The room was large and the furnishings a little austere compared to the ornate and bulging interiors that were currently popular. There were none of the usual stuffed animals in glass cases or arrangements of dried flowers, no embroidered samplers, or elaborate antimacassars across the backs of chairs. By comparison with most withdrawing rooms it seemed airy, almost bare. Charlotte found it rather pleasing, except for the phalanxes of photographs on the farthest wall, covering the top of the grand piano, and spread along the mantelshelf. They all appeared to include rather elderly people, and had been taken years before, to judge from the fashions. Obviously they were not of Ambrosine and her children, but rather of a generation earlier. Charlotte presumed the man who appeared in them so frequently was her husband—a vain man, she decided from the number of his pictures.
There were some half-dozen highly exotic weapons displayed above the fireplace.
Ambrosine caught Charlotte’s glance. “Horrible, aren’t they?” she said. “But my husband insists. His younger brother was killed in the first Afghan War, forty-five years ago, and he’s set them up there as a sort of memorial. The maids are always complaining that they are the perfect devil to clean. Collect dust like mad, above the fire.”
Charlotte looked up at the knives in their ornamental sheaths and scabbards, and had nothing but sympathy for the maids.
“Quite!” Ambrosine said fervently, observing her expression. “And they are in excellent condition. Bronwen swears someone will wind up with their throat cut one of these days. Although of course it is not her task to clean them. Heathen weapons, she calls them, and I suppose they are.”
“Bronwen?” Caroline was at a loss.
“My maid.” Ambrosine invited them all to be seated with a gesture of her arm. “The excellent one with the reddish hair.”
“I thought her name was Louisa,” Caroline said.
“I daresay it is.” Ambrosine arranged herself gracefully on the chaise longue. “But the best maid I ever had was called Bronwen, and I don’t believe in changing a good thing. I always call my personal maids Bronwen now. Also it saves confusion. There are dozens of Lilies and Roses and Marys.”
There was no argument to this, and Charlotte was obliged to turn and look out of the window in order to hide her amusement.
“Finding a really good maid is quite an achievement,” Caroline said, pursuing the subject. “So often those who are competent are less than honest, and those whom one can really trust are not as efficient as one would like.”
“My dear, you sound most despondent,” Ambrosine said with sympathy. “A current misfortune?”
“I’m really not quite sure,” Caroline plunged on. “I have missed a small article of jewelry, and I don’t know whether it is a theft or merely mischance. It is a wretched feeling. I don’t wish to be unjust when the whole affair may be quite accidental.”
“Was it of value?” Ambrosine inquired with a little frown.
“Not especially, except that it was a gift from my mother-in-law, and she might be hurt that I had been careless with it.”
“Or flattered that of all your pieces someone chose that to take,” Ambrosine pointed out.
Caroline laughed without pleasure.
“I hadn’t even thought of that. I’m obliged to you. If she makes any observation, I must say that to her.”
“I still think you may have mislaid it, Mama,” Charlotte said, trying to allow the subject to die. “It may well turn up in a day or two. If you let Grandmama think it has been stolen, she will begin to accuse people, and she will never let the matter rest until someone is blamed.”
Caroline caught the sharpness in her voice and perceived the danger she was inviting upon herself.
“You are quite right,” she said. “It would be wiser to say nothing.”
“People with not enough business of their own to mind will be quick enough to mind yours if you start word of things like theft,” Charlotte added for good measure.
“I see your estimate of people’s charity matches my own, Mrs. Pitt.” Ambrosine reached for the bell cord and pulled it. “I hope you will take tea? As well as a good maid, I also have an excellent cook. I employed her for her ability with cakes and desserts. She makes the most dreadful soups, but then since I don’t care for soup, I am perfectly happy to overlook that.”
“My husband is extremely fond of soup,” Caroline remarked absently.
“So is mine,” Ambrosine said. “But one cannot have everything.”
The parlormaid came and Ambrosine sent her for the tea.
“You know, Mrs. Pitt,” Ambrosine continued, “your observations about other people’s curiosity are peculiarly apposite. I have had the disturbing sensation lately that someone is taking a marked interest in me—not a kindly one, but purely inquisitive. If anything, I have the feeling it is malicious.”
Charlotte sat perfectly still. She was conscious of Caroline’s body stiffening beside her.
“How distressing,” Charlotte said after a moment. “Have you any notion who it may be?”
“No, none at all. That is what makes it so unpleasant. It is merely a repeated impression.”
The door opened, and the maid came in with tea and at least a dozen different kinds of cakes and tarts, many of them with whipped cream.
“Thank you,” Ambrosine said, eyeing one particular fruit pastry with satisfaction. “Perhaps I am being fanciful,” she went on as the maid disappeared again. “I daresay there is no one with as much interest in me as such a thing supposes.”
Caroline opened her mouth as if to speak, then said nothing after all.
“You are quite right,” Charlotte said, hurrying to fill the silence, her eyes on the tea table. “You have a most accomplished cook. I vow I should grow out of every garment I possess if I were to live with such a woman.”
Ambrosine observed Caroline’s still slender figure.
“I hope that does not mean you will not call upon me again?”
Charlotte smiled. “On the contrary, it means that I shall now have two reasons for calling instead of one.” She accepted her tea and an enormous cream sponge. No one bothered with the polite fiction of taking bread and butter first.
They had been at tea only a matter of five minutes or so when the door opened again and a gray-haired, middle-aged man came in. Charlotte immediately recognized the short-nosed, rather severe face from the photographs. This man was even wearing the same kind of stiff-winged collar and black tie as the man in the photographs. He had to be Lovell Charrington.
Introductions proved her correct.
“No sandwiches?” He looked at the plates critically.
“Didn’t know you would be joining us,” Ambrosine replied. “I can always call cook for some if you wish.”
“Please! I cannot imagine that all this cream is good for you, my dear. And we should not restrict our visitors to indulging in your somewhat eccentric tastes.”
“Oh, we are equally eccentric,” Charlotte answered without thinking. Her impulse was to side with Ambrosine; moreover, she had quite enough bread at home. “I am delighted to be able to enjoy them in such happy company.”
Ambrosine rewarded her with a smile of satisfaction and surprise.
“If you will not be offended by my saying so, Mrs. Pitt, you remind me of my own daughter, Ottilie. She enjoyed things so much and was not averse to saying so.”
Charlotte did not know whether it would be all right to admit knowing of the girl’s death, or if it might seem as if she had been talking of the Charringtons’ affairs too familiarly. She was saved from her dilemma by Lovell.
“Our daughter has passed on, Mrs. Pitt. I’m sure you will understand if I say that we find it distressing to discuss.”
Since Charlotte had not spoken, she thought his manner less than courteous, but for Ambrosine’s sake she restrained herself.