Page 63 of Scandal at Greystone Manor

‘To think it should come to this,’ her mother was saying. ‘Me, a Viscount’s daughter, reduced to charity.’

‘Charity, Mama?’ Jane said. ‘No one has said you are reduced to that. You are simply moving house for your own convenience.’

‘Yes, so I shall say, and for my health’s sake, but it will not make me feel any better about it.’

‘Lady Wyndham and Mark will have to be told.’

‘Oh, no, surely not?’

‘They will think it very strange if we do not confide why we are suddenly selling our home, do you not think? Lady Wyndham has been your friend ever since you married and came to live here. It would be discourteous not to tell her.’

‘Yes, I suppose you are right. She made me feel welcome when I was new to the area. I shall miss her more than anyone.’

Jane smiled. ‘More than me?’

‘Oh, you did not really mean you would not come with us, did you?’

‘Yes, I did, Mama. I cannot manage Witherington House from Scotland, can I?’

‘Let someone else take it on. I need you.’

‘But so do the orphans.’ She was tired of arguing, tired of going over the same ground again and again, tired of always giving in. ‘Shall I drive you over to Broadacres tomorrow?’

Lady Cavenhurst sighed heavily. ‘Yes, let us get it over with, though what I shall say to Helen, I have no idea.’

‘The truth, Mama. It was you who taught us that untruths will always come back to haunt us.’

‘If I could meet this dreadful Lord Bolsover,’ her mother said, ‘I would certainly have something to say to him.’

‘Then I am glad you cannot, Mama, he would undoubtedly laugh at you. He is an odious man.’

‘You have met him?’ her mother asked in surprise.

‘Yes, briefly when we were in London. I did not like him.’

‘I hate him!’ Isabel declared. ‘He has been our ruin.’

‘Not unless we let him,’ Jane said. ‘Now, cheer up, Mama, and let us begin to make plans how the move is to be achieved without loss of face.’

‘I do not want to be poor,’ Isabel said. ‘I won’t be poor, I will not. I don’t want to live counting my pennies and not being able to have a new gown or new shoes when I want them. I would rather marry Mark after all.’

Jane’s heart sank like a stone and her bright cheerfulness suddenly lost its edge.

* * *

The thought of leaving her childhood home, the place in all the world where she had been most happy, was heartrending for Jane, but she refused to weep as everyone else seemed to be doing. Tears altered nothing and it was better to be positive. When she said that to Isabel the following morning at breakfast, her sister snapped at her, ‘It is all right for you, Jane, you are wedded to your children’s home. You do not have to worry about husbands and weddings, you are an old maid and must make do with other people’s children. I am being forced into marrying a man I do not love because the man I do love chose to be chivalrous and leave the field.’

Jane refused to rise to the bait, but she did wonder if there was some truth in what Isabel said. Was she using the children’s home to fulfil a void in her own life? She shrugged; if she was, it would also benefit the orphans she meant to help, so what did it matter? She went to the stables to ask Daniel to harness the pony to the trap, so that she could drive her mother to Broadacres.

* * *

‘Your papa is going to tell the servants today,’ her mother said as they bowled out of the drive on to the village road. ‘He has agreed I may keep Bessie, if she is prepared to stay with me when we move to Scotland, but the rest are to be given notice.’

‘Perhaps the new owner will let them stay?’

‘Perhaps, but we do not know who he will be, do we? Your father says they must be given the opportunity to find new positions, in case he does not.’

Would they be able to find new positions? Jane wondered. Everyone was having to tighten their belts nowadays—having more servants than were needed was a thing of the past, unless you were exceedingly rich. Only stubborn men like her father liked to keep up appearances. She would need some help at Witherington House, perhaps she could take some of them on. It might be seen as a downward step by Saunders, the butler, and Mrs Driver, the housekeeper, who had been with them for as long as she could remember, but it was better than being without a job and a home. The trouble was that Witherington House might not be ready when the time came to move.

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