‘Not I!’ he said, his eyes gleaming, and a rather unpleasant smile curling his beautiful lips. ‘I’m going to keep it, and I know where, too! Disturbed by the bangs, indeed! That’s a loud one! Doing it rather too brown, my dear mama!’
‘Torquil, you should not speak so of your mother!’ Kate said earnestly. ‘It is most improper! Besides, how can you tell that she is not speaking the truth? Many people have the greatest dread of sudden noises, you know – and not hen-hearted people either!’
She was interrupted by her unknown acquaintance, who once more bounded up to her, this time with the desiccated remains of a very dead mole, which he spat at her feet, plainly feeling that it must be acceptable to her. ‘Ugh!’ she exclaimed. ‘What a horrid animal you are! No, I don’t want it!’
‘Where did that dog come from?’ asked Torquil shrilly.
‘I haven’t the least idea. I suspect him of playing truant. He has been trying to induce me to play with him!’
‘I hate dogs! I’ll shoot him!’ said Torquil.
‘Shoot him?’ Kate cried. ‘You will do no such thing!’
‘Oh, yes, I will! He’s a savage dog, and a stray!’
‘Don’t be so absurd! He’s not at all savage!’ said Kate wrathfully. ‘Why, he –’ She stopped, becoming aware suddenly that the dog was growling at Torquil, bristling, and backing away from him.
She moved forward to soothe him just as Torquil fired. The shot missed both her and the dog by several inches, and its only effects were to send the dog off in a panic, and to shock her into frozen immobility. Torquil sent the second charge after the flying animal. It failed to hit its target, but peppered the trunk of the tree. ‘Hell and damnation!’ swore Torquil furiously.
‘How dare you?’ demanded Kate, recovering her voice. ‘Do you realize that if you had shot wide to the left instead of to the right you might have killed me?’
‘You shouldn’t have moved,’ he said sulkily. ‘I wasn’t trying to shoot you !’
‘Oh, I am so much obliged to you!’ Kate flashed.
He started to speak, but broke off as his valet came running up, out of breath, but managing to gasp: ‘No, no, sir! Now, Master Torquil, give over, do! Let me have that gun!’
Torquil spun round, pointing the gun at him, and saying between his teeth: ‘Oh, no, you don’t, Badger! Keep off !’
Badger halted abruptly. ‘Now, you know that’s foolishness, Master Torquil!’ he said, in fondly chiding accents. ‘Give it to me, like a good boy! Whatever must Miss be thinking of you? And whatever would her ladyship say, if she got to hear you’d stolen one of Sir Timothy’s guns? Now, you give it to me quiet-like, and I’ll put it back where it belongs, and no more said!’
‘Come and take it from me – if you dare!’ said Torquil tauntingly.
‘Please to go away, miss!’ begged Badger, keeping his eyes on the gun. ‘I won’t be answerable for it if you was to get hurt! Master Torquil, you’re scaring Miss, and that I’ll be bound you don’t want to do!’
‘He is not scaring me at all!’ declared Kate, in a cold rage. ‘He discharged both barrels, and the gun is unloaded!’ She walked up to Torquil, and held out her hand. ‘Give me that gun, if you please! Unless you mean to hit me over the head with it?’
The wicked glitter died out of his eyes, and he began to giggle. ‘Oh, coz, what a jokesmith you are! Always full of gig! I wouldn’t beat your brains out on any account! You are too pretty!’
She removed the gun from his slackened grip, and handed it to Badger, who received it wordlessly, but with obvious relief. Torquil watched the transfer, and sighed. ‘I was trying to shoot a dog,’ he explained. ‘I missed him, but not by so very much, Badger! Oh, Kate, dearest Kate, don’t be in a pelter! don’t go away! I swear to you I didn’t mean to shoot at you!’
‘No, I don’t suppose you did,’ she replied. ‘But until you have learnt to mend your temper you need not look to me to advance your cause! I am more likely to advise your mama to sweep the gunroom bare! You are not to be trusted with firearms, Torquil!’
She left him glowering, just as Dr Delabole came hurrying up. He looked to be very much alarmed, but when he saw that Badger was in possession of the gun some of the anxiety left his face, and he heaved a sigh of relief. He came from the direction of the house, and met Kate before he was within tongue-shot of Torquil. He stood in her path, making it necessary for her to stop, and asked, in an urgent undervoice: ‘What has happened, Miss Kate? I heard a couple of shots!’
‘Torquil was firing at a dog,’ she replied reticently.
‘Oh, if that was all – !’
‘All?’ she repeated, as though she could not believe her ears. ‘Upon my word, sir, you take it very calmly! For my part, I think it iniquitous! How could he have done such a thing?’
‘Yes, yes, it was very bad – iniquitous indeed! But he doesn’t like dogs, you know. In fact he suffers from a positive antipathy!’
‘The antipathy was shared by the dog!’ snapped Kate. ‘Nothing could have been more friendly than the dog’s attitude to me, but he bristled and growled at Torquil! No doubt his instinct warned him to beware!’
‘Very true! The instinct that tells dogs that they stand in danger is most remarkable. The thing is that Torquil was once, when he was a child, severely bitten by a dog – a big retriever it was, belonging to Sir Timothy! The experience left an indelible impression on the poor boy’s mind.’
‘It doesn’t excuse his conduct in trying to shoot a dog that belongs to someone else!’ retorted Kate.
‘Of course not! Of course it does not! I daresay he felt that he had a right to shoot a stray dog that was, no doubt, hunting on his land – which, in point of fact, he had, you know. Not that I wish to say it was not very wrong of him! Very wrong indeed! But you must be aware, Miss Kate, how easily he flies up into the boughs! Quite loses control of himself ! He suffers from irritation of the nerves, and if he was frightened, you know, his impulse would be to protect himself. I haven’t the least doubt that he fired at the dog without pausing to think!’
‘I haven’t any doubt of that either,’ said Kate dryly. ‘He is not fit to be allowed to handle guns, and so I have told him!’
‘Indeed no! Most certainly not!’ he said. ‘But pray don’t be afraid, Miss Kate! I can promise you that it won’t happen again!’
She inclined her head, making it plain that she wished to proceed on her way, and he immediately stood aside, bowing very politely, and again reassuring her that she need not be anxious.
She went on towards the house, regaining the avenue, and walking slowly along it. She was not afraid, but she was a good deal disturbed, because it had seemed to her, for a few seconds, that the expression on Torquil’s face had been almost fiendish. She shivered, and was forced to remind herself that as soon as the dog had vanished from sight so too had the fiendish look from Torquil’s face, and so swiftly that she could not be sure that she had not imagined it. He had certainly levelled his gun at Badger, but Kate was much inclined to think that he had done so only to frighten the valet, and would not have fired it even if it had been loaded, which he must have known it was not. Remembering the wary look in Badger’s eyes, and his urgent entreaty to her to go away, it occurred to her that he really was frightened, standing stock-still for fear that Torquil would pull the trigger. But Kate knew that he was devoted to Torquil, and had looked after him almost since he was first breeched, and it seemed incredible to her that he could have supposed himself to be in danger. It was as though Sarah had been terrified of herself when, in one of her childhood’s rages, she had been crossed, and had threatened all sorts of revenges. A smile hovered at the corners of Kate’s mouth as she thought of Sarah’s responses to fits of temper in her nursling. ‘Throw that ink-pot at me, Miss Kate, and you’ll go supperless to bed!’ Sarah would have said, wholly unimpressed by de
fiance.
Badger had said nothing like that. He had tried to coax Torquil, speaking to him in a soothing way, never taking his eyes from the gun. It was possible that he was naturally of a timid and a subservient disposition, but he had never given Kate that impression. It occurred to her, recalling her own experiences in Mrs Astley’s household, that Lady Broome might resent any attempt on Badger’s part to keep Torquil in order. She was herself so strict with Torquil that it seemed unlikely, but Kate knew that four out of five mothers could be counted upon to rush to the support of their children in any struggle with nurses or governesses. Such an attitude might well be part and parcel of Lady Broome’s imperious character: she tolerated no rival authority at Staplewood; and it was probable that Badger dared not offend her for fear of being dismissed from her service.
Kate, giving herself a mental shake, decided that she was growing fanciful, and ought to put the unpleasant episode out of her mind. It refused to be banished, however, and, as she walked, various circumstances to which at the time she had attached no importance, obtruded themselves in her memory. Torquil was never allowed to ride out without his groom; and even when he strolled with her in the grounds either the doctor or Badger seemed always to be within earshot. Another recollection darted into her head: on the night of the storm she had been jerked out of her bed by a cry of terror, and had found that she could not open her door; and on the following morning Badger had worn all the signs of having been embroiled in a fight. Dr Delabole had said that he was inclined to be quarrelsome in his cups, and had broadly hinted that he had come by his injuries in a tavern brawl. But Mr Philip Broome had obviously disbelieved him, saying that he had never seen Badger above his bend. The doctor had parried that thrust, but he had been on the defensive, and had clearly been grateful for Lady Broome’s intervention. Was it possible, Kate wondered, that Torquil, starting up from his nightmare in terror, had fought with Badger? If that were so, he must have been distraught, or still asleep. Kate remembered that the eldest Astley child had suffered from hideous nightmares which had made her quite unmanageable until someone had succeeded in waking her. She had supposed it to be a childish thing, which the little girl would outgrow: certainly the family doctor had said so. But Torquil, with his migraines, and his precarious temper, was just the sort of boy to have nightmares, and to be quite beside himself for several minutes, even to be violent. Mr Philip Broome had said: ‘He can be violent,’ and he had warned her to be careful. That was another of the things to which she had attached no importance, but it was beginning to assume significance. The dreadful suspicion that Torquil was not in his right mind could not but occur to her, and she was obliged to give herself another mental shake, and to tell herself that ungovernable rages were very much more likely to spring from ill-health and injudicious pampering than from a disorder of the brain. She knew an impulse to ask Philip what he had meant by his warning, but instantly repressed it. Her suspicion was altogether too lurid to be discussed, she decided.
She was roused from her meditations by the sound of horses approaching at a smart trot, and turned her head to see that she was being overtaken by Philip, driving his curricle and pair. At sight of him, her resolution wavered, but what he said, as he drew up beside her, put all thought of Torquil out of her head. ‘I was coming in search of you, Cousin Kate! There’s a splendid old gentleman in Market Harborough, who wants very much to see you. Do you care to drive there with me?’
‘An old gentleman to see me?’ she said incredulously. ‘Surely you must be mistaken! I am not acquainted with any old gentlemen!’
‘I fear, cousin, that you are getting to be above your company,’ he said, quizzing her. ‘Which is something I did not expect! In fact, I assured Mr Nidd that his apprehensions were quite groundless.’
‘Mr Nidd?’ she cried joyfully. ‘Here? Come to visit me? Oh, how glad I am! Is Sarah with him?’
‘No, he’s alone. Are you coming?’
‘Yes, yes, if you please! I wish you had brought him here!’
‘I was very ready to do so, but I couldn’t persuade him to come. He appears to think that you might not wish to see him.’
‘Not wish to see him!’ exclaimed Kate. ‘How could he have thought so? When I have written again and again to Sarah, begging her to send me a reply!’
‘And didn’t she do so?’
‘No, and although my aunt made nothing of it, it has had me in a dreadful worry! My aunt said that in expecting letters from what she calls “persons of that order” I was asking rather too much, and that once Sarah knew I was happy here she would be thankful to be relieved of the expense and the responsibility of looking after me. But I cannot believe that my dear Sarah would – would abandon me in such a heartless way, and I have been wondering whether she is sick, or even dead ! For God’s sake, Cousin Philip, Mr Nidd hasn’t come to break that news to me, has he?’
‘I shouldn’t think so. According to what he said to me, he has come to discover whether it is you who are either sick or dead. I reassured him on both points, but I believe, Kate, that you should allow me to drive you to Market Harborough, to talk to him yourself.’
‘Indeed I will!’ she said, with alacrity.
He stretched down his hand to her, and she laid her own in it, and was just about to get up beside him when she hesitated, and asked, looking up at him: ‘Ought I not to tell my aunt? Ask her leave?’
‘No, my child: that is precisely what you ought not to do!’ he replied, tightening his hold on her hand, and compelling her to climb into the curricle. ‘If I know her, Minerva would hit upon some way of preventing you from having a tête-à-tête with Mr Nidd.’
‘She could not do so!’ declared Kate hotly, disposing herself beside him.
‘Do you think she could not?’ he said, casting a light shawl across her knees, and turning his horses. ‘You may, of course, be right, but my guess is that either she would escort you to Market Harborough herself, and remain with you throughout, or – which, now I come to think of it, is more likely – send a carriage to bring him to Staplewood, and trust to its splendour, and her own condescension, to abash him. But from what I have seen of Mr Nidd,’ he added reflectively, ‘I shouldn’t think he could be easily abashed.’
Kate could not help laughing a little at this. ‘Very true, sir!’ she acknowledged. ‘He is the most redoubtable old man! He was kindness itself to me, and I hold him in considerable affection!’
‘That doesn’t surprise me,’ he returned. ‘I took a liking to him myself.’
She turned her head to study his profile. ‘Did you? Yes, you would, of course! But how came you to meet him, sir?’
‘Oh, by the merest chance! Whenever I have occasion to transact business in Market Harborough, I stable my cattle at the Angel. Today, when I walked into the yard to recover my curricle, Mr Nidd was there, hob-nobbing with one of the ostlers, with whom he appeared to be on excellent terms. I should suppose him to have been making enquiries about Staplewood and the Broomes, for as I emerged from the inn I heard the ostler say that here was Mr Philip Broome, and why did not Mr Nidd ask questions of me.’
‘And did he?’
‘No, but as I apprehend that he was bent on discovering information about my uncle and Minerva that was hardly to be expected. He told me that he was your Sarah’s father-in-law, and that she was very anxious to know that you were well, and happy.’
‘What did you tell him?’ she asked breathlessly.
‘I told him that, to the best of my belief, you were in high force. As to your being happy, I could not take it upon myself to say, but I suggested to him that he should judge for himself, and offered to drive him back to Staplewood with me. Which he declined, saying that he didn’t wish to intrude upon you uninvited. On reflection, I came to the conclusion that he had the key to the cupboard in his pocket, and I promised to convey to you the intelligence that he was putting up
at the Cock, in Market Harborough – and see how you received the news! Not that I had the least doubt, but it was plain that he had.’
She digested this in silence, until some time after he had negotiated the awkward turn out of the main-gates, and was driving his forward-stepping pair along the lane which wound its way to Market Harborough. She sat beside him, staring frowningly ahead, only now and then mechanically putting up a hand to straighten her bonnet, which the wind, in spite of the ribbons that were tied under her chin, was making spasmodic attempts to lift from her head. At last she asked, in a voice she tried to render casual: ‘Did he say – you told me, but I might not have understood you! – that Sarah had received none of my letters to her, sir?’
‘None since the first, which you seem to have written on your arrival at Staplewood.’
‘I remember.’ She relapsed again into silence, but broke it after another pause. ‘Cousin Philip – do letters go astray, or – or get lost in the post?’
‘Rarely, unless they are wrongly directed.’
‘I thought not. That forces me to believe that they were never posted. My aunt instructed me to lay them on the table in the hall for Pennymore to collect, and I did so, never dreaming –’ She stopped, and after a moment said: ‘Cousin, do you think it possible that my aunt can have taken my letters, and – and destroyed them?’ Her tone implored him to reassure her, but he replied coolly: ‘I not only think it possible, but very probable.’
‘But why ?’
He glanced down at her. ‘I told you this morning, Kate, that the circumstance of your being alone in the world makes you valuable to Minerva. I collect that Mrs Nidd is devoted to you, and I’ll hazard a guess that if she knew that you were unhappy, or being constrained to do something against your will, she would fly to your rescue, even braving Minerva’s quelling top-loftiness.’
‘Dear Sarah!’ sighed Kate, smiling faintly. ‘Of course she would!’