The Unknown Ajax Read online

  ‘When did he die, Mama?’

  ‘Now that I can tell you, for it was the very year I was married, and had just come back from my honeymoon to live here. It was in 1793. He was killed, poor man. I can’t remember the name of the place, but I do know it was in Holland. I daresay we were engaged in a war there, for he was a military man. And I shouldn’t be at all astonished, Anthea, if that is what makes your grandfather so determined Richmond shan’t enter the army. I don’t mean Hugh’s being killed, but if he had not been a military man he would never have been stationed in Yorkshire, and, of course, if he had not been stationed there he would never have met that female, let alone have become so disastrously entangled. I believe she was a very low, vulgar creature, and lived in Huddersfield. I must own that it is not at all what one would wish for one’s son.’

  ‘No, indeed!’ Anthea agreed. ‘What in the world can have possessed him to do such a thing? And he a Darracott!’

  ‘Exactly so, my love! The most imprudent thing, for he cannot have supposed that your grandfather would forgive such a shocking misalliance! When one thinks how he holds up his nose at quite respectable persons, and never visits the Metropolis because he says it has grown to be full of mushrooms, and once-a-week beaux – ! I must say, I never knew anyone who set himself on such a high form. And then to have his son marrying a weaver’s daughter! Well!’

  ‘And to be obliged in the end to receive her son as his heir!’ said Anthea. ‘No wonder he has been like a bear at a stake all these months! Did he know, when my uncle and Oliver were drowned, how it was? Was that what made him so out of reason cross? Why has he waited so long before breaking it to us? Why– Oh, how provoking it is to think he won’t tell us, and we dare not ask him!’

  ‘Perhaps he will tell Richmond,’ suggested Mrs Darracott hopefully.

  ‘No,’ Anthea said, with a decided shake of her head. ‘Richmond won’t ask him. Richmond never asks him questions he doesn’t wish to answer, any more than he argues with him, or runs counter to him.’

  ‘Dear Richmond!’ sighed Mrs Darracott fondly. ‘I am sure he must be the best-natured boy in the world!’

  ‘Certainly the best-natured grandson,’ said Anthea, a trifle dryly.

  ‘Indeed he is!’ agreed her mother. ‘Sometimes I quite marvel at him, you know, for young men are not in general so tractable and good-humoured. And it is not that he lacks spirit!’

  ‘No,’ said Anthea. ‘He doesn’t lack spirit.’

  ‘The thing is,’ pursued Mrs Darracott, ‘that he has the sweetest disposition imaginable! Only think how good he is to your grandfather, sitting with him every evening, and playing chess, which must be the dullest thing in the world! I wonder, too, how many boys who had set their hearts on a pair of colours would have behaved as beautifully as he did, when your grandfather forbade him to think of such a thing? I don’t scruple to own to you, my love, that I was in a quake for days, dreading, you know, that he might do something foolish and hot-headed. After all, he is a Darracott, and even your uncle Matthew was excessively wild when he was a young man.’ She sighed. ‘Poor boy! It was a sad blow to him, wasn’t it? It quite wrung my heart to see him so restless, and out of spirits, but thank heaven that is all over now, for I couldn’t have borne it if your grandfather had agreed to let him join! I daresay it was just a boyish fancy – but Richmond has such good sense!’

  Anthea looked up, as though she would have spoken; but she apparently thought better of the impulse, and closed her lips again.

  ‘Depend upon it,’ said Mrs Darracott comfortably, ‘he will never think of it again, once he has gone to Oxford. Oh dear, how we shall miss him! I don’t know what I shall do!’

  The crease which had appeared between Anthea’s brows deepened. She said, after a moment’s hesitation: ‘Richmond has no turn for scholarship, Mama. He has failed once, and for my part I think he will fail again, because he doesn’t wish to succeed. And here we are in September, so that he will be more than nineteen by the time he does go to Oxford – if he goes – and he will have spent another year here, with nothing to do but to –’

  ‘Nothing of the sort!’ interrupted Mrs Darracott, bristling in defence of her idol. ‘He will be studying!’

  ‘Oh!’ said Anthea, in a colourless voice. She glanced uncertainly at her mother, again hesitated, and then said: ‘Shall I ring for some working-candles, Mama?’

  Mrs Darracott, who was engaged in darning, with exquisite stitches, the torn needlepoint lace flounce to a petticoat, agreed to this; and in a very short space of time both ladies were deedily employed: the elder with her needle, the younger with some cardboard, out of which she was making a reticule, in the shape of an Etruscan vase. This was in accordance with the latest mode; and, if The Mirror of Fashion were to be believed, any ingenious lady could achieve the desired result without the smallest difficulty. ‘Which confirms me in the melancholy suspicion that I am quite lacking in ingenuity, besides having ten thumbs,’ remarked Anthea, laying it aside as Chollacombe brought the tea-tray into the room.

  ‘I think it will look very elegant when you have painted it, my love,’ said Mrs Darracott consolingly. She looked up, and saw that Richmond had followed the butler into the room, and her face instantly became wreathed in smiles. ‘Oh, Richmond! You have come to take tea with us! How charming this is!’ A thought occurred to her; her expression underwent a ludicrous change; she said apprehensively: ‘Does your grandfather mean to join us, dearest?’

  He shook his head, but there was a gleam of mischief in his eyes, which did not escape his sister. His mother, less observant, said in a relieved tone: ‘To be sure, he rarely does so, does he? Thank you, Chollacombe: nothing more! Now, sit down, Richmond, and tell us!’

  ‘What, about the weaver’s son? Oh, I can’t! Grandpapa snapped my nose off, so we played backgammon, and I won, and then he said I might take myself off, because he wants to talk to you, Mama!’

  ‘You are a detestable boy!’ remarked Anthea. ‘Mama, take care! you will spill that! Depend upon it, he only means to throw a great many orders at your head about the manner in which we are to entertain the heir.’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Mrs Darracott, recovering her complexion. ‘Of course! I wonder if I should go to him immediately, or whether –’

  ‘No, you will first drink your tea, Mama,’ said Anthea firmly. ‘Did he tell you nothing about our unknown cousin, Richmond?’

  ‘Well, only that he’s a military man, and was in France, with the Army of Occupation, when my uncle Granville was drowned, and that he has written that he will visit us the day after tomorrow.’

  ‘That must have been the letter James brought from the receiving-office, then!’ exclaimed Mrs Darracott. ‘Well, at least he can write! Poor young man! I can’t but pity him, though I perfectly appreciate how provoking it is for us all that he should have been born. Still, even your grandfather can’t blame him for that!’

  ‘For shame, Mama! You are under-rating my grandfather in the most disrespectful way! Of course he can!’

  Mrs Darracott could not help laughing at this, but she shook her head at her too-lively daughter as well, saying that she ought not to speak so saucily of her grandfather. After that she finished drinking her tea, begged Richmond not to go to bed before she returned from the ordeal before her, and went away to the library.

  Anthea got up to fill her cup again. She glanced down at Richmond, sunk into a deep chair and smothering a yawn. ‘You look to be three parts asleep. Are you?’

  ‘No – yes – I don’t know! I had one of my bad nights, that’s all. Don’t cosset me – and, for God’s sake, don’t say anything to Mama!’

  ‘What a fortunate thing that you’ve warned me!’ said Anthea, sitting down in her mother’s vacated chair. ‘I was just about to run after Mama, before procuring a composer for you.’

  He grinned at her. ‘Pitching it too rum!’ he murmured.