Free The Weeping Ash by Joan Aiken Page B

voice from behind her, somewhat louder than usual, raised in tones of very decided displeasure.
    â€œFrances? Do I find you here? With my children? And in what company, may I ask?”
    â€œAh, is that you, indeed, Paget? Delighted to meet you!” Lord Egremont turned with a cordial smile to greet his new neighbor, who seemed very far from returning the friendly sentiment, as was evidenced by his scowling brow and outthrust lip. “I was just saying to your wife here—”
    Since Thomas continued to fix a fulminating stare upon Fanny, she hastily intervened, in case he should come out with some disastrous rebuff or piece of discourtesy.
    â€œThis—this is Lord Egremont, sir—very kindly come to inquire if we have all we require. We—we chanced to meet him here, in the lane—”
    â€œYour youngest little miss had suffered a tumble, running after her kite,” Lord Egremont explained with his cheerful smile. “But it’s all forgot now, eh, Miss Puss? I’ll send you a fine big bunch of grapes, and you’ll never think twice about those scraped knees. I was saying to your young lady, Paget, that your daughters will be kindly welcome if ever they wish to step over and take potluck with my young people—we seldom have less than ten or a dozen young things there, skipping about.”
    Fanny dared not look at her husband while this offer was so ingenuously made; she could almost feel the arctic chill issuing from him as he replied with extreme formality:
    â€œThat is excessively kind of your Lordship, but I believe they had better remain at home. Too much gratification of a wish for social pleasure may lead to self-indulgence and a reversal of all the principles in which they have been brought up—”
    â€œWell, well, well, we shall see, we shall see,” said the earl easily, not very interested or choosing to pay too much heed to this speech. “But what I really wanted to see you about, Paget, was this matter of Talgarth—your gardener, you know; he is such an excellent young fellow that when he came to me and said you had dismissed him I felt sure there must have been some misunderstanding that could all be cleared up in a minute—Talgarth is as sober and steady a young man as I have ever come across in my life, and a first-rate gardener too; indeed I could not have considered letting him go to Madame Reynard if she had not been such a dear friend of mine! So I daresay it was a mistake, eh, and the lad is quite in error when he tells me that you turned him off?”
    Fanny caught her breath sharply, but Thomas replied, in a cold, measured voice:
    â€œNo, my lord, he was not mistaken. Excellent gardener he may be, I have not the least doubt of it, but I cannot have in my employ somebody who coolly and impudently defies my orders, and that was what he did.”
    â€œOh, come now, Paget, my dear fellow, come, come, come!” expostulated Lord Egremont good-naturedly. “Young Andrew told me the whole, and I understood that it was to do with the business of cutting down that young ash tree—capital tree, you know, gave it to Madame Reynard myself, helped with the planting of it eighteen years ago—perfectly enter into Miss Juliana’s wish not to have it felled, can’t call that impertinence, only carrying out his mistress’s orders, you know! So forget about the whole business, eh, tell the young fellow he can come back to work, won’t you, now?”
    â€œI am afraid, my lord, that is quite out of the question,” said Thomas icily. “The cause of the dispute may, to you, seem a trifling one—and, indeed, being now aware of Countess van Welcker’s predilection for the tree, I have relinquished my plan to fell it, though a more injudicious situation for planting a tree of that size I have never encountered! But I have the strongest possible reasons for refusing to reinstate the man Talgarth. His