That made Kit grin appreciatively, but the next sheet, however acceptable it might have been had it been addressed to himself, lowered his spirits still more. It was devoted to praise of Miss Stavely. No one, in Lord Brumby’s opinion, could be a more eligible bride. Her fortune was not large, but it was respectable; her lineage was impeccable; and from all he had seen and heard of her she was eminently fitted for the position offered her. His lordship ventured to predict for his nephew a future of domestic bliss, unattended by such youthful volatility as he had been obliged, in the past, to deprecate.
He ended this missive with a brief paragraph which, under other circumstances, might well have encouraged optimism in Mr Fancot’s breast. ‘I must not conclude, my dear Denville, without informing you that I have received a very comfortable account of your brother from Stewart, who writes of him in such terms as must, I know well, afford you as much gratification as they afford me.’
Mr Fancot, reading these lines in unabated gloom, put up his uncle’s letter, and went off to superintend the final preparations for an expedition of pleasure to Ashdown Forest.
This, being attended by all the ills, including a shower of rain, which commonly beset al fresco entertainments, was spoilt for Kit from the outset by the inability of the Vicar’s daughter to ride. She was driven to the rendezvous in the landaulet, which also carried the picnic-hampers; and Miss Stavely, the doyenne of the party, bore her company: a graceful act of self-abnegation which would have confirmed Lord Brumby in his high opinion of her excellence, but which won no encomiums whatsoever from Mr Fancot.
The dinner-party, which followed hard upon his return from this expedition, sent him to bed in a state of exhaustion. Lady Denville, in her praiseworthy desire to make the Dowager Lady Stavely’s visit to Ravenhurst agreeable, had been inspired to beg the pleasure of Lord and Lady Dersingham’s company to dinner; and this couple, whom she described to Kit as antiquated fogies who belonged to the Dowager’s set, had felt themselves obliged to accept her invitation. In the event, her inspiration was proved to be far from happy, as Sir Bonamy, when he learned of the high treat in store, correctly prognosticated. ‘Maria Dersingham?’ exclaimed that amiable hedonist, his eyes starting from their sockets. ‘No, no, my pretty! You can’t be serious! Why, she and the old Tartar here have been at outs these dozen years and more!’
The truth of these daunting words was confirmed within five minutes of the Dersinghams’ arrival. Nothing could have been more honeyed than the civilities exchanged between two elderly and redoubtable ladies of quality; and nothing could have struck more terror into the bosoms of the rest of the company than the smiling remarks each subsequently addressed to the other. The only person to remain unaffected was Mrs Cliffe, whose unshakeable conviction that her sole offspring would shortly succumb to an inflammation of the lungs, contracted in Ashdown Forest during a shower of rain, occupied her mind to the exclusion of all other considerations; and the only two persons who derived enjoyment from the party were the contestants themselves, who showed signs of alarming revivification at every hit scored.
It was in a state of prostration (as he informed Cressy, when he contrived to snatch a brief moment or two alone with her) that Kit retired to bed shortly after eleven o’clock. He was certainly very much too tired to tease his brain by trying to hit upon a solution to the problem that confronted him; and, in fact, fell asleep within a very few minutes of Fimber’s drawing the curtains round the enormous four-poster bed, and leaving the room.
He was dragged up, an hour later, from fathoms deep, by a hand grasping his shoulder, and shaking it, and a voice saying: ‘Oh, do wake up, Kester! Kester!’
Only one person had ever called him that. Still half-asleep, he responded automatically, murmuring: ‘Eve . . .!’
‘Wake up, you gudgeon!’
He opened his eyes, and blinked into the laughing face of his twin, illuminated by candlelight. For a moment he stared; then a slow smile crept into his eyes, and he said, a little thickly, and stretching out his hand: ‘I knew you couldn’t have stuck your spoon in the wall!’
His hand was taken by his twin’s left one, and strongly grasped.
‘I thought you would,’ Evelyn said. ‘What brought you home? Did you know I’d damned nearly done so?’
‘Yes. And that you were in some kind of a hank.’
The grasp tightened on his hand. ‘I hoped you wouldn’t guess that. Oh, but, Kester, it’s good to see you again!’
‘Yes,’ agreed Kit, deep, if drowsy, affection in his smile. ‘Damn you!’ he added.
‘I’m sorry: I’d have sent you word if I hadn’t been knocked senseless,’ said Evelyn penitently.
Emerging from the last clinging remnants of sleep, Kit became aware of some awkwardness in the clasp on his hand. He then saw that it was being held by Evelyn’s left one, and that his right lay in a sling. ‘So you did suffer an accident!’ he remarked. ‘Broken your arm?’
‘No: my shoulder, and a couple of ribs. That’s nothing!’
‘How did you do it?’
‘Took a corner too fast, and overturned the phaeton.’
‘Cawker!’ said Kit, sitting up. He released Evelyn’s hand, yawned, stretched, cast off his nightcap, vigorously rubbed his head, and then, apparently refreshed by these activities, said: ‘That’s better!’ and swung his legs out of bed.
Evelyn, lighting all the candles with which Lady Denville lavishly provided every bedroom in the house, said: ‘You must have made a pretty batch of it tonight! It took me five minutes to wake you.’
‘If you knew what sort of an evening I have been spending, or just half the things I’ve been yearning to do to you, you skirter, you’d take damned good care not to set up my bristles!’ said Kit, shrugging himself into an elegant dressing-gown. ‘When I think of the bumble-bath I’ve been pitched into, and what I’ve endured, all for the sake of a crazy, rope-ripe –’
‘Well, if that’s not the outside of enough!’ exclaimed his twin indignantly. ‘I didn’t pitch you into a bumble-bath! What’s more, I’ll have you know that’s my new dressing-gown you’re wearing, you thieving dog!’
‘Don’t let such a trifle as that put you in a tweak!’ retorted Kit. ‘The only things of yours which I am not wearing are your boots!’
These amenities having been exchanged, the dressing-gown securely fastened, and his feet thrust into a pair of Morocco slippers, Kit advanced, to grasp his brother’s left shoulder, and turn him towards the light thrown by a branch of candles on the dressing-table. ‘Let me look at you!’ he said roughly. His eyes keenly scanned Evelyn’s face; he said: ‘You’ve been in pretty queer stirrups, haven’t you? Still out of frame! And not because of a few broken bones! Eve, why didn’t you tell me the worry you were in?’
Evelyn put up his hand to pull Kit’s from his shoulder. He said, wryly smiling: ‘It’s no bread-and-butter of yours, Kester. Did Mama tell you?’
‘Yes, of course. As for it’s being no bread-and-butter of mine�–’
‘How is she?’ interrupted Evelyn.
‘Very much herself!’
‘Bless her! At least I knew she wouldn’t get into a stew!’
‘She isn’t in a stew, because I told her I knew you weren’t dead; but she was in the deuce of a twitter when I reached London,’ said Kit, with some severity.
Evelyn cocked a quizzical eyebrow at him. ‘No, was she? Well, that’s a new come-out! Her spirits worn down by anxiety, I collect? Doing it much too brown, Kester! I’ve never known Mama to be in a worry for more than ten minutes at a time!’
‘No,’ Kit admitted, ‘but this was something out of the way! Why the devil didn’t you send her a message?’
‘I couldn’t: I was out of my senses for days, and when I did come to myself I wasn’t in any case to be thinking of sending messages. If you’d ever suffered a deep concuss
ion, you’d know what I felt like!’
‘So that was it! Here, sit down! What we need is some brandy: I’ll go and fetch up the decanter!’
‘I brought it up with me, and a couple of glasses,’ said Evelyn, nodding towards a chest against the wall. ‘All right and tight with you, old fellow?’
‘Yes, except for this damned hobble we’re in,’ Kit replied, pouring out two generous measures of Fine Old Cognac. He handed one of the glasses to Evelyn, and sat down on the day-bed confronting the chair in which Evelyn had disposed himself. ‘Where have you sprung from?’ he asked. ‘And how the devil did you get into the house?’
‘Oh, Pinny still has her key to the nursery-wing! She gave it to me, and I walked from her cottage as soon as I thought it would be safe. I’m putting up there for the night. I was driven over, after dark. No one saw me.’
‘Driven over from where?’ demanded Kit.
Evelyn had tilted his glass, and was watching the glint of the candlelight on the brandy. ‘A place called Woodland House. You wouldn’t know it: it’s a few miles south of Crowborough. Belongs to a Mr and Mrs Askham.’
‘Crowborough?’ Kit ejaculated. ‘Do you mean to tell me you’ve been within ten miles of Ravenhurst all this time?’
Evelyn nodded, shooting him a sidelong look which held as much mischief as guilt. ‘Yes, but I told you – I had concussion!’
‘I heard you!’ said Kit grimly. ‘You came round this morning, jumped out of bed, and posted home, as bobbish as ever! Since when have you run sly with me, Eve?’
‘No, no, I’m not running sly! It’s just that it’s a long story, and – and I was wondering where to begin!’
‘Well, begin by telling me what took you to Crowborough of all unlikely places!’
‘Oh, I didn’t go to Crowborough! I went to Networth. You know, Kester! – a village not far from Nutley, where John-Coachman went to live with his married daughter, when my father pensioned him. Goodleigh told me, when I was here, that he’s grown pretty feeble, and keeps asking after us both. So I drove over to see the poor old chap. Lord, Kester, do you remember how he was used to have one of the carriages pulled out into the yard, and sit us up on the box-seat, and teach us how to handle the whip?’
‘Of course I do! But you didn’t get rid of Challow because you were going to see old John!’
‘Oh, no! That was by the way – or not so very much out of it! I was bound for Tunbridge Wells, and thought I might just as easily take the pike-road from Uckfield as –’
‘Clara!’ uttered Kit.
‘Yes, that’s right, but how in thunder did you know? If that meddling busybody, Challow, has been nosing out what’s no concern of his, I’ll be damned if I’ll keep him any longer! The way he and Fimber cluck after me, like a couple of hens with one chick, is enough to drive me out of my mind!’
‘Yes, I know, but I didn’t learn about Clara from him. He knew you’d got a ladybird in Tunbridge Wells, but not who she was, or where she lived. Just as well! He’d have been in a rare taking, if he’d known she was in bed with a broken heart, all on your account!’
Evelyn gave a shout of laughter. ‘Clara? I wish I might see it! She wouldn’t shed a tear for me, or anyone else!’
‘On the contrary! She hasn’t ceased to shed tears since the news of your perfidy burst upon her. She fell into hysterics first – fit after fit of ’em!’
‘Will you stop pitching your gammon? I don’t want to be made to laugh: it hurts! Clara’s the merriest little game pullet alive – full of fun and gig, and don’t give a rap for anyone! As for breaking her heart over me, I’ll lay you any odds you like my place in it has been filled by now. I fancy I know who’s got it, too. Where did you pick up this bag of moonshine?’
‘From her loving parent – thank you very much, brother!’
‘What?’ Evelyn sat up with an unwise jerk which made him wince. ‘Do you mean that rusty old elbow-crooker came here to find me? Kester, you didn’t let yourself be bit, did you?’
‘Only to the tune of paying the postboy.’
‘Well, thank God for that! Lord, Clara would rend her to flinders if she got wind of it! I only met her once, and that was enough for me!’
‘It was enough for me too,’ said Kit.
‘Poor twin!’ Evelyn said remorsefully. ‘You must have had the devil of a time with her!’ His eyes began to dance. ‘I’d give a monkey to have seen you, though! Did she gab for ever about the days of her glory?’
‘I should rather think she did! Who was the Marquis who kept her in style?’
‘I don’t know: might have been almost any Marquis, by what I’ve heard. You wouldn’t think she’d been a regular high-flier, would you? She was: old Flixton told me she was a dasher of the first water when she was young. Devil of a temper, but as full of fun as Clara is. The bottle was her undoing: that’s why it’s low tide with her now, for, according to Clara, she was pretty well-inlaid when she retired! Clara don’t live with her, but she looks after her. Which reminds me that I never did get to Tunbridge Wells, and I must. I owe Clara something for the good times we’ve had together. That’s all over now, and I expect she knows it, but I’ll tell her myself.’ He chuckled. ‘As corky a squirrel as you could wish for! Wrote to beg me to send her an express if I was dead, so that she could get her blacks together!’ He drank the rest of his brandy, and set the glass down beside his chair. ‘Where the deuce was I, when you led me off on to Clara?’
‘On the way to Networth, to visit John-Coachman.’
‘Oh, yes! Well, I did that all right and tight, and then I took the lane that joins the pike-road at Poundgate. That’s where I overturned – just short of Poundgate, and not fifty yards from Woodland House. Mrs Askham happened to be coming out of the gate, and saw it, and the long and the short of it was that she had me carried up to the house, and – and there I’ve been ever since.’ He looked at Kit, warmth in his eyes, ‘They couldn’t have done more for me if I’d been one of their sons, Kester. I can’t tell you how – how good they are, or how kind! I didn’t know anything about it, of course, but Mr Askham rode off himself to fetch their doctor, and even had the grays led into the stable, and saw to it that they were looked after as well as they would have been here. No broken legs, thank God! And no bad scars – thanks to Mr Askham!’
‘Well, that’s good, but why didn’t he send them a message here? He surely must have known how anxious everyone must be!’
‘Yes, yes, but he didn’t know who I was! I couldn’t tell them! Mrs Askham was in a regular stew over it, thinking what would be her feelings, if it had happened to Jeffrey, or Philip! They are her two elder sons. I haven’t met Jeffrey: he’s a parson; but Philip was there – a very good fellow! he’s up at Cambridge. Then there’s Ned. He’s still at Rugby, but he’s army-mad. And, in the nursery –’
‘Yes, I daresay!’ said Kit, ruthlessly interrupting this enthusiastic catalogue. ‘But what I want to know is why these excellent people didn’t think to take a look inside your card-case! If you were going to see Silverdale – yes, I know about that! – you can’t have forgotten to take it with you!’
‘No, no, I did remember to do that!’ Evelyn assured him. He cast another of his guilty looks upon his twin, but his eyes were brimful of laughter. ‘The thing was that there weren’t any cards in it! Now, Kester, don’t comb my hair! I was in a hurry, but I did remember to assure myself that the case was in my pocket, and – dash it, I won’t let you rake me down! I am your elder brother, and the head of the family, so just you keep your tongue between your teeth!’
‘God help the family!’ retorted Kit, the laughter reflected in his own eyes. ‘Of all the paperskulls – ! Was there nothing to tell the Askhams who you are?’
‘No, what should there be? I’d only my nightbag with me, and you don’t suppose I flaunt about the country with my crest blazon
ed on my sporting carriages, do you?’
‘No, but when you came round? They must have asked you what your name was!’
‘Yes, they did – at least, Mrs Askham did, when I came round the first time. I don’t remember it, and they say I slipped off again, but it seems that Mrs Askham asked me what my name was, and though I didn’t answer until she’d asked me several times, in the end I said “Evelyn”. Very likely I thought I was at Harrow, and saying my catechism! I don’t know! But when I really did come to my senses I found they were calling me Mr Evelyn. At first, I didn’t care what they called me. Then, when I got to be more myself, and knew how many days had passed, and that I must have lurched myself with the Stavelys, it didn’t seem to signify. Well, Kester, I was all to pieces, and they didn’t encourage me to talk, because Dr Elstead had warned them not to do so! And later – I didn’t want to tell them.’ He paused, studying his right hand, lying in the sling, the flicker of a reminiscent smile playing about the corners of his mouth. After a moment, as Kit waited, in some bewilderment, he looked up, and for the first time in his life met his twin’s eyes with a little shyness in his own. ‘Kester, when I woke up the second time, and looked round, wondering where the devil I was – I saw an angel!’
‘You saw what?’
‘Sitting in a chair, and watching me,’ said Evelyn, in a rapt voice. ‘With eyes of such a clear blue – oh, like the sky! and shining – I can’t describe them to you! And the sweetest, tenderest mouth – and pale gold hair, like a halo! I almost thought myself dead, and in heaven! And then she rose up out of the chair, and said, in her soft, pretty voice: “Oh, you are better!” With such a smile as only an angel could have!’
‘Oh, did she?’ said Kit, no longer bewildered. ‘As though we weren’t in a bad enough tangle already! And what else did she say?’
‘Nothing,’ replied Evelyn simply. ‘She vanished!’