It must have been an hour later when we heard the sounds of arrival. Harriet and I went down alone to greet Robert Frinton.
When he saw me he put out his arms and we were both so overcome by emotion that I went straight into them and we clung together for a few moments.
He released me and looked into my face. “You have made me so happy,” he said. “So very happy. For me this is like a miracle. Something I never dreamed could possibly be. I loved the child from the first. I cannot tell you what this means to me.”
When I realized his happiness I felt reconciled to what Harriet had done.
We were together a great deal during that visit and he talked continuously about Carlotta. He had brought a gold chain with a diamond pendant for her. She delighted in it. Carlotta loved gifts and she had a passion for jewels.
Robert Frinton and I travelled back to Eversleigh together. He talked all the time of the joy it gave him to know that Carlotta was Jocelyn’s daughter.
“The fact that he fathered a child—and such a child-makes him seem less lost to me,” he said. “How I wish it could have been in different circumstances. There is no one I would rather have seen him married to, dear Priscilla. And Carlotta delights me. I want to watch her all the time. I want to listen to her. She is the most enchanting child that ever was. This has been like a new life to me. How I thank my good fortune that I decided to come to Enderby Hall. It was like fate, wasn’t it? And there she was in the house … in Carlotta’s cupboard. Oh, how glad I am! You need have no fear. This shall be our secret until you wish it to be divulged. I would not cause you, who have given me such wonderful happiness, one moment of grief.”
So he talked and I thought that no harm had been done. He was such a delightful man and there was no doubt that the revelation had brought him great happiness.
But when I went to see him soon after at Enderby Hall, I was more than ever aware of the sense of foreboding in that house. It was a house of shadows; there was an eeriness in spite of the bright furnishings and the smell of beeswax and turpentine which his servants used so lavishly.
When Robert appeared, the mood of the house seemed to change, but when I stood alone in the hall, I seemed to sense something evil, something which was like a warning. I wondered whether it was the shadow of past tragedy, but somehow I could not get out of my mind the feeling that it was a warning of some impending disaster.
After that I saw a great deal of Robert. We had naturally moved closer together. He was a frequent visitor at Eversleigh Court and I was often at Enderby Hall. He was so pathetically eager to see me, and Carlotta often came with me. That was indeed a red-letter day for him.
I was glad that Carlotta liked him and went out of her way to charm him. She need not have bothered, she did it effortlessly. Such was her nature that the more pleasure he showed in her company, the more she liked him. I was glad to see that he inspired a certain gentleness in her nature which I had not noticed before. There was nothing she liked better than to serve us with coffee or chocolate, which was becoming so fashionable in the London coffeehouses. Carlotta would preside at the table and we would watch her with pride as she brought the beverages to us.
“My father and mother took tea when they were in London,” she told us. “It is a strange outlandish herb, they say. They didn’t like it much, but it is being drunk by all the notable people.”
Her eyes sparkled. I knew she longed to go to London and mingle with the notables.
“My mother says that when I am fourteen, which is this year, she will take me to London.”
I could never become accustomed to hearing her refer to Harriet as her mother, although I should by this time.
“What do you want to do in London?” asked Robert indulgently.
“I want to go to balls and to be presented to the King. It is a pity the poor Queen died. It means the Court is very dull. And of course there is no heir to the throne except Princess Anne. It makes rather a dull Court. Still the balls must be gay, mustn’t they? And I should love to see it. Benjie says it is fun to go to the coffeehouses. Important people meet there and talk and talk. Then there are the shops. How I should love to go to London.”
“And what would you buy in the shops?” asked Robert.
“I would buy beautiful materials to be made into ball gowns. I would buy a riding habit in pearl grey with a hard grey hat with a feather that has a little blue in it … but not too much … bluey grey. Then I would buy a diamond brooch.”
“It seems,” I interrupted, “that you would spend a small fortune within a few hours. You should be happy to buy just one of those things to start with.”
I saw Robert calculating and I knew what the outcome would be. We should soon be seeing Carlotta in a grey riding habit; silks would be arriving at the house; and before long there would be a diamond brooch.
I remonstrated with him. “You give her too much,” I protested. “She will wonder why.”
“Carlotta will never have to wonder why people want to please her. I never saw such a delightful girl.”
It was her fourteenth birthday—a dull October day—and when I awoke I thought, as I always did on this anniversary, of that day in Venice when I first heard the cry of my child.
My mother liked to celebrate our anniversaries. She was very sentimental and eager to preserve the family feeling. Carlotta’s birthday was a very special occasion, for Carlotta was looking upon it as a coming of age. It was to be held at the Abbas, for although she had spent a great deal of time at Eversleigh, that was reckoned to be her home. She had added her governess, Amelia Garston, to her admirers and a friendship had sprung up between them, much as had existed between Christabel and myself. Harriet said it was a good thing for her to have a friend nearer her own age and Amelia had come from a desirable background; the only thing her family lacked which ours had was money.
The great hall at the Abbas was decorated with as many plants as could be mustered at that time of the year. I arrived with Damaris, my parents, Jane and her son, plus Sally Nullens who regarded herself as indispensable to the children.
Robert Frinton was naturally there. He had looked forward to the event for weeks, he told me. I was sure that he had brought rich presents for Carlotta who, I was glad to say, always thanked him charmingly and made rather a point of what she called “looking after him,” which surprised me because she was usually so involved in her own affairs; but I supposed she found his devotion especially touching.
I had never seen Carlotta more lovely. She was, of course, the centre of attraction. After all it was her day. A large birthday cake had been made and this Carlotta ceremoniously cut. She was dressed in a gown of deep blue—the silk had been one of those which Robert had sent her—and at her throat sparkled the diamond brooch—his present. She wore a string of pearls threaded through her hair—the gift of Gregory and Harriet—and on her finger a sapphire ring from Leigh and me. Rather an excess of jewellery for one so young perhaps, but this was her birthday and she must please all the donors by wearing their gifts.
She was completely happy, and when she was, it was a pleasant trait of hers to want everyone else to be the same.
She danced a great deal with Benjie, who was now well advanced into his twenties. I agreed with Harriet that, in spite of the fact that she was quite a few years younger, he would make a good husband for Carlotta. Benjie always looked slightly bewildered when he was with Carlotta. I wondered about him. He had never thought of marrying as yet. Was it true that he was in love with the girl whom he believed to be his sister?