Page 41 of The Book of Lost Stories
‘Yes, I saw them when I was sorting out his belongings after his death. There was a misunderstanding. You were both talking at cross-purposes for, when you demanded back the “treasure of your house”, he thought you meantMama.’
‘Your mother was lost to me from the moment she fled for the Border, with her head stuffed full of foolish notions. And look where they brought her: to Beggar’s Cross and an early death!’
Alys bit back an unwise comment on fathers who could cast aside their only child in such an unforgiving manner, and instead remarked, ‘I have often wondered how Mama came to have the jewel in her possession, for a young girl cannot have worn such a thing.’
‘She loved it from first catching sight of it as a child,’ he said gruffly. ‘I indulged her; let her play with it. She said it was lucky. I knew when I looked for it and found it gone, that she must have it.’
‘Perhaps she did wrong to take it, but you have it back now, sir, and there’s an end to it.’
‘Yes, but what I want to know is, what do you think to gain by meekly handing over such a valuable bargaining tool, without coming to terms first? Do you think to cozen me into acknowledging you? To worm your way into my good graces? Well?’ He scowled formidably at her.
A less intrepid woman – or one unused to the irascible nature of the invalid male – might have quailed in her little kid half-boots. Instead, Alys stood up and replied scornfully, ‘My sole purpose in coming here today was at your request, in order to return something that belonged to you and over which I had no right of disposal. I did not desire this meeting and I require nothing from you. I wish you good day.’
She was almost at the door when his voice arrested her. ‘Hoity-toity! Come back here, miss!’
She turned, eyes sparkling and her square chin tilted in a manner that Lord Rayven would have instantly recognized. ‘Sir, I am not at your beck and call or, indeed, at anyone’s beck and call. While I must give you what respect is due to your age and our relationship, I beg leave to depart from here. Nothing is to be gained by my remaining longer.’
‘You are wrong, for you might have much to gain – and do not fly into the boughs again,’ he added in more reasonable tones, ‘but sit down and talk to me for a while. I accept your sincerity in wishing to return the jewel, but you must be a fool indeed not to see the advantages you could have got from it as a bargaining tool.’
‘But I should have been a very great blackguard to have done any such thing.’ She looked at him curiously. ‘Still, I expect your suspicious nature arises from having spent your life inpolitics, which is a sad reflection on the state of government. Let me assure you that I am at a loss to think of anything I should need that you might be able to give me.’
‘Then you are an even greater fool than I thought. I know your father’s circumstances. He had little money, and I dare say that what was not secured was gambled away.’
‘He was a chronic invalid for many years; gambling was beyond him,’ Alys said, not mentioning that latterly he had tended to drink away their money rather than gamble it. ‘He has left me in reduced circumstances, that is true, but there is sufficient for my needs.’
‘Ha! It is as I thought: you have drawn on what meagre sum is left to fund this season in London staying with your friend, in the hopes of catching a rich husband.’
‘No, indeed! After this visit to Mrs Rivers I intend setting up home elsewhere with my companion, Miss Grimshaw. I have no real taste for the sort of life Mrs Rivers enjoys. My interests are far otherwise.’
‘Everyyoung woman wishes to marry, and although you must be quite three or four and twenty, you do not look it. You think to pull the wool over my eyes, but I know better: what other security could there be for you?’
‘Fortunately I have resources enough to live comfortably, if modestly, and I ask for no more than that. You may believe me or not as you choose, but I have no desire to marry. That was not my purpose in coming to London.’
He looked at her closely. ‘I cannot see where the money to maintain you is to come from. Do not think that I did not have your father’s affairs investigated thoroughly, when he ran off with my daughter! But perhaps some of his relatives are franking you?’
‘No, both my father’s cousin and his wife, who showed us many kindnesses and on whose estate we lived, are dead. But I am able to support myself, and that is all you need to know. In fact, more than you need to know.’
‘I am yourgrandfather, girl!’
‘By blood, it is true, but you cast off my mother entirely and have never made a push to know me. You are a stranger to me and I neither need nor want anything from you.’
‘You are very proud! But what ifIacknowledgeyou? You cannot gainsay me.’ He sat back and regarded her assessingly. ‘What a pity it is that you were not a boy!’
‘So my father often remarked,’ Alys said coldly, ‘although who would have nursed him all these years if I had been, goodness knows.’
‘Still, you are a young woman of character and with a dowry and the right connections, could make a good – possibly even asplendid– marriage.’
‘I am sure, had I any such desire, that would be very gratifying to hear,’ Alys said politely.
‘If you came to live under my roof, were accepted into the family, I could make you a good match. Lavinia, my sister-in-law, is launching her daughter, Bella, this season and there would be nothing easier than for you to make your debut under her aegis at the same time.’
‘I thank you for your offer, for I expect it is kindly meant, but having become my own mistress I do not ever intend to submit to anyone else’s authority again.’
He looked at her, baffled. ‘You are a very singular young woman! Pray, I suppose you have been readingA Vindication of the Rights of Womanand have taken all sorts of silly fancies into your head.’
‘Ihaveread it,’ she admitted, ‘and found most of it to be no more than common sense.’
‘But if you do not marry, do not have children, what status will you have then? What security? What guidance?’
