Children of Fortune, page 31
He was astonished, incredulous and dumbfounded at her astuteness. Never in a million years could he have taken on such a challenge. Or wanted to.
They stood on the landing and he put his arm around her. ‘You are so shrewd and clever and smart,’ he said. ‘Alicia, my fearless sister!’
The house was filled to bursting with friends and family, including the staff, many of whom had worked at Old Stone Hall from the beginning of Beatrix’s time there, and some, like Mags and Edward, who had known it in old Neville Dawley’s time, as had Rosie’s mother. Rosie said when she was a child she used to sneak into the orchard and feed the pigs with apples.
But the Snowdens were not here yet, and Laurie was getting anxious although his mother was not. ‘They have a young baby to get ready, don’t forget,’ she said, adding, ‘in fact we have a few babies coming, Dora’s, Aaron and Sally’s, as well as the Snowdens’.’
Being mid-May, it wouldn’t begin to get to dusk until at least eight o’clock. It had been a lovely day, and people had arrived early to make the most of the warmth of the evening. Edward and Ambrose had decorated the door with bunting and put braziers on the terrace, and here and there on the front meadow had lit small fires of wood and coal in old metal buckets with holes punched in the sides so that they glowed red. Tables and chairs were set on the grass near to the house with glasses and covered jugs of fruit juice.
Beatrix’s parents, Ambrose and Emily Fawcett, had arrived just as lunch with the Goughs had finished. Aaron had picked them up in North Ferriby station and they’d unpacked and had a quiet lunch and a short rest in Little Stone House before getting changed. Emily was thrilled to see Dora’s son, having known Dora since she’d come to work as a housemaid at the house in Russell Square straight from leaving school.
Alicia captured Grandpa Ambrose and took him off to tell him more about her plans, and Beatrix gazed after them thinking that she would never have believed it if she had been able to see that meeting of her father and her daughter when she was Alicia’s age. And it made her catch her breath when she realized that she had been about that age when she’d married Charles. Sitting on the window seat, she followed their progress down the meadow, heads together.
Edward came across to Beatrix, and bending close murmured, ‘Visitors arriving as planned!’
‘Where’s Laurie?’ she asked.
‘Outside, mooning about. Waiting.’
She laughed. Indicating to her mother to take her seat by the window, she strolled with Edward towards the open front door.
‘Come on, Fawcett-Newby children,’ Edward called through the house. ‘Alicia, Ambrose, Isolde, Luke.’
‘Alicia is already out,’ Beatrix said. ‘She’s there with my father. Planning a coup d’état!’
The Snowdens’ horse and landau pulled round on to the front drive, Joseph driving Captain, with Lucille and baby Samuel sitting in the carriage wrapped in shawls and blankets and Joseph’s mother next to her.
Laurie appeared beside his parents, but his face fell with disappointment. ‘Where’s Olivia?’
Joseph got down and shook Laurie’s hand and then Edward’s, and bowed to Beatrix. Opening the door of the landau he helped his mother down, then took Samuel from Lucille’s arms. He handed her down tenderly and then gave him back to her.
‘Where is Olivia?’ Laurie raised his voice and asked again. If she hadn’t come then the day would be ruined.
‘Mm?’ Joseph turned and put out his hand to shake Laurie’s again. ‘Congratulations on reaching your majority! Olivia’s about five minutes behind. She’s driving a young horse; can’t rush him.’
Edward and Beatrix caught his eye, but Laurie ran back the way Joseph had come in.
‘There’s a young man in a hurry, I’d say,’ Joseph said laconically. ‘She’s right behind, coming up ’track.’
Beatrix turned to Lucille. ‘Let me look at Samuel. Oh, how handsome he is; and how are you?’ She took Lucille by the elbow and led her up the steps to meet the other guests.
Laurie halted in his dash to the top of the track and stood by the gate. Someone, slim and wearing a dark green jacket with a top hat, was driving an alert and spry light chestnut horse steadily towards him, pulling a dark red landau. It wasn’t a man, unless it was a very young one. The driver held up the whip in a sort of salute.
The horse, by his gait, was young too, with a light springy step, a high-set tail and a long full mane. He clip-clopped steadily up the track and gave a soft neigh as he saw Laurie. Laurie heard a sound, a hum of voices behind him and turned his head. Alicia, Ambrose, the twins, his parents, his Fawcett grandparents. Granny Mags. Daniel and his family; Joseph and Lucille. Aaron but not Sally. Dora and Hallam, their son left inside.
He walked towards the conveyance and Olivia slowed almost to a stop and invited him to climb up beside her. ‘You look very handsome,’ he said softly. She wore a dark green driving skirt, a fitted buttoned jacket and a neat light green scarf at her neck. Her dark hair was pinned back in a tight chignon beneath the top hat.
‘So do you,’ she replied.
‘This is a very smart conveyance,’ he murmured. ‘But the horse? He’s not a Morgan, is he? Is he? Yes, he is! Oh, let me down!’
They drew in to a halt, and Laurie leapt down and ran his hands over the horse’s neck. ‘He’s magnificent,’ he murmured, and the horse gave a little snicker as if agreeing and turned his large eyes to face him, his shapely ears pricked with interest. ‘Whose is he? Is he yours? What’s his name?’
‘I don’t know his name,’ he heard her say. ‘He isn’t mine. I’m just the delivery maid.’
He turned, questioningly. ‘What do you mean, you don’t know? He must have a name.’
‘He probably has, but I don’t know it. The new owner will have to name him.’
He kept his hand on the horse’s neck and looked up at her, and then back to the crowd watching from the gate: at his mother and father, his brothers and sisters, all of whom had their thumbs upright and were wagging them.
‘The new owner? Who – who? He’s not mine, is he? Is he?’
Olivia nodded and smiled. ‘Would you like to lead him in?’ she said softly. ‘Introduce him to everyone. So that both of you can say thank you to your mother and father for acquiring him? To my father for searching him out?’
Laurie pressed his lips hard together. This he hadn’t expected; he had stipulated no presents. But this wasn’t just a birthday present. This was a lifetime gift. This noble steed would be with him for a long time, just as everyone gathered here would be. The name for him came immediately. Noble Knight.
He turned to look up at Olivia. ‘Just so that you know, I love you.’
She beamed, her face lighting up. ‘I know; I love you too, and I’ve prepared my father and mother too – just so that they know.’
He gathered up the reins and led Noble Knight through the gate and on to the drive and everyone waiting gave a rousing cheer, echoed by those inside, and clapped their hands, and Noble Knight lowered his head, up and down several times, in recognition of his designation and his admirers.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
ENDING
It had been a lovely day; everyone agreed on that. Laurie had felt as if he was in seventh heaven and the day utterly magical. He had thanked his parents for their wonderful gift of Noble Knight and the landau, and also Joseph Snowden who had, when asked to do so by Beatrix and Edward, scoured the three Ridings, East, West and North Yorkshire, to find a young Morgan of good breeding. When he saw Noble Knight, as he was to be named, he took Olivia with him several times during her weekends off from college to try him out, riding and driving; he had his health checked by a veterinary surgeon; and finally consulted Edward, who went to see him for himself, and approved.
During one of those weekends at home, Olivia had offered her father a suggestion that she had been thinking through for some time. In view of her encounter with the drunken driver, he might consider hiring a female driver in his team to drive women travelling alone to their destinations.
Joseph thought it an excellent idea, and his present drivers were also pleased. It could be a risk for them too, they said, to drive a single woman. He found a sturdy country girl, used to horses, who had come to live in town and needed an occupation. He took her on, kitted her out in the dark green livery that Lucille had designed and Olivia had worn for Noble Knight’s debut, and although she didn’t look quite as admirable as his daughter, she looked very professional, and didn’t have any trouble with male would-be customers.
He advertised in the local newspaper and on his billboards that he also employed a Lady Driver and Carriage, and soon he hired another woman, such was the demand as more ladies began to travel alone.
Lucille, once their son was old enough to be left with his adoring grandmother, decided that she would, after all, open another café in Beverley. Joseph bought a small travelling van and kitted it out with shelves, and every morning the trained cooks in her Market Place kitchen would fill the van with French pastries which would be driven to the new café.
On the night of his birthday, Laurie had plucked up courage to ask Joseph for permission to ask Olivia to marry him; he loved her, he told him, and hoped that she would wait for him until he was in a position to make her his wife.
As Olivia had informed her father in advance that that was what she was hoping for, he was prepared with his answer. He was quite sure that he couldn’t have hoped for anyone finer to take care of and love his precious daughter as Laurie would; he was a man of few words, but he knew what he wanted and had already been prompted not only by Lucille but his mother too to say the right thing, which was yes.
As for Alicia, she soared through her exams, exceeding all expectations and leaving her male counterparts reeling in awe and admiration, or dismay and consternation, depending on their nature. Their only consolation was that she was unable to obtain a degree as they were able to; but that didn’t deter her, as she had employment to go to in the Goughs’ law office, and eventually a role in Dawley’s Bank as finance adviser to the chairman of the board, whose meetings she attended every fortnight, travelling to London from York where she had lodgings, or from her home in Old Stone Hall.
Her grandfather Dawley seemed to have taken on a new lease of life since she had approached him, and he recognized that she was as sharp with figures as her mother had been, but was unaware of her sweetly disguised but uncompromising objective of becoming owner of the bank, and was pleased to have her by his side and introduce her to the old duffers as a possible chairwoman of the future.
Alicia’s grandfather Ambrose Fawcett, who had been in her confidence from the beginning, declared to his wife that he hadn’t had such a good laugh in a long time, and on the strength of that he bought shares in Dawley’s Bank and gambled that they would go up in a very short time.
Daniel Gough, too, was ambitious, and became a high-flying lawyer with a fine reputation. He and Alicia were known as an intrepid pair but they wouldn’t marry until Alicia was twenty-five, thus ensuring that she was on her way to early success and Daniel at nearly thirty firmly up the ladder of law.
Isolde and Luke, too, were steadfast in their hopes of success. Isolde wouldn’t become a pianist playing for money, but eventually she would meet and marry a handsome penniless concert-hall pianist and write music for him to play so much better than she could. As for Luke, he followed in his brother Ambrose’s footsteps and after agricultural college joined him in the breeding of rare-breed pigs, and their company, being joined to Fawcett-Newby Farms, became eventually known in the vicinity as the Newby Brothers.
Laurie, finishing his training as a veterinary surgeon in Beverley, eventually took over the practice as the present vet was ready for retirement. His wife Olivia, who became known as the Lady Vet, looked after dogs, cats and other small animals. Laurie’s expertise and renown grew over the years and he travelled many miles to attend sick horses, often driving Noble Knight, who sired many prize-winning offspring of his own, which made Laurie think that perhaps the idea he had nurtured in the past might yet be the future for him and Olivia and their two sons.
‘What now for us?’ Edward said, one sunny warm evening when the two of them sat outside enjoying a glass of wine. ‘Lonely without our children?’
‘Hardly,’ she protested. ‘They always come in pairs or threesomes, don’t they? And they haven’t really left home.’
Edward nodded; their family didn’t always arrive together, but there were always two or three and sometimes more, and Luke and Ambrose were usually here. They were beginning to think that Ambrose would be an eternal bachelor, for he never mentioned any young woman by name. He was always busy, completely absorbed in his animals and regularly visiting other pig farms and country shows to look out for good stock.
Above them on that soft summer evening were the ever-present squawking gulls; and the honk of geese as they flew in V formation made them smile. As dusk fell they heard the rush of owl wings, birds out hunting and flying low towards the wood. Beatrix with her sharp ears could hear the rush of the estuary waters; the tide was high tonight. She heard too the musical notes of a song thrush from deep in the wood and she closed her eyes and listened as its harmony swept over her, delighting her.
And something else. She listened keenly. A rattle of carriage wheels, the clip-clop of hooves turning on to the track; more than one carriage, not just Aaron’s wonky-wheeled trap. Then the joy of laughter came nearer and Beatrix’s face lit up; Edward glanced at her and they both smiled as they heard the chatter of children’s voices and running feet and blond and golden-haired children turned the corner and tumbled towards them. Then came Laurie and Olivia, Alicia and Daniel, Isolde, not yet with a beau, brought home from music college in Aaron’s trap, with Aaron and Sally’s children come out for the ride. Luke, cleanly bathed, came out of the open front door to ask,’ ‘What’s happening?’ and then Ambrose with his usual ambling gait, one of Laurie’s boys on his shoulders and another holding his hand as he tottered beside him.
Holding his other hand was a brown-haired young woman with blue eyes and sun-browned cheeks.
‘Ma,’ he grinned. ‘Pa, this is Juliet. She’s come to stay.’
Sources
Books consulted for research purposes:
The Victorian House by Judith Flanders, HarperPerennial, 2004
Horse Breeds and Horse Care by Judith Draper, Anness Publishing Limited, 2002
A Time to Reap by Stephen Harrison. A celebration of East Yorkshire’s agricultural history. Published by the Driffield Agricultural Society, 2000
Costume in Detail by Nancy Bradfield, Harrap Books Limited, 1968
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the Transworld team once again for their constancy and dependability over the last twenty-eight years. Different faces from time to time, but some constant ones too, who have all been equally supportive.
To my editor Francesca Best, editor Sally Williamson, copy and production editors Vivien Thompson and Nancy Webber and the whole of the Transworld team who have worked under Covid difficulties in these most unusual times, thank you all.
And not forgetting my local team, Divine Clark PR, who steer me through the mysteries of social media and publicity with patience, good humour and encouragement. Thank you.
Author’s Note
After I had drawn to a close on the story of The Lonely Wife, as I always do when finishing a book I began to dwell on the characters and ponder on what might happen next. They had, after all, lived with me for some considerable time, and, in particular, I was left with a question mark over the lives and futures of Beatrix’s children.
They were secure in monetary terms, but I wondered what effect the influence of their birth father and the trauma of his sudden death would have upon their young lives. Had they absorbed their mother’s anxiety, born of her hidden fear of her late husband Charles, and, if so, would that stay with them as they grew into adulthood? Had they felt any doubt over their mother’s remarriage to Edward?
Fortunately, Edward, being steadfast in his love for Beatrix, had gathered up her children in his caring embrace and loved them equally, and he was determined to erase Charles’s influence and the effects of his avaricious power-seeking behaviour. These children, having known Edward all of their lives as a friend, as someone they could trust and talk to, must have felt secure in his show and strength of love.
Ambrose, for instance, being the youngest, didn’t remember Charles at all, and as Edward had always been in his life, he didn’t see why he shouldn’t bear his name; Alicia, having a strong belief in herself, also knew that she could trust him. It was Laurence, the eldest child, who had doubts about himself. Charles had tried to influence Laurence with his own warped ideas of how his son should behave as heir to the estate. Children often feel an innate sense of what is right or wrong, and it was Edward’s guidance that convinced Laurence to be his own self.
In real life, I have come across children with separated parents, with step-parents and adoptive parents; in most instances, although not all, the transitions have worked well, and safeguarding laws are in place now that were not there in the nineteenth century. In the time of The Lonely Wife – had it not been for his death – the risk of the divorce that Charles had threatened Beatrix with would have been very real, and she would have lost her children completely.
But as Laurence said so meaningfully on his twenty-first birthday: ‘the stars aligned’.
Authors generally are observers of real people; we have to be, otherwise our fictional characters would be flat and as lifeless as cardboard. This is not to say that we use real people in our novels, but that we listen and learn and catch the nuance of what they are saying, and because of our observations we are then able to create fictional people with the attributes of real, living and breathing individuals.
