Free An Accomplished Woman by Jude Morgan Page B

kind.’
    ‘Oh, it was no great
matter, Papa, and if I made it so then that was my fault and folly. I trust
that the candidate — a perfectly blameless, boring man — has forgotten about it
as quickly as I should have. But I have brought home a — a disquiet, from quite
another source, and that quite unexpected: from Lady Eastmond.’
    ‘Now, indeed, you do
surprise me,’ he rumbled, in his slow sonorous way: next to Dr Templeton, everyone’s
voice was a twitter. ‘Surely she has not been pressing you to marry: she
has such good sense. Unless you mean she is ill—?’
    ‘No, no — nothing of
either sort. Lady Eastmond is thoroughly herself. I saw her only twice in town,
but she . . .Well, you recollect that they have taken in a relation, a ward of
Sir Henry’s.’
    ‘The Scotch girl, yes. I
had a rather mournful letter from Sir Henry lately, lamenting that his wife
would be deserting him even longer now that she had her young charge to show
about town. So, did you meet her?’
    ‘Only briefly. I thought
no more about it, until . . .’
    Very soon, it was out.
She was scrupulous in the telling: just Lady Eastmond’s proposal, and what it
would entail, and what her answer had been. And as soon as it was over, there
was relief, absurd relief: for there was so little to it, after all! Certainly
not enough to warrant her rehearsing this speech in her mind all throughout the
journey up from London, as she realised now she had, ridiculously. She felt
light, and revived: she took another glass of the wine, which was excellent.
She thought, with tolerant amusement, how odd the world was.
    ‘I am only sorry for
poor Sir Henry’ she concluded, going to the sideboard for the second course,
‘if it means that Lady Eastmond, after all, is the one who takes Miss Rae to
Bath; but there, perhaps, I may do some real good, by pleading his cause, and
persuading her to choose some other companion for the task. Lady Eastmond has
after all such a vast circle of acquaintance: there will surely be someone
suitable, who will find the pleasure in the prospect that I cannot.’
    ‘Oh, yes,’ her father
said after a moment. ‘Oh, yes, I’m sure someone will be found.’
    ‘Will you have
apple-dumpling, Papa? Or the gooseberry tart?’
    ‘Just a very little of
the tart, my dear . . .’ He waited until she had sat down again before saying,
in his gentlest and most unargumentative way: ‘Of course, the person Lady
Eastmond would have preferred is you.’
    ‘I know — is it not the
most curious misjudgement on her part? As if I could be anything but an
ill-tempered hindrance in such a situation. I am glad I was able to give Lady
Eastmond a definitive answer there and then, so as to save trouble later.’
    Dr Templeton picked at
the sliver of tart. Smaller appetite, she noticed. ‘You did, then — forgive me,
I may have understood imperfectly — you did say, absolutely, no?’
    ‘Well, to be sure: it
seemed a very much more reasonable thing than yes, to a proposal that fills one
with horror. Oh, Lady Eastmond was — was Lady Eastmond, in short: not at all
put out, and declaring that she would persuade me at last. She would bring Miss
Rae over to Heystead and improve the acquaintance, and so forth: but still my
mind was made up.’ Lydia looked down at the apple-dumpling on her plate. She
could not imagine wishing to eat it. ‘Is made up.’
    Her father nodded
thoughtfully. ‘You must, of course, do what you believe to be right. Which is a
shocking truism, forgive it. I know you have no taste for such a place as
Bath—’
    ‘And neither do you, Papa,’
she said, seizing what looked like an advantage. ‘Confess, you were as bored as
I when we went there; and we had each other, at least, for rational
conversation.’
    ‘True. You do not
consider Miss Rae likely to be rational?’
    ‘She is twenty years old,
has seen nothing of the world, and is in love with two men whom she has just
met. If there is rationality to be found