Page 62 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
It felt momentous when he walked up the steps and gave his name the first time. ‘Mr Robert Marlow.’He recalled the moment the doorman stepped aside. It had felt like taking a final step into manhood. He had a place in London now, not as a son, brother or nephew, but as a man.
He glanced about John’s drawing room, his heart beating in a steady rhythm. He did not have that same feeling of being an independent man here.
‘Would you care for a drink, sir?’
Rob looked at the footman. ‘Yes, coffee, please.’ It was eleven at night. He had spent his evening with his friends in Brooks’s. With the seven of them in town, he had discovered that between them there was always one or more of his friends in Brooks’s.
A sudden desire changed Rob’s plans. ‘Bring it to the library. I want to write a letter so I will drink it there.’ Where there was ink, a quill and paper.
The library was shrouded in dust covers too, but he had lifted the sheet off the desk on the day he arrived, when he wrote a quick note to Mary to tell her, and Caro, he had arrived safely. The top drawers on the left contained ledgers, but in a lower drawer he had discovered nude sketches of Kate. He imagined Kate smacking her husband if she knew he kept such things in his desk.
Rob sat down, with the ink pot and quills in front of him, opened the top drawer on the right and took out a blank sheet of paper. He wrote to Mary, only in truth it was not Mary he was writing to.
He told her a little about his friends and said he was looking at some rooms tomorrow and hoped to find somewhere to live among the places he would view. Then he wrote for Caro.
I enjoyed my summer weeks with you. They were halcyon days that I will always remember and treasure.
He asked Mary to pass on his greetings and good wishes to Drew and Caro, and to kiss the children for him. He thought of kissing Caro when he signed his name, and of all the times he, or she, had asked for forgiveness and the other had given it. He had not realised how much forgiveness he would need. He had not foreseen how much it would affect him.
‘I enjoyed my summer weeks with you. They were halcyon days that I will always remember and treasure. Please pass my greetings and good wishes on to Drew and Caro and kiss the children for me. Your loving brother and their loving uncle, Rob.’
Caro watched Mary and Drew share a smile as Mary refolded the letter. ‘It is kind of him to write and keep us informed of what he is up to. I must admit, I had not expected to hear from him so soon.’
Caro knew this second letter was for her sake, to tell her he was thinking of her.
Her heart pumped hard in her chest. ‘Remember and treasure’. She thought those words were particularly for her.
‘So, who shall we invite to dine with us?’ Drew asked, passing his smile on to Caro, and returning to the conversation he began before Mary had been handed Rob’s letter. ‘Who would you like to get to know, Caro? We must continue to expand your world.’
She swallowed. Fear was there, creeping up on her, but she knew if she refused to accept it she could do as she wished. ‘I would like to know other women who live locally… I would like friends beyond this house.’
‘Well, then, I know two spinsters, sisters, who are similar to you in age. They live together. Should we invite them?’ Mary suggested. ‘We could also invite Mr Slade and Dr Palmer. We will need other men at the table too, I think, for Drew.’
‘I shall ask Mark. It would be better if there is someone you already know well, Caro.’
Mark was one of Drew’s friends. His friends had been a part of his life for so long they were like brothers to her.
‘Then, so Miss Pauline Emery and Miss Isabella Emery do not feel awkward, we should ask two couples, to round off the group, otherwise our guests may think we are matchmaking,’ Mary said.
‘The Martins then and the Baxters,’ Drew stated.
‘Our first dinner party is arranged, then. Will you come and help me write the invitations, Caro? We may choose the menu together too.’
And so an invitation to two women had become a large dinner party to test her nerves.
‘There is another letter from Robbie here, Mary.’ Drew tossed the letter across the table. Caro’s gaze followed the letter’s path. ‘One thing we may not accuse him of is not keeping us apprised of his affairs.’
He was joking.
Mary broke the seal and unfolded the letter as Caro’s heart skipped through a country dance.
Rob had kept his promise and written at least once a week, slipping comments for her into the letters Mary read aloud during breakfast.
He had moved into his own accommodation, invested some of the income he received from his brother so it would earn himmoney longer term, and beyond that spent much of his time with friends, boxing, fencing, shooting, looking over horses and dining at his club. He had not written about his pursuit to find a seat in the House of Commons, though, but he had asked her not to speak of it, so she presumed he would not write about it to Mary. To her, he would write things like, ‘and then I remembered when Caro and I were caught by that storm’, ensuring she knew he had not forgotten her.
She had not forgotten either and nor had she retreated into her glass gaol. She continually pushed the boundaries wider, as he would have encouraged, socialising among the local community, making her own friends. She had become a good friend of both Emery sisters; she was in the habit of taking luncheon with them twice a week now. Which allowed Drew and Mary time alone with the children.
‘He says he has not seen John, even though John is in town…’ Mary looked at Drew.
