Cousin Kate Read online

  ‘The worst escort possible!’ said Kate, not mincing matters. ‘How dared you, cousin, dash off like that, without warning me that you meant to make a race of it? Not that this animal has the least notion of showing the way! Is he touched in the wind, or gone to soil?’

  ‘Neither! Just lazy!’ answered Torquil, bursting into laughter. ‘Or perhaps your hand is strange to him!’

  She was relieved to see that his rage had apparently burnt itself out, and said, in mock dudgeon: ‘Let me tell you, cousin, that I am held to ride with a particularly light hand, and an easy bit! Where are we going?’

  ‘Oh, anywhere!’ he said bitterly, leading the way through the gate, which the lodge-keeper was holding open. ‘All roads are alike to me, when I have a spy following me!’

  She thought it best to ignore this. She said prosaically: ‘Well, they are naturally all the same to me, so take me where I can enjoy a gallop – if Jupiter can be persuaded to gallop!’

  After this, she set herself to win him from his ill-humour, and succeeded pretty well, until a farm-gate was reached. He rode up to open it, and his horse, which seemed to be a nervous animal, sweating, fretting, and continually tossing up his head, shied away from it, and reared up, nearly unseating Torquil. He cursed him, getting him under control, but before he could make a second attempt to bring him up to the gate, Whalley had ridden up, and had opened it for him. He flushed angrily, and relapsed into the sulks, vouchsafing no reply to Kate’s next remark. More than a little exasperated, she said: ‘Oh, do come out of the mopes! You are a dead bore, Torquil!’

  ‘I’m not in the mopes! I’m angry!’

  ‘Why should I be made to suffer? You are behaving like a peevish schoolboy.’

  His colour rose again; he said through clenched teeth: ‘I beg your pardon!’

  ‘Muchas gracias!’ she flashed, and urged Jupiter into a canter.

  Torquil soon caught up with her, demanding to know what she had said. When she repeated it, he asked interestedly if it was Spanish.

  ‘Yes, and it means thank you!’

  ‘I thought it did. Are you a Spanish scholar?’

  She laughed. ‘No, alas! I only speak soldiers’ Spanish.’

  ‘What was it like, following the drum?’ he asked curiously.

  Glad to find that he had emerged from the sullens, she was very ready to encourage him. She favoured him with an amusing description of the conditions she had endured, several times making him laugh, and answering all his eager questions to the best of her ability. He was just demanding an account of the Battle of Vittoria when suddenly he broke off, and ejaculated: ‘Oh, here come the Templecombes! Famous!’

  He spurred forward to meet the two riders who were cantering towards them, and Kate heard him call out: ‘Dolly!’ and saw him lean forward to clasp the hand of a very pretty girl. Following at a more sedate pace, she had the leisure to observe the Templecombes. She judged them to be brother and sister, for there was a strong likeness between them, and although there was also considerable disparity of age the man was certainly not old enough to be the girl’s father. Kate judged him to be in his late twenties; the girl, she thought, was not out of her teens. As she came up to them, she saw that the child was blushing adorably, and drew her own conclusions. Then Torquil turned his head, and summoned her to be introduced. ‘Kate, here is Miss Templecombe! And her brother! Dolly – Gurney, this is my cousin Kate! – Miss Malvern!’

  Mr Templecombe bowed, sweeping off his modish hat; his sister smiled shyly, murmuring something about being ‘so pleased!’ and Torquil, not allowing her time to say more, instantly intervened, saying, with a slight stammer: ‘How is this? I had supposed you to be in London! Has your come-out been postponed?’

  ‘No – oh, no! But we don’t go to London until the end of the month!’ replied Miss Templecombe, in a soft little voice.

  ‘When the balls will be in full swing!’ said Kate, smiling at her. ‘Does your mama mean to present you, Miss Templecombe?’

  ‘Yes – and I am to wear a hoop, and feathers!’ disclosed Miss Templecombe.

  ‘Antiquated, ain’t it?’ said her brother. ‘Can’t see, myself, why females set so much store by these Drawing-rooms. Or why,’ he added, with feeling, ‘they should wish to be escorted to ’em! Y’know, Miss Malvern, you have to rig yourself out in fancy-dress! No, no, I’m not bamming you! Knee-breeches, and chapeau-bras! Give you my word! Orders, too! Not that I have any, but don’t it all go to show ?’

  ‘Oh, Gurney!’ remonstrated his sister. ‘As though you hadn’t worn precisely the same dress at Almack’s!’

  ‘The only time I ever went to Almack’s,’ returned Mr Templecombe, ‘was on the occasion of my own come-out, Dolly, and I’ll be vastly obliged to you if you don’t recall it to my memory!’ He shuddered eloquently. ‘The most insipid evening I ever spent in all my life!’ he declared impressively. ‘Nothing to drink but lemonade or weak orgeat, and I sank myself beneath reproach – oh, fathoms beneath reproach! – by inviting a girl in her first season to stand up with me for the waltz! You may imagine the looks that were cast at me!’

  ‘I can, of course,’ admitted Kate, ‘though I’ve never been to Almack’s. I’ve never been presented either, so if you are thinking of asking my advice on the management of your hoop, I’m afraid you will miss the cushion!’

  ‘Oh, no! Mama will show me, just as she showed my sisters,’ said Miss Templecombe simply. ‘And they all three made good marriages!’

  Kate glanced apprehensively at Torquil, wondering how he would receive this naïve remark. He did not appear to have paid the least heed to it: his eyes were ardently devouring Dorothea’s exquisite countenance, and there was a smile on his lips. Kate could not forbear the thought that they were a singularly beautiful couple, and stole a look at Mr Templecombe’s face. It told her nothing, but she had a feeling that he did not view the very obvious attachment with complaisance. As though to lend colour to this presentiment, he pulled out his watch, exclaiming: ‘Dolly, if we don’t make haste, Mama will be sending out a search-party! ’Servant, Miss Malvern! Yours, Torquil!’

  ‘Oh, we’ll go along with you!’ said Torquil, wheeling his horse. He said, over his shoulder, tossing the words at Kate: ‘You’ve no objection, coz, have you?’

  ‘No, none. And much good it would do me if I had!’ she added.

  Torquil did not hear her, but Gurney Templecombe did, and burst out laughing. Ranging alongside her, he remarked quizzically: ‘Well said, ma’am!’

  ‘I’m afraid it was very ill said!’ she confessed. ‘It fell on the wrong ears! And I know, of course, that every allowance ought to be made for him. My aunt tells me that he is not at all robust, besides suffering from severe migraines, so that it’s no wonder he should be a trifle spoilt.’

  ‘Mm, yes! Handsome boy, ain’t he?’ drawled Gurney, looking after the young couple with a frown in his sleepy eyes. ‘Much better-looking than Philip, I suppose, though for my money –’ He stopped, seeing that she was puzzled, and said: ‘Are you acquainted with Philip Broome, ma’am?’

  ‘No, who is he?’

  ‘Torquil’s cousin. Friend of mine!’ he answered. ‘Beg pardon, but I don’t perfectly understand! You can’t be a Broome, surely? Well, what I mean is, I never heard Philip speak of you!’

  ‘Oh, no, I’m not a Broome! Lady Broome was my father’s half-sister,’ she explained. ‘But owing to a quarrel in the family I didn’t meet her until last week, when she invited me to visit Staplewood.’

  ‘Invited you to – Did she, by Jove!’ he said, surprised. ‘I wonder why –’ He broke off, reddening, and giving an embarrassed cough. ‘Forgotten what I was going to say!’

  ‘You were going to say that you wonder why she did invite me,’ she supplied. ‘Torquil said the same, yesterday, and I wonder what you both mean! She invited me out of compass