Page 35 of The Christmas Invitation
‘I’ll be surprised if your workmen return before the end of January,’ Clara told Mark. ‘You never know what the weather will do up here. A hard frost and the roads out could be lethal with ice.’
‘I’ll just carry on doing what I can,’ he said impatiently. ‘You go to the Red House if you want to, Mum, and you’d better write to Piers and tell him he can’t come to Underhill because you’re going away. That will settlehim.’
‘It’s very kind of you, Clara,’ Sybil said.
‘Not at all,’ Clara said. ‘We’ll love it.’
‘Do come, it will be such fun!’ urged Tottie.
‘As long as you don’t mind Wisty and Pansy?’ asked Sybil.
‘Oh, no, Lass loves playing with them,’ Clara said. ‘Mark, you will have Christmas dinner with us, won’t you?’
‘Thanks, that would be good,’ he said ungraciously.
‘It’s going to be a full house. Henry will be so happy!’ Clara said. ‘Sybil, Lex, Tottie, me, Henry, Teddy, Zelda, Den and Meg …’
‘But I’ll probably have finished the portraits before then and left,’ I pointed out.
‘Oh, I’m sure you’ll change your mind and stay on!’ Clara said confidently. ‘After all, you’re supposed to be recuperating after an illness, so you need some time off, and then, you know, you might even fancy some other portrait subjects.’
That was acute of her: there were enough characterful faces in Starstone Edge to keep me busy for a year …
‘Besides, Henry’s dying to introduce you to all the delights of Christmas!’ she added, then had to explain that to Sybil and Mark.
To my surprise Mark said he hoped I wouldn’t rush off and then he invited me to come back soon so he could show me what he was doing to the house, which was kind of flattering until he added, ‘I’d like your opinion on the paintings in the drawing room and the gallery upstairs. I need to sell something to fund the business until it starts to pay its way, and since Mum is totally against my parting with any of the ancestors, however hideous, it’ll have to be the Stubbs.’
‘School of,’ corrected Clara.
‘Daddy always said it reallywasa Stubbs,’ Sybil insisted. ‘And I’m sure it must be one of our ancestor’s favourite horses. It’s a very pretty grey Arab.’
‘Itwouldbe a pretty grey Arab if there wasn’t that slight suggestion that it had more than four legs,’ Clara said.
‘I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to tell if it was genuine or not,’ I told Mark hastily. ‘I mean, I’d like toseeit, but I’m sure you should get an expert opinion.’
‘Mark’s grandfather already did,’ said Tottie. ‘School of. He just wouldn’t accept it.’
‘It’ll probably fetch enough anyway,’ Mark said. ‘One of the portraits Mother won’t let me sell is a Lely and the insurance is horrendous. I wish I could sell that.’
‘The insurance for a real Stubbs would have been even worse,’ I pointed out.
‘I suppose there is that,’ he said.
‘Why don’t you get one of the big auction houses to take a look at them?’ I suggested, but he persuaded me into agreeing to go over again in a few days and have a look.
When it was time to leave, I discovered I was holding Pansy in my arms, like a furry baby, and she did her best to go home with me.
‘Shehastaken a fancy to you and, of course, I’d sell her really cheaply,’ hinted Sybil hopefully.
‘She’s adorable!’ I bent down to stroke her silky head. ‘I’d love a dog, but I really can’t afford it at the moment. And anyway, my current lifestyle, travelling so much, would make it difficult.’
Sybil looked disappointed, but seemed to accept that, though Pansy gave me a look of deep reproach when I left without her …
On the drive back, Clara warned me that Mark was a bit of a flirt, as she put it, but had never had a serious relationship that she knew about.
‘Perhaps he has, in Italy,’ I suggested.
‘Possibly, but last time he was home he had a fling with Teddy’s old nanny, Flora, who was visiting her aunt in the village, and I’m sure the poor girl thought it meant more than it did.’
