‘Well, what happened?’ said Honor.
‘It is a little hard to describe,’ said Mullet, with a natural hesitation, as she did not yet know what it was. ‘I was never at close quarters with it. It was one of those things that cast their shadows before and aft, and no one could escape the repercussion of it. Well, after my aunt’s bereavement there ensued a period of calm. My aunt was disconsolate, of course, but she maintained the even tenor of her life. And then the change came. The man destined to be my uncle loomed into view.’ Mullet’s voice deepened at the mention of this destiny. ‘A tall, sinister-looking man he was, with thin lips and a scar stretching across his face, and twisting in an odd way round his mouth. Handsome in a way, of course, with a kind of sinister charm, but a man whose very presence seemed to cast some primitive spell.’
‘How did he get the scar? said Gavin.
‘It was never spoken of, Master Gavin. There seemed to be a sort of unwritten law that no word of it should pass human lips,’ said Mullet, her voice gaining confidence. ‘And none ever crossed my father’s or mine. I daresay he thought it was hardly a subject for my ears.’
‘He knew about it then,’ said Honor.
‘Well, Miss Honor, these things pass from men to men. I suspect he had his shrewd suspicions. He was a shrewd man in his way.’
‘Well, what happened to the family?’
‘In a way nothing, in a way everything. That is the best way to put it.’
‘But what was it?’ said Honor, not taking this view.
‘A strange, uncanny atmosphere brooded over that house. Laughter never seemed to sound, and the sun never to shine in those rooms. And in the place of those happy children, who used to shout and play in that deep-vaulted hall, there were tall, grave men and women, with haunted eyes, and lips that had forgotten how to smile. And my aunt crept in and out, a sad, silent being, who seemed to have more in common with another world. That is how things were in that household.’
‘But what did he do, the man with the scar?’ said Gavin.
‘You may well ask, Master Gavin. He did what he did. It is best not to say any more.’
‘One of those things that children are not told,’ said Honor.
‘And those purposes needed money, whatever they were,’ went on Mullet, hastening her words. ‘In those days all the wife’s money belonged to the man; and he used to dole her own income out to her in pence, or in pounds I expect it was, or in low banknotes, but in small enough sums, considering her worldly estate. Yes, she must have felt she had come on evil days.’
‘And how are things now?’ said Honor.
‘As far as I know, as they were. I have no wish to hear. It could be no good news.’
‘I should think it is better here than in that house.’
‘Oh, so should I,’ said Mullet, with a little laugh. ‘And now we must remember that you are to be punctual downstairs today.’
Honor turned to the door, expecting to see Hatton, and confirmed in the anticipation.
‘We shan’t have to be so punctual when Mother is not here,’ said Gavin, simply stating a fact.
‘And why not, Master Gavin?’ said Mullet.
‘She will be with us often enough to keep us up to the mark,’ said Hatton.
‘It is funny that Mr Ridley and Mother should both want to live together,’ said Honor. ‘It is a coincidence.’
‘A frequent one in marriage, I hope,’ said Hatton.
Mullet laughed.
‘This isn’t a real marriage,’ said Honor. ‘The Queen wouldn’t see Mother now. She wouldn’t see either of them.’
‘Don’t talk nonsense, Miss Honor; of course she would,’ said Mullet.
‘Mr Ridley is the worst, because it is the man who asks the woman to marry him.’
‘A woman is not allowed to,’ said Gavin.
‘Neither the mistress nor Mr Ridley is doing anything wrong.’
‘Not so that they could be put in prison,’ said Honor. ‘But some of the worst wrong things are not like that.’
‘You must have heard of people marrying twice. It is not like you to talk in such a silly way.’