A Civil Contract Read online

  ‘Not above half. All the Bath quizzes sit round the walls, staring at one – Brough says they are a set of fusty tabbies, and that Bath is the slowest place on earth.’

  ‘Brough?’ said Adam, surprised. ‘Has he been in Bath? He said nothing to me about it!’

  ‘Yes, he was visiting relations in the neighbourhood. At least, not precisely visiting them, because he stayed at the Christopher, but that was what brought him to Bath.’

  ‘Relations living in the neighbourhood? I wonder who they may be? I had thought I was acquainted with most of his relations, but I never heard of any that lived in Somerset.’

  ‘I don’t know: he didn’t tell us – and I don’t think he liked them much, because he didn’t seem to go out to see them often.’

  By this time Jenny had succeeded in catching Adam’s eye, directing such a dagger-look at him that he blinked. ‘Well, that was agreeable,’ she said, transferring her attention to Lydia. ‘And for how long can Lady Lynton spare you to me? I must write to tell her how very much obliged to her I am.’

  ‘She says I may stay until Charlotte and Lambert go to Bath for Christmas. They mean to spend a night in town, you know, and so they can take me up. Oh, and whatever do you think? – Charlotte is increasing too!’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Yes, she is. Mama had the letter only this week.’

  ‘How pleased she must be!’

  ‘Yes, except that she has a presentiment that Charlotte’s baby will take after Lambert. But I must tell you, Jenny, that she didn’t say anything like that about your baby. She seems to think it will look just like Stephen, though why it should I can’t imagine. However, it has put Mama into such a flow of spirits that I took care not to cast a doubt in the way. And I,’ said Lydia proudly, ‘shall be a double aunt!’

  Jenny soon learned from Adam that very little persuasion had been needed to induce the Dowager to send her youngest loved one to her. The news that Jenny was soon to provide Fontley with an heir had acted powerfully upon her. As little as Jenny herself did she doubt that the child would be a boy; and so delighted was she that she sent a great many solicitous messages to ‘dear little Jenny’, and even forbore to censure her for feeling sickly. Adam delivered as many of these as he could remember, when he went into Jenny’s room to bid her good night; and as soon as Martha had gone away he demanded to know why he had been glared at in the middle of supper. ‘You surely don’t think that Brough is dangling after Lydia?’ he said incredulously.

  ‘Good gracious, Adam, of course I do!’ she exclaimed. ‘It’s as plain as the nose on your face!’

  ‘But she’s only a baby!’

  ‘Fiddle!’

  ‘Good God! Jenny, I’ll swear she has no such thought in her head!’

  ‘No, not yet,’ she conceded. ‘But you won’t tell me she hasn’t a decided preference for him! As for him, I suppose you think it was for the pleasure of my company that he came here so often when Lydia was with us, and escorted us all about! What’s more, you’ve only to let him know that she’s here, and mark me if he don’t come up to town – to visit some more of his relations, I daresay!’

  He laughed, but looked a little dubious. ‘I shan’t let him know. If you’re right, I don’t think we should encourage it – not yet, before she’s out! I’m positive Mama wouldn’t like it.’

  ‘No, very true, but I fancy he knows that, and don’t mean to pop the question yet. Something he said to me once makes me pretty sure that he knows you and my lady would say it was too soon. You wouldn’t dislike it, would you, Adam, if it did come to pass?’

  ‘Good God, no! I should be delighted.’

  ‘And your mama?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, I should think so. The Adversanes are as poor as Church mice, of course, and at the moment Mama’s mind seems to be running on the fabulously wealthy Conquest, but –’

  ‘You don’t mean to tell me she really does wish Lydia to marry him? I thought it was just Lydia’s nonsense! Well, I hope you’ll put your foot down, my lord! The idea! And with a name like that, too!’

  ‘Don’t worry! I shan’t have to,’ he said, laughing. He bent over her to kiss her cheek. ‘I must go, or Martha will give me a dressing for keeping you up till what she calls all hours. Good night, my dear: sleep well!’

  ‘I know I shall. How comfortable it is to have Lydia with us again! Thank you for bringing her: you’re so very kind to me!’

  ‘Am I? Well, you are very kind to me,’ he answered.

  He left her happier than she had been for a long time. It was delightful to have Lydia again, but the chief source of her contentment sprang from Adam’s visit to her room. He was always punctilious in bidding her good night, but he had never before come because he wanted to enjoy a private chat with her. That was a new intimacy, which seemed to bring her closer to him than she had ever been. He was not her lover, but perhaps, she thought, dropping over the edge of sleep, she could become his friend. Friendship might hold no place in a girl’s dreams, but dreams were insubstantial: escapes from reality into the glorious impossible. To consider the likely future was not to dream: it was to look forward; the essence of a dream was to ignore probability and one knew it, even at the height of fancy, when one imagined oneself the beloved of a slim young officer, whose eyes, weary with suffering, held so much kindness, and whose smile was so charming. No thought of friendship had entered plain, plebeian Jenny Chawleigh’s quite hopeless dream; but friendship was not to be despised after all: it was a warm thing, perhaps more durable than love, though falling such a long way short of love. One ought never to dream, thought Jenny drowsily. It was better to look forward, and to picture oneself the trusted confidante of one’s shining knight rather than the object of his romantic adoration. But he wasn’t really a shining knight, she thought, snuggling her cheek into the pillow and sleepily smiling: only her darling Adam, who had to be tempted to his dinner, couldn’t bear to have anything in his room disarranged, and disliked breakfast-table conversation.

  Twenty

  The hope of becoming the repository of Adam’s thoughts receded on the following morning. There were some thoughts he would never share with Jenny; and one was brought to light by Lydia, scanning the Gazette for items of interest while Jenny made tea, and Adam read what his ladies considered to be a very dull article in the Morning Post about the Congress of Vienna. Lydia gave a gasp suddenly, and exclaimed: ‘Well! Oh, no, I don’t believe it! But they wouldn’t publish it if it weren’t true, would they? Well, upon my word!’

  Adam paid no heed; but Jenny said: ‘What don’t you believe, love?’

  ‘Julia Oversley is betrothed! And whoever do you think she is going to marry?’

  Adam’s eyes had lifted quickly; it was he who answered, saying in a level tone: ‘Rockhill, I imagine.’

  ‘Good gracious, did you know, then? But Julia – ! Why, he’s older than Sir Torquil, I daresay! And Julia, of all people –’ She stopped, realizing that she had been surprised into committing a social solecism, and flushed up to the roots of her hair.

  ‘Older, but an even bigger Conquest!’ Adam said lightly.

  ‘Yes, I suppose so,’ she said, conscience-stricken and subdued.

  He retired again behind the Morning Post. Jenny broke the awkward silence, asking Lydia what she would like to do that day. Nothing more was said about the engagement until Adam rose from the table, when he said in the pleasant, cool voice which set Jenny beyond his barriers: ‘You’ll be writing to Julia, I expect. Say everything from us both that is proper, won’t you?’

  She assented, and he went out of the room, pausing in the doorway to adjure her, with a faint smile, not to let Lydia wear her to death.

  ‘As though I should!’ said Lydia, as the door closed. She looked at Jenny, wanting to discuss the astonishing news, but not quite liking to broach the subject.

  ‘You may say what you choose to me,’ Jenny told her, ‘but don’t talk about it to Adam! He’s bound to feel it, even though he may